Lori Altebaumer's Blog, page 3

Planting a Vineyard: What the Proverbs 31 Woman Teaches Us

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Anticipation: What Are We Longing For?

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What Is Enough?

What Is Enough? appeared first on www.LoriAltebaumer.com.

After the Resurrection: The Gift of Life in the Empty Tomb

Sharing Christmas with my future husband’s family for the first time was exciting, but also nerve wracking. We hadn’t spent much time together and I was still a bit intimidated. But they were so gracious and welcoming. They even bought me gifts.

I’ll never forget gathering in a big circle in the living room to take turns opening our presents. When it was my turn, I picked up the small box, tore the paper carefully, opened the lid, and looked inside to find it empty. All eyes were on me. It was my turn to exclaim what a lovely gift it was, how much I loved it, and to thank the person who gave it. But how do you thank someone for an empty box? (I tell the rest of the story in our Season 1 Episode 008 podcast… all’s well that ends well).

Sometimes an empty gift is awkward.

And sometimes an empty gift is the best gift ever. In fact, we spent a lot of time and money to go see our empty gift—the empty tomb.

But what do we do with it?

We received our righteousness, the forgiveness of our sins, at the cross. We gained the eternal hope through the resurrection that allows us to live knowing that once we are in Christ we are eternal. Our bodies will one day wear out, but we never will.

But now what?

We follow the example of Christ. After the resurrection, His mission was finished, but there was still work to do. He started by appearing to those closest to Him to strengthen their belief. He made a special effort to find Peter and restore him with the knowledge that he was forgiven. And He continued to instruct them saying go and make disciples (see Matthew 28:19).

It is easy for us to get caught up in the life saving wonder of the cross. So much so that some people never make it beyond that to the empty tomb. And of those who make it to the tomb, there are those who pull up a comfy stone in the garden where they can wait for the Lord’s return.

But Jesus isn’t there. He didn’t linger at the tomb like a tour guide waiting on curious pilgrims to stop by with their questions on the way to the gift shop.

When He left the tomb, He left the tomb.

So what is the gift of the empty tomb for followers of Christ?

It is the invitation to a larger-than-this-earthly-life adventure. We became eternal beings when we first accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord. And with the empty tomb, He showed us that death has no hold over us. Jesus became the prototype for our eternal heavenly bodies. He walked, He talked, and He cooked and ate. He taught, explained, and forgave.

Christianity is the opposite of a dull, boring experience. It is being fully alive.

Fully alive to do bold things. Fully alive to love our neighbors (yes, even the hard to love ones). Fully alive to worship God with our whole heart because we know that one day we will stand in His presence.

The empty tomb doesn’t just mean that Jesus returned to life. It’s the example for us to follow and the promise of our victory.

Don’t follow my example from the empty Christmas gift, sitting around in awkward stillness, confused and uncomfortable.

Live with the joy and boldness of knowing that an empty tomb means anything is possible.

After the Resurrection: The Gift of Life in the Empty Tomb appeared first on www.LoriAltebaumer.com.

Our Hearts Desire: The Glory or the Goo?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Spring is like a sharp jab to the sleeping heart. It begs the question, how much more proof do we need?

I’m talking about the joyful expectancy that rises in our hearts at the first signs of spring. A few warm days, a few green buds, a few mornings filled with birdsong, and the next thing we know we’re racing out the door to prepare.

Trimming dead limbs and pruning the old growth, fertilizing our lawns, tilling our gardens, purchasing plants and seeds and planning. We watch daily as the earth once again unfolds in a breathtaking array of color and texture, sights, sounds, and smells. The level of eager expectation speaks volumes about our heart’s desire.

But do we understand it?

The desire I am speaking of is our return to Eden.

How is it we can long for a place we’ve never been?

Yet, that is the truest nature of our springtime longing. It is the DNA of eternity written in our hearts.

People who argue that mankind evolved from some sort of primordial soup—the goo—have probably never once longed to return to that wretched state of beginning. No one ever feels a longing to return to the swamp-like sediment, a moss-covered slime of stagnant water from which they insist they came. We don’t long for it because it’s not the place we are created for.

The volume of activity at garden centers everywhere attests to what our hearts truly long for.

But spring doesn’t just remind us that we are meant to live in a beauty. It should also awaken us to the truth that after a dark and cold season, we can have hope in the rebirth of a beautiful new world. We will come out of our winter of worldly existence and one day live for eternity in the bright beauty of a new spring day.

Are we doing as much to prepare for that life as we are for spring on earth? Are we sowing the seeds of the Gospel as fervently as we sow seeds in our garden? Are we pruning and fertilizing and tilling the soil of our hearts as devotedly as we tend to these things in our yard?

We spend so much time on something that is only a glimpse of what eternity will be. Let us not neglect the tending of our hearts in preparation for our return to the place we are meant to be.

We are longing for Eden, the place we were created for. We might not personally know what it is like, but spring is God’s way of keeping the longing alive within us.

In a coming episode of our podcast, My Mornings with Jesus and Joe, we will talk about our what it means to have an Eden heart. I hope you’ll join us for that conversation.

Until then, what is your heart’s response to spring? How much more proof do you need that you were made for the Garden of Eden?

Our Hearts Desire: The Glory or the Goo? appeared first on www.LoriAltebaumer.com.

Take a Hike: Experiencing the Christian Walk

Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

There is something restorative about hiking in the forest. The crisp mountain air scented with pine and the earthy aroma of the forest floor, the quiet babble of a mountain stream, the solitude, the magnificence. Some people find the beach or the city or a coffee shop good for their soul, but for me it’s the mountains. (I shared how the forest helps me gain perspective in a previous blog you can read here.)

We hike every summer in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. It’s something we look forward to every year, counting down the days. A few years ago, we had the opportunity to visit during the fall when the aspen leaves were changing and decided to try a hike we hadn’t done before.

We took off at sunrise while the frost was still on the ground and our breath still puffed out in clouds of white. We walked along the stream as the mountain awoke to a new day. It was like walking into a brand-new world.

This is a lot like the walk of a new believer. The world is glorious, full of beautiful things. The air we breathe seems clearer and more refreshing. And as we walk, going deeper in our relationship with Jesus, the darkness continues to lift, the light of our new day grows brighter, and we start to see things that we couldn’t just a short time before. Perhaps we start to feel a but invincible. Life is good.

But our hike that day took a turn we didn’t see coming. A few days before, a windstorm had toppled over hundreds of aspen trees. They scattered across the trail like someone had dumped out a package of toothpicks…really big toothpicks. The debris of limbs and leaves left by the storm covered the trail.

Not to be deterred, we began climbing over, going under, and walking around these massive trees. This went on for nearly a mile, making the hike far more exhausting than we were prepared for. My knees began to hurt (I’m a flatlander from Texas so my knees don’t see a lot of hiking on an incline).

This too is like our Christian walk. Obstacles appear, but we are so enthralled with our new life and the beauty we see that we keep going.

Until we can’t.

Eventually we got to the other side only to realize we had lost the trail. And this is where our hike can make such a painful reflection of the Christian life.

We are not promised a life with no problems, a life free of obstacles and easy to navigate. In fact, Jesus tells us in this world we will have problems (see John 16:33).

So how do we find our way when the hundreds of trees–trees like failed relationships, calls from the doctor we never want to receive or unforeseen financial needs– are blown over to cover the path?

Unfortunately for us, that day we left the thing that would have helped us most sitting back in our hotel room. It’s a GPS device that would have aided us in navigating our way back to the trail while marking the route for an easier return.

Christians have God’s Word. It is the one trustworthy, true, and unchangeable source of guidance. But when we leave our Bibles collecting dust, His word can’t lead us. Too often the first thing we do when obstacles block our trail is try to figure out for ourselves how to get over, under, or around them. We forget about our guidebook… our Bibles.

We spend so much time getting ourselves through the chaos that surrounds us that we are exhausted. And no hike—or Christian walk—ever ends well when we get to the place of utter exhaustion.

This past summer we hiked a trail we’ve done many times. But once again, an incredibly rare and strong storm had blown down hundreds of trees to cover the trail. These weren’t aspens, though. They were giant pines, covered in limbs that made the trail completely impassable.

https://lorialtebaumer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Middle-Fork-Tree-Fall.mp4

Until someone saw the need and set out to clear it. As Christians, we are called to help our fellow travelers navigate the trail. Sometimes this means we are going before them, clearing the obstacles so they may pass safely through.  Sometimes it means walking through the tree fall with them, keeping track of the GPS (God Positioning Service). Sometimes it means waiting for them on the other side of their trial to help get them back on the right path.

Never does it mean for us to leave them stuck right where they are.

But before we can help others, we need to teach ourselves to be trustworthy guides.

Along with my husband, I have started a podcast (listen to My Mornings with Jesus and Joe here) in the hopes that no one stays stuck in their faith walk. We’ve passed through some tree falls of our own and lost the path more than once.  We’ve made mistakes, neglected our Bibles, and looked to the wrong things for guidance. And we’ve gained  knowledge and experience that might help someone else avoid the same.

Through it all, God has been faithful to welcome us back and set us on the trail again. He is out trustworthy guide through a world filled with obstacles.

I hope you’ll let us share some of what we’ve experienced and learned with you so that your hike up the mountain of our faith faces fewer of these obstacles.

But even if you don’t, I hope you are encouraged to keep going, stay in God’s word, and look for trustworthy guides to get you through the tree falls.

For if they fall, one will lift his companion up.

Take a Hike: Experiencing the Christian Walk appeared first on www.LoriAltebaumer.com.

Brave New Adventures and Starting a Podcast

Sometimes we have to practice what we preach.  And sometimes I hate it when that happens! I love dispensing encouragement and spiritual insights to others, but when the words come back to step on my own toes, well… that’s not as much fun. Especially when embarking on a brave new adventure equals starting a podcast.

My last blog post was all about being ready give your “talent” (aka your donkey… read the full post here) to the Lord whenever Him say He needs it (see Matthew 21:3). We aren’t to stall on our obedience claiming a need to polish it up, perfect it, or in any way to plead for more time because we just aren’t ready.

I hope you’ll bear with me as I depart from my usual form of blog post to share something else—hopefully something exciting—with you.

And I hope that in it you will find the encouragement to do that new thing, that big thing, or that hard thing that God has been nudging you to do.

I’m about to saddle up my smelly little beast of burden and embark on an enterprise I never thought I’d do, and to be honest, something I’ve never wanted to do.

I’m co-hosting brand new faith-based podcast with my husband.

Do I know anything about sound equipment? No.

Do I have adequate capability with technology in general? Definitely no.

Do I like the sound of my voice recorded? Absolutely NO!

Do I have answers for every faith related question? Is that even a question? Of course I don’t!

But do I want to share good news and encouragement with everyone I can? Yes.

When God started nudging me in this direction, I hesitated (as in ignored Him for months). Finally, I mentioned it to my husband, expecting him to put the idea to rest by shedding some commonsense wisdom about why that was a bad idea. Instead, I discovered that he’d been having the same thoughts.

Now in my previous blog I made comments about just going when God says go. I referred to Matthew 21, where Jesus’ disciples came to get the donkey for His Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. The donkey they acquired, the exact one they were told to get, was an untrained colt.

Well, I certainly don’t want my podcast to show up on the scene like an untrained colt, so I’ve been researching. I found a coach to work with. And together, my husband and I have been praying and planning.  Am I ready now? No. But I will honestly never be ready. I will never be a sound equipment aficionado. I will never be confident in my technological skills. My voice isn’t going to miraculously turn into the voice of a songbird. And this side of eternity I’ll never have all the answers (and I suspect when I get to the other side, I won’t need them).

But I’m going to do this anyway.

I will never be beyond making mistakes or reach the level of perfection I expect of myself.

But God says go.

I hope this is an encouragement to you. If God has put something on your heart, He will prepare the way. If that means opening doors or bringing you coaches or reminding you that He is all you really need, He’ll do it.

Be bold. Be fearless. Embrace the adventure.

And never underestimate where an idea might originate. This podcast was born out of the morning conversations my husband and I have as we start our days discussing Scripture and the lessons we are learning about living a life of bold faith.

More details are coming soon. I hope you’ll give it a listen when it launches on March 6th.

Until then, if God has invited you into a new adventure that has you feeling completely unqualified, send me an email. I get it and I’d love to pray for you.

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Ready or Not: How to Respond When the Lord Needs Your Donkey

We’ve all heard it said, it’s not the gift, but the thought that counts. Maybe we’ve been a recipient for such a gift from a child. When my daughter was only six years old, she tried out the Girl Scouts.That Christmas I was the recipient of a “new purse.” Made from a cardboard take out box covered in purple fabric trimmed in pink fuzz, she’d made it especially for me at their Christmas meeting, and she didn’t wait until Christmas to give it to me. She knew I had a special Christmas party to attend for my husband’s employer.

It’s not the gift, but the thought that counts.

In the case of the donkey needed for Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, it wasn’t the thought but the obedience that counted.

Jesus sent His disciples into town with specific directions about a donkey and her colt. They were told if anyone asked why they were taking it, to tell them “The Lord has need of them” (Matthew 21:3).

I’ve read this passage many times and never got past just thinking “Okay, Jesus jacked some poor fellow’s donkey because old testament prophecy said He should.” But then I read And the Angels Were Silent by Max Lucado and came away with an entirely new point of view.

First, since everything we have really does belong to God, it was His donkey in the first place.

But second, the donkey’s owner didn’t try to offer God something else instead. He didn’t say “But wouldn’t you rather have this bigger, stronger donkey (after all this was a mother and her colt, neither would have been in prime working ability) or one that has been trained?” He also didn’t try to make the donkey anything other than just what it was. The owner didn’t ask for time to give the donkey a bath and tie a ribbon on its tail, or throw a fancy blanket—you know, one fit for the Lord—on its back.

The Lord needed his donkey … and the man gave it.

Okay, this post really isn’t about donkeys. It’s about the unique gifts God gives to each of us. Just like the donkey carried Jesus forward, in the same way our gifts are to be used to carry Jesus forward to a world in desperate need of their Savior. Our giftings and our talents are metaphorically our donkeys.

And it may be today or someday in the future, but one day the Lord will send word that He needs our donkey.

Is your gift/donkey cooking? The Lord needs your donkey to bless someone with the food you prepare. Is your gift/donkey empathy? The Lord needs your donkey to carry His love to the heart of someone who needs to feel that love. Is your gift/donkey singing, teaching, or writing? The Lord needs your donkey to share His message with the broken and the lost.

But hold on before you saddle up your smelly little beast of burden and head out, remember the enemy is against this. He knows you have a willing heart and are ready to give. His goal is to keep that from happening. And he’ll use the standards of the world to do it.

The voice in our ear may say something like this… “That’s the donkey you’re going to give the Lord? He smells horrible, and he’s so little. He isn’t trained in carrying something of such importance on his back. He’s really not very strong/attractive/intelligent. Nope, that donkey needs a lot of work or perfecting before he’s good enough to carry the Lord anywhere. Offer the Lord this other thing instead. Or tell Him you need more time to get your donkey ready.”

Unlike when we try to buy a car off the used car lot, when the Lord says He needs our donkey, He already knows exactly what He’s getting.

While it is true that we have an obligation to take care of our donkeys, making sure they are in good condition—ready to go when God says now—we also have to trust God knows what He’s doing when He tells us He needs our donkey.

The donkey’s owner wasn’t the one God sent to bring the donkey to Jesus. He isn’t the one who provided the covering on the donkey’s back for Jesus to sit on. Often we have to let go of our donkeys so others can fulfill their roles in God’s plan as well. Writers know this well. When they sign a contract for their manuscript, they are handing their donkey over to the publishing house. What happens to their donkey is now someone else’s responsibility.

It’s also important to know what our donkey is and what isn’t. Words are my donkey. And while I love expressing thoughts and ideas through written words, I’m a horrible singer.  Audible musical expression is definitely not my donkey. Now Satan loves to remind me my writing isn’t perfect and all the other inexhaustible list of reasons why this is a waste of time. He’ll even try to make us worry over someone else’s donkey (here’s my blog on how we overextend ourselves into things that aren’t ours to tend to).

In obedience, I tie my donkey to the front porch—I post a blog on my website—and again I wait with a ready pen to hear “The Lord needs your donkey.”

When it comes to traveling, there are lots of ways to get from one place to another. But only our Lord and Savior would take a pitiful little donkey and turn it into the Grand Marshal’s float in the Kingdom parade.

Maybe that little gifting you’ve been given–the one you feel is unworthy–is exactly the one God needs in this very moment.

Just so you know, I still have that little purple purse. And yes, I carried it with me to the Christmas dinner. To the rest of the world it may have been just a cardboard box wrapped in fabric scraps. To me, it was priceless–because it really is the thought that counts.

The post Ready or Not: How to Respond When the Lord Needs Your Donkey appeared first on Lori Altebaumer.

Be Still and Know

 

Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

Be still is not a command two-year-old grandson understands. I think he might spontaneously combust if he were made to be still. I know after a weekend of keeping him, though my heart will be overflowing with happiness, I’ll be both physically and mentally exhausted.

The command to be still is God-given, but I wonder if sometimes I’m a little too much like my grandson.

I’d like to blame it all on Proverbs 31—She sets about her work vigorously (v17)—but that would 
be an easy excuse when the truth is more along the lines of “I can’t stop believing there is a certain expectation I need meet in order to be a good—or real—Christian.”

Afterall, when was the last time any of us sat through the announcements at church and heard the words “we’ve got everything covered, no need for volunteers to work the nursery, teach Sunday school, visit the shut-ins…” and the list goes on. We live in a broken world where the need will always be greater than we can handle, but does that mean we aren’t also encouraged to be still?

The guilt that consumes me—and I’m thinking maybe others can relate—when I say no to helping with some activity or joining another Bible study makes it hard to believe I am also commanded to be still.

Then there are verses like Proverbs 19:15, “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep and an idle person will suffer hunger.” I don’t like being hungry.

So what’s a “good Christian” to do?

This isn’t a message of works-based theology. I know my salvation is not works based, but my love for Jesus compels me to serve him and love his people.

I also know Satan hates Jesus and wants to break our fellowship with Him. He knows it’s easier to convince us to do too much than it is to convince us to do too little. Guilt is a powerful motivator.

The enemy comes in to kill, steal, and destroy the best part of loving Jesus—our fellowship with him. 

If Satan can keep us overly busy, he knows we may eventually succumb to exhaustion. But what he loves most is that our busyness will keep us from deepening our relationship with Jesus. That broken relationship is one of his favorite things.

He’s subtly distorted our interpretation of certain Scriptures so that we convince ourselves that, though our names are secure in the Lamb’s Book of Life, if we don’t perform well or do enough our names will be listed on some sort of Failures of the Faith list (as opposed to what is referred to as the Hebrews Hall of Faith given in Hebrews 11). Nobody wants to be on that list.

Good news—that list doesn’t exist!

Perhaps no other time of year highlights our plans for overachieving busyness—no matter how well-intentioned—than the new year with our new goals and resolutions.

How many of us ever make a resolution to do less…to be still? Being still is not the same as being lazy. It is the key ingredient to a having a more impactful spiritual life and experiencing a deeper relationship with Jesus.

In this world that screams at us to do more and be more 24/7 three hundred and sixty-five days a year, it takes some intentional effort to tune out the demonic guilt trips (isn’t that what they are?) and stay focused on God’s will for us.

There are three aspects of being still I need to focus on when I am seeking deeper moments with God:

Physical – Perhaps this is the easiest and most obvious. Just stop moving and be still, right? In 1 Kings 19:11, God tells Elijah to “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” Just stand… that’s all. And when Elijah did, he experienced the presence of the Lord in a still small voice—the kind of voice only heard in the hush of stillness.   

 Being physically still helps reduce the distractions that will disrupt us. I love this verse from 1  Kings. Elijah was seeking God, looking for a glimpse of His Creator with the confident expectation that he would find him. But he got still to do it, and God showed up.

Emotional – It is hard to shut off our emotions, even for just a few moments. Thanks to the constant inflow of gut-wrenching images on social media and news outlets, urgent and heart-breaking prayer requests from our friends and families, and the collective grief we share with all of mankind suffering under the effects of the fallen world. But Jesus tells us to “cast all our care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

In Mark 4:19, Jesus tells us in the Parable of the Sower, that the cares of the world will choke out the Word of God. And in Luke 21:34, He tells us to be careful that our hearts don’t become weighed down by the cares of the world. This isn’t a call to indifference on our part. It’s a call to remember Christ first and turn our anxieties over to Him knowing we can trust Him with everything that troubles us.

Quiet your emotions by consciously placing them all in the hands of our Savior.

Spiritual – Spiritual stillness is not a state of spiritual inactivity. It is a time of tremendous spiritual growth because it is then that we can know. God declared this to be true when He said, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

This doesn’t contradict the command in 2 Peter 3:18 to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

It is perhaps the most vital way we do grow.

(For more on growing in grace and knowledge, check out my post,  The First Duty of Love.)

One day my grandson will settle down. He’ll be still because he has a need that can only be met in stillness, whether it is learning to read, practicing law, flying an airplane, or figuring out how to poke the little pointy straw through the tiny hole covered in Kevlar (anyone else almost lost their witness trying to stick a straw in a juice pouch?).

And we too, as Christians, must remember how to be still.

In the stillness there is knowing and in the knowing there is hope.

Question:

What keeps you from experiencing the stillness?  And  is it worth it?

The post Be Still and Know appeared first on Lori Altebaumer.

When My Thoughts Get Tangled

Confession time. I’m having trouble writing this today. It’s not that I don’t have thoughts and ideas I’d like to share. It’s that the words I need to express them are all jumbled up, like a bubbling pot of porridge (I’ve also been reading a lot of C.S. Lewis recently so the language I do have is a bit archaic).

A common saying these days when referring to something a person feels they have expertise in is “it’s in my wheelhouse,” or not it’s not in their wheelhouse as the case may be.

The wheelhouse, though, is a place to turn trains around. Tracks lead in and out in several directions while the engine spins around on a giant turntable until it is positioned in the direction it needs to go next. Right now, my wheelhouse is a jumbled mess where the turntable seems to be spinning with no clear direction while the locomotive teeters on the brink of a catastrophic fall.

My train of thought is barely hanging onto the rails, much less is it ready to leave the station.

Perhaps that’s because my wheelhouse was meant to function a bit differently—a way I have been too lax in guarding.

There’s another kind of wheelhouse that has only one way in and one way out. It is a water wheelhouse. The water flows in and then out again in the opposite direction. It never gives way to distraction or confusion by taking in things it’s not meant to or trying to send them out in a direction that isn’t right.

But the best part is the water wheel only turns in direct proportion to the flow of the water. It is never out of sync, at risk of going too fast or too slow or missing a turn. It is content to work at the rhythm and pace set by its source.

This is what the Christ-centered life looks like. The River of Life flows into our soul, bringing with it wisdom and direction, peace and purpose. As it flows through us, it creates energy, empowering us to do all that is within God’s will for us. Then it graciously flows from our soul as we share what we’ve received with a thirsty world.

By contrast, the world works to claim our minds and our ability to think by overloading our wheelhouses with too many steam engines all trying to go in different directions. The result can be a dizzying–and defeating–amount of chaos.

Which is probably where I was when I started writing this.

But in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1).

Who better to help me sort through and steward my words than the One who is the Word?

I don’t need to figure out which thought goes on which rail when all my thoughts flow in and out focused on and filtered through the lens of Christ.

It is a mystery and a wonder how they create a new power within me as they turn through the wheelhouse of my heart, mind, and soul. But it is no question that they do. My tangled thoughts become clear, the restlessness in my spirit once again finds purpose, and the striving settles into a peaceful pursuit of God’s will for me.

My thoughts clear as I focus again on my Savior, and the tension holding my words captive falls away.

Refocusing my thoughts my Creator allows the river of living water to satisfy my thirst and out of my heart will flow rivers of living water (see John 7:37-38).

In this noisy, demanding world, it is easy to let too much that isn’t God’s best for us capture our attention. I am no less susceptible to this than anyone else.

But there is a remedy.

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things… and the peace of God will be with you (Philippians 4:8-9).

There is but one thing in all of eternity that is true, noble, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, and praiseworthy—and that thing is a Who. And not just any who, but the Prince of Peace and the King of Kings, our Savior and Redeemer, the Bread of Life and the Light of the World.

He goes by many names, but you only need to say Jesus.

In Colossians 3, the Apostle Paul tells us to set our minds on things above, not on things of the earth… for “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory” (see verses 2,4).

Since our thoughts determine our actions and ultimately our destiny, we need to make sure we are operating the right kind of wheelhouse.

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