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A proof that one is thinking with the natural mind rather than the mind of Christ is in the negative outcome of the reasoning process, the sour or bitter element in the content of the fruit of that process.......the grumbling result. In Matthew chapter 16 Peter rebuked Jesus sharply for talking about his upcoming suffering, rejection and death. Jesus turned right around and rebuked Peter just has sharply for not thinking of God's concerns but only of human concerns. Jesus pointed out that such thinking was offensive to him and led right into the lap of the devil himself! Later in Matthew chapter 20 the early laborers, who had initially been content with their wage, are unwilling to enter into the delight of the eleventh hour laborers who learned they were being paid a full day's wage. They reasoned along natural fallen lines that it was unfair to them who had suffered the scorching heat of the full day's sun. They were denying the owner his right to be generous and gracious to the ones to whom he chose to do so, in this case, those who had come late because no one had provided them an earlier opportunity. In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15) the elder brother follows the same fallen line of thought upon learning that his lost and straying brother has returned and is being warmly and gladly received by his father. How can his father throw such an extravagant party for the very one who has been so sinful (he assumes the worst about his brother) and wasteful, he reasons, when he has never once thrown a party on such a scale for me, the one who has toiled faithfully by his side all these years and never strayed? This is so unfair! These reasonings prevented him from entering into the joy of his father and the glad relief of his younger brother who had expected a sterner or even harsh reception from his father. But, perhaps equally importantly, this thinking (aptly called "stinking thinking") was suddenly keeping him from enjoying and appreciating his own lot and labor in life. Once in a sawmill in Alaska the workers were given their periodic raise with which they were unanimously pleased. That is until word got out that the mill across town had also received a raise that was substantially larger. Suddenly most of the workers lost touch with the contentment they had so recently felt and enjoyed. Reasoning with the fallen mind led them into a competitiveness with the "rival" mill, instead of into an empathetic appreciation for their good fortune, which in turn would have helped them hold onto that ever slippery sense of their own blessedness, and prevented any whining or tremors of grumbling. Think, too of the parable of the talents and the one who buried his instead of investing it and growing it as the other two recipients had done. There was another note of sour dissatisfaction in his response to his master; "I knew you to be an austere man, reaping where you hadn't sown..." Missing the point that stewardship is about taking something of limited value and potential and increasing its value, realizing more of its potential while it's in your care, or taking something of no value and giving it some! "Austere" has the synonym of severe or hard. There is a severity about God, but there is also a goodness. "Consider the goodness and the severity of God" it says in Romans 11 v.22. Keep the balance between the two. Oftentimes, probably most times, God's mercies are tender, but sometimes, when necessary to get our attention, they are severe. Take the money from him and give it to the one with the most, they were told. But he already has ten, Master! Again, it didn't seem fair or right to the servants. Tremors of grumblings and mumblings, alas, which rose and still rise way high on the Richter scale! And, oh, how these kinds of tremors and shifts seem seismically to dominate the political, economic and social scenes of our society today, all because of a matter of which mind we employ, because of, you might say, the "employment rate."
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