Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The single most significant decision we make on a day-to-day basis is our choice of mental attitude.
Sunday, September 7, 2003
Power – dunamis = TLJC as the power of God.
Jesus Christ returns in the power of His hypostatic union, which includes His omnipotence as deity, and His impeccability as resurrected humanity.
Kingdom – basilea = the Millennial kingdom or the Father’s plan for the last one-thousand years of history.
As a member of the human race, TLJC has authority under the plan of God the Father to rule the earth for the last dispensation of history.
Human history began with our original parents in the garden, Adam and Ishshah, living in the Garden of Eden under perfect environment for an unknown length of time.
History began with perfect environment, history will terminate with perfect environment.
In the first period of perfect environment, the garden of Eden, the woman was not deceived but “quite deceived” and determined to destroy it, and the man took his cue from the woman and did likewise.
Remain quiet – hesuchia = to refrain from fussing or complaining.
It says “quite deceived” because there had to be a series of thoughts, namely negative thoughts leading her to the tree, talking to the serpent, and dissatisfied with what she had.
ISA 14:13-14 But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
A positive mental attitude determines your acceptance of the natural and the spiritual laws designed by God, or your rejection of them.
Adopting the right mental attitude can convert a stressful situation into a positive one.
Mental attitude either keeps us going in a positive direction or hinders our progress.
Adam and the woman forgot the importance of having a positive mental attitude of gratitude to the Lord for all He had done for them.
In the last dispensation of human history, the Millennium, the last thousand years, there will again be perfect environment; at the end of that time Satan is released and he is going to find malcontent under perfect environment.
You think that certain things would make you happy, because you have not had them yet.
The mature believer is happy in time of historical prosperity, but he is just as happy in time of historical disaster.
We are representatives, ambassadors on this earth of the Son of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ, of almighty God, Himself.
1. Keep on learning.
When you begin to see things from His perspective, here is what happens – you stop worrying about things, you stop fretting about things, you are no longer anxious, and your fears disappear, and what happens?
PSA 2:4 He who sits in the heavens laughs,
ECC 3:4 – there’s a time to laugh;
The laughter of the mature believer is faith breaking through the barriers of a hopeless situation, and accepting divine reality, as over against human viewpoint, human hopelessness.
Intense people never laugh at themselves, they take themselves very seriously, too seriously.
Subjectivity, legalism, being uptight, being involved in the inordinate concept of competition, remove any possibility of a sense of humor even if one had originally been there.
The mature believer’s attitude toward adversity is expressed in laughter, a relaxed laughter in the midst of great adversity, JOB 5:17-22.