by Jim Gustafson | May 9, 2023 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Listening seems to be a simple enough concept. We have ears to facilitate one of our senses — we use them regularly. We know all about it. Hear and respond with our mouth. It is important in our everyday activity. We converse with others and realize that without hearing our ability to communicate is severely diminished. So it is with God. But the scripture takes us to a different understanding. James writes, “Be quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19). God said, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him.” (Luke 9:35). The relationship with God is rooted in listening to Him through His Word. Listening is a significant concept in the scriptures. As a verb, “hearing” or “listening” appears over 1600 times in the Bible! It means to receive or hear and understand a reported noise. It implies a silence and stillness in order to hear. It has a responsibility component, implying obedience to what is understood. So, how to listen? The Psalmist writes: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). Listening is the quiet, still activity of intent fully slowing ourselves down, closing off the outside distractions and pressures and being still before God and His word and then applying. The culture values business, action and running. But listening requires silence and stillness. How? It must be intentful. Jesus went to a quiet place to pray and listen in the morning to get perspective. He provides the example worth emulating. Men in the marketplace, caught up in the pace of life, in order to survive the chaos and gain the perspective only the...
by Jim Gustafson | Nov 23, 2022 | Articles, Mentors Corner
The men referenced in Matthew 7:21-24 had selected too wide a path to enter the Kingdom. The path is narrow to enter; too wide a path leads to destruction (v13). They seemed to think that their chosen path was narrow enough, but Jesus said, “I never knew you, depart from me you evil doers.” (v23) What a terrifying thought. To make a choice so important as what it means to follow God, to expect to be approved by the Judge Jesus Christ, to expect an eternity in Heaven and then be rejected by God. To their horror, they had misconstrued the expectation, misjudged the target or worse, they willfully followed Him on their own terms, resulting in payment of an unimaginable, devastating price. He termed their path as one of “lawlessness” (v23). According to the apostle John in 1 John 3:4, lawlessness is defined as sin or work of iniquity. It is the defection from God’s law, His standard and command on how we are to do things. God’s law means He gets to choose the path-what it looks like, how narrow or wide we walk in it and what is the expectation for obedience. At the least, it seems that despite the fact that God had seemingly used these men for His purposes, and had even performed miracles through them, they wanted to relate to God on their own terms, not His. Those men misjudged His Word or willfully disobeyed and drew a path too wide, to their demise. So, how narrow of a path is needed? We need not figure that out. The pressure is off because...
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...
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