BCC Weekly Email

Thinking for a change...

Pastor Jim Harper

1/8/2025

Brandon Bournes attended a church I pastored in Southern California in the early 2000's.  He played football for San Diego State University and had an opportunity to play professionally, but God had other plans.  Brandon had a heart to reach young men - particularly young black men - with the Gospel and thus embarked on building a ministry out of college to do just that.  This week I happened upon his Facebook page and a post that read something like this: "Do you want to see dramatic life change for 2025?  It's all a matter of 'PERSPECTIVE'."

Brandon is right.  Literally everything we do in life begins with a 'thought'.  We don't go to the cupboard and seek out breakfast food without a thought that says: "I'm hungry."  We don't grab a jacket on these cool winter morning without a thought entering our minds that says: 'Brrr'!  We're not motivated to move closer to God without the thought: "Something is missing in/wrong with my life!"

No, this is not New Age 'mumbo-jumbo'.  Taking our thinking seriously is soundly grounded in God's word.  For example, the apostle Paul warned about the 'battle for our minds' consistently in his writings because he knew where Godless thoughts lead.  In Ephesians 6, the apostle warned that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but the real battle is in the mental/spiritual realm which, in turn, drives our actions (Eph. 6:12ff).  To the Corinthian church, his warning had a similar ring to it, and he was equally clear about the solution: "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ". (2 Cor. 10:5)

Some reading this today are plagued by 'stinking thinking' from the past.  If honest, we all are - to differing degrees.  What's the solution?  The prophet Isaiah offered the folling in 43:18: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See, I'm doing a new thing!"  God is speaking here through Isaiah to the Israelites who are being called to trust His new plans even though they've experienced great hardship in the past (and will in the future) for their disobedience.  That said, the general principle is still true for us today.  Our Heavenly Father offers anyone who will trust in Him - turn to Him - a brand new start at any time BUT it will require a fundamental change in our thinking.

Imagine that mental turmoil that the Apostle Paul must have endured after coming to Christ on the Damascus Road.  He'd previously made his living persecuting Christians until God called him personally to 'lead His charge'.  So, what's the key when trying to make a clean break from 'stinking thinking'?  Paul describes his path clearly in Phil. 3:14ff: "...this ONE THING I do.  Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead; I PRESS ON to the goal of the prize of the high calling of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  I could spend pages unpacking this singe passage but here's the point.  To think in a new and productive way, we must make 'right thinking' a key life goal, we must determine to leave the past in the past and finally, we must reset our thoughts and actions on the 'high calling' of God for our lives.

Sound like a worthwhile goal for 2025?  If so, go for it!  It's certainly not 'rocket science'.  In fact, it's all just a matter of PERSPECTIVE!