IOW quote for March 28, 2008
We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer, to conformity to Christ or farther away from it. ~~~By John Ortberg~~~
In the medical field where I currently work we have what they call compliance officers. Their job is to make sure that we are operating in compliance to the rules of Medicare or the “rules of the road.” People every where are told to keep their eye out on things that might be moving us away from where we need to be. A type of neighborhood watches set up basically to make sure we are where we need to be.
Am I wearing out that phrase, “make sure we are where we need to be?” I hope not because that is what we should be doing within ourselves. Assessing our thoughts and beliefs to make sure that they are moving us closer to conformity, agreement, compliance, or consistency in Christ so we are where we need to be.
Assess? Review? Evaluate? You’ve got to be joking? No! Besides doing daily dirty dishes (Hey try and say that three times fast. Oh sorry, back on the subject.) people don’t often like to assess what they are doing no matter what it is. There seems to be greater pleasure is assessing what others are doing.
To examine ourselves may lead to finding something that we don’t want to deal. That’s frequently our futile thinking that gets us absolutely nowhere. No, we need to be looking to see if we are heading in the right direction, which is towards Christ instead of further away.
Where is the path of our thoughts taking us, is it towards worldly ways or being more Christ-like? Do the beliefs we hold true to our hearts conform to what Christ believes? Daily we need to play the part of the compliance officer and forever be concerned that we are staying on track to the rules of the road to make sure that we “are where we need to be” closer to Christ.
We have no problem assessing to make sure that we are heading towards the right place when we are traveling. Or evaluating where we are financially so we can buy that new home or car we want. Why not being able to assess our lives spiritually? Making sure the rules of the road we are following are the ones that will get us closer to our destination in Christ instead of further away. It’s worth the time; it’s worth the effort, especially when it comes to our future.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: With the price of gas as high as it is we are cautious to make sure that we don’t waste any of it. Therefore we do our best to get where we are going in the shortest distance possible. With the price that Christ had to pay for us, His life, we need to be even more cautious to get where we need to be in the shortest distance possible. Taking the long route of disobedience is a waste of that valuable fuel or energy. Christ, like the state of Oregon or any other place, doesn’t move. If it takes us a long time to get where we need to be it’s because we are the ones doing something wrong.
Therefore we need to assess, look at, and evaluate in order to shorten the distance and close the gap as we stay on track with Jesus. Doing it by complying with His rules of the roads not the ones we want to make up for ourselves in our thoughts and beliefs. We all have access to the same map to Jesus, the Bible. Read it. Believe it. Live by it to be where you need to be IN Christ.
We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer, to conformity to Christ or farther away from it. ~~~By John Ortberg~~~
In the medical field where I currently work we have what they call compliance officers. Their job is to make sure that we are operating in compliance to the rules of Medicare or the “rules of the road.” People every where are told to keep their eye out on things that might be moving us away from where we need to be. A type of neighborhood watches set up basically to make sure we are where we need to be.
Am I wearing out that phrase, “make sure we are where we need to be?” I hope not because that is what we should be doing within ourselves. Assessing our thoughts and beliefs to make sure that they are moving us closer to conformity, agreement, compliance, or consistency in Christ so we are where we need to be.
Assess? Review? Evaluate? You’ve got to be joking? No! Besides doing daily dirty dishes (Hey try and say that three times fast. Oh sorry, back on the subject.) people don’t often like to assess what they are doing no matter what it is. There seems to be greater pleasure is assessing what others are doing.
To examine ourselves may lead to finding something that we don’t want to deal. That’s frequently our futile thinking that gets us absolutely nowhere. No, we need to be looking to see if we are heading in the right direction, which is towards Christ instead of further away.
Where is the path of our thoughts taking us, is it towards worldly ways or being more Christ-like? Do the beliefs we hold true to our hearts conform to what Christ believes? Daily we need to play the part of the compliance officer and forever be concerned that we are staying on track to the rules of the road to make sure that we “are where we need to be” closer to Christ.
We have no problem assessing to make sure that we are heading towards the right place when we are traveling. Or evaluating where we are financially so we can buy that new home or car we want. Why not being able to assess our lives spiritually? Making sure the rules of the road we are following are the ones that will get us closer to our destination in Christ instead of further away. It’s worth the time; it’s worth the effort, especially when it comes to our future.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: With the price of gas as high as it is we are cautious to make sure that we don’t waste any of it. Therefore we do our best to get where we are going in the shortest distance possible. With the price that Christ had to pay for us, His life, we need to be even more cautious to get where we need to be in the shortest distance possible. Taking the long route of disobedience is a waste of that valuable fuel or energy. Christ, like the state of Oregon or any other place, doesn’t move. If it takes us a long time to get where we need to be it’s because we are the ones doing something wrong.
Therefore we need to assess, look at, and evaluate in order to shorten the distance and close the gap as we stay on track with Jesus. Doing it by complying with His rules of the roads not the ones we want to make up for ourselves in our thoughts and beliefs. We all have access to the same map to Jesus, the Bible. Read it. Believe it. Live by it to be where you need to be IN Christ.
This week our host is Amy at, In Pursuit of Proverbs 31 . Pop in and read and share what others have to say about today’s quote. In the meantime, stay on track with Jesus!
6 comments:
Wow, this was very powerful, be blessed sweetie.
Absolutely loved your post! Excellent! You are truly a blessing.
I love the example you used about compliance officers to illustrate the need to review and sometimes go where we don't want to be; This is a very powerful post and a reminder that Christ paid a heavy price for our sins and that we need to evaluate how and what we are showing for it, in our walk with God.
I think about boot camp where you are stripped of everything in your civilian life and have to start fresh and are remodeled and changed; The ones who last are the ones who follow the goal and the ones who have the most trouble are usually trying to keep one foot in the world and one foot in the next and unfortunately if we follow Christ, it's all or nothing...not what we feel like.
God bless you for a great post!
You're right. Evaluation usually leads to something that we don't want to deal with. Avoidance sounds so much easier. But I'm willing to "deal with it" in order to stay on the right track with Jesus.
LOVED it!
You are so right...we resist ASSESSING because we are AFRAID of what we might find....
whew....ain't that the truth....
so we avoid it...and get further and further away from the TRUTH...
great thoughts!!
thanks for sharing!!
lori
thanks so much for sharing
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