My Paradigm Shift

I am relatively new to the blogging experience and in my last post I said I would continue the next post with relation to defining the Kingdom. I have decided to change my approach. My wife and I have read so many good books lately with our reading to one another. However I am solo-reading a book that I would like to share with you.

To start, I would like to let you know a little about my philosophy of approaching the critical issues of life. I have always, even before becoming a Christian, been one to want to know the "bottom line" in almost everything to do with learning. When in school I was always wanting the teacher to be as practical as possible so that it would minimalize effort and difficulty in understanding whatever was being taught. I guess, in other words, though I wasn't lazy, I considered it a facilitation to make life easier now that I look back on it.

This process paid off in the latter years making life a little simpler and allowing me to focus better on things. Now the "bottom line" has become my mantra.

In this blog post I want to begin to share what I consider serious significant issues that not many people, and especially ministers and laypeople aren't discussing. If they aren't discussing these things then they can't be living them and if they aren't living them then they are continuously falling short of the mark which happens to be the definition of sin.

I am not accusing anyone of blatant personal sin with any sort of malice. I long to only help with one's  understanding of the potential of realizing the Abundant Life of which we are all called to partake. I don't know of anyone that doesn't want a better life. Always remember though, Abundant Life does not preclude any negative circumstances happening in one's life it only helps us overcome or deal with those circumstances with the proper attitude, thereby rising above them.

The book that I will share excerpts from is a book by Dr. Michael Wells. Mike came to Yvonne and me shortly after we got married over 20 years ago. He headed up an organization called "Abiding Life Ministries". (www.abidinglifeministries.com) This was a global outreach to many nations until his untimely death, of natural causes, last year at the age of 59. It took his death and memorial service to wake me up to what he was doing and sharing. His untimely death became a sort of paradigm shift for me in understanding the basics or "bottom line" of the "Christian" walk. He reveals the simple/practical truths of scripture in a very plain language. I told my wife that Mike is making more sense than most I've heard in quite a while.

The title of his book is Heavenly Discipleship. Here's an excerpt: "Satan likes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with its extremes. Eating from it, disciples miss the mark. If Satan's attempt to make the disciples stingy fails, he will lure them to give away all resources so that their families go without. If Satan cannot get us to lie, he induces us to say nothing at all. If we refuse to lust, he tempts with the thought of killing all sexual desire. If we refuse to slander a brother, he will encourage cartoonish spouting of how wonderful everyone is. The world eats from this tree and continually defines what is negative or what is positive, and uses peer pressure to move man from one to the other. The solution to being Up and Out is not to become Down and Out, or vice versa. The solution is to move to a completely different tree, the Tree of Life. Jesus is that tree, and believers have been grafted int it, with His life our life! Believers are not down and out or up and out, but rather, positioned in Him. Study His life to discover what we are! Avoid the long-reaching arms of the tree of knowledge of good and evil."


Next time I will reveal more of this powerful life changing book and not as much commentary.