What kind of thinker are you?

Over the years, I have noticed that there are two kinds of thinking. One kind leads to success, joy, and fulfillment. The other leads to failure, fear, and discontent. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” Proverbs 23:7

The question is this: Which type of thinker are you? Maybe it’s time to do some honest self-evaluation.

Eight characteristics of abundance thinkers:

1. They believe there is always more where that came from.
2. They are happy to share their knowledge, contacts, and compassion with others.
3. They default to trust and build rapport easily.
4. They welcome competition, believing it makes the pie bigger and them better.
5. They ask themselves, How can I give more than is expected?
6. They are optimistic about the future, believing the best is yet to come.
7. They think big, embracing risk.
8. They are thankful and confident.

Eight characteristics of scarcity thinkers:

1. They believe there will never be enough.
2. They are stingy with their knowledge, contacts, and compassion.
3. They default to suspicion and find it difficult to build rapport.
4. They resent competition, believing it makes the pie smaller and them weaker.
5. They ask themselves, How can I get by with less than is expected?
6. They are pessimistic about the future, believing that tough times are ahead.
7. They think small, avoiding risk.
8. They are entitled and fearful.

The truth is that, for most of us, we are not either / or. We are a little of both. I certainly want to grow as an abundance thinker. Thinking about these characteristics has given me some clarity. How about you?

The Original Lie

We talk a lot about original sin, but have you ever stopped to consider the original lie?

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But how did the serpent tempt them?

He suggested that God may be holding out on them. Maybe He didn't want them to eat that fruit because then they'd be like him. In other words, the serpent tries to get us to doubt the omni-goodness of God. He plants a seed of doubt and says, "maybe God is withholding something". And when we doubt God's desire to bless us... we believe a lie, the original lie.

Waterproof Bible?

Now, this is pretty cool.

By way of ChurchRelevance.com, I learned about the waterproof Bible,an actual waterproof Bible that would be great for lifeguards and swamp dwellers, as well as people on missions trips and fishing expeditions, and pretty much anyone during Monsoon season.

It's reportedly a 100% Waterproof Bible with something called "Durabooks technology," which I guess makes it stain-resistant and waterproof. And it floats. Yet its pages also let you dry highlight and take notes in it.

It comes in blue, pink, and camouflage covers and in NIV, KJV, ESV, NLT, and NASB translations. Awesome...

Prayer

Whether from the outside or from the inside of the church, the Adversary will stop at nothing to try to disrupt and dismantle the body of Christ. But these struggles are not the demise of God’s people. On the contrary. They are our opportunities to apply biblical principles and priorities—the only solutions to the challenges we face.

We must keep our fingers on the pages of Scripture like a boat anchored to the pier in a raging storm. While we do not worship the print on the page, the paper and ink lead us to the knowledge of the One whom we do worship—Jesus, our Master and Savior.

We need to stay on our knees... prayer is a radical interference with the status quo. It is the means by which God grants power to those who rely on Him. This dependence never changes. Even as a sixty-something-year-old man who had been preaching faithfully for years, the apostle Paul continued to walk in a state of dependence on God. You have to love Paul’s humility.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:2–4)

There was no pretense with Paul. No degree of success or number of years in the ministry gave him a false sense of ultimate accomplishment. He knew he had not yet arrived. He remained dependent on the Spirit of God. And so with a genuinely thankful heart, he entreated his fellow believers for their prayers. Can you see the power of that kind of attitude? Very refreshing in the first century. And very rare in the twenty-first. No wonder the man made such a lasting impact for Christ! The Lord honored and blessed Paul’s ministry because he upheld prayer and promoted God’s Word. Pray!

Leadership

Churches have a tendency to cling to what worked in the past assuming that it will bring success in the future. That rarely happens. In order to sustain growth and health, churches need to change. Because churches are unwilling to give up on what worked for them in the past, here’s what I see:

1. Most churches get pulled in many different directions and lack a unified purpose, even though the Bible reminds us “There should be no division in the body.”
2. Most churches hold on to their structure, even though Scripture tells us “New wine calls for new wineskins.”
3. Most churches don’t define and implement strategies to accomplish God’s vision, even though the Proverbs tells us “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity.”
4. Most churches don’t embrace new leadership, even though God’s Word instructs us to find capable people and “Appoint them as leaders over groups of one thousand, one hundred, fifty, and ten.”
5. Most churches fail to establish systems, even though we know “God is not a God of disorder.”
6. Most churches don’t prepare financially for the future, even though Jesus told us to “First sit down and estimate the cost.”
7. Most churches don’t welcome counsel from people with experience, even though we’re reminded that “Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others.”

I could go on and on, but I think you get my point. We can’t become the church God’s intends for us to be if we’re unwilling to become the church God’s intends for us to be. To allow Jesus to lead, I have to...

Injustice?

In this life every one of us experiences injustice. The Judge of all the earth never treats us unjustly. But we treat one another unjustly. The complication is, of course, that we don’t always agree on who is being treated unjustly by whom. It’s hard enough to chart a just path forward in conflict; but with this complication, which is almost inevitable, an outcome satisfying to everyone becomes that much more elusive.

So let’s say you and I have been mistreated in a given situation. We have had injustice shoved down our throat. A bitter experience. Especially when the injustice is perpetrated by the powerful, the privileged, those in control. But immediately, a wonderful thought comes to mind. Jesus experienced it too. That awareness alone is the beginning of comfort...