First posted 12/17/2001
This is an open letter to Dragonfly. Hi, Dragonfly, I tried to reply to your return address but it kept coming back, “User Unknown”. Please email me, if you see this.
For anyone else, please examine Dragonfly’s comments and question, and consider my response. And maybe you would like to respond to my response…
Jim,
…To make a long story short: I believe that “religion” has caused most of the problems we face in the world today.
I grew up in fear of “The New Age Movement”, not understanding what it was. I am not a believer in that doctrine, but positive thinking, a belief in a part of myself that strives to be like God, my creator, has been the one thing helping me to heal the wounds of childhood and religious dogma.
To blast the people who want the world to be a better place, and offer a Bible quote here and there, is not reaching people who have been down the church road and been left feeling empty for the trip.
Bring an understandable message, people will listen. Bring dogma, and they will scoff.
Religion is a man-made thing, created to honor God. Spirit is a God-made thing created to honor His creation. God made us to succeed and prosper within His guidelines and laws. Positive thinking is not an evil thing. What did He mean when he said, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he ( or, ‘will he be’, I don’t quote much)”?
I am no theologian, so if you wish to reply, please do so with complete thoughts, not overloaded with scripture. As the devil quotes scripture to suit his own purposes.
Thanks,
Dragonfly
Dragonfly,
I appreciate you making contact with me. And I pray the Lord Jesus will give you and I wisdom on these things and continue to lead us and guide us in our lives with him.
As I read the Bible, the emphasis is on individuals becoming reconciled with God through Jesus Christ in order to walk in an eternal love relationship with him. Our establishing that relationship and growing in that relationship is entirely the work of the Lord Jesus and nothing of ourselves. All we do is surrender our lives and our will to him, moment by moment and day by day.
The world system’s philosophies are about us working on our selves to grow in power and personality and success and spirituality. The world indoctrinates us to trust in ourselves and to believe in ourselves and our own abilities to be what ever we want to be.
Jesus is calling us to be like a grain of wheat, which he says, unless it falls to the ground and dies, it can’t bear any fruit. He says he is the vine and we are the branches (see John 15). The New Testament tells us that we are called to be crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
Positive thinking is one of the many approaches where I trust in my powers and techniques to work on myself to be all that I can be.
You referred to the saying, “As a man thinketh…” That saying and its supposed meaning is a common misconception based on a misquote and misunderstanding. I’ve run into it many times, quoted in human potential training programs and in Masonic literature and among Evangelical Christians who are promoting positive confession or positive thinking.
The actual verses are in Proverbs 23:1-8 which I’ve included below. The verse actually reads, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.”
And in context, all this is saying is that a wealthy, greedy, stingy man is not what he seems to be on the outside but what his heart is on the inside… represented by his thoughts.
The real person is represented by his true thoughts. His thoughts are a result of the true nature of his heart. If his heart is evil, his true thoughts will be evil, no matter what he pretends on the outside.
This verse is not saying that his thoughts are the cause of his being good or evil. It is simply acknowledging that his true inner thoughts are the effect of his true nature and better represent that true nature than outward appearances.
The world says we can mold ourselves and create our own destiny by the powers of our own minds. The Bible says we have no hope in and of ourselves. Our only hope for eternal life and abundant life now is to put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me know your thoughts and ideas, Dragonfly.
Jim Baumgaertel
Proverbs 23:1-8
1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: 2 And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. 3 Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat. 4 Labor not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. 5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. 6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. 8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
FOUR WAYS CHRISTIANS ARE BEING DECEIVED