by J. Randal Matheny

"Awesome!" has become a modern catchword for any small bit of news that makes the hearer glad. But it once took grandeur and majesty to inspire awe.

The Christian rejects the jaded, cynical turn that finds everything awesome and nothing awe-some. For he thinks on "whatever is honorable" (Philippians 4:8).

The quality of honorable has to do with the royal and the divine. What is majestic, grandiose, serious. What has dignity and respectability. What would inspire our awe, as a royal cortege or palace.

But to concentrate on the honorable, a Christian first has to get over these cultural hurdles:

• Superficiality. Not only is beauty skin deep, and showing more of it, but the newsbite has swallowed the pondered meditation.

• Levity. Nobody knows how to get serious anymore. Even the movies are satire and not comedy. Irreverence is a virtue. The phrase of the century: "I was just kidding!"

• Informality. Today, it's the tennis shoe or the flip-flop, not the dress shoe. Informal, laid-back attitudes indicate a lack of seriousness. Clothes don't make the man, but they give a good indication of his spirit.

• Brutishness or, in its wider sense, bestiality. Perhaps from the influence of evolution theory, man takes the level of the animal. Some years ago, a commercial in Brazil touted the prowess of a soccer player by calling him "animal." A light-hearted address common today in Brazil is to call someone "beast." It seems the beauty has not tamed the beast; rather, the beast has coarsened the beauty.

Our word "honorable" in Philippians 4:8 occurs in adjective or noun form in 1 Timothy (2:2; 3:4, 8, 11) and Titus (2:3, 7). It characterizes life in Christ, as good citizens who pray for effective government so they may live in dedication to God, as bishops who rule well their children, as deacons and wives, older women and young evangelists, who show by their demeanor the reverence, respect, dignity of the Christ and of the Sovereign of the Universe.

Such seriousness is shown by the Bereans in Acts 17:11, who in nobility of spirit search the Scriptures daily to verify the message they were hearing. Though the word "noble" here is different than our word in Philippians 4:8, the idea is the same. They showed a superior attitude than the Thessalonians. Their seriousness caught Luke's attention and garnered his praise.

Watch how a royal person bears himself. Usually, the quiet dignity of his position demonstrates the seriousness with which he takes his responsibilities. He speaks conscious of the weight of his words. His every action is measured, his passions restrained not only by careful instruction, but by an awareness of belonging to a great line of blue-blooded forebears.

If I have idealized human royalty, I may be excused for already thinking of the children of God, who reign with their heavenly Father, share his divine nature, and think constantly of his many qualities that constitute everything that is honorable.

For when we think of the only true and living God, we are most certainly considering all that is honorable.

by J. Randal Matheny

Who is your father?

Seems an easy question, doesn't it?

The Jews thought so, too. But Jesus assured them that Abraham was not their father, or they would have done the works that Abraham did.

Their father was the devil, he said, because they refused the truth and believed lies about the Messiah. The devil is the father of lies, so he who tells, lives, or prefers a lie to the truth has made clear his paternity.

Perhaps that is why, in Paul's recommendation to dwell on the good (Philippians 4:8), he puts "whatever is true" first on his list.

So what is true? Think on these true things:

1. The true grace of God (1 Peter 5:12).

2. The true testimony about those who do what is right (3 John 12).

3. The true love in Christ and in us (1 John 2:8).

4. The true riches (Luke 16:11).

5. The true light, which illumines all men (John 1:9).

6. The true worshipers (John 4:23).

7. The true saying, "One sows, and another reaps" (John 4:37).

8. The true bread from heaven (John 6:32).

9. The true tabernacle, heaven itself (Hebrews 8:1,2; 9:24).

10. And when the true is bad, as in Titus 1:12-14? As Paul says, work to change the situation!

All that is true and good has its center in Him who is true, the true and living God (John 7:28; 17:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:9).

When we embrace and concentrate on what is true, and on him who is true, we will indeed be children of God.

by J. Randal Matheny

September 11th. The third anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. After three years, the difficult war on terrorism continues.

The difficult war of THINKING also continues.

Philippians 4:8 points the way:

"Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things."

Dwell on these things. Why is the proper use of the mind so important? Three truths suggest themselves.

First, everything STARTS in the mind.

We thrill with the stories of those who trekked upriver to find the source of the Amazon, the Nile, and other important rivers. That knowledge may have been useful. But to those who want to steer true in life, no fact is more important than knowing where it all starts. In the mind.

The Contemporary English Version translates Proverbs 4:23 this way: "Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the source of true life." The original Hebrew word usually translated "heart" is properly translated "thoughts" here because the Hebrews thought of the heart as encompassing the whole of man's interior life.

The thoughts are the wellspring of life. From the thoughts bubble up the life-essence. From the mind spring actions, feelings, purposes, decisions.

The beginning of Christian life starts with faith and repentance, two actions of the mind. Conversion to Christ is first of all a mental action, a decision to believe in the message presented through facts, arguments, appeals, and promises.

Jesus said sin starts in the mind. "For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23, NASU).

So the mind produces the actions. That is why John Stott can say, "Self-control is primarily mind-control."

If we want to produce good actions, we must first think good thoughts, "dwell on these things."

Second, the mind is the primary spiritual BATTLEFIELD.

Satan's principle strategy is to gain control of my mind. And his tactics and methods are more perverse than those of the terrorists.

Before Eve sinned, the devil set up a trap to substitute God's positives with evil thoughts. Doubts about his word: "Has God said ...?" Lies about God: "For God knows ..." The devil attacked Eve's mind.

Likewise, Paul's great concern is for the mind. To the Corinthians he wrote, "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3).

Paul wants us to have a one-track mind. And a closed mind, at that. He continues ironically in verse 4: "For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully."

When the mind is closed around the true Christ and the true gospel, it should not be open to other influences.

The one-track, closed mind uses spiritual weapons to "take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). This net must not let a single one escape to damage the Christian thought-life.

The thought patterns of Christ are our best weapon in this war. "Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose [literally, "mind"], because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (1 Peter 4:1).

Third, thinking is the EFFORT of meditation.

The information glut and the speed of the Internet are keeping us from the slow work of meditation. We don't stop and think anymore, we skip and scan. Instead of dwelling on these things, we dash to the next item.

Though none is wrong in and of itself, you can with difficulty dwell on these things while you

• watch TV or films
• listen to worldly music
• play videogames
• surf the Internet
• chat on the phone or messenger
• party
• play or watch sports

The problem is permitting these activities to occupy our time and mind space, rather than mulling over the truths, principles, promises, facts, and commands of the gospel as we let them slowly soak into the fabric of our thoughts and establish strong neural patterns in our brain.

Such an effort requires constant attention, exactly like the successful righteous man who "meditates day and night" in the law of the Lord (Psalm 1:2). Only in this way will the mind be prepared for action as its hope is fixed "completely on the grace that is to be brought you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13).

September 11th. The day the long war began.

And when did you start to "dwell on these things?" Keep dwelling. To win the war.

by J. Randal Matheny

"Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today" (Genesis 50:20, NRSV).

The picture appeared on the front page of the Jundiai newspaper. A simple poster glued to a light post. The article criticized at length the visual pollution created by people who went about town sticking handbills to everything that didn't move.

Never mind that the city government permitted posters on light posts.

The handbill condemned by the newspaper?

The School of the Bible, sponsored by the Jundiai congregation, offering theology courses (as an evangelistic outreach). With a telephone number in large letters.

With that negative exposure, the School of the Bible never had so many people call asking about the course, and it turned out with a record enrollment.

What man meant for harm, God intended for good.

Fear not what man may do to you. God will use it for the good of the Kingdom. If you are watching out for his interests, your difficulties and sufferings will be his opportunities.

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

by J. Randal Matheny

Wang, a Chinese woman from Nanning, was surprised when a bus seat was offered her, with smiles from everyone around her. Someone finally showed her the note taped to her back: "Please take care of this pregnant lady."

Wang recognized the handwriting of her husband, who must have stuck it to her back before she left home.

We in Christ show the same care for one another. We seek to ease the burdens of those weighed down by their cares and struggles.

So said Paul, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2, ESV).

Even when they themselves cannot carry the burdens of the weak, Christians still search for means to help others, with the creativity of the Chinese husband concerned about his wife.

This is why I am grateful to be a part of a brotherhood that practices fraternal love, that develops daily that care for the brother who needs a hand, that understands that "church" means a community that lives in peace, harmony, unity, and forgiveness, under the benevolent guidance of Christ.

I have often had the sign, "Please care for this burdened soul," stuck to my back. I have often been offered a seat of rest, scarce in a world of selfish people. I have been given the knowing smiles of well-wishers who, aware of my burden perhaps more than I, have more than smiled to lift up my name to the great Inviter of the Light Burden.

In turn, I want to be a burden-bearer myself, for someone coming up the trail behind me.

Wang and I, then, have much in common.