Spiritual Thinking

Spiritual Thinking

Colossians 3:1-3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (2) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (3) For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

“Spiritual Thinking.”

The apostle Paul lays out this subject for us in the book of Colossians. First he says, “Set your hearts on things above.” The NIV is the only translation to use the word “hearts” in verse 1 here. Almost all the other translations use the word “seek.”

Notice that in it says, “hearts” not “heart.” So it is not speaking of the cardia “kardia,” which is the Greek word for heart but hearts.

“Kardia” relates more to our feelings than anything else.

The word also means, “the middle.”

The heart is the middle or center of our feelings. Obviously I’m not talking about the actual organ in our bodies we call the heart.

The way the word is used in this verse is that the heart or “hearts” is the center of our feelings and emotions.

So when the other translations use the word “seek” rather than heart, the difference is minimal.

The idea is that whatever we seek represents the desires of our heart. Therefore the little phrase “set your hearts on things above,” could, just as properly say, “keep seeking the things above.” In either case it’s talking about the things that occupy our heart.

Have you ever thought about what you think about?

I think a lot; at least I think I do.

I would much rather think than talk, unless, of course, I’m preaching.

...What do you think about the most?...

Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.

In this verse King David is relating the heart to the things we think about the most.

Have you ever asked God to search you in order to know your heart?

Have you ever said, “God, show me my heart?”

How do you think God does that?

How does God reveal to us what is in our hearts?

I believe the second part of this verse tells us...

God examines what we give our thoughts to.

What we think about is what we are seeking, and that what we are seeking is the central thing in our lives.

In other words what we think about the most is what’s in our heart.

So in this verse there is a relationship between what’s in our hearts and what’s in our thoughts, just as Paul says in Colossians.

After dealing with our hearts he starts messing with our minds.

In verse 2 he says,

“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

There are a lot of similarities between the heart and our minds – but there is a basic difference.

What the heart dwells upon and what the mind dwells upon can be quite different.

The heart is led by our emotions, that is why salvation is referred to as giving your heart to Jesus.

Salvation is more than just an intellectual decision.

Certainly, a person could reason the issue out and come to the logical conclusion that it makes more sense to live for Jesus than it does the devil. But true conversion is more than just a mental decision.

It involves the center of our emotions, the heart. Then when the heart is transformed, Romans says, our mind will be renewed.

I believe there can be some give and take on this issue.

I believe it’s entirely possible for a person to make a logical decision about salvation and indeed surrender their life to Christ.

Isaiah 1:18 Come now let us reason together. There are times when God says in essence, “If you’re not going to let your heart get involved then let’s analyze this.”

The mind is our reasoning or analytical side. To be a spiritual thinker one must first surrender his heart, or the things he thinks about, or his emotions, to God.

Then he must set his mind on heavenly things rather than earthly things.

The reason this is important is because there really is nothing about heaven that makes much earthly sense.

Christians Believe Some Incredible Stuff!

If you are a Christian, you believe some incredible things!

We believe that we were once we were a walking dead man — while we were still alive.

But even though dead, we are still alive in Christ —

Yet, while already dead, we are more alive than ever before.

and though we fully expect to die, when we do, we will be alive forever.

See, told you, incredible stuff there.

How about some more incredible beliefs.

-We believe that, though already dead we were one day slain on a cross with Christ.