Christians Need to Set Their Minds On Heavenly Things.

 

Spiritual Focus

 

Colossians 3:2

(2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
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Paul is telling us where the focus of our attention needs to be. We can give our minds over to a lot of things, for instance, to our jobs - and there is a place for that. We can give our minds over to physical things - exercise, eating well, and so forth - and there is a place for these, too.

Indeed, humans need to set their minds on many things, but they need to be prioritized correctly - put into the right niche and position. Then each of these things has to be seen in relation to the Kingdom of God. Our priorities must be set according to this standard - the overriding goal of our Christian lives.

"Set your mind on things above" adjusts the focus of our attention so that we do not become distracted by things that are less important for any longer than needed, so that they occupy the right proportion and amount of time in our lives.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:
Titus 2:11-14

Related Topics:
Focus, Spiritual
Kingdom of God
Kingdom of God, Seeking First
Priorities
Priorities, Spiritual
Prioritizing
Seeking First Kingdom of God
Seeking God First
Seeking God's Righteousness
Setting Heart Upon
Spiritual Focus
Spiritual Goals
Spiritual Priorities

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  Exodus 31:13-17

(13) "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: "Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. (14) You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. (15) Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. (16) Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. (17) It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.""

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Consider where this covenant appears. It is in the book of Exodus, but after chapter 20, where God gives the commandments. From this we see that God proposes a special covenant, which He places in the midst of all of the instructions for building the Tabernacle. It means that, even though these people were employed to construct such an important edifice for the worship of God, they were not to desecrate the Sabbath by working on it. Even the construction of the Tabernacle had to take second place to the keeping of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a sign. It is not a mark. Bible usage shows that a sign is voluntarily accepted, whereas a mark is put on against a person's will. The Sabbath is a special sign. It is a special covenant between God and His people. Who are His people?

A sign can identify an occupation. One might read, "Joe Smith, Dentist"—or plumber or electrician. A sign can also give purpose for a thing; it tells us why something is being used or done in the way that it is. A sign can give directions: "This way to River City."

A sign can also bring people together with shared interests and common purposes. Some fraternal organizations have special signs that they pass to one another to identify what lodge, or organization, it is that they belong to. A sign can unify; it can bring people together. A sign can be a pledge of mutual fidelity and commitment. Signs are used by organizations to designate membership. People wear a little badge on their lapel that says that they belong to such-and-such organization, and by it members recognize one another.

This is part of the way that the Sabbath is also used. The Sabbath serves as an external and visible bond that unites and sanctifies us [sets us apart] from everyone else. Here in the United States and Canada, almost everybody else who is religious keeps Sunday or nothing. If a person keeps the Sabbath, he is being cut away from, separated from, sanctified by the very fact that he is keeping it. Though these people do not realize it yet, it becomes a sign to them that he is in the process of being sanctified. We ought to be very much aware of this sign because we are keeping it.

Everybody who has ever kept both Sunday and Saturday knows this: Sunday sets almost no one apart because everybody who is "religious" is already doing it. Big deal! What is so different about that? They are only sanctified from the people who keep no day at all. For those who are "religious," it does not sanctify them because the Baptists are keeping the day, and the Catholics are keeping the day, as well as the Mormons, the Pentecostals, the Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, and the Congregationalists. All those people are keeping Sunday, and it is not separating, or sanctifying, anybody.

But once a person begins to keep the Sabbath, it immediately begins to sanctify him, to separate him from everyone else. God has a purpose that He is working out. He has made a tremendous investment in the Creation and in the death of His Son. The Sabbath is a means by which He protects His investment.

If the only reason He created the Sabbath was because we need rest, then any old time would do. Ultimately, how and why one keeps the Sabbath are the real sign. Other religious groups "keep" the Sabbath, but are they keeping it as God desires? It is how and why we keep it that makes us different—they do the sanctifying. "Sanctify them through Your truth," Jesus says in John 17:17. God's Word is truth. If people accept it and use it, they will be using the Sabbath for different purposes than others are.

God created the Sabbath to educate His people in His way. It prepares them for their witness. Suppose that a basketball coach says to his players, "Come to the gym and meet with me at such-and-such a time." But some of the players decide that they will go to a different gym, at a different time, and with a different coach. Players on a team begin to take on the qualities and the philosophy of their coach. Anybody who is familiar with athletics understands this. Those who are intimately involved in athletics say that they can always tell whether a certain player has been coached by a certain coach, say John Wooden or John Thompson. What has happened is the player has taken on the sign of the coach, and it has sanctified him from other players who are not coached by that particular coach.

The same principle is at work with God and us. He is our Coach. He has made an appointment with us to meet at a certain place, at a certain time. And if we choose not to go to where He is going to be, then we are not going to begin to take on the image of our Coach. The Sabbath was created because it both enhances and protects our relationship with God. And it provides the witness—to God, to the individual, and to the world—of who is keeping it. This is how it becomes the sign. It provides a witness.

The Sabbath exists to keep us in a proper frame of mind and to provide us with the right material to negotiate the way to God's Kingdom. We live in a grubby, grasping material world. Every day has a built-in bias towards material things, and it is very difficult to keep our minds focused on things that are spiritual. But the Sabbath, if a person is keeping it as God desires, will almost put a person into a spiritual mode, point him toward God, and force him to acknowledge Him as Creator.

The Sabbath presents us with the opportunity to consider the whys of life, to get our head on straight with the right orientation so that we can properly use the other six days. The Sabbath is the kernel, the nucleus, from which the proper worship—our response to God—grows.

Existentialist philosophers tell us that life is absurd, that all of life is nothing but a prelude to death. But keeping the Sabbath is a celebration of life! It tells us that God's creative process is continuing, that He is creating us in His spiritual image so that we might live with Him forever. For the great God, the Sabbath is a day of creation. The Sabbath ensures us that life is not absurd, but rather, it is a prelude to life on an infinitely higher and greater level. The more we become like Him, the more sanctified we are from the world. It is in experiencing the refreshing elevation of the mind that we get a tiny foretaste of what is to come.

— John W. Ritenbaugh

To learn more, see:

The Fourth Commandment (Part 1)

Commentary copyright © 1992-2016 Church of the Great God

New King James Version copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

FROM:  THE BEREAN - CHURCH OF THE GREAT GOD.

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IS THE OLD TESTAMENT RELEVANT TODAY?

This question can be logically answered in the Word of God.  When Christ was teaching he told the people to "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me" (John 5:39).

"The Jews considered that eternal life was revealed to them in their Scriptures, and that they had it, because they had the word of God in their hands. Jesus urged them to search those Scriptures with more diligence and attention....They did indeed search the Scriptures, but it was with a view to their own glory..." (https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/commentaries/Matthew-Henry/John/John-5-39-44).

They searched but, because they were seeking "their own glory", they could not then and do not to this day see Jesus Christ as the messiah.  On the surface, that is what this scripture is referring to, the religious Jewish authorities questioning His claim to be the Messiah.

But there is a message here that goes deeper than this.  The message is for all Christians, from the apostolic period up to and including the present.  When Jesus taught He did teach what is recorded in the New Testament.  But, the New Testament had yet to be written.  The scriptures He was referring to, where Jesus always taught from, came from the Old Testament.  Jesus said that these books testify of Him.

HOW TO LIVE FOREVER!

 

THE ETERNAL PUNISMENT OF THE UNSAVED IN HELL IS NOT BIBLICAL.

Popular myth:

Hell is a Biblical doctrine that is in the Bible from the beginning to the end.

 

 

"This is not true! Two thirds of the Bible (the Old Testament) does not mention Hell at all. (“Sheol,” the Old Testament word that is sometimes translated as Hell, only means “grave” by definition, and it is where everyone in the Old Testament went when they died--good or evil, Jew or Gentile).  The other translation is a "pit". Thus the Old Testament does not contain the modern Christian concept of Hell!

"If Hell is real, why did God tell the Jews that burning their children alive in the fire to the false god Molech, (in the valley of Gehenna) was so detestable to Him? God said that such a thing “never even entered His mind” (Jer. 32:35).

"How could God say such a thing to Israel, if He has plans to burn alive a good majority of His own creation in a spiritual and eternal Gehenna of His own making?

"FACT: The King James Bible erroneously translates the word “Sheol” as Hell a total of 31 times in the Old Testament, thus setting a foundation for that doctrine in the New Testament as well as the majority of Bible translations to follow the KJV.

"Even so, most new translations have completely eliminated Hell from the Old Testament, as honest and better scholarship has demanded. The Jewish version of the Old Testament (the Tanakh) has no concept of Hell in it.

"The importance of this fact cannot be over-emphasized. If a doctrine does not appear as seed form in the books of the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, it cannot fairly be taught as a major biblical doctrine, if indeed it can be taught as biblical at all!"  (http://www.tentmaker.org/ifhellisreal.htm)

 

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Let Mankind Boast Of Their Glories.

In Jeremiah 9:1-26, the prophet, began his lamentation because he saw the inevitable catastrophe coming to his country and people. God pronounced judgment over Jerusalem, and when God says something, He does it.

What they would face wasn't something that was going to happen by accident or by chance, was going to be designed by God.  It was not just one of those terrible and inexplicable things that happen from time to time.

What they would face was going to be the direct judgment of God. And it was this realization that was causing Jeremiah such sorrow. They were bring this catastrophe on themselves.  It was not God being vindictive, it was them bringing this on themselves.

The cross should be a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that sin has brought to the heart of God our Creator.  But, like in the time of Jeremiah, people continue to ignore this fact.

When there comes the calamities that are sure to result from our separation from God, it is said that God and “His soul [is] grieved for the misery we bring on ourselves.' 'In all [our] affliction [God is] afflicted”.  (Judges 10:16, Jeremiah 63:9)

Read Jeremiah 9:1-26, tIt is about the prophet's sorrowful lament. Focus especially on Jeremiah 9:23-24. Why are those words so relevant even to us today?

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:  But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

• People gain success and riches, but if they do not know God it is ultimately fruitless when it comes to death and eternity. All the riches in this world are worthless it you do not have a relationship with God.
• Wisdom, might, and riches all have their place, but to rely on these things, especially amid catastrophe, or when death looms, is fruitless, meaningless, and empty.
• People are told what really matters, and that is to know and to understand the loving kindness, the justice, and the righteousness of God.
• There is nothing else.  Nothing can give us hope and comfort when everything earthly fails us.

What does the Cross tell us about the loving kindness, the justice, and the righteousness of God?

• God gave us His everything in order to save us.  He gave his Son, Jesus Christ, who willingly sacrificed His life for us in order that we may be saved.  All we need to do is repent and believe.

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The Truth in Biblical Symbols.

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Read Genesis 4:3-7. What do their two different sacrifices symbolize?

The sacrifices symbolize the difference between attempting to work one's way to heaven represented by Cain’s offering and the realization that salvation is by grace alone, made available to us only through the merits of a blood sacrifice which is the symbolism of Abel’s offering.  Abel’s offering pointed toward eventual salvation through the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

There was a difference in the offerings they brought: Abel’s was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’s.  “…the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect…” (Genesis 4:4-5).   

Cain’s offering was only a sacrifice of acknowledgment that God was the creator.  But, Abel brought a sacrifice of atonement, for his sins.  Blood was shed. Abel was admitting to God that he was a sinner and he was looking to God for salvation.

Abel offered in faith, and Cain did not.  Abel, in faith to God’s word, offered with an eye to do God’s will, but Cain did not submit to God’s will.  Abel’s offering was an act of faith in response to the knowledge that they both would have received from God in regards to sacrificial offerings and what God required of them. 

If it was supposed to be an offering of atonement for their sins, which the scripture leads the reader to believe, require the spilling of Blood. Abel was obedient to what God had instructed them to do in order to atone for the original sin of Adam and Eve and Cain was not. This is made evident by God respecting Abel and Abel’s offering and rejecting Cain and his offering.  

The scripture indicates that they knew what they were supposed to offer, instruction they would have received from God.  Abel was obeying God where Cain was continuing to do what his parents originally did.  

The Old Testament, continually points toward the Great Sacrifice that was to come, that of Jesus’ sacrificial giving of His own life on our behalf to absolve us from our sin.  Leviticus 17:11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system instituted by God. God, speaking to Moses, declares: “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.”  (Leviticus 17:11).

The Potter's Clay! What Christian truths are symbolized?

What crucial truths are taught from these verses and the symbolism found there? (See Gen. 2:7.)

Jer. 18:1-10 
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.  Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.  Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;  If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.  And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

We are like the clay in the potter’s hand, even though we are “marred”, God can make us perfect if we have faith in Him.

Isa. 29:16
Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not?  Or, shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

They had no just views of truth. They deemed mere formality to be all that was required. They attempted to conceal their plans even from God; and everything in the opinions and practice of the nation had become perverted and erroneous.

Their perverseness was as if God should be respected as much as we are, that is, as if God was no more qualified to do anything than we are.

Isaiah is showing the right that God has to do with his creatures what he thinks is right.  We have no right to complain because, like the potter He is our Creator. It is absurd for us to complain to God as if He has no intelligence, and no right to make us as He does. It would be absurd for the piece of pottery to complain of the potter as if he had no skill as it is equally absurd for us to complain to God as if He did not have any wisdom.

Isa. 45:9
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

Potsherd means broken piece of pottery, representing fallen man.   The scripture is saying that we should let the people who are broken, struggle, with the others that are similarly broken here on earth, we are not to fight and argue with them.  We are supposed to go to God for understanding, but when God does give us an answer we are not to question the answer.

Isa. 64:8
But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
Their condition then had been produced by God as clay is molded by the potter, and they would be returned and restored entirely by Him – We have no power to restore ourselves than the clay had to the power to reshape itself. We are totally in his hand and at his disposal the being that transforms us.  Go has the power to mold us as the potter has the power to mold the clay.

We have been formed by God, and we are dependent on God to make us what He wants us to be. This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin; and when we are sensible that we are exposed to the divine displeasure for our transgressions. It is then we feel that if we are to be saved, and it is by the mere sovereignty of God.

Rom. 9:18-21

Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

We can rest assured that, despite the reality of human free will and free choices, and the often calamitous results of abusing that free will, in the end, we can hope in the absolute sovereignty of our loving and self-sacrificing God, whose love is revealed on the cross. Evil won't triumph; God and His love will. What a hope we have!

Whatever other truths are found in the image of the potter and the clay, it does teach us the ultimate sovereignty of God. That is, however hopeless the situation might seem to be, the symbolism of the potter and the clay shows us that ultimately, despite the wrong or even willfully wrong decisions that people make, the Lord is in control of the world, regardless of appearances now.

A SONG OF GOD’S MAJESTY AND LOVE

It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures, including mankind.  Unfortunately it is the transgression of God’ law that brought death and suffering into the world.  The good news is that the world, though fallen is not just sorrow and misery.  Nature provides messages of hope and comfort.  We find flowers on thistles and roses on thorns.  God's love among a fallen man is all around us.  All we need to do is open our eyes and our hearts.  We are placed in a position through our connection with Christ to be worthy of the name, "sons of God".

I will extol You, my God, O King;
And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You,
And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty
And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,
And I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,
And shall sing of Your righteousness.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
Slow to anger and great in mercy.
The Lord is good to all,
And His tender mercies are over all His works.

All Your works shall praise You, O Lord,
And Your saints shall bless You.
They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom,
And talk of Your power,
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glorious majesty of His kingdom.
Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The Lord upholds all who fall,
And raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look expectantly to You,
And You give them their food in due season.
You open Your hand
And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
Gracious in all His works.
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;
He also will hear their cry and save them.
The Lord preserves all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh shall bless His holy name
Forever and ever.

(Psalm 145, New King James Version)