Right Mind part 2
Your right mind is the mind of Christ. Think about that for a minute. I'm so sick of this idea that we are "bad" and we need to (somehow, as if we possibly could) change to "good." I believe that what is true of us is the deep, inner, hidden man of the heart. That's what circumcision is all about. I've heard it preached--and even preached it--as a heart transplant. But really it's the cutting away of the flesh to reveal what was always there underneath the surface. The "change" the took place on the cross was not us being transformed into something different. It was us becoming new. Us being conformed to the image of Christ that we were made in, in the beginning. So in order for us to sit (in a posture of rest) and be clothed in our right mind WE don't have to do anything. It takes an experience with Jesus. And just the same way as it happened with Saul (when he became Paul), we might be trying to "please God" when He knocks us off our donkey. We might think we're doing it right by judging others, and condemning them, and trying to save them. But when Jesus truly enters the scene--when He reveals Himself to us and through us and as us--we start to USE that mind of Christ. We start to LET the mind of Christ, that's already in us, BE in us. And this is what that looks like: "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God" (Romans 15:5-7). We seem to think the mind of Christ IS that angry, judging, condemnational mind of the Law of Moses. But really it's the patient mind that glorifies God BY receiving one another. It's that loving, accepting mind that Jesus displayed in His earth-walk. And THAT'S what I believe Jesus was talking about when He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12). What are these "greater works" that flow from the ONE mind of Christ? Compassion, and mercy, and grace, and acceptance... in a word: Love. I have to admit this to y'all... I'm kind of obsessed with love. I think about it all the time because I think about God all the time. And God IS love. So when I think about being holy, or Godly, or a disciple, or anything of that nature... I think about being loving. A student of love. Learning to love by learning how loved I am. Not focusing on what I'm doing, but focusing on who I am in Christ--who Christ is in me. That's my right mind. My true mind. That's who I really am. And because that's who I really am, that's what I do... naturally. Not a beast nature, but a love nature. Not doing in order to be, but doing BECAUSE I be. Not trying to think "God's thoughts," but letting the mind of Christ that's in me BE in me. Letting what's inside flow out... naturally.