Phil 4:8 Thoughtful, Authentic, Lovely, Christian

Thoughts are so important to actions and they are who we really are. We can fake it on the outside but what's in our head is what is. Phil 4:8, theme verse for this blog, tells us that we must think true thoughts. Truth isn't always easy to get at. We can come at Scripture with what we want or expect it to say, and fail to take away what is. In life,we can fail to carefully analyze our culture by God's standards and dwell upon and live according to His way. Our thoughts are to be right, valuable, pure. There are truths that are sad truths, evil truths that shouldn't dominate our thoughts. Truths about how Satan works, truths about the presence of sin in this world. While we're not naive, we're not focused on evil by any means. It's here because of sin. We're here to overcome it w/ good, w/ God's work in our lives. Purity truly sets us apart as Christians in a world where promiscuity, adultery, homosexuality, crude jokes, constant attention on sexuality is so prevelant. We're to be clean, walking before God bathed with His righteousness, living, by His grace, in that light. A lovely life, a lovely faith draws people by its beauty, echoes the gorgeouness of God's Creation. But this isn't a veneer. Nor is it perfection. That struggle is part of life under the sun. It's not that we don't struggle; it's that we do. That we struggle openly toward excellence and praiseworthiness. That we neither enjoy nor submit to the struggle. But if we're not struggling, we're not thinking, not growing. We won't arrive until God welcomes us home and even then there will be more to learn. Sometimes God intensifies that struggle, makes it even more obvious and desperate because He so desires our humility, our true dependence on Him. When we struggle, our thoughts are made clear by our actions, by pride and unwillingness to be taught, even by Christ Himself, or by clinging to God and becoming more like Him, learning more about truth, growing more pure, more lovely. Growing closer to Him. Because it is He who is truly beautiful and He who is the source of worthy thoughts. His is the glory.