28 Nov Code Red (Learning to look at what you’re going TO instead of what you’re going through) PART 8

You can learn to look at what you’re going to instead of what you
are going through. Let’s go back to see our key verses in this series:

Psalms 112:7-8: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: His heart is fixed, trusting in the
Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire on his enemies.”

Now, let’s review from our last post starting with…

“7 Outstanding Outlines to Overcoming Crisis”:

1. How you respond in a crisis is key (Mark 5:36)

2. What God did for another He can do for you (Acts 10:4)

3. Rehearsing past victories is proof you are unstoppable (I Sam. 17:34-37).

4. Your feelings are created by your focus (Rom. 8:6)

“12 Focus Facets”:
1. What gets your attention gets you!
2. Just because it gets your attention doesn’t mean it deserves your attention.\

3. All failure is based on broken focus

This week we continue with….

4. God gave you your mind to re-size your experience.
The armies of Israel all saw Goliath and in essence said, “He’s too big!” David saw
Goliath and in essence said, “He’s too big…to miss!”

5. You can’t always decide what happens to you…but you can decide what is big or
small.
I remember my wife and I went to a church member’s house because her husband
just died. I was struck by her beautiful backyard. It was immaculate with beautiful
flora and fauna. However, in one of the main windows that looked out over this
beautiful back yard was a huge spider web with a very large and very ugly spider
perched on the web.
Even though the back yard was gorgeous, all I could see was this big spider web and
ugly spider! What you continually mind, you will eventually find!

6. You can either magnify God and minimize your problem, or you can magnify the
problem and minimize God.
The Bible tells us to “magnify the Lord with thanksgiving” (see Ps. 69:30). Anything
you magnify gets bigger in your life! A problem is just a problem until you magnify
it…then it becomes your problem! Magnify the promise not the problem!

7. Your mind decides what lives or dies in the garden of your soul.
Anything you feed…grows!

This week let’s continue with…

8. You are the garden for the flowers or the weeds.

My family and I were recently on vacation.  There were a couple of days of very inclement weather.  However, rather than getting disappointed over the weather we all decided to take a bike ride in the rain!  We all looked like sewer rats but we created one of the best memories we had on that vacation.

Anyone who thinks it takes constant sunshine to make you happy has never learned how to dance in the rain!

9. What you continually mind you will eventually find (Prov. 8:5-6)

Isn’t it amazing how we eventually find what we are looking for!  People who want to find Bigfoot find him everywhere.  People who want to find UFO’s see them frequently.

In my world of theological studies, you will find the terms “Exogesis” and “Isogesis.”  “Exogesis” is where I come to the Word of God with no preconceived ideas.  I don’t try to read something into the text.  I just read it or better yet, I let it read me.  “Isogesis” is where I come to the Bible to support my position, opinion or feeling…I look for verses to try and supplement my position rather than look for verses that determine my position.  This is why I tell our church to “never read a verse in the Bible.”  “Well Pastor” you might say, “That is a shocking statement for any person to utter!”  

Please look closely at what I just said, “Never read A verse in the Bible.”  Read verses in the Bible and read those verses in context.  The devil knows Bible verses (see Matthew 4 and Luke 4) and quotes them out of context.  You can make the Bible into your own personal horoscope by simply taking a single verse out of context to support your preconceived idea!

I remember a recent President taking two different Bible verses and said, “I lean more towards this one particular verse and away from the other.”  However, you should run from anyone or pastor, or President who pits the Bible against the Bible.  Both of those verses are in there for a reason…to give us balance!  Bible verse should not be taken out of context or cherry-picked to suit a predisposition. 

Bible verses should not be pitted against one another but paired with one another.  

This keeps us from “finding what we are looking for” and reminds us we don’t read the Bible…it reads us!

Next month we will continue our series!