Today’s Table Talk is by our friend Sue Bohlin. When I read it, I couldn’t help but laugh at the way my kids could use a filter change – mostly because their beliefs center on them always being right… well they pretty much center on anything them centered (not always, but for sure often).
Sue always has something worthwhile to share. It’s a convicting word for us as well as our kids.
Thanks, Sue … and thanks for walking the road with me.
-Kay
Life doesn’t just happen to us; we experience it and interpret it through a filter. That filter, like a pair of glasses, consists of beliefs and values we might not even realize we hold.
The same event could be experienced and interpreted in different ways by different people because of their different filters: for example, getting a flat tire. One person might get out of the car, see the flat, and start to rage: “What the _____ is this? Why does this kind of ___ always happen to me? You stupid tire!” This response is the result of a filter that believes life should be good and easy, that nothing bad should ever happen to her. This unrealistic expectation is a setup for massive disappointment and anger when life doesn’t cooperate.
Another person might see the flat and think, “Oh bummer! Well, Lord, thank You for protecting me from a dangerous high-speed blowout. Please help me here—would You send a road angel to help me change out the spare?” This very different response is the result of a filter that recognizes we live in a fallen world where unfortunate and even bad things happen, but God is still good and we can call on Him to help us at any and every time.
We can’t change life or the things that happen to us, but we can change our filter to bring it into alignment with biblical truth.
You might need to change your filter if:
- You consistently see the glass half-empty instead of half-full; if you always put a negative spin on any news you hear. [Check out Phil. 4:8]
- You see any comment other than glowing praise as a personal attack that threatens your well-being, and you aggressively growl back. [Check out Phil. 2:3]
- You dismiss other people’s answers to prayers, and blessings they receive, as yet more proof that God loves everybody but you. [Check out Rom. 8:38-39]
- You evaluate everything in terms of how you feel about it. You are nice to your spouse or your co-worker only when you feel like being nice; you don’t repent if you don’t feel repentant; you don’t spend time with God if you don’t feel like it; you are obedient when you feel like being obedient, etc. [Check out 2 Cor. 10:5-6]
- You view everything in terms of the here-and-now, temporal, earthly sphere, and ignore the eternal, spiritual dimension. [Check out 2 Cor. 4:18]
- You get uncomfortable when people bring spiritual conversations into Monday through Saturday because they only belong to Sunday. [Check out all references to the Lord Jesus Christ]
What do you think. . . is it time to change your filter?
Sue Bohlin loves teaching women and laughing, and if those two can be combined, all the better. She is a frequent speaker for MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) and Stonecroft Ministries (Christian Women’s Connections) on the topic “How to Handle the Things You Hate But Can’t Change,” based on her lifelong experience as a polio survivor. Today’s blog is a repost from bible.org’s Tapestry. Check out Sue at suebohlin.com
Sue Bohlin:
I read your post: “There are really two issues here: 1) transgendered people and 2) the intersexed (new term) or hermaphrodites (older term)”.
“The first is usually an emotional problem, not really a sexual one,the “transgendered” label reflects a sexual identity confusion”.
“God doesn’t create a person with the genitals of a male and the consciousness and heart of a female”.
In Genesis 1:26, the Bible says, “And God created man in His image, in His likeness; male and female He created them.
“1 Corinthians 14:33 says that “God is not a God of confusion but of peace,” so deliberately creating someone with self-contradiction appears to go against the very nature of God”.
I agreed with the issues of transgender and intersex people but I tell you what else goes against the very nature of God, the contradiction of his word.
I don’t agreed with the homosexuals and lesbians who have “inborn feelings” of desiring the same sex, am I to believe that they should justify themselves and that God accepts them as they are with these “inborn feelings” without the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
There are hundreds of testimonies of homosexuals that have been change by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Have you seen David Kyle Foster’s documentary video “Such Were Some Of You”. Hundreds of testimonies of homosexuals bearing witness of the Holy Spirit’s transforming power.
So here’s the scenario: homosexuals with “Inborn feelings” desiring the same sex permitted to live their lifestyle believing they’re accepted by God to live that lifestyle and homosexuals hundreds of them bearing witness of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. One is the contradiction of the other.
I tell you what I believe contradiction goes against the very nature of God especially in His Word.
1 Corinthians 6:9
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,”
1 Corinthians 6:11
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”
You mention “1 Corinthians 14:33 says that “God is not a God of confusion but of peace”. You took that out of context the apostle paul was speaking about the spiritual gifts to the church, read it 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verses 1 to 33, the people were misusing the spiritual gifts and there was disorder and confusion that’s why paul said “for God is not the author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints”.
So how do we attain to “peace?” According to Hebrews chapter 12 Verse 11: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Read it Hebrews 12 verses 1 to 12: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
So you say “deliberately creating someone with self-contradiction appears to go against the very nature of God”.
So I say it again “I tell you what else goes against the very nature of God the contradiction of His word”.
Why don’t we add to that taking it out of context and misinterpreting it..