Jason's Blog

All the signs–meet the school (or teacher) nights, football practice, volleyball games– everything is pointing to the beginning of the Back to School season.   In just a few days, all our restaurants will change hands and the students will be back in force.

Back in Bible times, Jesus criticized the crowds because they were able to discern the signs of the times but lacked the more important spiritual senses that they should have had:

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does.  And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is.  Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?  “Why don’t you judge for yourselves what is right?” (Luke 12:54-57)

I think that criticism still holds today. We can tell by feeling the weather– the shape and distance of clouds, the amount of humidity that we “smell” in the air, and the breeze (or lack thereof) what the weather will do. We can tell if it is going to be a high allergy day or not by how runny our nose is at daybreak. But do we have any spiritual senses?

We have to take time and really develop our spiritual senses.  What is going on inside you right now?  Are you anxious, frustrated, restful, bored, content, joyful, or hopeful?  What words would you use to express what is running your life?  What is going on deep down in your soul in this moment?  Are you simply exhausted?

Your life is not meant to run on empty.  If you are following Jesus, you should feel overburdened, guilty, and depleted.  If these are the feelings and thoughts that come to mind, your soul is trying to tell you something.  You need something different.  You need the renewal that can only come from being connected to God.

You may have a ton of deadlines hanging over you, but you need to claim a centered presence in the core of your being.  As a start in the right direction, read these simple words from Psalm 119:14-16

” I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.  I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.   I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.”

Can you do that today? Take in one teaching of God and rejoice over it. Cherish a teaching that God loves! Then you might cherish a person that God has brought into your life. They are made by Him. Delight in the good that God has done.

Once upon a time all the phones in the world sounded the same. . .

Back before Twitter and texting and voice mail, when a phone rang you knew exactly what you’re getting.  Brrrrinngggg!

Today, very few people keep their phone on the default sound setting because it is relatively easy to customize your ringtone.  With a program like iTunes, you can browse your favorite music and change your ringtones with just a few clicks.

Consumer demand has driven this ringtone market forward.

Why settle for a boring or annoying  built-in tone when you could have something fresh, and new, and different?

Are you listening to God?

Jesus came to this world so that he could speak truth to us. The sound of His voice is different from anything else that you might hear.

Have you heard God calling lately?

Have you changed God’s ringtone to suit your own preferences?

This weekend make it a point to listen to God.  Make Him a priority.  When He calls, don’t ignore His voice.

If you haven’t been listening to God for a while, sit down with a Bible and read Jesus’ sermon on the mount in Matthew chapters 5-7.

On Sunday, I wrapped a series of lessons that I’ve been teaching on leaving on a godly legacy.  One of the easiest biblical passages to see the idea of legacy is in Psalm 78:1-6.  Here the psalmist writes:

I will teach you hidden lessons from our past–  stories we have heard and know,
Stories our ancestors handed down to us.
We will not hide these truths from our children
But will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD.
We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did.

The words ancestors, children, and next generation all point to a legacy of faith.  We have to ask the question, “How do we pass on faith?”  We might break it down in this way:

• Our ideas and the ways we go about thinking fuel our feelings and our choices.
• Almost without thinking, routine choices become everyday habits.
• Habits form and inform traditions.
• Faith takes form in this process and is refined by the struggles losses and gains of living in the world.

If we want to change, if we want to become better parents or deeper Christians, how will that happen.  Truly God will have to set the transformation in motion.  We will have to respond a sense of emptiness and longing for more, and when we finally surrender to God and His voice, we can start to be free.

But this will take a decision on our part.  I asked the class yesterday, “if you knew you had one month to live, how would you live differently?”  The perspective of knowing that life is going to end has a way of focusing our minds.  Many of the things that are trivial finally become trivial.  And we focus on relationships and memories because they are what really matter.  Most of all our relationship with God.  Do you think you would pray more if you only had one month to live?  If so, why not make the decision to change now?  Why not discover God in everyday life now and pass on a godly legacy.

Soren Kierkegaard wisely observed, “A choice that is not used is worse than nothing; it is a snare in which a person has trapped himself as a slave who did not become free.”

Jesus calls us by saying, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”

What is keeping you from living by different choices?  Pray about that and live in God’s Power toward a new legacy.

On Sunday in class, I talked about eight negative thoughts and eight Christian virtures.  Evagrius of Pontus identified these in fourth century A.D.  You will recognize many parallels between the deadly thoughts and the seven deadly sins.

Thoughts

Gluttony
Anger
Greed
Envy (Vainglory)
Pride
Lust
Acedia / Indifference
Sadness / Melancholy

Not to get into too much into the transmission history, but the lists are related.  We know that John of Cassian took Evagrius list and brought it over into Latin, and later writers (such as Gregory I) gave us formalized the seven deadly sins as lust, gluttony, greed, sloth wrath, envy, and pride.

What I have found helpful, though, is that Evagrius also identified eight virtues

Virtues

Temperance
Mildness
Generosity
Happiness (desiring what is good for others)
Humility
Chastity
Diligence
Wisdom

In the book, Longing for God: Seven Paths of Christian Devotion , Gayle Beebe observes that Evagrius understood that each of the eight virtues was a perfect antidote for the deadly thoughts.

Thoughts Met By Virtues

Gluttony is mastered by Temperance
Anger is mastered by Mildness
Greed is mastered by Generosity
Envy  is mastered by Happiness
Pride is mastered by Humility
Lust is mastered by Chastity
Indifference is mastered by Diligence
Sadness or Melancholy is mastered by Wisdom

This all makes sense.  What we discussed in class though is how do you cultivate the virtues?  The answer is by embracing training.  Our souls need to be trained so that they respond with virtue.  This is not unlike the efforts that a runner takes to get ready to face a marathon.  A daily regimen helps athletes take the steps that are needed to run in a race.  Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines identifies inward and outward disciplines.

Inward Disciplines

Meditation
Prayer
Fasting
Study

Outward Disciplines

Simplicity
Solitude
Submission
Service
Confession
Worship
Guidance
Celebration

Jesus embodied these disciplines and they enabled him to live a virtuous, holy life on the Earth.  As we cultivate inward and outward training into our daily life, we too can begin to live in ways that are more wholesome.

So teach your children about simplicity and solitude.  The result will be the growth of temperance, generosity, and happiness. You might notice that gluttony, greed, and envy have less a hold in your life.  This is a gift of grace, God’s gentle working in your life.

Printable Version  Deadly Thoughts, Christian Virtues, and Godly Training