by Jim Gustafson | Nov 16, 2021 | Articles, Mentors Corner
I recently went to a local outdoor park with some men and had a half day of prayer on a Saturday morning. We met at 7:30, had coffee and bagels, enjoyed some fellowship and received the instructions for our morning. We used a prayer guide called “Making Time for Prayer” which can be purchased at MIMbooks.com. Before going into the time, I had rehearsed the issues, “the what” that I was going to bring up before God. Relationships, my to-do list and schedule, health, finances and other complaints—the normal typical issues most of us carry around. I know I needed this time as it had been awhile since I spent three-plus uninterrupted hours with Him. I related to David in Psalm 25:27, “The troubles of my heart are enlarged.” Interesting, I found my issues were grown large by my lack of perspective. I didn’t realize this until well into the time—that I had a perspective problem. My view of the issues were enlarged because it had been too long since I took extended time with Jesus. I also didn’t realize how much I needed this extended time with Him until afterward. Most of the time was quiet/listening time and waiting on God. The prayer guide did the work of maneuvering me through my issues, the appropriate scriptures and doing my business with Him. And this is what I discovered: I was missing the target. The target was not the “whats” that I was wanting to be solved but the “Who” that needed to be addressed. Jeremiah writes: “If you return, then I will restore you—before Me you will stand;...
by Jim Gustafson | Oct 24, 2021 | Articles, Mentors Corner
We have a hope to live; a hope for life and a hope to never experience death. We loath the thought of death. Death is the ultimate enemy of hope. Death is final. It extinguishes hope. In death, hope ceases. Death, its process and the inevitable coming experience on the other side of death is out of our control. Perhaps that is why we tend to shy away from discussing death. And we are aware that it extinguishes our hope. But does it? For sure, death seems to end our temporal hopes. All of it ends and eventually burns. However, we are encouraged to migrate to and embrace an eternal hope, one that transcends the temporal, that which we see. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18: “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Accordingly, in properly understanding death, the outcome results in hope. For in the case of physical death, which is guaranteed, as our soul lives on into eternity, our physical bodies get replaced by new ones. 1Corinthians 15:38: “But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.” So Glory to God, the suffering in the decay of our current bodies...
by Jim Gustafson | Jul 15, 2021 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Some hold that fear and love contradict one another–that fear is contrary to love. But in actuality, these go hand in hand. Love and fear are necessarily related. Below are three points of perspectives on this relationship. Firstly, that which we cherish and hold dear, we love. We love that which is precious and hate the thought of losing that which is so important to us. We don’t want to lose that or whom we love or have it or them taken from us. Thus we fear losing that which we love. And hence, in effort to mitigate the fear of loss, to what extent will we love the beloved? Fear drives us to the action of faith. To illustrate, if my wife is diagnosed with cancer, what would I not do to effectuate a cure and insure her future? We know in His sovereignty, He holds control of the beloved, and not us. As much as we want to control the well-being of those we love, we find we don’t control outcomes. And so we fear God, because as our actions of love do not determine the well-being of beloved, His do. We fear God because He determines the plight of us all, the things and people we love. Secondly, the fear of God and the love of God is commanded. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and will all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). This is demonstrated by “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me…” (John 14:21). The fear of the...
by Jim Gustafson | Jun 29, 2021 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” –Matthew 10:28 There is no respect in fear: It is just plain terror. God has set the terms of how man relates to Him: It’s through terror, for He is the God who determines our future. The word that is translated as “fear” in the original Greek is phobos. The word phobos means terror. Had Jesus intended to mean “respect” there are other more appropriate words in the original language that could have been used. We will fear that in which we hope. Fear follows our hope. And behavior (faith) follows our fear. Therefore, our fears and actions reveal that in which we hope for and hope in. What do your actions tell you about your fear and your hope? Fear has a bad reputation. It is associated with weakness and cowardice. But if placed with the right object (God), it is meant for our protection, for our good, a driver to obedience, and motive of avoidance of sin and pain–and to do what is ultimately in our best interest. It leads to positive changes in our lives, pushes us to love and good deeds, strengthens us, unchains and frees us up. Fear can become our strength! “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10) and “Conduct yourselves in fear of God while on Earth” (1Peter 1:17). Fear of God is not only the best beginning but the necessary foundation for in a walk with Jesus...
by Jim Gustafson | Oct 1, 2020 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.” – Romans 8:25 Hope is the unseen benefit we long for. It drives us. We walk by faith because of it. Hope is powerful—it defines our realities. They may be unrealistic, indescribable and unobtainable. But nevertheless, our actions in faith are a function of our hope. Most of us likely eat, work, exercise, spend our money, worship, love and rest because of it. You define a man’s hope, you can predict his actions. And conversely, you can see a man’s hope by his behaviors. The thing we hope for is a noun, as in the Blessed Hope. But it is also a verb as in our verse: “We hope for what we do not see.” What we hope in determines what we hope for. I.e. we hope in God of the scriptures because of the goodness and integrity of His character and the promises He holds for us. He then defines in our lives what we hope for. We hope for the return of Christ, a new body, salvation, heaven. These things were defined in us as our hope in Him was developed, i.e., as our minds are renewed toward a deeper understanding of God, so our eternal hope is developed. For what do we wait? We wait for that which we hope. We wait because we hope. And the object or power of our wait determines the validity of our waiting. Waiting can be a challenge. It requires patience and trust in the things we don’t see or control. But it...
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