Tracy's Blog

The title has two connotations. First, this is the last blog entry regarding double-mindedness. (Some of you may be cheering!) Second, and more significant, the whole point of this series on double-mindedness is to be done with it. To stop being double-minded, to purify our hearts and be totalled devoted to God. To encourage us towards this end, we are going to consider the show down at Mount Carmel between Elijah, the prophet of the LORD, and 450 prophets of Baal. The whole story can be found in 1 Kings 18 . Elijah, the prophet of the LORD, tells Ahab, the king of Israel who is a worshipper of Baal that there will be no dew or rain for 3 years. He then took off and hid. (see 1 Kings 17 ). Now it's the third year and Elijah comes to confront Ahab and proposes the meeting of all Israel and the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel ( 1 Kings 18:17-19 ) When they had gathered, "Elijah went before the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? (Double-mi...

I love the honesty of Scripture. When we find ourselves in disputes within the church today, we can be comforted (? is that the right word?) that struggles have been going on in the church since the early days. This gives me confidence that we can attempt to work things out as we seek the wisdom and direction of God through His Word, Spirit, and people in addressing our concerns. One passage that is very applicable to working things out in the Body of Christ is Romans 14. It also gives us some help in dealing with our own double-mindedness. It was Anna's comment to the August 29th blog that helped me formulate this blog. Romans 14:1-8 This passage talks about some of the areas of controversy in the early church: dietary restrictions (or not) and observing special days (or not). Paul's encouragement is to accept each other (vs 1) and to not judge God's servant (vs 4). In the next part, Paul tells the Romans that " Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ...

I just had a frustrating experience with our dog, Pepsi, due to his battling desires. Picture this: I'm walking in the backyard and Pepsi comes up to me with a dog toy in his mouth. He eagerly nudges the toy towards my hand because he wants me to play fetch with him. So I reach out to grab the toy but he won't let go of it because he loves having it so much. I tell him to drop it. He won't. I start to walk away but there is his at my side pushing the toy towards my hand. After a few more attempts to get him to drop the toy, I give up and walk back to the house irritated with my double-minded dog (and my lack of skill in training him)! But all is not lost as it gave me the motivation to sit down and re-write this week's blog! Now, in James 4 we come across some serious battling of desires.... between people and within people. James 4:1 asks the question: "What causes fights and quarrels among you?" and answers with a rhetorical question: "Don't they co...

Yes, we are still talking about double-mindedness..... for a least a couple more weeks. But this week's blog is going to be a bit delayed due to the fact that I accidently deleted the post I'd written. So, while you wait, I'll give you a heads up.... we are going back to James 4 . Talk to you soon! Tracy

Okay, so I'm realizing that the topic of "resolving internal conflict" is a big one. There are many different reasons for our double-mindedness. Today we will start with a major one for all Christians: the war between the flesh and the Spirit. I was a young adult when I first learned what it means to "walk in the Spirit". I had been a Christian for 10 years of so at that point but was often living a very frustrated existence of double-mindedness. It was similar to Paul's description in Romans 7:19: "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing." I really had good intentions but would find myself slipping into thoughts and behaviours that were selfish and destructive. I hated this! Thankfully, some saint shared the Bible passage Galatians 5:16-18 with me. "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is c...

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...