Tracy's Blog

I eagerly opened my NASB concordance yesterday to find all the references to "double-minded" in the New Testament to get more fodder for this blog. Was I in for a shock! James 1:8 and 4:8 are the only verses that use the Greek word "dipsuchos" in the NT and there is only one word in the Old Testament, "seeph", that is translated as "double-minded" and it is found once in Psalm 119:113 (NASB). This really surprised me because I thought there would be many more uses of the word (as I led you to believe in my August 8 blog ) because the concept of being wholly devoted to the Lord pervades Scripture. So does this mean our discussion ends here? Oh no! Today, I want to toss out an idea I have about double-mindedness and I'd love to hear your feedback on it. Obviously, being double-minded means "being of two minds". It's an divided mind. Essentially, it is a mind in conflict with itself. This led me to think a bit about the role...

To continue our look at double-mindedness, we will continue in the book of James. In the opening chapter, we come across the concept in a very familiar passage. James 1:5 (TNIV) "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously withough finding fault, and it will be given to you." We love this verse... or maybe we love to encourage others with it even if we find it hard to put into practice ourselves! It's an amazing promise - wisdom given to those who ask for it, to those who need it. And how we need this insight in so many of our life situations! The passage goes on: James 1:6-8 "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Those who doubt should not think they will receive anything from the Lord; they are double-minded and unstable in all they do." Did you see it? The person who doubts when they are asking God for wisdom is double-minde...

So, I hate to admit it but I forgot all about writing this blog today until I was laying in bed preparing to go to sleep. And then it hit me.... it's Monday and on Monday's I write my blog. "Oh, but I'm already in bed. I can't get up to do this." I thought. But then I remembered that I have a few faithful readers who would notice if I didn't write and wondered if I could actually do it. What a funny (or maybe pathetic) situation..... here I was being double-minded about whether or not I would write a blog about double-mindedness. When I realized that, I jumped out of bed to my computer and here I am! Somehow acknowledging that I was double-minded helped me choose to be single-minded and therefore act. And so that's where I want to start this discussion - the need to become aware that we are double-minded. James 4:6-10 is the passage that first helped me do this. I was drawn to this passage because of the promise that God gives grace to the humble (v...

One of the topics that I want to spend some time exploring in this blog over the next while is doublemindedness. There is so much said about it in Scripture and it is a significant hinderance in our devotion to God. One that I have dealt with myself. I thought I would start that discussion today but something happened this week that changed my mind. I found out in church last Sunday that John Stott died on July 27th. He was a very influential evangelical of the 20th century (and the author I quoted in my Oct. 18 blog.) I was googling him yesterday and two things I read about him in Christianity Today stood out to me: "Stott's ability to focus on completing God's work in a specific area and then move to the next without shortchanging previous work was just amazing. His influence on African pastors was unparalleled, but I am always amazed when I hear of his other work and remember, that was just Africa." from http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/augustweb-...

I noticed I'm blogging based on incidents that have occurred this summer and this blog entry is no different. Wondering what I've been up to? Oh yeah, the title gave it away. So here goes... As I was sweeping my paint brush across the wooden planks of our deck, I thought about how amazing it is that the blood of Jesus covers all of our sins. I admired the exterior transformation that was taking place before my eyes (the deck REALLY needed to be stained) and a scripture came to mind: "You are like whitewashed tombs..." What? How does that fit with my previous thought? I had to look it up to see what Jesus was referring to. It's found in Matthew 23:27-28: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypo...