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seek the things above

Printable of Philippians 4:8

If I were to tell you I had a letter from a man in prison, who had not committed the crime he was imprisoned for, who had been mistreated and abused, who had no wife or children to comfort him, who just found out that people he should have been able to count on were slandering him, and that he might soon be executed – how do you think that letter would sound? Depressed? Angry? Bitter?

That prisoner is the apostle Paul, and the letter is the one he sent to the church to Philippi, which we now call Philippians – and it is a letter full of joy. He continually talks about rejoicing throughout the letter. How is that possible?

Paul had his eyes on what was eternal. He was not short sighted. He was focused on what was eternal. Anything that is a problem in this life – even being executed – is in the end just a temporary problem. The joy of heaven, on the other hand, is eternal. He looked at life with the proper perspective, as he stated in Phil. chapter 3…

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. … Not that I have already lobtained this or mam already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: nforgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for othe prize of the upward pcall of God in Christ Jesus.

He looked that the things which were eternal. The things that are truly true, pure, lovely, worthy of praise. He thought on these things, as he encouraged us to do in Phil. 4:8. And when you are looking at that, anything on this earth is temporary – and that puts all our problems in perspective.

I think this is such a beautiful book. I’ve had Philippians on my mind lately, especially because of the upcoming Philippians Bible study. I’d encourage you to read Philippians and think about the things Paul says. And if you’d like to discuss it together, I am always up for that! Just let me know. :)

What passages do you find particularly encouraging?

Which do you prefer – crumbs or feasting?

Crumbs or feasting? Well, it depends on the setting.

It is so easy in our society to get caught up in the material things. More money, more things, bigger houses, newer stuff. And yet, when we get all that, are we happy? If we put more effort into our house than into our home, our family – will it be a happy place?

That is what I love about this verse. It reminds us that it is not what we own that gives us joy and peace and happiness: “Better is a dry morsel with quietness than a house full of feasting with strife.” (Proverbs 17:1) With Thanksgiving approaching, I am always sad when I hear people say they are dreading the holiday due to all the family tension they know they will encounter when everyone gets together. It’s a house full of feasting – but if there is strife, there is little joy in it. On the other hand, when the family relationships are truly happy, loving and peaceful, it is joyful to be together, even if the food is meager and simple.

It’s not that owning nice things, or having large homes, or delicious food is wrong at all – it’s just that if we make the decision to trade off peace and love in our relationships in favor of more things, we’ve made a very short sighted decision that will not be fulfilling in the end. And it’s not like any of us get up in the morning and say, “Hm, I think I’ll skip out on joy today and just try to get stuff.” No, it’s much more subtle – it comes down much more to how we spend the bulk of our time. And I’m saying this to myself as much as anyone!

So here is another 8×10 printable to use as a reminder of what is truly important. I made it to coordinate with last week’s printable, which was also a “Better is…” verse. There are so many encouraging “better is” verses in Proverbs. You can take a look at them here.

Is this topic something that resonated with you? I know it is something I need to think about everyday.
Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you. :)

Openness Printable & Family Improvement Game

I just love the following verse. It’s been awhile since I’ve made any more verse printables, and the principle of this verse is something that we, as a family, have been talking about lately, so I decided to make it into a printable. Plus, I’ve been wanting to tell you about the “Family Improvement Game”, and it just ties in so well …

Openness in family communication is just soooo important. And by openness, I don’t mean just-say-the-first-thing-that-comes-into-your-head-who-cares-if-it-is-kind-or-right … I don’t think that is what this verse is talking about, and is directly opposite of being “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19). No, by openness I mean that any topic is open to be kindly and lovingly talked about in the family.

Especially when it comes to our individual flaws.

Imperfections. We all have them! Me, you, everyone. (Except God, of course.) Admitting that we make mistakes and that we are, in fact, *gasp!* not perfect .. well, it’s no big surprise is it? We already know that – both about ourselves and others. And the thing is, not talking about and trying to mutually improve our flaws isn’t fooling anyone into thinking we are flawless. It’s kind of like someone who refuses to ever say, “I’m sorry”. Why would we do that? Are we afraid of appearing to be “in the wrong”? Let me let you in on a secret – people can already see that we make mistakes. Refusing to apologize or talk about our mistakes, especially within a family, isn’t hiding anything, it is just adding on to it.

I get kind of tickled, I admit, by how blunt Proverbs is about how we should feel about being corrected and reproved. Proverbs 15:5 says, “whoever heeds reproof is prudent.” But Proverbs 12:1 is even more blunt: “he who hates reproof is stupid.” Hard to get around that one!

My dad has often said that the people who know us best are our families, so how foolish are we if we are not seeking their help and correction on things we need to improve in ourselves! It is interesting that we naturally want this in other areas – for instance, as an Etsy shop owner, I and many others seek out “shop critiques”. Basically, this means that you get a fellow seller to come look at your shop, give you advice, and offer pointers on what you could improve – basically, point out what you are doing wrong. And we want that – we value that! Why? Because we want our shop to become even better, and the first step is to look at what we need to fix. How much more so with our character? And who can see what we need to improve better than our family?

This is how the “Family Improvement Game” got invented. It is something that my family (my parents and siblings) do quite often … and while “game” may be a little bit of a stretch, that is just what we always called it, and it actually is something we enjoyed. We have more recently adopted it in our own family (Tim, Leila, and me), and it has already proven beneficial. Basically, everyone comes to the table knowing they are going to get praise and advice on improvement – and by everyone, I mean everyone! From the littlest kid all the way up to the mom and dad.

First make sure everyone understands that nature of this discussion. It is not a time for attacking, insulting, getting defensive, or getting angry. It is a time where we, as a family, can all lovingly try to help one another. Reading some of Proverbs together first might be a good idea (like Proverbs 25:11, Proverbs 15:1, Proverbs 13:18, Proverbs 15:31, or Proverbs 15:12 … there are many proverbs on this!) No one person is being singled out more than any other. Each person will receive both praise and advice. Here is how it works…

You start with the youngest person in the family – in ours, that would be Leila. Then, going around the room from youngest to oldest, all the other members of the family answer this question in a sentence or two: “What has Leila been doing well at lately?” Things like, “I’ve noticed she has really been good about helping out in the kitchen” or “She has done a great job of sharing her toys when friends come to play”. Then, after everyone has given praise, you go back around the room and each person kindly answers this question in a sentence or two, “What is an area Leila could work on improving?”. For instance, “I think you could do a better job about taking care of your things” or “It would be good to work on having a happier heart when something doesn’t go your way”.

Then, move onto the next youngest. And again, all the other members of the family from youngest to oldest first answer, “What has this person been doing well at lately?” and then “What is an area this person could work on improving?” Then move on to the next person – all the way up to the oldest. Yes, even the youngest child gets to offer what they think the oldest person could improve. It is all to be done in love and respect.

There is one major rule: you are not allowed to defend, get angry or argue with the critiques that are offered to you. You simply take them in and consider what your family has to say. And, if you are wise, you will find plenty to improve in yourself.

A couple little side notes – yes, it can be very humbling when it becomes apparent that everyone, even the smallest child, has noticed your flaw of, for instance, losing your temper. BUT it is very rewarding experience when as you are working on improving, if you play the game a couple weeks later, that same area is mentioned, but this time as an area people are noticed that you are better about. Seeing progress like that is very encouraging. The whole goal of the game is to help each other and improve ourselves. It is about love.

“Better is open rebuke than hidden love.” Proverbs 27:5.
(You can get the printable by clicking the image at the top or by just clicking here.)

How do you encourage openness in your family?

Seek the things above: Study time

Well, after being gone for over a week, we are home again! WooT! Yesterday (Tuesday) was our first day home, but it felt like Monday … probably because it was the first day getting back to a “normal” weekday. All day I kept thinking that it was Monday and that the NEXT day was Tuesday, to the point I almost forgot to write this post because I write my Wednesday posts on Tuesday night … so I thought I had another day. Oops! But, since you’re reading this, obviously I caught it in time!

Next week starts the new Wednesday topic of “is there truth, and how can we know what it is?”, but today, as the last in the current “Seek the things above” series, I wanted to tell you about a conversation that Tim and I had while we were driving together on our road trip to Boston last week. Although we never brought up this passage specifically, this is what it was about:

Our desire for our home – for ourselves and our house to serve the Lord … and goals and habits we need to do better about in that realm. Specifically, family Bible study. Tim has personal study that he does, and I have personal study that I do, and we talk about the Bible with our little daughter – but one thing we don’t do enough of is Bible study together. I mean, we have Bible study together when we congregate with other Christians in worship, but we don’t have set aside time for our own family Bible study at home. And that is something we both want to do better about.

We broke down the ways we want to study together in two basic types: topical (where we pick a certain topic, like prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament, etc.) and textual (where we pick a certain section of the Bible, and study that part in greater detail.) So we decided to pick one topical study to do together and one textual … and we set aside some days for more personal study, and some days to study together.

Here is what we picked – for our topical study we will be studying together here in our home the same topic that is also going to be here on the blog on Wednesdays: How can we know what truth is? It is a topic we’ve both studied before, but never studied together, and I’m sure you’ll hear about our discussions here on Wednesdays. :) And for our textual study we are going to be studying the book of Ephesians together.

I am very much looking forward to this! Currently we have various casual/spontaneous conversations together about Biblical topics and such, just from things that come up, but having a set aside time to study the Bible with each other is something that has been missing and that we want to do much better about.

That is one nice thing about road trips – it gives you lots of time to talk together and figure out things you want to improve and do better about. Aaaaand lots of time to be goofy and play road trip games … but that’s a whole other post! ;)

I’d very much enjoy hearing what you are currently studying – whether individually, or with someone else!
Leave a comment below, I love to hear from you. :)

Seek the things above: Being Thankful

Hello all!

Still blogging from New England at this time, we will be here through the end of the week, Lord willing. We have really been enjoying the time here, and today we are out exploring Boston, Tim is job hunting, and I am apartment hunting and so forth. :)

So far on Wednesdays we’ve been doing the “Seek the things above” series, and within the next couple of weeks I want to start taking that in a little bit of a new direction. There are several different topics related to the Bible that I would like to delve into here on my blog, and I’ve been trying to figure out which to go with first. For instance, maybe do a series on a specific book of the Bible, or on the overall theme and “story” (using the word story here not to mean that it was a story in the sense it was untrue, but a story in the sense that that it is one continuing set of events that all tie together, not just a hodge-podge of various happenings), or how study to the Bible, or a number of other things. And while I do want to get into those at some point in the future, there has been some interest expressed in a topic that seems like the most natural place to start:

Can we know if there is truth?
Is there a God?
And if so, how do we know who he is?

I am really looking forward to this! I think it is a fascinating study, and important to consider, whether you already believe or whether you do not. For those who do believe, while, yes, we are called to have faith, we are not called to have a blind faith – God has told us to “seek”, as in Matthew 7:7 – there is evidence to look at, and on which to base our faith. So I hope to be starting that new series soon on Wednesdays, but I didn’t feel that while we were travelling and on the road was the best time to begin, so I’ll look forward to that beginning that very soon, Lord willing.

For today, though, as we are enjoying time with family and seeing so many amazing things and spending time as a family, I just want to share the following verse of thankfulness:

What are you thankful for today?
Also, I’d be curious to know which of the topics I mentioned might be something you would be interested in – and also if there is another topic you’d be interested in discussing here. As always, I love to hear from you, whether in the comments below or by email!

Seek the things above: Being faithful

Continuing the “Seek the things above” (Colossians 3:1) series, today, let’s think about this question:

What does it mean to be faithful to God?

Let’s think about it this way … what if your spouse said to you, “Hey, honey, I love you so much. And I want you to know I will always be faithful to you on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that’s not going to cut it!

No, being faithful isn’t an on-and-off switch. It is a part of life, it is a part of who you are. It’s not something to be labelled a couple times a year, or just on Sundays, and then to be neglected the rest of the time. That is not faithful.

In marriage, we are to be faithful to our spouse by always and continually keeping the vows we made to them. In our relationship with God, we are to be faithful to him by keeping the commitment we made to him the day we were baptised: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) Walking in newness of life. What does that mean? Well, the Bible is it’s own best commentary! The text in Romans 6 goes on to explain what this new life is:

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” (Romans 6:6-13)

To summarize in a word: obedience.

And if, on that final day, we want to hear from him, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21), then we need to BE that good and faithful servant now, obeying what he has told us. Not only on Sundays, but everyday. And what a comfort that we can “know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9) But our faithfulness to God will never be as perfect as God’s faithfulness to us- and even if we suddenly WERE always perfectly faithful from this point on, there is nothing we could do to remove our past sins. Just as it goes on to talk about in the next couple verses of Romans 6 – we are under grace:
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:14-15)
God calls us to be faithful, and we must – but it is by his grace we are saved.

I hope you’ve found this encouraging. As always, if you disagree, or if you have questions, or just want to talk more, my goal is always to simply convey accurately what the Bible says and I am more than happy to discuss in greater detail – whether in the comments below, or if you’d rather talk more privately, you can always email me. I love to hear from you!

Leave your thoughts below, or drop me a note! :)

Seek the things above: Are we like the Bereans?

For this week’s “Seek the things above” post, I want to pose some questions which I hope will be thought provoking.

Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because it is what you’ve always heard? What your culture commonly believes? What your parents taught you? What your preacher, priest or pastor told you? How do you know what they told you is true? Does the Bible tell us we’ll just get a feeling about it – or does the Bible teach us to study his Word to know his will?

What about the Bereans? When the apostle Paul went to Berea and started teaching in the synagogue, it says that they “were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed” (Acts 17:11-12 ESV)

Do we follow this example? Are we noble like them? Do we examine the scriptures daily to see if the things that are taught to us are so?

Are the people who teach us today infallible?
Or is it possible to be taught error?
Do we compare the things we are taught to the things God has said?
Did God make his Word available to all?
Do you have a Bible?
How often do you study it?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Seek the things above: Want vs. Need

Well, I’ll be perfectly honest – I’m going to be stepping on my own toes for this week’s “Seek the things above” post. It’s about want vs. need.

I wish I had more of the attitude expressed here in Proverbs 30: give me only what I NEED. I’m more fond of wants and comforts than I wish I was. And, sure, many people in our society wouldn’t look at my life and call it the most luxurious. We don’t make tons of money by US standards. But is that really the standard? Compared to many countries today and throughout history, my life of temperature controlled rooms, running hot and cold water, mechanical servants to wash my dishes and clothes, soft mattresses, a wealth of information at my fingertips, and food prepared by others accessible in minutes, is downright posh. And yet I get impatient when the internet takes a while to load.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with money in and of itself. It’s just a tool. 1 Timothy 6:10 is often misquoted as saying “money is the root of all evil” – but that isn’t what it says. The verse actually reads, “For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” It’s the love of money that is the problem, not the money itself. But that love of money is so prevalent in our society. We’re constantly being told we “deserve” things we have no real need of or right to own. People are judged for having clothes that aren’t to-the-minute fashionable, or cars that aren’t a “statement”. Or what about a cell phone that is 10 years old? That will get some full blown laughs.

How much do these things really matter in the long run? At the end of our lives when we are on our deathbed are we really going to look back and say to ourselves, “Boy, I sure am glad I bought that new iPad in 2012”? Yet how much focus do people put on those things now? And when I say “people”, I’m very much including myself. I don’t have an iPad. I don’t have an iPhone. Have I ever been guilty of feeling a little sorry for myself when my friends are all talking about their new apps and I see their Instagram pictures? Yeah, sometimes. Shame on me. I have all I need — and WAY more.

We start to get dependent on our economic standing. Too often, more faith is put in banks accounts and portfolios than in God. We start turning into the rich man mentioned above in Proverbs 30. We become the rich man in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” We become enslaved to our wants and belongings which have become our idols: “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5) And we have forgotten what we NEED.

Again it’s not that having money is wrong. It’s an issue of where the HEART is, as it says in Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Where are my “treasures”?
Where is my heart?
Who am I serving?

A life focused on God is so much more fulfilling than a life of accumulating stuff.

Leave your thoughts and comments below! Or, if you ever feel like discussing something further, feel free to drop me a note.

Seek the things above: Take up your cross meaning

So, we’re continuing on in the “Seek the things above” series for Wednesdays … and actually, this time delving into a verse I mentioned last week, but as one of the comments from that post was mentioning an interest in a printable of this verse, I wanted to dive into it a little more.

Luke 9:23 … it’s such a fundamental passage to follow Jesus, and we have heard it so many times. And to us, the cross immediately makes us think of spiritual things. But have you ever thought about the fact that at the time that Jesus said this, it was *before* he died on the cross, and so when he mentions it here, it wouldn’t have had and religious significance to them? What would they have thought of a cross? A form of execution. A means of punishment. It would be like someone today saying, “Take up your electric chair.”

And this really sheds some interesting light on the meaning of the passage, when you stop and think about what a cross is. It is something on which a person dies. Sometimes you’ll hear people mention this verse when talking about various incidental problems in their life … maybe their boss is rude, maybe they have headaches, and they’ll say, “Well, that’s just the cross I have to bear.”

But is that really what this verse is talking about? Is that what the take up your cross meaning is? If you think about the context in which Jesus spoke it, that doesn’t make so much sense. Just like saying “take up your electric chair”, wouldn’t make you think of everyday type problems, it would make you think of death.

So if we’re supposed to take up our cross DAILY, though, how can that be? How can I die daily? Well, Paul actually said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily.” Physically? No. But let’s look at a couple passages to see what this could mean…

Romans 6:1-11: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:19-24: “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

There is the continuing thought of an “old self” of ours who we crucify and put off in order to follow Christ, and a “new self” we become to follow him. Luke 9:23 is something much more profound than just dealing with the hassles of life, it is a choice of who we will be – it means we have to give up having everything my way, like in the days of the Judges where “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 ESV), and instead living our lives God’s way. It’s denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following after him. And it’s doing it every day. It’s not sugar coated, and it doesn’t mean life will always be easy. But it is always worth it.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
(Romans 8:18 ESV)

Leave your thoughts and comments below! As always, my goal isn’t to convince people of my opinions, but instead to take a look at the Bible itself to see what it teaches. :)

Seek the things above: The value of the soul

Happy Wednesday, all! :) Continuing on this week in the “Seek the things above” Wednesdays series of posts … with thoughts on the soul this week.

Sometimes we hear fictional stories in which someone “sold their soul to the devil” … usually a red-caped pitchfork-bearing figure offering someone a legal document and haggling over price. That’s not how evil presents itself – with a “Ta da! Here I am!”. I think it would be much easier to recognize it were that way! But no, the devil doesn’t appear to us holding a pitchfork and giving us an ultimatum.

Rather, he tempts us in everyday things, when our guard is down. The Bible figuratively describes him as “prowling” (in 1 Peter 5:8), or as a “snare” (in 2 Timothy 2:26), or even in “disguise” (in 2 Corinthians 11:14). In other words: sneaky. Not announcing “Here I am, the devil! You know, the one you’re supposed to resist.” No, it’s in moments when we are not paying attention. Moments when we are not thinking, “Would I really give my soul for this?”

Jesus asked us to contemplate this question in Matthew 16 … “Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26 ESV)

What would I give in exchange for my soul? Is it worth giving up my soul for some “petty” vice? For some momentary pleasure from sin? For pride? For a billion dollars? How about for the whole world? When I stop and ask myself, I know the answer – no way! It’s a incomprehensible loss in any trade. But I don’t always keep that in mind. I mess up. Big time. We all do. Me, you, everyone that is old enough to understand right and wrong. I thank God that he has given us an avenue of forgiveness – that our souls don’t have to be lost forever. And when I think about the cost the God payed to save our souls – with his own life – that again reminds me of the value of my soul, of your soul, of all souls.

I read this interesting quote from C. S. Lewis about the soul, above. Of course C. S. Lewis, and all the rest of us who are not God, can be wrong about anything. So we have to compare anything a person says to the Bible (and I certainly hope you do this with anything that I say!) to see if it is true. So while I’m not saying everything he taught is true, there are many things he said that were very thought provoking, like this quote. It’s such a great reminder of who we are, and where our focus should be. And if we keep that in mind, that this body is temporary, that we are something much more – then it is easier to remember not to trade that for something wrong which our bodies want.

You can click the image above to get the printable version, to hang and be reminded of the perspective of this life. I know I need that reminder everyday.

Do you ask yourself if things are worth giving up your soul? What are your thoughts? Leave your comments below! :)