Psalm 119:34 (NIV)

Here in Psalm 119, we find David asking the Lord to help him “understand.” Again, we find the Hebrew word “biyn” being used to emphasize the need to allow God to instruct us in the deeper comprehension of His law.  This mental process of examining His law will then lead to deeper knowledge of how to obey and apply it to our lives.

Another example of “biyn” is found in 1 Kings 3: 9-10 where Solomon asks for discernment or “biyn” to judge between good and evil.  Solomon’s wisdom was based on this deep understanding and it allowed him to judge the people in a righteous manner. In verse 12, we see that the Lord was pleased with his request and it was granted “so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.”

The study of the Bible is essential in developing a thought process that honors God.  This understanding or discernment allows us, as best as humanly possible, to see God’s viewpoint which is often not our own.

A good question to ponder is “How often is the lack of right understanding keeping us from obedience and the blessings of fulfilling God’s will in our life?”

Something to think about on our journey to Heaven.

Dr. Rob

                                                                                                        Proverbs 14:8 (NIV)

To have Christ-like character is to be in command of one’s thought life. In Proverbs 14:8, Solomon, King of Israel, is again encouraging wisdom to his descendants.  He writes that to obtain wisdom one must “give thought” to how we live our lives. Solomon understood the importance of our thought life in making both good and bad choices. He wrote 3,000 proverbs and there are at least 100 references to wisdom in the book of Proverbs.  Solomon’s own life provides an example of the importance of giving thought to our ways. His choice to ask the Lord for wisdom was prudent whereas his decision to add wives to his harem, led the Lord to plague him and Israel to be attacked on all sides.

Our thoughts originate in the complex organ simply referred to as our brain. Within this three pound mass of tissue lies a system that, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), is the “seat of intelligence, interpreter of the senses, initiator of body movement, and controller of behavior.” God’s design is nothing short of amazing and brain development is foundational in obtaining the wisdom that is needed to find God’s will and serve him wholeheartedly.

It should therefore be no surprise that King Solomon encourages us to place a great deal of effort in transforming this organ into a tool that serves Him.  However, while many Christians have no problem comprehending that a Christ-like thought life is an essential ingredient to living a prudent life, many fail to cultivate this trait because they do not have an ongoing plan to guide the process.

In the field of Christian counseling, there should always be an objective to strengthen the mind. We are reminded in 2 Corinthians 2:11 that Satan has a desire to take advantage of us. In the Greek, the word for “get an advantage” is pleonekteo and its meaning is based on the idea of cheating someone out of something that belongs to them. Satan’s desire is to take advantage of the mind and use it for his purposes. This strategy is again documented in Ephesians 6 where Paul places emphasis on putting on the armor of God because the wicked one launches fiery darts (vs. 16) with intent to injure and cause confusion allowing him and his well trained army to subtly lead us down a thought pattern of wickedness.

It should be noted here that this thought pattern of wickedness has its roots in many forms: Consider the following list:

• Lack of boundaries
• Control issues
• Arguments, deceit and manipulation
• Self centeredness
• Pride
• Laziness
• Too much time in the wrong company
• Crude behavior, inappropriate talk
• Love of money and career
• A desire for respectability and image
• Addictions
• An unequal yoking with an unbeliever
• Ungodly entertainment
• Gossip
• A wrong attitude toward or doubting the Word of God

Each of these has a way of entering the believer’s mind and while they may seem harmless at the time, Satan has a way of using them to keep us from living out God’s will in our lives.

Ongoing training of the mind increases the probability of success against Satan’s plan as well as our own fleshly desires.  This training or development of our mind requires a habitual pattern of implementation to strengthen the individual and allows us to respond with an attitude that glorifies God.  

Paul Meir writes, “Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thought, and can be acquired when an action repeated becomes an attitude realized.”

Meir’s “habits of thought” lead us back to Solomon’s counsel on how to become wise. He reminds us that a prudent man pays close attention to his thought life. He understands that pleasing God can only be established through habitual, repetitive actions that will allow us to think Christ-like and not succumb to Satan’s desire to cheat us out of God’s promises.

A study of the Hebrew lexicon allows us to have a better understanding of what Solomon means when he uses the phrase “give thought” in Proverb 14:8.  The Hebrew word biyn is used to convey the importance of discernment in establishing wisdom. The word biyn can be conceptualized as the mental process of separation. Solomon is emphasizing the need to separate out good thoughts from bad. This mental process can only succeed through repetitive, ongoing training.  

Based on this meaning of biyn, I have highlighted four traits that can be habitually developed in building the Christ like character that we all desire. I hope to elaborate on each of these over the next few weeks:

• Right Understanding
• Teachable approach
• Spiritual Discernment
• Considering Consequences

Something to think about on our journey to Heaven.

Dr. Rob

The key to having a good attitude is an understanding that attitude is NOT an emotion. Emotion is based on feelings. These feelings can be positive or negative, but they must not be the reason for one’s attitude. Attitude is based on thoughts. Thoughts give direction and control. Therefore, our state of mind is extremely important in shaping our attitude.

Biblical understanding that attitude is based on our thought process and not our emotion is found in Philippians 2:5 which in the NIV states:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”

The translation of the word attitude in the King James version is “mind” and in Greek it is “phroneō.”  The definition from Strong’s is “to have understanding, to think or to direct one’s mind to a thing.” Therefore, it can be reasonably deduced that control of our attitude is found in the mind or thought process and not in emotions that come from how we feel.

The analogy I often use to describe the attitude/emotion dichotomy is that of a locomotive. If we consider ourselves to be a train then our attitude is in the mind and our thinking is the engine of the train. Our emotions are the caboose of the train. These emotions can be good or bad but they are always found at the rear of the train.

Too often, I find individuals that base their attitude on how they feel. If they are feeling happy or have joy in their life their attitude is positive. If they are sad or angry than their attitude is negative. The problem is that this falsely absolves the need for responsibility of one’s attitude. In our Christian walk, Christ-like attitude cannot be based on how one feels at any given point in time. Christ-like attitude is based on obedience and that can only be achieved with a certain mind-set.

Getting back to the therapeutic experience, as a Spirit-filled Christian we must always create an attitude based on becoming Christ-like. This type of attitude is driven by a desire to be obedient to God’s Word even when life circumstances create a negative emotional state that doesn’t motivate obedience to God’s commandments.

Something to think about on our journey to Heaven.

Dr. Rob

“Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.”

                                                                                                                Proverbs 16:18

 One of the core issues that keep individuals from making healthy changes in their lifestyle and relationships is pride. Pride is one of those major issues that is often hard to see in yourself and even harder to accept. For some time, I have been using a bookmark titled Brokenness: The Heart God Revives, from Nancy De Moss’s Revive Our Hearts ministry, to help me identify issues of pride in my own life.  It helps me identify potential areas of pride and gives me a better understanding of what God’s true call for brokenness could look like.

  I often give these bookmarks out to individuals as a way to help them differentiate between a proud person and one who is broken.  This bookmark has proved a valuable resource, not only for me, but for others as well, in helping identify areas of pride that need to be brought before the Lord.  With brokenness, genuine humility becomes the prevailing attitude and the forgiveness process can begin bringing about real change through the Holy Spirit. 

 The bookmarks can be found at www.reviveourhearts.com.

 Something to think about on our journey to Heaven.

 Be Blessed,

Dr. Rob

Recently, I came across a research article by the Center for Bible Engagement, Back to the Bible (www.centerforbibleengagement.org) called “power of 4.” The research looks at behavioral differences between Christians who are engaged in Scripture at least four days a week and those who are not.  Based on the research the following behaviors were found to decrease:

• Smoking by 36%
• Getting drunk by 57%
• Sex outside marriage by 68%
• Pornography by 61%
• Gambling by 74%

These behaviors were found to increase:

• Sharing faith with others by 228%
• Disciple others by 231%
• Memorizing Scripture by 407%

The importance of being in God’s word is central to overcoming negative life circumstances and is essential to helping maintain emotional health. The authors of this study concluded that “Reading or listening to the Bible at least four days a week provides a measure of protection against the temptation of risky behaviors, beyond religious preference, church attendance, prayer or other spiritual disciplines.”

Positive behavior traits require accountability. Accountability comes out of relationships. Our relationship with God is established by spending time in His word. It light of this, I think a strong case can be made about how important the “power of 4” is in combating potential hypocrisy in the lives of Christians.

Something to think about on our journey towards heaven.

Dr. Rob

I am intrigued about this subject because there seems to be a pervasive idea in the Christian community that any pursuit of personal goals leads to accusations of self centeredness or claims of a works based mentality.  Looking at each of these parables it brings forth many different thoughts, but one thought that comes to mind is that God definitely expects each and everyone one of us to cultivate the assets that He entrusted to each of us.

Awhile back, I finished Malcolm Gladwell’s, “Outliers: The Story of Success” (Little, Brown & Co., 2008). I enjoyed his thought provoking ideas and found myself intrigued with his finding that it takes “10,000 hours” to attain true expertise.

A summary of the argument in Outliers is as follows:

• There are no “naturally gifted” individuals emerging into superstars.
• There is a direct statistical relationship between hours of practice and achievement.
• There are no shortcuts.
• The number of hours to obtain excellence is at a minimum considered to be 10,000.

Gladwell quotes neurologist Daniel Levitin as follows:

“In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years… No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”

While reading Gladwell’s book the question that kept coming to mind was, “Does the 10,000 rule hold true for Christians?”

Now before you write to tell me how there is no biblical basis for “10,000 hours” in the Bible, let me say, I agree with you! However, let me continue the thought for a little while longer.

If God’s calls us into stewardship, and one “worldly research” standard used to explain achievement or expertise is “10,000 hours” than how does this concept apply to Christians.

Giftedness appears to be individual specific and each of the parables definitely seems to suggest the need to cultivate (i.e. practice) our giftedness in a way that develops expertise. Therefore, let’s look to see how we can apply the “10,000 rule” to both you and me. Scripture clearly calls each of us into Christ-like excellence. Obtaining this excellence is multi-faceted, but at its core I believe we can all agree that God calls us to the pursuit of studying scripture and making it applicable to our lives. Therefore, if we do some quick math applied to the study of God’s word and we utilize the “10,000 rule” we would need the following time commitment:

• One hour a day for seven days a week than we need approximately 27 years to obtain true expertise.
• If we reduce our study time to a mere three hours a week, we need a little more than 64 years!

Reviewing these numbers, I immediately realize I have some work to do!

How about you?

In closing, I would not rigidly utilize the “10,000 rule” as a basis for obtaining Christ-like character. I would, however, emphasize that cultivation takes both time and effort in helping us grow those assets that God has entrusted to each of us. It also puts us in a position to be commended by our Master as being both “good” and “faithful” as seen at the end of the parables.

Something to think about on our journey towards heaven.

Be blessed,

Dr. Rob

A few people over the past year have asked how we found our theme verse for Pathos. They also wanted to know some of the key applicable components of the verse as it related to counseling. After giving this some thought, I have decided to use this section of the web site to highlight the verse. My hope is that it provides some meaningful application as we are all attempting to deepen our relationship with the Lord.

It is interesting to me that at the beginning of this verse, Peter makes the point that God called, “…God called you…” Peter indeed would have firsthand knowledge of such an experience as his own relationship with Jesus was book end by personal callings from the Lord. These two callings were essential in Peter’s development as a leader who was ultimately called to expand God’s kingdom.

How about you? Are you working toward a deeper understanding of your identity and obedience? I have learned to appreciate Peter’s example in not only the words that he speaks, but the life changing behavior he demonstrates. Peter’s letters (I and II Peter) were written toward the end of his life where we can see his trials and witness God’s faithfulness in his life.

Blessings…….
Dr. Rob