Mind and Heart

I find it notable that, in Luke 5:20-22, when asking the teachers and leaders of the law who were questioning His right to forgive sins, Jesus says, 

“Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?”

Jesus did not say, 

“Why are you thinking these things?” 

or even, 

“Why are you thinking these things with your mind?” 

He traces their thoughts to the heart. 

As I read this, one of two things come to mind:

Either the teachers and leaders of the law understood perfectly well with their minds what Jesus was doing, but couldn’t stand the thought so they let their hearts accuse and question Christ, 

or

The teachers and the leaders did not understand because the condition of their hearts did not allow them to. Objective reality was denied by subjective presuppositions and predispositions.

The heart is signaled out, not because God does not also know the mind, but because the heart is the source of motivation. 

And Jesus, God incarnate, knowing hearts as He does (Psalm 44:21; Jeremiah 17:9-10; Luke 16:15; Acts 15:8; Romans 8:27) warns in Luke and Matthew how it can lead to duplicity:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. So you blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also” (Matthew 23:25-26).

“…Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness” (Luke 11:39).

That is why we pray:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,

And renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). 

and 

“So teach us to number our days,

That we may present to You a heart of wisdom” Psalm 90:12.

We pray this because, as I have learned personally, I cannot cleanse my own heart (Psalm 19:12). 

I also cannot direct and train my own mind (Romans 8:5-8). Perhaps through sheer willpower or determination I can do it for a while. But if my heart isn’t cleansed, and my mind is not increasingly pre-disposed to the wisdom of God in Christ, then the “room swept clean” in Matthew chapter twelve and Luke chapter eleven will once again become polluted by self-will, perhaps even worse than before. 

Jesus says we are to be of heart and mind, but under the Spirit’s guidance and direction, because a heart left unchecked does not just lead to sentimentalism, infatuation, people-pleasing, enabling, false flattery and covetousness, it also leads to killing, hurting, stealing, selfishness, self-promotion, grudges, resentment, revenge and cheating. 

And a mind left to itself will not develop into the mind of Christ:

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins” (2 Peter 1:2-9, italics mine).

In this way, as Paul reinforces in First Corinthians chapter two, we will have the mind of Christ.

Together, a mind free of over-bearing logic, and a heart loosed from excessive or idealistic affection and sinister jealousy, body and soul can work in concert, directed and guided into right action and right living in Christ.

Copyright Barb Harwood

Waiting, Cowering or Living?

The days go by. Just as they always have. Just as they always will.

But in this pandemic, some of us are jettisoning “normal life,” voluntarily or involuntarily, in what I perceive to be three major ways: 

Some of us wait in a “finding things to do to kill time” mode, aimlessly pulling up the internet, re-watching old movies, snacking, and incessantly keeping up with the news. I'm not gonna lie, life taking a pause is sometimes a good thing. I hope some of the family-time and slowing down of daily life continues on into infinity. But over time, what will replace the attitude of waiting, of "killing time," if the "new normal" persists? 

Others cower, afraid when they have to go out, but also extrapolating heightened anxieties well into the future. They focus—obsess really—on the negative side of everything and everyone, growing increasingly pessimistic and morbid, in spite of the fact that this state of mind solves nothing. They allow the unique circumstances of national stress to morph into home stress. Interactions with those they are sequestered with become tinged with easy irritation and frustration, displacing anxiety or being bored onto them. 

Or, some of us wake up, as we would have woken up on any other day before the pandemic, and live, just like we would have chosen to live before the pandemic. Purpose, faith, family, relationships, professional development and commitments, artistic endeavors, cleaning the house, washing the car…whatever made up life then, makes up life now, regardless of tweaks in the details.

This choosing to live on the opposite side of catastrophe doesn’t mean we are callous. It doesn’t mean we lack compassion for what so many around the world are going through, just as our choosing to live life before the pandemic didn’t mean we were less compassionate about the tragedies and struggles people were going through then.

It means we can’t help anyone—whether they have the virus or not—by being constantly morose and dramatic, feeding 24/7 on media pandemic coverage, and putting life “on hold” in the mis-guided attitude that “this is what life requires right now.”

No.

Especially if there are children and youth present, for them a 24/7 intake of general conversation and hyperbolic pontificating, along with an unceasing drumbeat of background media voices spewing minute-by-minute “updates” and speculative worst case scenarios is not exactly a great way to observe and learn resilience, calm or level-headedness, and could implant lasting trauma.

It’s easy to get pulled in to the pandemic fray. I know that I, for one, was talking about it fast and furiously from numerous angles early on. I mean, there were and continue to be so many questions. All the “what-ifs” and “why can’t they’s?” I consulted the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus map three or four times a day. 

And then my husband and I decided enough is enough. We took a two-day sabbatical and didn’t look at our computers. We read. We cooked together. We went for a walk outside. We took time to discover new music on Spotify. We laughed with some fun comedians on the internet. We went for a drive.

That sabbatical from the onslaught, for the most part, continues.

My husband pursues work from home, I continue to write, and we both carry on in our commitment to learn and grow in our faith. In this way, life feels like life again. We feel like we are living. 

What I’ve learned from this time is, life happens. It always has. It always will. 

Pandemics of nature, illness, war, and technology—personal and national, national and global, will come and go. 

They are the pandemics of a broken world. 

And so, since that world is our abode, and because of its persistent and encroaching not-always-controllable-nature, today—whatever day it is, in pandemic or out—today is no less urgent than any other to live in a progressive manner. 

And if we feel that we honestly haven’t been doing that all along—even in the “good” days, then like with anything positive that moves us forward, now is a perfect time to begin. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

What Does it Mean to Fear the Lord?

The phrase about fearing the Lord gets thrown around a lot, without much attendant Biblical definition. 

But in a reading of Proverbs this morning, I came across one of the Bible’s fairly straightforward takes on what it means to fear the Lord:

“To fear the LORD is to hate evil;” (Proverbs 8:13a).

There it is, in a way we can all get our heads around. 

The verse goes on to delineate exactly what this evil is that we are to hate:

“I hate pride and arrogance,

evil behavior and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13 b).

In its entirety, the verse reads thus:

“To fear the LORD is to hate evil;

I hate pride and arrogance,

evil behavior and perverse speech” (Proverbs 8:13)

I guess we all know now why it is so easy to balk at having a fear of the LORD! It means we can no longer justify our pride, the source of evil behavior and perverse speech! 

Proverbs eight, in its entirety, is about gaining prudence, understanding, discernment and wisdom. 

Those qualities are the opposite of pride and arrogance. We cannot increase in prudence, understanding, discernment and wisdom as long as pride rules the roost, and this includes spiritual and religious pride.

So to fear God is a beautiful thing, because that’s where the ability to hate pride and arrogance begins. 

God in Christ is the antidote. 

Christ, who, just like He did for the woman at the well (John 4:29), tells us everything we ever did and in doing so, opens our eyes to our pride and arrogance. 

Knowing that He knows what we have tried to keep hidden or are in denial of or blinded to, is the beginning of the end of the dysfunctional cycle within ourselves (a cycle which manifests itself in various ways, but is always an outworking of inner pride. Even inner-woundedness and a refusal or reluctance to heal from it emanates from pride). 

Jesus comes to us and reveals what He finds there, imbuing us with His hope of what can replace it. 

That is how we are enabled to step out in a healthy and life-giving fear of Him—life giving because it arrives inside of us with a willing shared expectation that, like the woman at the well, this fear of Him will become our “fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27). 

In other words, we want what Christ wants: the end of the cycle of dysfunction within us.

This positive fear of God through Christ delivers us, over time, from every negative fear (Psalm 34:4). 

It is the seeding of Christ's Spirit that allows us this first taste of the Lord: that He is good, and we are blessed to take refuge in Him (Psalm 34:8). 

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). 

This is “fear” as applied to “fear of the Lord.”

And it is in this fear of the Lord in which no self-pride, and therefore no evil, can be found.

Copyright Barb Harwood

Days of Solitude and Rest

This quote of Dallas Willard, from his book Renovation of the Heart, beautifully articulates the opportunity we all have right now in this time of staying put and spending more time alone:

"The Christian philosopher and scientist Blaise Pascal commented, 'I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.' This remark, though somewhat of an exaggeration, contains a deep insight. The capacity to simply be, to rest, would remove one from most of the striving that leads to misery. This is a capacity that comes to fullness only when it reaches our body. Peace is a condition of the body, and until it has enveloped our body it has not enveloped us. Peace comes to our body when it is at home in the rightness and power of God. 
Sabbath fulfilled in human life is really celebration of God. Sabbath is inseparable from worship, and, indeed, genuine worship is Sabbath. As the fourth commandment, Sabbath is the fulfillment in practice of the first three (commandments). When we come to the place where we can joyously 'do no work' it will be because God is so exalted in our minds and bodies that we can trust him with our life and our world and can take our hands off of them.
Now, for most of us Sabbath is first to be achieved in the practice of solitude and silence. These must be carefully sought, cultivated, and dwelt in. When they become established in our soul and our body, they can be practiced in company with others. But the body must be weaned away from its tendencies to always take control, to run the world, to achieve and produce, to attain gratification. These are its habitual tendencies learned in a fallen world. Progress in the opposite direction can only be made in solitude and silence, for they 'take our hands off our world' as nothing else does. And that is the meaning of Sabbath. 
Rest is one primary mark of the condition of Sabbath in the body, as unrest is a primary mark of its absence. So if we really intend to submit our bodies as living sacrifices to God, our first step well might be to start getting enough sleep. Sleep is a good first use of solitude and silence. It is also a good indicator of how thoroughly we trust in God. 
The psalmist, who knew danger and uncertainty well, also slept well: 'I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustains me' (3:5-6), he said, and 'In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O LORD, dost make me to dwell in safety' (4:8)."
Dallas Willard, writing in his book, Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ

Christian in a Pandemic

The times such as they are, with the world shutting down in the wake of a sinister and confounding virus, what is the way of the Christian?

Well, I think it is no different than on any other day, if we are truly honest about living Christ.

Certainly times such as these call Christians to be more long-suffering with people, understanding that others may now be operating out of a sense of fear, paranoia, or anguish.

We must acknowledge that not everyone—not even strong Christians—are always able to submit to the Holy Spirit’s calm and quiet steadiness while a highly contagious virus stealthily encroaches the planet. 

Philippians chapter four is a great recipe, if you will, for how to be at all times and, I believe, especially how to be right now. 

First, as Christians, we can best help or support others by maintaining a demeanor of calm:

“Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).

The way to that calm is spelled out:

First, we internally rejoice in the Lord: (I say internally because externally providing pat Bible answers—or joyous Christian smiles—to folks who are truly afraid, rarely works; saying “God will bring good out of this” is actually more like a punch in the face to someone who is in real or imagined crisis, or even to someone simply concerned about the Coronavirus). 

So we do the following within:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!…Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:4; 6). 

And the result, according to Scripture, is this:

“…the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

That is how we are there for ourselves and for others. That is how we set the tone in our own households and places of work. 

That is our first ministry to a fearful people: first and foremost, we are calm. 

I love how these next verses in Philippians chapter four begin with the word “finally.” 

Isn’t that what we need to get to in this pandemic, or any stressful situation? A sense of finally? 

The context of today in which I hear that word is this: 

“Listen, this virus is here and not going away any time soon. No-one really knows that much more about this disease than when it began, and it is disrupting everything from basketball games to concerts to public schools. People are losing their jobs. People are on ventilators. People are dying.”

And the answer to that context, for Christians, is in the finally of the Philippians verses which follow it:

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).

Before calming the turbulent waters on the lake, Jesus assured his frightened disciples, saying,

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid” (Mark 6:50b). 

He then climbed into the disciples’ boat after which the wind, and the water, calmed. 

We don’t have to tell people to not be afraid because, as I mentioned earlier, that could backfire by denying how a person is confiding to us that they actually feel, or could simply fall on the deaf ears of someone too distraught to think clearly (we must use our discernment when it comes to verbalizing Scripture with others). 

But we can calm the wind--the angst. All we have to do is get into the boat, so to speak, and still the waters of an anxious people through an inner dwelling upon the pure, the lovely, the good, the praiseworthy and the excellent. 

We live out the calm elicited by an inner dwelling upon the “It is I” of Jesus. 

That is His peace, His evangel, His rest that ministers to all people at all times. 

Christ is the dwelling place that, when we tarry there, others, sensing His serenity, may find themselves dwelling also.

Copyright Barb Harwood

Easter's Gift: A Loving Relationship With God

This quote from Ajith Fernando, writing in his book Sharing the Truth in Love, is a beautiful picture of Easter's outcome for us:

"In biblical religion the combination of the transcendence and immanence of God results in the only relationship which truly satisfies the deep yearning of the soul...We enter into a loving relationship with a God who is higher than we are. In this relationship there is freedom from the guilt of sin because our sins are forgiven. There is great peace and security because the God who is committed to us is greater than all the challenges of life. There is joy emerging from the experience of God's love, forgiveness, and acceptance. And there is bright hope for the future because we know that the one who holds the future also holds our hands. And when He seeks to relate to us, He does not force His way into our lives. He honors us by giving us the freedom to choose Him as our Lord and Savior."
Ajith Fernando, Sharing the Truth in Love: How to Relate to People of Other Faiths

D. A. Carson on the Powerlessness and Power of Christ on the Cross

From the book, Scandalous, by D. A. Carson:

"...Jesus' demonstration of power is displayed precisely in the weakness of the cross. Because we read John's Gospel, especially John 2, we know what Jesus actually said on this subject: 'Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days' (2:19). According to John, Jesus' opponents did not have a clue what he meant; indeed, Jesus' own disciples had no idea, at the time, what he meant. But after Jesus was raised from the dead, John says, the disciples remembered his words; they believed the Scripture and the words Jesus had spoken. They knew he was talking about his body (vv. 20-22). The point is that under the terms of the old covenant, the temple was the great meeting place between a holy God and his sinful people. This was the place of sacrifice, the place of atonement for sin. But this side of the cross, where Jesus by his sacrifice pays for our sin, Jesus himself becomes the great meeting place between a holy God and his sinful people; thus he becomes the temple, the meeting place between God and his people. It is not as if Jesus in his incarnation adequately serves as the temple of God. That is a huge mistake. Jesus says, 'Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' It is in Jesus' death, in his destruction, and in his resurrection three days later, that Jesus meets our needs and reconciles us to God, becoming the temple, the supreme meeting place between God and sinners. To use Paul's language, we do not simply preach Christ; rather we preach Christ crucified.
Here is the glory, the paradox, the irony; here, once again, there are two levels of irony. The mockers think they are witty and funny as they mock Jesus' pretensions and laugh at his utter weakness after he has claimed he could destroy the temple and raise it in three days. But the apostles know, and the readers know, and God knows, that there is a deeper irony: it is precisely by staying on the cross in abject powerlessness that Jesus establishes himself as the temple and comes to the resurrection in fullness of power. The only way Jesus will save himself, and save his people, is by hanging on that wretched cross, in utter powerlessness. The words the mockers use to hurl insults and condescending sneers actually describe what is bringing about the salvation of the Lord. 
The man who is utterly powerless--is powerful." 
D. A. Carson, Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus