Christian Healing and Growth

I am shifting many of my thoughts to a new blog called Spiritual Healing and Growth. I have found that the name of this blog gets a lot of hits but most of them are for the movie Brave Heart. So, I am experimenting with different venues to get the word out about the things I am passionate about.

As I near my celebration for the 72nd anniversary of my coming into the world I am still eager to share the love, power and truth of Jesus Christ. Since I was a child I have been sought out for advise, wisdom, counsel and insight. I still am sought by many leaders who are stuck themselves or working with those who are stuck.

I studied Teaching and practiced that fine art for five years before running into some painful blocks. Looking back it was a good thing because I have learned to "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials..." James 1. I have learned to look for God at work during my trials and challenges and that early difficulty turned into a great gift because I returned to grad school and studied counseling.

It was there that I discovered the power of the environment to bring desired changes. Peer and Family support just can't be beaten when it comes to helping people change.

That led me to Cincinnati and a position at UC during the riots and Jesus Movement. These two movements taught me to watch out for massive spiritual, emotional and political movements and to see what God would have us do to cooperate with Him by facilitating changes in the church and Christians.

In 1973 God led me to College Hill Presbyterian and what a blessing that was. I learned to integrate my theoretical and practical insights from psychology, counseling, sociology and theology into a wholistic approach to healing, growth and influence. We called our center, TELEIOS for wholeness in Christ.

We also developed a non profit organization CIC in 1978 that took our insights to the world. Last year was the 30th anniversary of the founding of what is now called Equipping Ministries International (EMI). EMI has spread to over 70 nations.

In 1989 God called us to open a Christ centered Psychiatric Counseling Center where we could bring all the insights and learning together into the task of helping distressed, traumatized and wounded believers heal and grow into maturity.

Now I am heading Sweeten Life Systems, formerly Life Way Inc, a non profit coaching, consulting and research organization dedicated to "Building a lifetime of great relationships" because all our experience and research points to the fact that death or life come from relationships.

I am hoping I can get all of you to follow me on the new blog where I will write about what is going on with me and a lot about the things that facilitate healing, growth and change.

Muslim Finds Christ

The Wall Street Journal has a terrific story about a young man who opened his heart to Jesus Christ after he saw His love, grace and forgiveness.

The WSJ describes it this way in a "must read story". Mosab is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founder and leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Throughout the last decade, from the second Intifada to the current stalemate, he worked alongside his father in the West Bank. During that time the younger Mr. Yousef also secretly embraced Christianity. And as he reveals in his book "Son of Hamas," out this week, he became one of the top spies for Israel's internal security arm, the Shin Bet.

If that isn't enough to peak you interest I can't imagine what is.

Mosab also says that all Muslims need to be liberated from a god of murder, cruelty and revenge and find the true God of love, hope and mercy. WOW! These are strong words. The man holding a sign that calls for beheading anyone that insults Islam must be longing for a chance to kill this your believer in Christ.

Call to Action: Pray for Muslims to experience dreams and visions of Christ and come to faith in Him.

How to Motivate Christians to Serve and Evangelize

Many of us use statistics in sermons, talks and papers. Sometimes we even use them in our blogs. Unfortunately we often mistakenly misuse the stats and give a wrong impression.

A wonderful article in the online version of Christianity Today explains the proper and improper uses of data and actually clears up some badly misinterpreted statistics from the past. For example, are Christian marriages breaking up as fast as marriages between atheists and other non believers? Are Christian youth leaving their churches at an alarming rate never to return? The article takes on these and other statistics that have frightened all of us.

The proper use of data can help us plan better and reach out more effectively. However, when we misuse data in an attempt to "motivate" Christians to do more evangelism or serve more it is wrong and harmful to out cause. I suggest that we try the methods of Jesus as revealed in Luke 10. He sent his disciples out two by two ahead of him into a lot of villages and towns. He told them to "Bless the people with peace."

It seems to me that encouraging peace is a better motivating factor than fear, anxiety and worry. And, Jesus encouraged His friends to go out with peace, confidence and love. As we can see from the last verses of Luke 10, His method really worked well.

Grow in God's Love

A list of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit is found in Galatians 5:22ff. It is a way of seeing all the multiple dimensions of Love. Since Love is the greatest attribute of the Christian life, it is important for us to consider how to get more of it in our lives and how to show it in practical ways.

Many writers have explained the various kinds of Love. We know that God's Love is called agape in the Greek Bible. Agape is sometimes explained as "sacrificial love" or "servant love". One of my teachers said it is "Wanting, willing, feeling and doing the best for another person, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, with no expectation of anything in return. That is a long and complicated explanation but covers all the bases.

Many years ago the founders of America gave a town on the East Coast a name to inspire the citizens. The name means "brotherly love" and was intended to say, "This is a place dedicated to God's love and loving relationships among the people". Do you know the town that received that nice name? (see the end of the story.)

But the most popular use of Love often has nothing to do with sacrifice or commitment. The term Love to describe a strong liking for things. "I love chocolate" is often heard but that really means hunger and lust. And, when sex enters the scene the term gets all mixed up.

Maybe that is why St. Paul came up with a whole list of things that arises out of God's Love and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The list in Galatians 5 includes the term Love but expands its meaning to include peace, gentleness, kindness, patience, joy, self control, etc. By doing this the Holy Spirit inspired writers of the Bible came up with ways to expand our awareness, understanding and self analysis. Whereas it gets awfully confusing to try to analyze our "Love Quotient" we can get a pretty good idea how we are progressing toward loving people when we check ourselves on a scale of self control and peace.

So, take a look at the chart above and use a scale of 0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 with 0 as the worst of anyone you know and 10 as Jesus to assess how you are doing today on the various aspects of the Fruit. Think about your behavior with the family, friends, co-workers and strangers to get an idea about where you need to ask the Holy Spirit to nudge you forward a point or two.

Tiger, Media and the Big Ten Commandments

As you watch TV, read the papers and hear the comments made by pundits, think about which of the Big Ten they support and which they deride.

Here are all of the Commandments. Because some faith traditions choose different parts to emphasize there are actually more than ten commandments. Here are all 12 possibilities.

1. I am the Lord your God-
2. You shall have no other gods before me
3. You shall not make for yourself an idol
4. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
5. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
6. Honor your father and mother
7. You shall not murder
8. You shall not commit adultery
9. You shall not steal
10. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
11. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife
12. You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

Read and reflect on these commands. Are some rejected by the public square and others promoted? Number 12 in this list says that God dislikes and rejects coveting. However, wanting what my neighbor has is actually one of the core values of "The American Dream".

And, idolatry is so popular that a TV show is called, "American idol".

Think about it. What would Christmas be without coveting, idolatry and dishonoring the sabbath? I know, I know. It is a lot of food for thought but I am on a diet!

Take Every Thought Captive to Christ

I am again teaching the classic course, Rational Christian Thinking, that I first developed and wrote back in the eighties. Pastor Brad Rosenberg asked me to train his staff and lay leaders how to live in the freedom of Christ and I agreed.

Because his wife Angie had gotten so much out of the training before she asked Brad to let everyone attend so young mothers like her could benefit from the training and rear their children free of fear and anxiety. So, we are teaching over 100 adults each Wednesday evening at Tri County Assembly of God in Fairfield, Ohio north of Cincinnati.

It is a thrill to be able to "Equip the saints to DO the work of ministry" and I love training them in ways to "Renew their minds" according to the Bible. The students are eagerly lapping up the information and responding with great interactions in the class.

Over the next few posts I will write some of the basic principles of biblically renewing the mind so the readers can start getting free from cultural, social and devilish ideas. I am amazed at how many Spirit filled Christians are ensnared in old fleshly ways to thinking, feeling and acting yet believe they "Have the mind of Christ."

A mind of Christ is a peaceful mind. It is Free from worry, free from anxiety and free from letting others put them down. They could care less what others think because they know what Jesus thinks.

So, read and reflect on how Gos can set us free from the "Stinking Thinking" that keeps us in bondage.

You Shall Receive Power at Brave Heart Blog

I spoke this morning at Lifegate Church in Northern Kentucky. They meet at 10:00 AM at the Scott County High School. Dennis Cole is Pastor and he along with wife Sheila are our West with the Navajo Indians with whom they have partnered for years. You can get my talk on a podcast if you want.

Over the last few months I have had a hunger to rekindle the fires of the Holy Spirit and get back to basics. I have known Dennis and his Father Desmond ever since the Jesus Movement in the early Seventies. their congregation has been on the cutting edge of the move of the Holy Spirit for four decades.

I spoke this morning on Acts 1:1-8 where Dr. Luke the Apostle writes to his friend Theopholis about the ministry of Jesus. Ends ends up with this very powerful comment. "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the far reaches of the world."

The Holy Spirit is s spirit of power! That is dunamis in Greek and dynamite in English. Why do we need so much power? To be witnesses.

The term Dr. Luke uses here shows that he meant more than talk for talk is cheap. No, he used the term martyrous or martyr. "You shall be my martyrs" and it takes God's power to die to self.

Die to self in Jerusalem so you can win the neighbors to Christ.
Die to self in Judea, the wilderness country so you can win the farmers, huntsmen and shepherds to Christ.
Die to self in Samaria so you can win the hated non-Jews there to Christ.
Die to self in the far reaches of the world so you can win the pagan idol worshippers to Christ.

Every attempt to share the good news is a cross cultural communication challenge and demands that we lay down our fleshly prejudices and bless the people in love, peace and joy.

Think it over. Take four Post-It Notes. Label one Jerusalem, one Judea, one Samaria and one World. In each square write the people God's Spirit places on your heart to pray for.

Pray about whom God would have you list and let me know what happens.

Thanks, DAD!

I am very thankful for my dad. He taught me many valuable lessons and showed me how to be a man of responsibility, high ethics, morality and grace. Dad took up for the weak, the lowly and the hurting. He loved poor people and fought for them continually. This is what led him to be a strong union man.

Dad was also a strong Christian and as a result he was a strong churchman. He and Mother cleaned the church, kept the books,etc. Mother served as a Sunday school teacher for fifty years and Dad as a Deacon in our small Baptist Church in Ina, Illinois.They were pillars.

But that is not all. They served people in need and were actively involved in community activities as Christians. Mother led the money raising drive for Cancer every year and Dad was on the City Council and served at least one term as Mayor. (The example is an unappreciative citizenry led me to fore go a political career.)

Dad greatly understood the depth of sin. Because he understood the heart's deceitfulness he also understood the absolute necessity for grace. I thought Dad was a bit wacky when he spoke up about grace and mercy. He was almost alone in promoting it in our culture. Most people were Old Testament and legalistic who thought that "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was a command of Jesus.

Thanks Dad. Because of you I started to apprehend and comprehend grace as well as my sin. Now that I understand my sin I am beginning to accept God's grace and mercy.

Healing

I have been in some type of healing activity for many years. During that time I have helped others get better even though sickness and pain have been my personal friend.

Several times I was counseling a person in depression while struggling myself with a deep melancholy. Interestingly enough my ability to focus on helping another person in pain also helped give me some relief.

For the past few months I have experienced pain in both shoulders. It has been difficult to raise my right arm above my head at times and that is frustrating. I asked for prayers from the good people at Dwelling Place Church in February and experienced some relief.

Because I was heading for Scandinavia with luggage it occurred to me that I needed to seek some assistance from Dr. Mark Korchok, a great Chiropractor near my home. After several sessions my shoulders are better but not pain free.

I am staying in the home of Jens-Petter and Astrid Jorgensen in Oslo and sleeping in the bed of their daughter Marie Theresa who is away at school. After spending a couple of nights here, my shoulder is substantially better. I am very thankful for prayers, Dr. Korchok and this good bed.

So here are the questions: "How does God heal" and "Is relief from a good night's sleep count as one way God heals?"

Secular Humanists do not believe in God so they cannot believe in a God who heals. It is said that an atheist believes in "The uniformity of natural causes in a CLOSED SYSTEM". I believe in the "Uniformity of natural causes and cures in an OPEN, GOD-SOAKED SYSTEM".

Here is the difference. Humanists discount any intervention into nature from outside the natural order. We Christians believe in a natural order that God can and often does interact with. My shoulder was damaged by some of my behavior and nature took its course and the pain alerted me to the damage I had caused myself. I have sought several "remedies from nature" such as pain medications and Chiropractic interventions. They have helped.

I also sought supernatural interventions through prayer. It also helped. This is not an "either-or dichotomy" but a "both-and unity". God gave the Hebrew people many different natural interventions stop the spread of communicable diseases. He was the first chemist in history and his advice saved thousands of lives. God created nature so why would He be hostile to its healing properties?

May God bless you and your Christian community as you seek to live under Hios rule and reign. I sometimes read that the modern church has lost its way when there is an emphasis upon being a "Therapeutic Community". The root words for salvation and therapy are similar. Let us go into the world as agents of salvation, healing and good works.

For more on the ways we foster healing, growth and health, see our web page.

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

Sexual Orientation

One of the main arguments of those who promote the notion that Homosexuality is a gift from God and created homosexuals to have a same sex attraction" do so because they believe each person is born with one sexual orientation or an other and that it cannot be changed. In other words, "Biology is destiny."

First, biology is NOT destiny. In fact, physical/biological preferences are changed all the time. A Russian researcher named Pavlov did a series of studies with dogs way back in the early 1900's. One of the studies rang a bell when the dogs were ready to eat their food. After ringing the bell on several occasions, Pavlov rang the bell without providing the dogs their regular food but he dogs salivated anyway, proving that the biological processes of the dogs were altered, and it did not take much to cause the changes.

Second, God creates all persons in His image. We have the ability to make decisions, moral judgments and relate with God. However, because of sin every person is flawed, broken and fallible. The brokenness of humanity includes biology so our bodies and our sensual drives are also unholy and distorted. Sexual deviance is normal but it is also sinful so we dare not claim that our deviancy is from God or a gift of God.

Third, God defines what is right and wrong and we do not. The Bible says that God created male and female to marry and live together as one. God does not consider adultery, polygamy or homosexuality as gifts but as sins. My sinful sexual deviance is adultery. If I let myself I would have sex with women other than my wife. But, that is wrong and I have never been involved in adultery and I never will.

Biology is not destiny. Thank God change is possible and often.

Gary Sweeten
www.sweetenlife.com

Prayer is Popular

The United States may be a secular nation, but its people are anything but. In fact, 90 percent of Americans have a spiritual interlude with God every day, according to a new study released last week and covered in the Washington Times. "Most prayer writers imagine a God who is accessible, listening, and a source of emotional and psychological support, who at least sometimes answers back," said Wendy Cadge, a sociologist who directed the research for Brandeis University.

The findings, though, have been supported for years. In 2004, a survey of more than 31,000 adults released by the National Institutes of Health found that prayer is the most commonly used "alternative medicine." It's even more popular than acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga and vitamins.

Why do so many media outlets talk about accupuncture, yoga, meditation and Eastern mysticism? Any bias here?

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

What I Learned In Sunday School

A WATCH Prayer GatheringGary SweetenGuard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong. Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.

God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few. As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words. Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God. Ecc 5: 1-5All around the world you can see them. Even more, you can hear them. Kneeling, sitting or standing it is a movement. Many of them dance, some march in military order while others are less orderly and more ardor-ly. The noise can be awesome and when meeting with upraised hands and outstretched voices, the buildings shake with joy.

Martian visitors would react with puzzlement to the strange behavior. They might even "beam a bunch up" for intense investigation by their Martian scientists. The "little green men" would want to know what the strange rituals were all about.Prayer! It is all about prayer. Last week a friend mentioned that she had spent four days with a thousand like-minded men and women. They gathered to practice prayers of "spiritual warfare". Another group is heading out to Colorado for a week to of fasting and prayer to light the sparks for a national revival.

Prayer. It is everywhere. It is taught, preached, urged and even practiced around the earth with increasing regularity. There is a growing desire of the people of God to pray. This is especially evident when we consider the enormous number of "Prayer Movements" that have arisen over the past few years.

Many groups sponsor prayer events. Concerts of Prayer, Taking Our Cities for Christ, National Day of Prayer, The March for Jesus, Bill Bright's Prayer and Fasting, Renewal Ministries-Terry Teykl, Lausanne Movement, AD2000 & Beyond, etc. These initiatives are all based on the assumption that God desires His people to pray and that prayer "changes things." In conversations, teachings, seminars and conferences we are reminded that revival, renewal and reformations will. Unfortunately, it seems that we sometimes sacrifice the quality of prayer gatherings while emphasizing quantity. I am not convinced that "more is better". When it comes to prayer for evangelism, revival, social action and awakenings it seems that quality is critical while keeping the quantity of prayer and the number of pray-errs high. I was reared in a family that had a long tradition of prayer. Unfortunately, some of the things I saw and mimicked were not very qualitative. For example, I pray like this.

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Despite the earnest and heartfelt desire of my parents and grandparents to teach my brothers and me good prayer habits, this childhood prayer failed. It brought me fear and anxiety rather than peace and faith. Each night I went to bed thinking that I might not wake up. My primary focus was eternal safety in an uncertain and dangerous world.

My earliest prayer habits were formed in fear not faith and reinforced as being desperate calls to a distant God. I begged Him to receive my unworthy soul in the event that I failed to survive the rigors of sleep. No wonder so many children have nightmares! But I have a partial solution. Here is a prayer we can trust.

A New Prayer for Sleeping

Now I lay me down to sleep
I thank the Lord my soul will keep.

No fear of night,
He will provide
His angels near,
My sleeping side

At morning's dawn,
I will awake,
To live again
For Jesus' sake

He gives me strength,The whole night rest,
Enough each day
To give my best
© Gary Sweeten
Early childhood experiences do not predetermine our life's course. I have been able to go beyond my youth and develop a healthy approach to God. I reframed the fearful prayer written during the Black Plague and wrote one filled with faith, hope and love. But early experiences do influence us and our children. It is a good idea to examine how we pray as adults so we can evaluate our approach to check its biblical basis.

Comments? How did you learn to pray?

Can I Go Home for the Holidays?

Opening a Can of Worms!
My international readers may not know it but millions of Americans live far, far away from the town where they grew up. Many of them "go back home" to see relatives and friends during Thanksgiving, the third weekend in November, and Christmas, the last week of December.



The return home can provoke a lot of anxiety because we have moved away from the customs and values of our family of origin and find it difficult to remember how to act properly in that old environment. It is also hard on the "old folks back home" because they tend to think of us as we were as kids and that was a long time and many changes ago.



I was a rebel as a kid and my family tended to see me through that prism even though I left most of my rebellion behind a long time ago. I can remember how hard it was when Karen and I first began to return home from Cincinnati. I had gotten a couple of college degrees, fathered a child and became Associate Dean at U.C. Yet, I was tempted to regress in my behavior away from a mature adult to the teenage rebel of so many years ago.



I found myself being irritated by the same things that had bugged me as a teen and Mother was so unreasonable and parental. It seemed to me that I was all grown up but Mother treated me like a child. It was all her fault! (Thankfully, Karen was able to point out that I was acting like a teenager not like an adult. Boy, did that sting!)



As you prepare to go back home or to see your family that is returning to the homestead, ask yourself some questions:

1. Do I treat my family members as well as I want to be treated?

2. Do I treat my family like I treat other adults?

3. Do I have some of the same feelings I had as a kid when I interact with my parents and siblings?

4. Do I judge my family more harshly than I judge others?

5. Do I have peace when I think about my family?

6. Are there things I would like to straighten out in them?

7. Is God happy with the way I honor my family?



How are you preparing to go home again? Prayer might help.



Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

Serving in the Name of the Lord

John McCain, Rick Warren and Barack Obama

Mother Teresa and Child

Famous Christians Lead the way in love, compassion and reconciliation

On my last post I mentioned a research study by AARP on the state of volunteering in America. Is there anything in that research that surprised you? Did you find it unusual to see the high number of Christians involved in serving?

The fact that all Christians serve more than almost any other group has been found in study after study. Despite the facts, agnostics and secularists continue to spread disinformation about the high compassion levels of Evangelicals and other Believers no matter what their theology.

Why does the media so often repeat the illogical rants that Christians are full of hatred, bias and callous disregard for hurting members of our society? For example, when the Leftist politicians discovered that Sarah Palin was a Conservative Evangelical with a child pregnant out of wedlock they immediately smiled with glee. They assumed that Conservatives and Evangelicals would scorn her as an unfit mother.

Some politicians also began to heap scornful attacks on her for the pregnancy and for working outside the home thinking Conservatives would reject her. They want to disembowel the Religious Right but it was out of ignorance that they acted. This led them to show how callous and mean spirited they were and the result was a strong backlash. Many people, including Conservatives, have strongly supported Mrs. Palin and her husband. If they read the polls over the past thirty years they would stop treating us as members of the Ku Klux Klan.

This is also a lesson for us Evangelicals. We must also watch our words and judgments carefully. We need to remember the words of Jesus when He warned us "Do not judge or you will be judged." Those secularists who judge us discovered that it backfired on them. If we get judgemental it will violate the law of love and backfire on us as well.

For example, some Evangelicals have treated Obama harshly and unfairly. This is wrong and will not be tolerated by the Lord. His commands are clear that judgement with harshness will lead us to be judged harshly. Let us always treat our political opponents with gentleness, compassion and mercy.

Democracy is a rough, adversarial business but we must guard our hearts when we interact with politicians with differing views. It is reported that some preachers said that people who vote Democrat can't be Christians. That is wrong and a terrible thing to say. Let it be a lesson to us that such things always come back to haunt us. Mercy drives out judgement!

As it says in Proverbs 9:7

Never argue with a mocking person our you will end up being ashamed

A Lifetime of great relationships

Continuing the series on developing a great relationship with yourself and others, including God, I will conclude the acrostic APART that defines why we make ourselves anxious and depressed.

Adversity is everywhere and impacts everyone. Still, I feel some sort of uniqueness when Adversity comes my way. Many of you know I like to play golf. When I turned 57 my wonderful and loving wife Karen Judy gave me a gift that is still giving to me; a set of golf lessons at a local practice range.

I have always been competitive so when I began my lessons I continued trying very hard to be good at hitting that little ball; immediately. But, I found several things about golf.

1) Adversity occurs frequently in every golfer's games.
2) The harder I tried to play and hit the ball well, the worse I played.
3) The more negatively I talk to my myself after hitting a ball the worse I perform after that.
4) Conclusion: I need to learn how to be good to myself and release all my negative self talk from my mind if I want to play well.

Golf is a metaphor for life. Adversity often and the harder I try to be perfect the worse I feel and do. This brings us to the last part of the acrostic: T for Total Thinking that keeps us on a roller coaster ride of emotional ups and downs and fragile interpersonal relationships.

This seems to be the main cause of so much despair and anxiety among relatively well off people. When I entered the counseling field I learned all the important terms. One that we kept hidden from the paying public was "The Worried Well" which is the term for folks are doing nicely but are worried about it.

The numbers of "The Worried Well" who are suffering greatly with anxiety is growing rapidly. This comes from a media and educational structure that over emphasizes helplessness and hopelessness. I am saddened by the way TV personnel, teachers and even members of the helping professions typically promote the notion that other people can make us feel badly about ourselves. No wonder we are Well but Worried.

We control our feelings by the ways we choose to think about life. The nasty people we meet and the nasty golf swings do not cause my bad feelings; I cause them by the ways I choose to think about them.

But I can do something good to help myself. I can renew my mind with the truth.

Innovation and Change: Picking Leaders

Do you want to succeed in life? Do you want to pick people to help your ministry or company grow? How do we select the right folks? Here is a hint: Get men and women who have a mental map that loves challenges and keeps on trying.

WHY do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t?
After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”
Guess which ones prove to be most innovative over time.
“Society is obsessed with the idea of talent and genius and people who are ‘naturals’ with innate ability,” says Ms. Dweck, who is known for research that crosses the boundaries of personal, social and developmental psychology.
“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”
In this case, nurture wins out over nature just about every time.

If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow
new_york_times:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/business/06unbox.html

By JANET RAE-DUPREE
Published: July 6, 2008

I am kicking off a new ministry at age 70 and I am looking for Seasoned Believers who are not afraid to keep experimenting, growing and learning. I see far too many closed minds in Christianity, especially among Christian leaders.

For example, Christianity Today has some helpful articles and papers on ministry. One is on developing Adult Ministries but they continually use terms like Seniors, Older Adults, Second Half of Life, Aged, etc. Does anyone want to be so identified?

I have registered the name Seasoned Believers (TM) because it focuses on people's attributes and experience not their biology. I am often asked what age a person must be to "join" us. It is not in years of life but experience of living in Christ.

My focus in experience, wisdom, insight, calling and spiritual nurture. As Ms. Rae-Dupree mentions in her article, I want people whose life experiences have opened their eyes to possibility thinking. I want people who think outside the boxes of life and who expect God to break into those boxes.

This is what makes the difference in whether we can really make a difference and I want to make a difference.

Gary Sweeten

http://www.sweetenlife.com/

My Anniversary

It was fifty years ago this month when I had a life changing experience with God. There I was, Jonah like in a car trying to outrun God and the revival meeting at the little Baptist Church in my home town of Ina, Illinois. But I failed. Nobody can outrun God's Spirit.

Where can I go from your Spirit...? Nowhere.

Ten years before I had come to Christ but the intervening years had taken a toll on my walk with the Lord. My Grand Dad Taylor with whom I was very close, had passed away and I was lost in a jumble of fears, anger and rebellion.

Pastor Fred Boatright was holding a revival at our church and everyone was praying for me so I decided to "Get out of Dodge" and escape the pull of God's conviction and love. But I could not escape. God had a plan for me and He pursued me to accomplish that end.

Many years ago a homeless man in London took to writing poetry and leaving it under the door of a newspaper writer. The poetry was so good that the paper decided to hunt the author down. Much to their surprise they found him to be an alcoholic who lived under a bridge. He wrote the following words.

The Hound of Heaven
I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbèd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat -- and a voice beat
More instant than the Feet --
"All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

I pleaded, outlaw-wise,
By many a hearted casement, curtained red,
Trellised with intertwining charities;
(For, though I knew His love Who followèd,
Yet was I sore adread
Lest, having Him, I must have naught beside.)

The final verse:

Now of that long pursuit
Comes on at hand the bruit ;
That Voice is round me like a bursting sea :
"And is thy earth so marred,
Shattered in shard on shard ?
Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest me !
"Strange, piteous, futile thing !
Wherefore should any set thee love apart ?
Seeing none but I makes much of naught" (He said),
"And human love needs human meriting :
How hast thou merited --
Of all man's clotted clay the dingiest clot ?
Alack, thou knowest not
How little worthy of any love thou art !
Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee,
Save Me, save only Me ?
All which I took from thee I did but take,
Not for thy harms,
But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms.
All which thy child's mistake
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home :
Rise, clasp My hand, and come !"
Halts by me that footfall :
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly ?
"Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest !
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me."
Anon

Despite the old English this poem indicates much of my journey. God sent a wild sea to tame a rebellious Jonah. He sent jealous brothers to bring Joseph to maturity. He caught me while driving a 57 Ford to a night of gambling and drinking. That was almost exactly fifty years ago and I am so thankful He would not let me go.

Growing Up and Then Out

I am an extrovert. I am also a person that loves to talk. Additionally, I have a personality that has been described by my best friends and loving family as, "Often wrong but never in doubt."

Taken together this package can cause me trouble. I can be very quick to speak and slow to listen. Umm, that is the opposite of what the Bible commands me to be. If I am wrong and God is right, guess who needs to change.

Ever since I did my doctoral research on the integration of psychology and theology I have carried around a hefty bag of embarrassment because I find it so difficult to change myself and yet I am very interested in changing others.

There are many instances when I am about to preach to somebody about their need to change when it strikes me that I am being judgemental. I am hit with the truth that God wants to change me.

One of the big shocks I had in Graduate School at Southern Illinois University was the insight about why people judge and criticize others. It may not always be the case but usually my judgementalism and criticism reveal areas of my own life that need examination and transformation.

I really hated that session. One of my profs offered that bit of wisdom the my class. I wonder if everyone else was as bummed out about their sins as I was about mine.

I had always thought my criticisms were the result of my superior holiness and wisdom. After all, they proved I knew better than the guy whose faults I was judging. Don't get me wrong, that guy really did have faults. Some of them were pretty awful. However, I learned that it was not my job to change people. God can do it by Himself.

I was thrown into a tizzy. Why would anyone go into the field of Counseling if not to straighten out people? I had thought that it was my job, my profession, my solemn duty to fix those messed up folks and now I learn differently.

Later, much later, I began to see that God had called me to walk along side the people in pain and allow the Holy Spirit that was with me and in me lead them to their own insights and ability to change. Man, that was disappointing! It is hard to be a hero if God gets the glory.

If you want to learn more get Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty from http://www.authorhouse.com/ or http://www.amazon.com/

Write me at gary@Sweetenlife.com or go to http://www.sweetenlife.com/ for more information.

My Other Blog

I am going to post my ideas and insights about Easter and what it means to Abide in Christ on http://seasonedbelievers.blogspot.com

We just finished a wonderful half day retreat on hearing God and the participants are being urged to click there to catch up.

Prayer Request

We have an opportunity to develop a way to stay in touch with Seasoned Believers all over the earth. Pray that we will hear God directly about the steps to take.