Chapter 3 Insights

I was blessed by this chapter and I appreciate all your insights, too...  Thanks for sharing!  I'll post the study guide questions for next week tomorrow.  Blessings on your week....

Barring the gate of my mind to Satan's lies is tricky business.  The angel of lies can come up with all kinds of rationalizations that make his lies believable.  Make life feel safer.  Give me more control.  And they slip in.  It's not black and white.  There's so much gray slime that slips in around the edges of my mind.  I like this:  "Send forth Your light and Your truth, and let them guide me."  I need that for all the gray slime.

The gates are lined up - thoughts must pass through them all -- a neat picture -- phenomenal thought.  Definitely, just because something is true, does not mean it should be said. 

also -- the story of the missing horse and the old man's open handed acceptance of what God gave or took away is a favorite of mine.  "Today I am okay." (p.33)  I will just live today in God's care.  That is all i need.                             Hope

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Doubts don’t just affect one area in our relationship with God, if we doubt whether He answers ours prayers, then we doubt whether He does what He says He will do. If we doubt Him keeping His word, than we doubt if He even speaks the truth, and if we doubt whether He speaks the truth than we doubt Scripture itself. If we doubt Scripture, than we doubt if there even is a God at all.

Basically, to entertain the lies of Satan even for a moment and open ourselves to doubt is to turn our back on God.

I loved his idea of planting something physical to remind ourselves of what we know to be true, because so often we do need this reminder. I have events in my past that whenever Satan tries to feed doubt into my mind I can point to those happenings and say, “Really, Satan? Don’t you remember when this happened? That’s right; there is no other explanation for that one. So get gone, because I know God and He knows me.”

Instead of “what if...’s” we can remind ourselves of His truth, that He is always faithful. He has promised to provide what we need. He is all-powerful and can take care of all our problems. He desires what is best for us. He will enable us to do whatever He sets before us. His grace is sufficient. No trial will be too much for us. He is our tower of refuge and strength. He is a very present help in times of trouble. We can call on Him in our need. Etc.

When we live in His truths there really is no need to fear, and for me “what if…’s” are usually my fears in any particular situation.

Given

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Here are a few thoughts I had from the study.
I appreciated the Chinese proverb about when bad things seem to happen it may be for our good or protection in the future.  Like when his son got crippled and than the next year he did not have to go to war as others did and so his life was spared.Talking about not worrying for the future but accepting what comes each day. 

  I also appreciated the quote by A.W. and J.C.Hare ''The Question Is not whether a doctrine is beautiful but whether it is true. When we wish to go to a place, we do not ask whether the road leads through a pretty country, but whether it is the right road."

                                 Lizzy

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 After reading this chapter I have realized that it is so important to look for the truth in whatever situation we find ourselves.  It is so easy for me to include fiction, doubt, half truths, misinterpretations or imaginations into what I am thinking.
"What if".... It is important to focus on what is true and not what it might be.  The example of the Chinese Proverb spoke to me .  Just because something happens does not imply that something else is going happen.  It just is.  Think on these things...... thoughts that are authentic, valid, reliable, legitimate, genuine, and correct.  I liked the farmers story because I have always remembered the day that I accepted the Lord as my Savior.  Having that remembrance I haven't doubted that I am His child.  It is good to put that sign on this road we walk. 

Now I have added another sign that says,  "Whatever is true..... think on these things. " Psalm 43 : 3  "Send out thy light and thy truth:  let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill and thy tabernacles."  This verse speaks to me that He leads us by His light and truth.  He draws us to "his holy hill and thy tabernacles" which is Him.  He is truth.

                              Cathy

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"To treat your facts with imagination is one thing: to imagine your facts is another." - John Burroughs

"One set of lies that frequently attacks the truth gate is the fertile imagination of "what if---."  I think I've been guilty of extrapolation and assumption - thinking that because something is this way now it will be the same or worse in the future, or because I have experienced something one way, that is how it is in total reality.  I've accepted things as true, when perhaps it wasn't the WHOLE truth.... Two examples of this being proven false follow:  Recently when Rachael was having her seizures I was talking to a friend moments after the doctor had told me that medical help wouldn't be available at least until after the weekend.  I was crushed wondering how we could make it until Monday. When I shared this information with our friend he stated a true fact - "There are people who have grand-mal seizures six times a day for years with no medical answers."  I was devastated by his words.  This true fact did not turn out to be true to our experience - PRAISE GOD - His mercy turned the tide that very night and that "truth" didn't have to be my truth. Perhaps TRUTH is bigger than the bits and pieces I see and experience - thus faith comes into play.  The other time is a statement I made that looked true, but turned out to be far from truth as it turned out.  When Anna was rebellious and living wild, we met with our Pastor and his wife and when they said we should let go and focus on the children we had still at home.  I looked at him and said, "They have experienced some of the same things that sent her into rebellion, it looks to me like it will just be dominoes from here on out."  I truly felt hopeless at that time, but from the vantage point of a couple years later, I can see that I didn't take into account the miracles that God can do.  Anna is walking with Him, Sarah is taking hard stands among her friends because she sees them as Biblical, she has a strong personal relationship with Jesus and is growing in many areas.  Mary got saved and has begun to exhibit the gift of intercessory prayer.  Ruthie and John both prayed committing their lives to the LORD this past year and are asking spiritual questions.  So the dominoes have fallen, but in a completely different direction than I anticipated.  I was basing my thoughts on what I perceived as truth, but the truth turned out to be much bigger than the little part I was seeing.  It reminds me of the poem where the blind men of India try to describe an elephant - each by the part they are experiencing.  I'm not saying we can't know truth - that's what the Bible is all about and Jesus said, "I AM the truth."  He is the measure of truth, what He says, what He thinks, not what others say or how I feel.  I guess my conclusion would be that I need to try to see things through Jesus' eyes to know how they line up with truth, to draw near to Him, to "stand firm then with the belt of truth around (my) waist."

   

It was helpful to have him point out that the gates don't just go around the perimeter as I had been picturing gates in the wall, but rather consecutive one followed by another, so our thoughts get sorted by each and all the characteristics before they are let in.

                                           Patti

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It was a really good reminder for me this week to remember to focus on what is true. As I'm facing half-truths and sorta-truths and well-it-looks-pretty-so-it-
must-be-truths on all sides at school, I feel like I need to do what Paul did among the Corinthians, for my own sanity:  purpose to know nothing but Christ, and Him crucified. It doesn't matter if anything else is beautiful, it's the wrong road. I must build all my thoughts on the foundation of Christ, with nothing else allowed!
-Cherish