There was a time when it was believed that the earth sat on a large animal or a giant (1500 B.C.), the Bible spoke of the earth’s free float in space: “He…hangs the earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). Science didn’t discover that the earth hangs upon nothing until 1650.
We have a money raising program for missions at Park Plaza called “Sowing for Eternity”
This lesson will be on those who have ears…and … Hear… and the result of that “hearing” … is thinking… correct thinking… and of course the result of correct thinking… is the true sowing for eternity…
For you are what you think. Not just thinking about what you want to become but thinking of yourselves in terms of having already arrived.
For instance, you may think you want to be a preacher someday, change that to thinking “I am a preacher” … and maybe you merely need to improve your knowledge of the subject.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
One wise king wrote: “As [a person] thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7 NKJV)
So back to thinking you are a preacher now… absolutely believe that, with absolute faith and no wavering.
You may remember last month I spoke of faith, how you must have faith, absolute faith if you expect God to hear you.
You must pray constantly, you must think upon these things, what you think is who you are, who you become.
I also mentioned being able to be a competent Christian Apologist, and how to properly “hear” the word, which is write the word, study, and meditate upon it.
I started out saying this lesson will be on those who have ears… listen.
I heard many times as a child that God gave us two ears and one mouth, so that we would listen twice as much as we talk. And, I remember that my grandmother used to tell me to keep quiet and let people think I’m stupid, or I could open my mouth and remove all doubt.
She wasn’t being mean, but it was her way of saying, be quiet and listen…. listen… to use my ears and learn, learn, and become wise… well, as most of you know it didn’t work all that well for me, however it was sound advice in principle…. But only if implemented.
And during my years in sales I learned listening was the most important part of selling or of a conversation…and that most of us only listen for about 3 seconds and then start thinking of our response, so we must train ourselves to listen, just listen, do not try to start coming up with responses, but focusing what is being said.
The second and third parts of the lesson is when we hear properly, we think properly and hearing properly means making sure we are “hearing” the right things and becoming what we think.
To find a path to a result, we must establish the desired result or recognize the result of taking a certain path.
I want to look at two views of this subject from a worldly view, and a Christian view.
I saw a movie once, called the “Secret”. I really do not remember much about it, except that it expounded upon the idea that rich people thought of themselves as rich before they ever made the first dime…they became what they thought.
The Secret, a best-selling 2006 self-help book written by Rhonda Byrne, based on that earlier film of the same name is based on the law of attraction and claims that positive thinking can create life-changing results such as increased happiness, health, and wealth.
Seeking God with all our hearts, minds, bodies, souls, and strength must be our true path and finding Him, Knowing Him, worshiping Him, and Obeying Him as our one and only goal in life; in other words, being a true disciple of Christ…. Leave wealth to the others, we don’t need it and shouldn’t even want it.
We must see ourselves this way… think of ourselves this way… keeping our thinking on the path that leads to eternal life in Heaven worshiping God for eternity as our true goal.
When I was a young man I had a pretty low opinion of myself, I didn’t even feel I was worthy to go to church even though I wanted to, I always thought those good and fine people would wonder what I was doing there, not realizing truly good and fine people would never think that, they would just be happy to see me there… I suffered from what the great sales trainer Zig Zigglar described as “stinkin thinkin”.
The law of attraction
Law of attraction (or New Thought) let me repeat…. new thought, you see we are talking about changing how we think….
The Secret speculates that the law of attraction is a natural law which determines the complete order of the universe and of our personal lives through the process of “like attracts like”.
The author claims that as we think and feel, a corresponding frequency is sent out into the universe which attracts back to us events and circumstances on that same frequency.
For example, if a person thinks angry thoughts and feels angry, the author claims that said person will attract back events and circumstances that cause them to feel more anger.
Conversely, if the person thinks and feels positively, they will attract back positive events and circumstances.
Proponents claim that desirable outcomes such as better health, wealth, and happiness can be attracted simply by changing one’s thoughts and feelings. For example, some proponents believe that using “the Secret” can cure cancer.
From my personal experience, up to about 15 or 20 years ago if someone asked me how I was doing, the new way of simply saying hello, I would answer something like “well as good as can be expected under the circumstances” and honestly it was just my way of using a form of “dry humor” to answer a “non-question” because I really didn’t believe then, nor now, that people really want to know how you’re doing or feeling, it is just the new hello with icing on it.
By the way, next time you ask someone how their doing, try to make sure you mean it, the difference will surprise you…
Test it sometime when someone casually asks you how you’re doing by answering with a list of aches and pains…
A person stopped me once, about 20 years ago and said, hey you’re supposed to be a salesman, try saying “never better” when someone asks you how you’re doing, and so I tried it, and have been saying it ever since, because I found those words made me feel better,
Did you get that?
JUST SAYING THE WORDS IMPROVED MY PERSONAL HAPPINESS AND WELL BEING, and for most people hearing it makes them feel better,
AGAIN, I WANT TO MAKE SURE YOU GET THAT,
JUST THE WORDS I SAY TO ANOTHER PERSON ALSO MAKES MANY PEOPLE FEEL BETTER THEMSELVES…
JUST SAYING THE WORDS CREATES A FEELING OF WELL BEING FOR ALL INVOLVED,
And in some cases, this opens up an opportunity to evangelize because they will test me on it… saying something like… really you’ve never been better in your whole life, and of course I will answer that it’s a spiritual thing, every day I am one day closer to heaven.
Now we just hit upon another “secret” to proper thinking and that is proper speaking… forcing yourselves to speak properly will have a reaction of proper thinking…this is also a biblical principle…
One of the things stated in the bible I have never been comfortable with because of my sense of humor, and what seems to me my endless chatter is that we are all held accountable for all idle words
Matthew 12:. 36 But I tell you that men will give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”…
Play with that for a second, what we say comes from what we think, yet we can control what we think, by what we say…one empowers the other… first you must decide to say only right things… and the right thoughts will develop from that…and will return to even better words, or the right words coming more easily…
So, is there any scientific proof behind all this?
Lets go back to the “Secret” for a moment…
The book begins by introducing and explaining the mechanisms of the law of attraction, and then describes historical examples of its application and great men and women in history who have claimed to have harnessed its power.
The book describes the law as accounting for a magnetic power that is emitted through one’s thoughts. The power of thoughts is likened to the power in a transmission tower, which sends out a frequency to the universe and then returns the same frequency in a physical or elemental form.
Ask, believe, and receive. This creative process is based on a quote from the Bible”
and all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” (Matthew 21:22)
Now I want again to point out a couple of things, I want to proceed with the idea that this is all true.
It is in Job 38:35 that we are told that lightening’s can be sent and will manifest themselves in speech when they arrive at their destination.
We now know that light, and radio waves are merely two forms of the same thing, electro-magnetic waves, therefore radio waves are merely a form of light, and can by the use of a radio transmitter be sent and will manifest themselves in speech when they arrive at their destination.
This is one of the evidences we use in Christian Apologetics, highlighting biblical scientific principles now proven by human scientific studies.
“One of the most powerful uses of gratitude can be incorporated in the Creative Process to turbo-charge what you want.”
Scripture tells us to be “thankful in everything, in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). When we find ourselves overwhelmed with burdens and worried about tomorrow, we can praise God for who he is and his promise to never leave us or forsake us. We have been blessed with the free gift of salvation and eternal life!
Psalm 100:4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name
Psalm 107:1 1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.
The Secret highlights gratitude and visualization as the two most powerful processes to help make one’s desires manifest. It claims that being grateful both lifts your frequency higher and affirms that you believe you will receive your desire.
Visualization is said to help focus the mind to send out the clearest message to the universe.
God has created us with eyes in our hearts with which we can see, picture and visualize.
God wants to fill these eyes with His dreams, visions and images (Acts 2:17).
Jesus lived in pictures continuously (Jn. 5:19,20,30).
Jesus filled the eyes of His listeners by constantly teaching with parables (Matt. 13:34).
We are commanded to meditate on the Word, which involves prayerfully rolling it around in our hearts and minds. Since the Bible is full of picture stories, we will by necessity be picturing as we meditate upon Scripture (Josh. 1:8).
When we reason together with God, He uses imagery (Isa. 1:18).
Thinking of the words of God, visualizing my life following these words have changed by life, my thinking, and my words.
The final chapters of “The Secret” offer a more spiritual perspective on the law of attraction, and how it relates to one’s life and the world.
Is there any truth to “The Secret”? The simple answer is yes, for example, an idea of the law of attraction is that our physical health is determined by our thoughts and feelings.
It has been medically proven that stress and worry are harmful to the body, while joy and peace aid in the healing process.
The Bible agrees, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22).
“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones” (Proverbs 15:30).
As David was struggling with the guilt of his unconfessed, evil actions, he declared, “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long” (Psalm 32:3).
Our thoughts and feelings do have an impact on our physical well-being. However, this is due to how God designed our bodies.
When young I thought of myself in a completely different way than I have for the last 25 years.
At a family reunion, a couple of years ago, a cousin who I was very close with when young told me she would have never recognized me. I’ve also had a friend I hadn’t seen in many years tell me the same thing, somehow after returning to the church, thinking of myself in a new way, as a child of God literally changed me, it not only changed my direction in life, it not only changed my way of viewing the world and myself, it changed my physical appearance.
All this can get very deep, much deeper than we need to go or know, and there are many verses we simply can’t understand unless we add all this quantum physics to the mix, but again, we have no need for the deeper mechanisms, all we need to know is that it exists, and we are told to harness the power, whether we understand it or not and the scripture tells us how to harness it so that we change… into the creatures God had in mind for us…. But He gave us the choice to change or not to change.
So, I profess that we should think of ourselves as copies of Christ… denying all worldly attractions, resisting with all the strength we have of physical lusting, cravings, and coveting worldly properties.
I profess we should think of ourselves as copies of Christ, seeking God and His will in our lives with every ounce of human strength we possess, every thought, every action being made with the knowledge that we are in the presence of God, and we have no other desire in life except to please him.
I profess we should pick up our crosses daily and follow Him to Calvary,
Let’s keep our thoughts on things above and become Christ like, live our lives as if we are going to live forever… because we are
Recognize all that glitters for what it truly is… a trap of Satan… a snare to lure us into the depths of hell forever.
John Bunyan in the book Pilgrims Progress points out the deadliest place for Christians seeking God is Vanity Fair… in short… where all worldly passions can be found… all that glitters…
The worldly things are poison to our eternal life.
We must think of all these things for what they are; the deadliest poison of all; for it destroys not only your physical life, but your eternal life.
It’s all a snare.
So, let’s wrap up with an overview;
So, what is or should be our goal? What is the destination we seek? Is it not eternal life in heaven where there will no longer be pain, loss, death, and aging?
We must decide heaven is our goal, with nothing else as even a second choice as we travel the path.
We must know the way; we must know the map, which is God’s word.
We must think about and study God’s word.
We must think of ourselves, and visualize ourselves as a completely devoted child of God, no other goals in life, no other desires, no concern for this life in a worldly sense.
We must resist the deadliest poison, and accept only the bread of life, and the blood of the lamb as our nourishment.
And, I will see you there, and along the way… Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
And I want to add, not only think about them, but talk about them, visualize them, all with a grateful attitude.
And how will we know we have arrived? The Fruit of the Holy Spirit is a biblical term that sums up nine attributes of a Christian according to Paul the Apostle in his Letter to the Galatians: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
So what we should think is in Philippians 4:8 and how we should view our selves is found in Galatians 5:22 – 23.
Thank you for your time and the lesson is yours, I pray you will keep your mind on things above, visualize yourselves as the children of God that you are, be grateful that you have found the true path to eternal life and let your speech be witnesses to that always.
I thought I would just take a moment here and share with you what the term Christian Apologetics means. Apologetics comes from the Greek word “apologia” which simply means to give a legal, or logical defense for your position. So, as commanded in 1 Peter 3:15 where we are told to be ready to give a reason for our faith, we need to be able to give a logical reason for believing.
That logical reasoning comes from demonstrating the bible is truly the inspired word of God, written by mere and mortal men. Men no different than you or I, (Females included). This is one of the great arguments, or defenses, that the Bible was written by men who were no different than any other man, and therefore as common men would not have been able to provide the information given, at the time it was given, which means it had to come from a higher intelligence than has ever been available to men, regardless of their IQ or abilities.
There are many methods of presenting Christian Apologetics, such as proving evolution (the only other option that could explain the existence of life) is impossible through mathematics, biology, etc. However, our goal is to present an apologia for our faith by presenting facts that cannot be argued.
Such as the scientific and medical facts found in the Bible long before modern or ancient scientist could have known about them.
Or, the predictions of future events which are now historical events, and those predictions which came to pass perfectly, as predicted, and not just a couple but as many as 2,500 and fulfilled so accurately that even Bible Scholars were suspicious that they were historical facts being passed off as prophesies until copies of these scriptures (namely the dead sea scrolls) were found that predated the fulfillment of the prophesies, proving they had to also come from a higher intelligence.
The Apologetics courses (called the 1 Peter 3:15 project) we teach at Dick Conner’s include the following:
UPDATE:
We completed the Truth Project yesterday (April 17, 2017) and will begin the Amazin Facts course on April 24, 2017 (next Monday).
https://youtu.be/Cn8TGtBrGb8
https://youtu.be/qz77atYHTOA
The unity of the languages of the world proves the recent common origin of man. Prof. Max Muller, and other renowned linguists, declared that all languages are derived from one. This is abundantly proven by the similarity of roots and words, the grammatical construction and accidents, the correspondence in the order of their alphabets, etc. The words for father and mother similar in form, for example, are found in many languages in all the five great groups, the Aryan, the Semitic, the Hamitic the Turanian and Chinese groups, showing a common original language and proving the early existence of the home and civilization. The similarity of these and many other words in all of the great Aryan or Indo-European family of languages, spoken in all continents is common knowledge. Lord Avebury names 85 Hamitic languages in Africa in which the names of father and mother are similar; 29 non-Aryan languages in Asia and Europe, including Turkish, Tibetan, and many of the Turanian and Chinese groups; 5 in New Zealand and other Islands; 8 in Australia; and 20 spoken by American Indians. Answer: The French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese are daughters of the Latin; Latin is a daughter of the Aryan; and the Aryan, together with the other sister languages is, no doubt, the daughter of the original language spoken by Noah and his immediate descendants. There can not well be more than 4 generations of languages, and the time since Noah is sufficient for the development of the 1000 languages and dialects. The American Indians have developed about 200 in 3,000 or 4,000 years. The life of a language roughly speaking, seems to range from 1000 to 3,000 years. The time since Noah is sufficient for the development of all the languages of the world. But if man has existed for 2,000,000 or 1,000,000 years, with a brain capacity ranging from 96% to normal, there would have been multiplied thousands of languages bearing little or no resemblance. There is not a trace of all these languages. They were never spoken because no one lived to speak them.
Many linguists insist that the original language of mankind consisted of a few short words, possibly not over 200, since many now use only about 300. The Hebrew has only about 500 root words of 3 letters ; the stagnant Chinese, 450; the Sanskrit, about the same. All the Semitic languages have tri-literal roots. As the tendency of all languages is to grow in the number and length of words, these consisting of a few small words must have been close to the original mother tongue. No language could have come down from the great antiquity required by evolution and have so few words. Johnson’s English Dictionary had 58000 words; modern Dictionaries over 300,000. The evidence points to the origin and unity of languages in the days of Noah, and proves the great antiquity of man an impossibility and his evolution a pitiful absurdity.
Have you ever driven in a fog that was so thick you couldn’t see the 
car in front of you? It was entirely too dangerous to drive:
Some People see scripture in this manner, with a mind full of fog.
Thomas Aquinas wrote: “There is within every soul a thirst for happiness and meaning
The objective of apologetic is not to convince a man unwittingly, or contrary to his will, to become a Christian.
“The objective, Clark Pinnock puts it, “strives at laying the evidence for the Christian Gospel before men in an intelligent fashion, so that they can make a meaningful commitment under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. The heart cannot delight in what the mind rejects as false.” (Pinnock, SFYC,3)
We are not trying to win an argument – our goal is to glorify and magnify Jesus Christ – Not to “prove” God but provide a basis for Faith… Plowing the field making ready for the seed. Apologetic should never be used as a substitute for sharing the word but used in conjunction it is also a sign post or guide helping direct people back to the word of God
Statement by Josh McDowell: “You may think it was the irrefutable evidence that brought me to Christ no, the evidence was only God’s way of getting his foot in the door of my life. What brought me to Christ was the realization that He loved me enough to die for me. Page XXV (He Changed my Life)
The basic Apologetic thesis of these notes is: There is an infinite, all wise, all powerful, all loving God who has revealed Himself by means of the natural, the super natural in creation; in the nature of man, in the history of Israel and the church, in the pages of Holy Scripture, in the incarnation of God in Christ, and in the heart of the believer by the gospel” (Ramm, PCE, 33)
J.N.D. Anderson records D.E. Jenkins remark “Christianity is based on indisputable facts (Anderson, WH, 10) “the facts backing the Christian claim are not a special kind of religious fact. They are the cognitive, informational facts upon which all historical, legal, and ordinary decisions are based.” (Pinnock, SFYC, 6,7)
Blind faith: One doesn’t have to commit intellectual suicide
to become a Christian. “my heart cannot rejoice in what my mind rejects.” My heart and head were created to work and believe together in Harmony. Christ commanded us to “love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37)
When Jesus Christ and the apostles called upon a person to exercise faith, it was not a “blind faith” but rather and “intelligent faith.”
The apostle Paul said, “I know whom I have believed” (2Tim. 1:12)
(a personal observation: when a first century Jew used the word “know” it would have been Yeda, you’ve heard the expression Yeda, Yeda, Yeda. Well, that word is much deeper than our word know, you could not use that word unless you truly “knew” something, had experienced it personally. The example I like to give is this: I know in the English concept what a father is, but in the Jewish concept I do not know, because I didn’t have one [for the most part of my life]. So when Paul I know, he meant, he had experienced, had a “hands on” experience.)
“Faith in Christianity,” Paul Little justifiably writes, “is based on evidence. It is reasonable faith. Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.” (Little, KWhyYB,30) Faith is the assurance of the heart in the adequacy of the evidence.
Often the Christian is accused of taking a blind “leap into the dark.” This idea often finds itself rooted in Kierkegaard.
For me, Christianity was not a “leap into the dark,” but rather “a step into the light.” I took the evidence that I could gather and place it on the scales. The scales tipped in favor of Christ as the Son of God, resurrected from the idea. The evidence so over-overwhelmingly leans toward Christ that when I became a Christian, I was “stepping into the light” rather than “leaping into the darkness.”
If I had been exercising “blind faith,” I would have rejected Jesus Christ and turned my back on all the evidence.
Be Careful. I am not saying that I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus is the Son of God, What I did was investigate the evidence and weigh the pros and cons. The results showed that Christ mut be who He claimed to be, and I had to make a decision, which I did. the immediate reaction of many is, “You found what you wanted to find.” this is not the case. I confirmed through investigation what I wanted to refute. i set out to disprove Christianity. I had biases and prejudices not for Christ but contrary to Him.
Hume would say historical evidence is invalid because one cannot establish “absolute truth.” I was not looking for absolute truth but rather for “historical probability.”
“Without an objective criterion,” says John W. Montgomery, “one is at a loss to make a meaningful choice among a prioris. The resurrection provides a basis in historical probability for trying the Christian faith. Granted, the basis is only one of probability, not of certainty, but probability is the sole ground on which finite human beings can make any decisions. Only deductive logic and pure mathematics provide ‘apodictic certainty,’ and they do so because they stem from self-evident formal axioms (e.g., the tautology, if A then A) involving no matter of fact. the moment we enter the realm of fact, we must depend on probability; this may be unfortunate, but it is unavoidable.” (Montgomery, SP, 141)
At the conclusion of his four articles in His magazine, John W. Montgomery writes, concerning history and Christianity, that he has “tried to show that the weight of historical probability lies on the side of the validity of Jesus’ claim to be God incarnate, the Savior of man, and the coming Judge of the world. If probability does in fact support these claims (and can we really deny it, having studied the evidence?), then we must act in behalf of them.” (Montgomery, HC, 19)
Misconception #2 “Just Be Sincere”
The Christian faith is an objective faith: therefore, it must have an object. The Christian concept of “saving” faith is a faith that establishes one’s relationship with Jesus Christ (the object), and is diametrically opposed to the average “philosophical” use of the term faith in the classroom today. We do not accept the cliche, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe it enough.”
(Allow me to add: Many a Christian today is operating on a “Subjective” faith. When asked why the believe they will answer “I know Jesus exists because I feel it/ Him in my heart.” We even sing a song about it, I serve a risen Savior! We of course we should have the joy of salvation in our heart, but it is not an argument for our belief, for this can be used to argue any position from Atheist to Buddhist. Our faith is based upon solid historical facts, and that is an objective faith. by the way I hope you enjoy this beautiful rendition of “I serve a risen Savior.” )
It’s not what we believe, it is in whom we believe. The value of Christian faith is not in the one believing, but in the one who is believed in, it’s object.”
Josh is reminded of a Muslim who came to him and said very sincerely, ” I know many Muslims who have more faith in Mohammed than some Christians have in Christ.” He answered “That may well be true, but the Christian is “saved.” You see, it doesn’t matter how much faith you have, but rather who is the object of your faith; that is important from the Christian perspective of faith.”
https://youtu.be/Gr8Az3QQZdI