The Monday Memo from John Stanko

Memo 987: As a Man Thinketh

I have not drawn much from the Old Testament in this Unlock the Power of Your Thinking series, but let's change that this week by looking at one of the best-known and oft-quoted verses pertaining to one's thought life. It's found in Proverbs 23:7 and for our purposes, let's look at it in its context:

Do not eat the bread of a miser, nor desire his delicacies; for as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. The morsel you have eaten, you will vomit up, and waste your pleasant words (Proverbs 23:6-8 NKJV, emphasis added).

What we can learn about this verse and why Solomon penned it?

CONTEXT    

I have used this verse to corroborate the truth of what Jesus said, "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man" (Matthew 15:18). Yet Proverbs 23:7 is not addressing the issues of the heart-and-mouth connection. It is talking about a man who appears to be generous and welcoming, but in reality is not. He's what's known as a miser so he is actually counting the cost of what he is giving others while pretending to be generous. He knows the value of what he is giving away and it is troubling him to share with you or anyone who partakes of what he has.

I had a friend who used to say, "People know the price of things but seldom consider the value of things." He used it when we would offer a seminar that had a registration fee. There were people who only looked at the price but did not consider that they could  receive great value from the seminar material; they were only looking at what it would cost them. It was interesting that those same people would often complain because their company would not invest in them but they would turn around and do exactly what their company was doing—not invest in themselves.

Instead of making the miser in Proverbs 23:7 someone else, let's examine it from the point of view that we—you and I—are that miser. If that's true, how would being like him impact our thinking and how could we then unlock that area to find new power in our thoughts?

IT'S HIS MONEY

When I was a church administrator, I used to encounter many miserly people. They would pay whatever the utility company said to pay, but wouldn't bless a staff member with a $50 gift certificate. When working with those people, I would often say, "It's not my money, it's the Lord's." When most people heard that, they assumed I meant what is usually intended: "We are frugal because God has given us this money and we are going to be careful, very careful how we spend it." That was not what I meant at all. My sense was this: "This is the Lord's money. What do I care if He wants us to give it to missionaries or someone on our staff or someone in the church who had a need or to something that could make life easier for our staff? If it's His money and He has plenty more where that came from, then why should I or we be tightfisted with it?"

You see, some of us feign generosity, but we sit like the miserly person in Proverbs 23 and we are nervous. We are nervous others are consuming what we want to hold on to, what we believe is ours to own. What's more, it's not about money really, it's about holding on to the testimony or gifts we have because it's going to cost us something—just like the miser. Jesus said, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give." (Matthew 10:8). What if that last phrase became your byline or motto for living? How would "freely received, freely give" change your thinking from where it is now? You would probably give more of yourself and that may or may not include money. Just as I said, "It's the Lord's money," it's also His testimony, His gift, His creativity, His life that you possess, not to own but to steward.

The problem with the phrase "as a man thinketh" is that it is potentially true for all of us, not just those we don't like or who don't do like we want them to. It is necessary for me to seek the Lord and inquire, "Where am I acting one way that makes people think I am in line with Your will, but in reality I am counting the cost and I don't like that it's costing me so much? Where am I being a miser with those around me and that is of no benefit to them or me?" Move across the table this week from the seat of the one eating to the miser and look at yourself from that perspective. Are you serving others a banquet of who you are and what you have, or are you pretending to do that a few hours a week, while secretly stashing away the best of who you are for your own consumption? If that's the case, then it's time to remind yourself that "it's not your money or life" and start thinking of how you can spread it and you around. Have a blessed week!

*****

$10,000 MATCHING GRANT! I wrote you about our need to purchase land for the Dr. Stanko last August in this post. Since I wrote back then, I have raised $38,500 of what is now the $55,000 we will need to purchase the land. I had arbitrarily chosen January 31 as a date to have the money raised and lo and behold, without announcing the deadline, today someone wrote to make a $10,000 matching grant challenge.

 

They will match every gift given up to a grand total of $10,000, which will help us reach our goal with a little left over. How fantastic is that?! Thank You, Lord, and thank you to the faithful donor who wrote that God has impressed them that "this is an eternal investment of His money" in a worthy project.

 

The challenge expires on February 7 so now is the time to give and double your gift! In the first week, $1,813 came in so we have a ways to go. You can give through the Cash App ($stankojohn), Venmo (@John-Stanko-10), my mobile app, my website, or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882. I am overwhelmed by God's faithfulness on behalf of my partners in Kenya. Now let's finish the job He has started.

$10,000 MATCHING GRANT! I wrote you about our need to purchase land for the Dr. Stanko last August in this post. Since I wrote back then, I have raised $38,500 of what is now the $55,000 we will need to purchase the land. I had arbitrarily chosen January 31 as a date to have the money raised and lo and behold, without announcing the deadline, today someone wrote to make a $10,000 matching grant challenge.

 

They will match every gift given up to a grand total of $10,000, which will help us reach our goal with a little left over. How fantastic is that?! Thank You, Lord, and thank you to the faithful donor who wrote that God has impressed them that "this is an eternal investment of His money" in a worthy project.

 

The challenge expires on February 7 so now is the time to give and double your gift! In the first week, $1,813 came in so we have a ways to go. You can give through the Cash App ($stankojohn), Venmo (@John-Stanko-10), my mobile app, my website, or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882. I am overwhelmed by God's faithfulness on behalf of my partners in Kenya. Now let's finish the job He has started.

Memo 986: "Spare Yourself"

We are in the homestretch with our series on how to unlock the power of your thinking with only four more entries after this one. Many of our lessons have come from Jesus' encounters with His disciples as He confronted and corrected their incomplete or erroneous thoughts, replacing them with new ways to think and act. This week, let's look at another instance of Jesus with His disciples, this time involving Peter in their well-known discussion that shocks us each time we read it.

THE RESPONSE

In Matthew 16, Jesus had taken His disciples far north of Galilee where they could spend some alone time without the crowds or spies sent from Jerusalem. While there, He asked them who He was in the eyes of the public but then asked them who they thought He was. Peter then gave His answer based on the Father's revelation that Jesus was "the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). Jesus ordered the men not to tell anyone what Peter had just told them, and went on to the next level of their training so He could prepare them for what was ahead: "From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life" (Matthew 16:21).

When Peter heard this, He was concerned for his Messiah and himself, so he pulled Jesus aside and said, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” (Matthew 16:22), to which Jesus gave His stunning reply, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns" (Matthew 16:22). Peter thought he was protecting Jesus, in essence saying, "Spare yourself, Lord. You don't have to do or go through that ordeal." Yet in his ignorance Peter had unwittingly become a spokesman for Satan and Jesus recognized it right away. If the story had ended there, we would not have the complete picture, one that gives us lessons to apply today as we seek to unlock the power of our own thinking.

THE REST OF THE STORY

Jesus turned to all the disciples after He rebuked Peter and continued,

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done" (Matthew 16:24-27).

There can be no new thinking unless the power and concept of the cross are part of the foundation. Peter was protecting himself as well as Jesus when he said what he did, but Jesus explained that there can be no success in carrying out the will of God without denying self, taking up a cross, and following Jesus. In my own life, the cross has manifested in many ways. We moved 11 times in 33 years to follow what we believed was God's will. I turned down admission to Harvard and Carnegie Mellon to pursue ministry. I have suffered at the hands of church people for 47 years (sometimes through my own failures, other times at the hands of mean-spirited people and leaders). I have had to sit in silence when others were teaching things and had little idea what they were saying. One time when I was a pastor I opened our refrigerator and all we had in it was a bottle of water and a box of corn flakes in the cupboard.

Today, I flow in purpose and creativity but it wasn't always like this. I tried to spare myself the agony of some of the death-to-self experiences (and there are plenty more I did not mention) but to no avail. I am still trying to learn how to do what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:2: "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." How about you? Where are you avoiding the cross? Where is the deny-self thinking not prevalent in your plans?

Remember, Peter went from divine revelation to divine consternation in a matter of minutes, so your past insight and success are no guarantee your current thinking is sanctified and correct. The only way you can ensure it is unlocked is to lock on to the truth that if you want to find your life, you will not be able to spare yourself from the tough times. You are going to have to lose your life along the way and trust that it will find you again no matter where you are or what you are doing—sort of like Thor's hammer in the Avengers. Have a blessed week!

*****

$10,000 MATCHING GRANT! I wrote you about our need to purchase land for the Dr. Stanko last August in this post. Since I wrote back then, I have raised $38,500 of what is now the $55,000 we will need to purchase the land. I had arbitrarily chosen January 31 as a date to have the money raised and lo and behold, without announcing the deadline, today someone wrote to make a $10,000 matching grant challenge.

 

They will match every gift given up to a grand total of $10,000, which will help us reach our goal with a little left over. How fantastic is that?! Thank You, Lord, and thank you to the faithful donor who wrote that God has impressed them that "this is an eternal investment of His money" in a worthy project.

 

The challenge expires on February 7 so now is the time to give and double your gift!  You can give through the Cash App ($stankojohn), Venmo (@John-Stanko-10), my mobile app, my website, or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882. I am overwhelmed by God's faithfulness on behalf of my partners in Kenya. Now let's finish the job He has started.

$10,000 MATCHING GRANT! I wrote you about our need to purchase land for the Dr. Stanko last August in this post. Since I wrote back then, I have raised $38,500 of what is now the $55,000 we will need to purchase the land. I had arbitrarily chosen January 31 as a date to have the money raised and lo and behold, without announcing the deadline, today someone wrote to make a $10,000 matching grant challenge.

 

They will match every gift given up to a grand total of $10,000, which will help us reach our goal with a little left over. How fantastic is that?! Thank You, Lord, and thank you to the faithful donor who wrote that God has impressed them that "this is an eternal investment of His money" in a worthy project.

 

The challenge expires on February 7 so now is the time to give and double your gift!  You can give through the Cash App ($stankojohn), Venmo (@John-Stanko-10), my mobile app, my website, or by sending a check to PurposeQuest, PO Box 8882, Pittsburgh, PA 15221-0882. I am overwhelmed by God's faithfulness on behalf of my partners in Kenya. Now let's finish the job He has started.

Memo 985: Beauty of Holiness

As we continue to look at how we can unlock the power of our thinking, let's consider a verse from Psalm 96:9: "Worship the Lord in holy array" (NASB). The King James Version states the same verse, "O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." The King James seems to place the label of holiness on the Lord (or perhaps that is simply how we choose to read it), but this week, let's assume that the adjective of holiness is to be on the worshiper, not the One worshiped. What are the implications for the perspective that the status of holiness is conferred on us as we worship the Lord?

HOLINESS

There is an aspect of holiness that has little to do with avoiding sin. It does not speak to the state of sinlessness in which you do not watch bad movies or speak profanity. It does not pertain to praying and reading the Bible. Instead, it is more of the fact that when you are holy, you are set apart for some special service or expression. For example, my mother had special dishes she only used when company came. Those dishes were set apart, they were holy to her, because they had a special use. You are holy in the same sense that God has set you apart to do something only you can do, to be something only you can be.

What's more, you are set apart due to the fact there is, and there never has been or will be again, anyone like you. You have a set of fingerprints and a DNA code that have never existed. They are not recycled from someone who existed 100 years ago. You are holy unto the Lord, a unique creation with a distinct personality, gift mix, and way of processing sensory input. So far, you may be thinking, That's great, but what has this got to do with unlocking my thinking? The most important impact this fact can have on you is in how you view and think about yourself, which will in turn influence what you do with your life and gifts God has bestowed on you.

INDIVIDUALITY

If and when you are biased against yourself, you may attempt to become like others or simply distort who you are. Yet "who you are" is an important part of your creativity and purpose, for you must inject and invest who you are into what you do for it to be all God intends for it to be. For example, the writers of the four gospels injected who there were into their accounts. They used their vocabulary, style of writing, experience, heritage, unique insights, and relationships (Mark was Peter's assistant) to flavor their gospel accounts. They did not all write the same way using the same format or approach. They were unique and thus their work was unique, or should I say it was holy—set apart for a specific purpose.

Examples would also abound throughout the world of creativity. A master painter had a unique style and forgeries can come close but cannot exactly replicate what is being copied because those copying cannot capture the essence of the who the artist was. The same would be true for writers, sculptors, preachers, teachers, coaches, and any other expression of life and work. You have been set apart for a work only you can produce and that means you must be you to produce it. You can emulate someone else, but even doing that you will be providing your unique interpretation of what you are emulating. It will still be yours, but will never be mistaken for the one you are modeling.

This means you can stop thinking about being someone else even if you are trying to be like someone else, for you will be like them as only you can be and do. You don't have to fear expressing yourself as you express your purpose and creativity. In fact, you have a mandate to do so. As you serve the Lord in the beauty of your holiness as a unique expression of God's creation, you will then truly worship Him because you will confess that since you are good enough for God you are also good enough for yourself. Have a blessed week!

Memo 984: Locked On

It's time to return to our theme of unlocking the power of your thinking after a holiday break. Romans 12:2 states, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Since the business of the mind is thinking, then to experience the transformation we often seek, we must think new thoughts, confronting current ones to see where they limit us from doing God's will. This week, let's look at some thinking on the part of the Jews that caused them to misinterpret what Jesus did in Mark 3 because they locked on to the thought "God would never do that" and thus locked out other possibilities. Let's get started.

HEALING ON THE SABBATH

In Mark 2, Jesus had just violated the Sabbath, or so the Pharisees thought, when He and His disciples had picked some heads of grain. Then Mark reported another Sabbath incident immediately following:

Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus (Mark 3:1-6).

Jesus did not lead the man with the shriveled hand out the back door of the synagogue to heal him, nor did He request that the man come back on Sunday or Monday. When Jesus asked the observers a question, they remained silent, which angered Jesus because He knew what their silence meant. Therefore, He openly challenged the onlookers' interpretation of Sabbath regulations by healing the man right in front of everyone.

Today, we are a bit taken aback by the response of the people who were in "church" that day. They did not run home to summon a close relative who had a similar condition the man's had. They did not request that Jesus not heal on the Sabbath, but instead come back on Tuesday when they could assemble others who needed a physical touch. They did not shake the man's restored hand and rejoice in his restoration, Instead, they had a quick confab to process and discuss what had just happened and agreed that "Jesus must die!" What's more, they conspired with the Herodians, those who supported the presence of the Romans through their puppet king Herod, and put out a contract on Jesus' life.

GOD WOULD NEVER . . .

This story reveals an approach to the Sabbath that stipulated little to nothing was to be done on that day for fear of alienating and offending God—a noble thought. Yet once they locked on to their rigid interpretation, they locked out any other possibility. When Jesus healed a man, healed him right in front of their eyes by restoring a dysfunctional limb, the crowd did not see and could not appreciate what had occurred. Their thought was "God would never heal on the Sabbath" and thus they concluded Jesus was a Sabbath-breaker deserving of capital punishment.

Yet the stories in the gospels are not just an historical account for our entertainment. They are stories with lessons for our own lives, for we are just as susceptible to the thinking of the Jews who were in the synagogue. We can lock on to our thoughts and lock out any other possibility, thus opposing instead of appreciating what God is teaching us. For example, you may hold on to a job you hate or where you are mistreated because you think, "I need this job' or 'I've had this job 20 years and get an extra week's vacation next year." Thus, God's attempts to move you to something better are to no avail.

Your thoughts about yourself or your abilities can also thwart God's desire to use you because you demean or diminish the effect you could have on others due to your stubborn resistance to a limited or skewed perspective on who you are in Him. You have been told you're a good artist, but you have locked on to the fact that you are not. You would like to travel and do missions work, but have convinced yourself you don't travel well or are too poor to do so—locking on to your lack instead of your Source. Like the Jews, you think "God would never—fund my trip, or use me in that way, or use my creativity to bless and minister to others."

Where have you seen God move, in your life or the lives of others, yet you conspire with others to stay right where you are (listening to your friends tell you how that 'can't be God') so you can keep doing what you have always done? Where has your doctrine, which is nothing more than what you think about God's will, actually limited or frustrated God's purpose for you? How have you taken what you hear and worked it in your mind to conclude "God would never do or what that—in my life or the lives of others"? These are difficult questions to ask and the potential answers can be painful to face, but you must learn to confront and change your own thoughts and conclusions if you are to continue to grow in the wisdom and knowledge of God for your life. Have a blessed week!

Memo 983: Immanuel, God With Us

Before we put the holidays completely behind us, I want to make a few observations about the significance of John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." In a sense, God endorsed humanity as the crown of His creation when He willingly took on human form so we could behold His essence in a manner we could comprehend. This indicates that God is more comfortable with our humanity than we often are, wishing to change less about us than we are eager to change about ourselves.

The message of Christmas is that God is with us, as Matthew explained in his gospel when he quoted from Isaiah 7: "The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) (Matthew 1:23). Let's consider some other implications of what this concept of the Incarnation (which means the Word made flesh) represents for us as we pursue purpose and productivity.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

When God endorsed humanity by gracing it with His presence, He re-emphasized what He had said in the beginning: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). That meant all the activities of His humanity were also good, and that included sleep, work, eating, recreation, procreation, teamwork, communication, purpose, and creativity. When Adam and Eve sinned, those activities remained intact and were still good, but would constantly be fouled by sin. I liken it to a computer that has a virus. The computer can usually still function, but its files and operating system are corrupted. Seldom is the computer discarded, but the virus must be found and eliminated. That is similar to the process of salvation and sanctification (the process of holiness). God did not discard mankind, but sent a remedy for the sin virus that has affected our operating system and files.

When Jesus was born, He came with the purpose of restoring things as they were meant to be in the Garden. Paul explained it this way: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20, emphasis added). Jesus did not come primarily to get you into a church (although that is important); He came to restore to their original working order your purpose, creativity, and all the other human traits He put into all people. This will not be completed in this lifetime, but the process has begun, and as God said in Genesis, "it is very good."

IMPLICATIONS

Often we believe we need a complete overhaul before God can use us. That is not the case. Yes, you need your computer system upgraded and your files cleansed, but the essence of who you are is still God's idea. Your personality, gifts, thought process, likes, preferences, dislikes, and limitations are a direct result of who God made you to be. God created you with your love for organization or your hatred for details. He made You an introvert or extrovert. He gave you your impatience for injustice or patience for the elderly. You were created not to be an end unto yourself, but were made to function best in a team where you can contribute who you are and rely on others for who you are not—with God in the midst of us all.

As I mentioned at the beginning, God is less interested in changing some things in me than I am. He has used my love of sports, my competitiveness, my writing gift, my lack of mercy, my love of travel, and my humor for His purpose and when I express them all, I am glorifying Him. When I try to change the essence of who I am, I am saying, "God, You made a mistake. You should have made me more like this or that." God knows best.

The message of Christmas as we move on from the holidays is that God is truly with us. He is not intimidated or offended by our mess or our humanity in its less attractive aspects. He is content to dwell with us, in fact He dwells in us, not after we get cleaned up but so He can facilitate the process. As you celebrate the birth of Christ and rejoice in who He is, spend time time rejoicing in who you are as well, for He came not because He tolerates you but because He celebrates you. If God is happy to live with you, shouldn't you be happy to live with yourself? Have a blessed week and a Happy New Year.