Bible Study Chat #32

We've talked a lot over the years about how God commands us to take our thoughts captive and replace them with His Truth, and I've given you hundreds of scriptures over the last two years to show that this is something He talks about all through His Word. But there are a couple of things that I don't think I've shared before that He brought to my attention. They've certainly been implied but I don't think I've ever shared it with you directly. If nothing else, this will be a good general refresher for us.

I'm going to post 5 scriptures for you. These 4 scriptures will open up dozens of other scriptures to you too because none of them stand alone. Each is repeated in many way all through the bible. So again, you'll see how true it is that the Lord wants us to be in control of our thoughts and feelings so we can have the Joy He intended us to have and of course so we can grow to be more like Him each day.

Ephesians 4:15 —Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. * 
 
We're all familiar with the above scripture but what we often don't realize is that this doesn't just apply to other people, it also applies to ourselves. God wants us to tell ourselves the Truth about things. He does not want us to accept lies about ourselves, others, Him, or anything else for that matter. We know it's a sin to lie right? God says, "do not lie" and that's pretty plain. But we often lie to ourselves and even about others. Although even Jesus warned us about calling other people names like "you fool!". How many times though do we say that, or something similar, about ourselves???? That is a lie. It's a sin. We are to speak the truth to ourselves and furthermore, we're to speak the truth "in love" to ourselves. So we're not to be telling ourselves things like we're stupid, dumb, no one likes us, everyone hates us, etc. After all, God loves us and we're very important to Him!
 
Nor are we to tell ourselves we can't do things, unless it's something obviously physically impossibly like "we can't fly without an airplane or something like that" lol What I'm talking about though is when we tell ourselves we can't do something because we're afraid of it. That's yet another lie. We can do all things through Christ! That's the truth! So we really need to be watching all our thoughts and feelings so that we're not making a mockery of God's Word.
 
Matthew 9:29 —Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you”; * 
 
I simply chose the above scripture at random. The part I was looking for was simply the words "according to your faith it will be done to you". Why? Another word for "faith" is "belief" right? So He could have also said, "according to what you believe it will be done to you". Think about that a moment. When we hear something often enough, even a lie, we come to believe it. When we believe it, we act on that belief and it becomes a part of us. Our thoughts create our beliefs. I'm sure we've all heard this about children - that if a child hears someone tell them they're stupid often enough and long enough, sooner or later they'll really believe it and they'll begin acting as though they really are stupid. The child keeps hearing it, so they begin to think it, they repeat it to themselves, usually every time they make a mistake, until eventually they believe it. The Lord also puts it this way, "As a man thinks in his heart, so he is". Our thoughts create our feelings and beliefs which in turn create how we act. It's really amazing when you realize that according to what you believe about yourself, is what you're going to be. 
 
Do you believe you are a beloved child of God and that He has a plan for your life that He is actively working out for you every day? That He will provide for all your needs? If we're not thinking about God's Word and thinking about how He loves us and His plans for us etc. then we can't very well be living them can we? See how very important it is for us to be in control of our thoughts?
 
Proverbs 15:4 —The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit. * 
 
The above scripture is another one we generally apply to others, as we should; but again, we also need to apply it to ourselves. When we speak the Truth to ourselves it brings healing to our hearts and minds and even our bodies. When we continue to repeat lies to ourselves, it makes us sick. It's sin and it literally crushes our spirit instead of building us up, which is what the Lord wants for us. We need to be careful and listen to what we're telling ourselves. 
 
We should never devalue ourselves, the situation we're in, or our hope for the future. We devalue ourselves when we say things like, "I never do anything right." or, "I'm stupid." We devalue the situation we're in when we say things like, "life is awful", or "I don't know why I even bothered getting out of bed, it's such a rotten day"; or "nothing is worth doing". We devalue our hope for the future when we say things like, "I'll never be any good", or "life if hopeless", etc.

Psalm 34:13–14 —keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. *Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. *
 
We know it doesn't please the Lord when we speak or repeat a lie about or to others, but it also doesn't please Him when we accept or repeat lies about ourselves, our lives, our situations, or about our God, to ourselves. We're told in any number of scriptures that we're to pursue peace and that includes with ourselves as well. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus, and that's our starting point. From there we become at peace with ourselves and then with others. The way we become at peace with ourselves it to pursue it...in other words we have to choose peace. As long as we're putting ourselves down or accepting lies about ourselves, we can't possibly be at peace, so we must take those thoughts captive and replace them with God's Truth.

1 John 4:4 —You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. * 
 
Jesus tells us that bad things are going to happen to us. He tells us this more then just one time, and God repeats that through out His Word. He never tells us that this life is going to be a picnic. What He says though is that He will always be with us and that He realizes just how weak we are. (He understands that much better then we are usually willing to admit it!) He says that it's OK that we're weak because that's how His strength and power are made perfect. He WILL take care of us! We're told over and over that He's bigger then any problem we will ever face and that with Him, we can overcome anything. Period. 
 
When we tell ourselves that we can't do something then, we're lying to ourselves again. When we say things like, "I can't confront other people", that's a lie. The truth is that we don't want to because we're afraid, probably because we're afraid that the person won't like us anymore. The world has tried to teach us that life should always be pleasant, but that's not true. Jesus told us it wouldn't be. It teaches us that everyone should like us and be nice to us, but that's not going to happen - look at how people treated Jesus! He tells us that they will treat us the same way. We just have to get our priorities straight and realize that what other people think about us isn't nearly as important as what God thinks of us. If we are doing His Will, then who cares what others think? We have Him, and He loves us! We need to remind ourselves that in Jesus, we're safe, loved, protected, watched over, and one day bound for eternal glory in Heaven.

Although I've often spoken of replacing the lies we tell ourselves with the Truth from God's Word, I don't think I've ever clearly explained that we can also argue with ourselves about it. For instance, if we're feeling hurt, say our feelings have been hurt by someone for some reason, when we realize that we're thinking lies such as, "I can't live without so and so", or, "I'll never get over this", we can not only replace that thought with the Truth, but we can also talk to ourselves about it and explain to ourselves why that's not true. We need to show ourselves that these thoughts simply aren't true. 
 
We often exaggerate the trouble we'll have or the danger we'll be in or whatever negative thing our feelings are saying at the moment because of how we've thought in the past. In order to overcome that, we need to tell ourselves the truth about that danger - "no, it's not the end of the world; it might be unpleasant, but we will survive; my life is what I make it with God's help and nothing is impossible with Him." We need to literally challenge our beliefs about things like that and and dispute them, telling ourselves the truth instead.

When our feelings are hurt we should not deny that, that would be a lie. What we need to deny are the parts that aren't true. Logically we know that how ever much it hurts, we WILL eventually get over it and get on with life. Everyone does. So while the situation may be unpleasant, it's NOT the end of the world, regardless of what it is. We don't deny that we hurt, or angry or whatever, we deny that we will allow that emotion to control us and remind ourselves that we are in control and we are not going to allow the pain to dictate our actions. 
 
Let me end by sharing something out of one of my books that may be helpful too:

‎Here's more truth to replace the lies that create anguish & leave us raw:
1. It’s true I’m feeling bad. It’s only unpleasant, however; it’s not the end of the world.
2.‎ It’s not the end of the world because I’m not letting it be. I'll allow some good healthy pain, but I won’t allow anguish, misery, woe, & disaster.
3.‎I’m in control here. God has created me as an emotional being, so I can expect to have emotions. But God has also given me the fruit of the Spirit: self-control. So I'll control my feelings & they can’t control me.
4. I am angry. I can, however, handle anger in a biblical, healthy manner. I don't lie to myself about this emotion & I don't try to squelch it or hold it in. I'm also not a person of temper tantrums. I choose self-control. Freedom from the lies you tell yourself 
 
Two major misbeliefs are:
1. God is not the source of life. Man is. ‎When we're despondent over loss, we're telling ourselves that the person or thing we lost is crucial to our lives & happiness. ‎The untruth lies in the fact that nothing & nobody but God is crucial to anyone. This truth is revealed in the 1st commandment You shall love the Lord & have no other gods before Him. ‎To ascribe the all-sufficiency of God to any person is idolatry, & the basis for idolatry is deception & misbelief. (James 1:16–17) T‎hose truly good & perfect gifts do not come from someone or something other than God.  
‎2. Since I lost X, my world has nothing of any significance in it. Experience bears out the deception here. Many of us tell ourselves we “can't live without” some person, object, scheme, or notion. Then this adored “whatever” is removed from our lives & wonder of wonders, we recover. 
 
A person can lose his/her health, reputation, vision, hearing, legs, hands, even family members, money, homes, physical attractiveness, life goals & plans & yet recover & go on living a wonderfully rewarding & meaningful life. When you suffer a loss, you're going to feel the sting; but the key to recovery is not to repeat that someone or something is of such importance that you cannot go on after losing it. You can go on. You are important. Freedom from the lies you tell yourself 

 Here's a link to the study, Taking Thoughts Captive for those who want to understand more about it.

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Originally Posted by catt
Nice. God has been teaching me this over the past few years.
I even got the intensive "workbook" over the last month.
Very good application of the Word of God.
I had lunch with my sister today. I was able to tell how
Jesus held my heart. Replacing lies with the truth, sustained
me over the past 3 weeks. For any one who doesn't know,
my medicine has been unavailable for 2 1/2 weeks. It made me feel
very sick. But Jesus was faithful to me in this hard time. He
had a hold of me and I knew it. Even if, my life seemed completely
out of control.

What workbook is that Catt? I wasn't aware there was one...

Originally Posted by Fearnot
Again this was so timely and exactly what I needed to hear. In a way, I am so amazed at how crushed I am about FH ending. I should have seen the signs but still I didn't really believe it would end. At least I know how much it meant to me.
Secondly, next Tue. I go to the free dental Van again. I will then have 4 teeth on the bottom, and maybe 8 on top. In a way my biggest fear is they will pull two of the very front top teeth. In some ways tho, I think it will be better ( not prettier, vanity is my main sin about this) but I will have less infection, pain, etc. And if somehow someway money falls in my lap, so that I could get dentures, well then, they won't have to pull a whole mouthful of teeth ( most will be already gone) only 4 on the bottom and 8 on the top at most. but by then ( when the money 'magically appears LOL) I may have even less teeth to pull because I may have gone a few more times to the dental van and it might just be a matter of dentures ( which sounds like an ugly word).
So your words about telling ourselves the truth. People maybe will speak to me and not run away in horror as I look more and more like a snaggle tooth bag lady. And then I realize how cruel I sound. No compassion for poor woman who cannot get dental care. I must have some warped beliefs when a person's lack of teeth makes me not see the beauty of the person, and only some missing teeth.
Furthermore, you pointed out, not only is that a cruel untruth about others, but I am being cruel to myself, thinking I will be so ugly noone will speak to me.
Well it is true, there are people like that. Scared of people with missing teeth. I have thought in the past that maybe they are drug addicts, and thus homeless and they are sick.
But they are important to God and they may be brilliant, humous, kind, loving, sweet....teeth or lack of teeth don't make or break those character traits.
And I started crying when you talked about losing someone and feeling you cannot live without them. I feel that way about Leonard. He does so many things for me ( I don't drive for example. never have...well I did for 2 years, but only would go a mile or so on back roads).
I am sorry if I highjacked the study, these are some real thoughts that went thru my head, but your words helped me realize the evil untruths I've been telling myself. Tho they may be some half truths weaved in, mostly not.
Anyway, you can see how timely this study has been for me, and I am so grateful for you commentary.

Dentures are great, if you get ones that fit which I always have; and that means going back lots of times to get them adjusted right after you get them as it takes awhile to get them just perfect for your mouth. But once you do, they're great! I'm on my second pair and hope it's my last. I got my first one when I was in my twenties. Back then they pulled all my teeth in one day (knocked me out for it) and I went three months with no teeth at all before i got my dentures. I wasn't saved then and I was quite vain, but had to get over it since I had no choice lol I had 5 children, one in kindergarten and one in first grade, so I had to walk them to school every day and pick them up. (I didn't have a car) I had to do the shopping, the laundry and everything any mother normally has to do, and do it all with no teeth. I'd thought about it before hand so I was prepared. You know how I got over it? I made plans for the same evening I had all my teeth pulled. I invited three friends (guys and gals) to come over and play cards with me after the kids went to bed. We played till two in the morning and had a great time! I remember that the doctor had told me to try and eat crackers as the salt would be good for my gums and it would help toughen them up for me too. So we ate crackers and played cards till early in the morning, and that helped me get over my fears of how others would react to me being toothless.

I found that most folks will react how you expect them too. So, if you go up to them and say, "hey, guess what? I just had all my teeth pulled on ____" and give them a normal smile, then they're going to act surprised, and grateful that you're willing to share it with them and not afraid to talk about it. In fact, they're going to admire you for being so willing to confront it up front. It'd be the same way if you just had some or most of your teeth pulled. When you do it that way, you take the focus off of how you "look" and get yourself and them over the awkward stage of not knowing what to say or do. Honestly, most people are too busy worrying about what they should say, to think about how you look. As for strangers that see you, again, I found that most react the way you expect them too. If you look ashamed, embarrassed etc, they're going to feel that way and ignore you, and wonder what's wrong with you. On the other hand, if you look straight at them, smile, not only with your mouth, but so your smile shows in your eyes, they'll be surprised and grateful and wonder who the nice lady is. (You should always smile with your eyes as well as your mouth.

From what you said though I sense that your concern might have as much to do with money as it does teeth. That it has to do with you thinking you're poor and that people that are poor look a certain way and act a certain way. You might want to explore how many ways you're rich. I was trying to find something I wrote about this and found this which is similar instead::

• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
• If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the United States.
• If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful ... you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.
• If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder ... you are blessed because you can offer healing touch.
• If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world that cannot read at all.

You know what has helped me a great deal? It was something I heard one Sunday at Church when a missionary was speaking. He came from Africa I believe. Anyway, he told us just how these people lived. I'm sure many of you have probably heard this too as it's fairly well know these days. But in comparison to the majority of the world today, even those of us Americans who live at what we consider low, lower class or almost poverty level, are very rich in comparison to the rest of the world.

He asked how many of us had more then one pair of shoes at home, besides the ones we were wearing right then. Of course everyone raised their hands. He explained that most of the people there were very, very blessed to have one pair of shoes and most didn't.

He asked how many outfits we had in our closet at home, besides what we were wearing that day. People stopped to consider, and he told us that most of the people in the country he was preaching in, were very lucky to have one set of clothes, and those considered "rich" had one extra set they wore to church and special occasions.

He asked how many coats we had in our closets. If we had more then one and explained that the people there were very lucky if they had one and none of them had more then one.

He asked how many of us were sure we could have something to eat for lunch that day; for dinner? We all raised our hands. He said many of the people there were not sure. He asked if we'd be eating something we liked or if we'd have to eat something we rally didn't like, just so we'd have something inside us.... again explaining that those who ate, ate whatever they could get and couldn't be picky like we are.

He continued on asking about things like dishes, bedding, and other household items we all had plenty of. And of course continued to let us know that these folks didn't have these things either. They were doing well to have one plate or bowl per person and one cup and spoon and knife per person etc.

Then he got into the "big things" like TV's and electronics and of course these people had nothing like that.

I believe he ended with our homes themselves, asking how many of us had more then one room in our houses. We all did of course, and of course these folks didn't.

I've got to tell you that I was changed drastically by hearing that. It really hit me hard and showed me how selfish and greedy I was. I emptied out my closet of all the "extras" I had that I could, and gave them away. Even doing that, of course I still had more then enough and still do.

Now, whenever I find myself starting to get "down" about the things I think I lack, the things I wanted to have; the things that people here consider successful people have, or even many people have, I immediately remind myself of all of this and am once again ashamed of myself and ask the Lord to forgive me. Then I start thanking Him and praising Him for all the wonderful blessings He has given me.

I just checked a few sites to show the truth of this and that it wasn't some missionaries imagination. These pages were at the top of the search list.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the poverty line for an individual in the 48 contiguous states and Washington, D.C., was $10,830 in 2010. Compared to global measures of GDP per capita for 2010, an individual at the poverty line in the United States has an income in between the average for Lithuania and Seychelles, ranked 49th and 50th. This may sound less than ideal for those of us accustomed to the lifestyle and conveniences of the first world. But put differently, someone at the poverty line in the United States is in the top 14% of the global income distribution.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/26...-are-all-the-1



http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworst...t-of-humanity/

There's a neat site called the global rich list that you can type your income into and see where you stand today in comparison to the rest of the world. I typed in $45,000 as a yearly income just to see what they'd say about that. It showed:


You’re in the top 0.37% richest people in the world by income.
That makes you the 24,759,564th richest person on earth by income.

Not bad for such a low income is it? Check your income here:
http://www.globalrichlist.com/ 

No dear, your views are not warped, they're just the lies the world has taught you, just like it's taught everyone else. The big difference is that you realize it and can change it, while most never do. Always remember, you belong to the Lord and He loves you and doesn't like to hear you, or anyone else say unkind things about you.

Originally Posted by catt
I called it a "workbook", because I have been
working this out in my life. It has been an intensive
course.
The book we are reading for women's bible study,
"A Confident Heart" by Renee Swoop, is addressing
the same issues.
God must really want me to understand and use this as a life skill.

Oh that's a wonderful book! Do you have the companion one called The 7-day doubt diet: A devotional companion for a confident heart?

Originally Posted by jtheb
If you have dentures put in immediately the gums fit to the denture and are OK for several years.
This is what I have done each time I have needed to lose a tooth.
Normally I have them filled. Last extraction at least forty years ago.

I've heard that's how they do it now, but they couldn't do that with me as I had a whole mouth full of teeth that they pulled all at once. 23 as I recall and my gums swelled up a LOT after the surgery so there was no way they could put the dentures in, but then they hadn't even made them yet so that didn't matter lol

Originally Posted by jtheb
Mine were done during the 1960s. I had four upper and five lower teeth removed. Not the lot.
Oh, ok, that would make a big difference.  But I've heard that they put the dentures in a lot sooner now days, but I would think that it would depend on the patient - how many teeth they had pulled, how many (if any) they had left, how quickly they usually healed, the amount of swelling, etc.
 
Originally Posted by Fearnot
This coming Tue the free dental van appointment will almost certainly mean they will pull another 3-5 teeth...that will leave with 4 teeth on the bottom and probably 8 on the top.
I will have to figure out some way of making some money ( go back to painting?) and save up for dentures. I need to search how much they cost so I can have an idea how many painting I need to paint (tho I can't be sure what they will sell for on e-bay.

One of my friends here was getting dentures about 10 years ago and I did some research for her and discovered that the price varies a great deal, so your best bet is to call everyone in your area that does them and get prices from them all, so you can make your best choice. Here, the prices varied by hundreds of dollars between dentists. Another variable was how much they did for that money too.  I'd never heard of it before, but what she wound up getting were called "temporary dentures".  She was supposed to wear those for a certain amount of time (can't remember how long now, only that it was somewhere between one month and one year) and then she'd get her permanent ones.  She did that because she thought it would be less expensive.  Turned out to cost her a whole bunch more though because she didn't realize that she'd then have to pay a bunch more money for the permanent dentures!  Sounded like a rip off to me.  My dentist here, makes the dentures himself and is very good.  I can't remember the exact price, but as I recall it was close to $1000 although I had insurance that paid for most of it so it wasn't a big deal for me then.  For that price, I got perfect dentures and he kept working on them (for free) until they fit me perfectly.  I went in about once a week for them to be adjusted till they were just right. That price also covered any repairs that might need to be done in the future too, although I've never had them fixed.  I got these back at the end of 1999, so they're 15 years old now...same age my first set was when I had him make me this set.  I don't plan on getting any more though.  I'm hoping they'll last me for the rest of my life.  But the dentists all say they're only supposed to be good for 5=10 years at most as I recall.  I remember how shocked he was when I went in to have him make these and he found out how long I'd had my old ones.  

Don’t forget to talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to provide the means for you to get the dentures and to help you find the perfect place to have them made….