February 2, 2010

Who would have known? Reading is good for health.

Below is most of a recent post by  Dr. Albert Mohler, a leading thinker in the evangelical movement in the United States.  A recent study now confirms that reading is good for our health.  – Brian Del Turco

Researchers at the University of Sussex have determined that the very best way to relieve stress, both physical and mental, is to read a book.  Got your attention?

As reported in The Telegraph, the researchers found that stress levels and heart rate showed a 68% reduction in measurable stress after reading from a book.  After achieving a high stress level through exercise and mental tests, just six minutes of reading slowed the heart rate and decreased other measures of physical stress in the muscles.  Reading reduced stress to levels even lower than the baseline before the high stress was reached.

Other stress relievers included listening to music (61% reduction), having a cup of tea or coffee (54% reduction), and taking a walk (42% reduction).  Playing video games lowered stress rates by only 21%, but left heart rates racing.

Keep reading →

January 29, 2010

IDEAS: Supreme and far-reaching

Ideas are supreme and far-reaching …

I’m not a big fan of John Maynard Keynes’ economic philosophy, but I like his ideas about ideas (!):

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back (The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money).

An unavoidable example of the supremacy and reach of ideas is seen in the research and conclusions of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882).  Darwin was the official naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle which circumnavigated the globe throughout the southern hemisphere on a scientific survey expedition between 1831 and 1836.  On the journey he studied geology, plants, animals, and fossils.  In 1859 he published The Origen of Species in which he presented evidence for his theory of natural selection and evolution.

Though his interests began in science, his ideas of natural selection and evolutionary theory began to reach toward other fields of study as his career progressed.  By 1871, he was beginning to develop concepts about evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, and how evolutionary theory could be applied to society in his book The Descent of Man.  Darwin’s Christianity ”devolved” over the course of his life.

Ideas can be seminal.  Like seeds, they spread and develop.  Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a British philosopher, sociological theorist, and political theorist.  He is known for coining the phrase “survival of the fittest” after reading The Origen of Species.  The seeds of natural selection and evolutionary thought were in Darwin.  Spencer diffused evolutionary theory into much wider realms including the human mind, culture, sociology, society, ethics, and political theory.  He truly was a social Darwinist.

Of this we can be sure: Ideas themselves evolve.  Did you know that social Darwinistic thought can alter the value of human life in a society, affect psychological counseling, energize the stifling effects of radical environmentalism, and even balloon the size of the federal government’s role in your life?

John Maynard Keynes clearly saw the supremacy of ideas.  Most of us underestimate the power and effect of ideas in general.  We do not fully appreciate the extent to which evolutionary thought has spread throughout the late 19th century, the 20th century, and into our time.  It has reached into every conceivable realm of study, increasingly influencing modern history since the early 1900’s.

We would do well to have a better grasp of history.  We only hurt ourselves by underestimating the power of ideas.  Less television and all manner of electronic devices … more reading.  Less popular culture … more thinking, conversation, and dialogue. 

Interpretation of our times and then influence.  Interpretation and influence.

Questions:  In what ways can I engage the world of ideas right now?  How can I be more of an influence?

January 24, 2010

YOU …

How much happier U would be, how much more of U there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos.

~ G.K. Chesterton

January 21, 2010

“Get back to YOUR BURDENS!”

“Get back to YOUR BURDENS!”  The people were groaning under bondage, just on the edge of becoming free (see Exodus 5.4).  Pharoah’s declaration to God’s people is the devil’s declaration today.  “Get back on the plantation!” 

Ray Ortlund has a great little post about this.

Christ-follower: “Jesus told me, ‘It is finished.’”  Devil: “You believe that because you’re lazy.  Get back to your burdens.”

Christ-follower: “Jesus told me, it was for freedom that he set me free.”  Devil: “Get back to your burdens.”

Christ-follower: “Devil, you don’t sound to me like Jesus.  I’m going to free my mind of every burden you impose, to the glory of my Savior.  Get back to your kennel, devil.”

We used to accept this oppression and intimidation.  But now, because of what Christ has achieved for us, we fight.  We take our stand in what Jesus Christ has accomplished.  Even the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt was attained through the appropriation of the Passover Lamb, a foreshadowing of the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Lance Wallnau teaches that the great enemy to transitions is endings video.  Pharoah begrudgingly released God’s people, only later to pursue them, hemming them against the Red Sea.  This is a tactic of the devil.  He doesn’t want to let you go.  He seeks to recall things from previous seasons and attach them to you, specifically in the realm of thought and emotion.  Burdens, oppression, fear, slavery.

There is a breaking away.  The channel of transition and release is through the Red Sea.  It is a type and foreshadowing of the full work of Christ for us!  It is extreme immersion into all that Christ is, all that He has done.  The Lord will be our rear guard.  He will open the way before us, transitioning us into new seasons of liberty, Kingdom identity, and inheritance.

This cycle of being chased from the past and experiencing new levels of transition and deliverance is a big part of following Christ.  Embrace the fullness of all that Christ is.  Increasingly see and enter the Kingdom (John 3.3-8), appropriating the complete work of Christ. 

The energizing news is that we progress from one degree of release to the next.  Jesus promised that if we listen and obey Him, we are going to become very free (John 8.31-36)!  Full release and the Promised Land of inheritance lie before the Christ-follower!  We become increasingly free for the glory, fame, and desire of our Savior …

Question: What negative cycles do you need to break away from in the first 90 days of 2010?

January 19, 2010

WORLDVIEW versus REALITY

“Your worldview has to have the same shape that reality does.”       

                                                                                          ~ J. Budziszewski

Naturalism.  Materialism.  Evolution.  Atheism.  Secularized humanism.  Et al.  Reality …  any other shape is a lie …

January 14, 2010

I am made for another world, both NOW and LATER

“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”  ~ C.S. Lewis

Jesus came to bring the foretaste of that world with Him.  His invitation: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Through repentance – the changing of our entire life orientation – we begin to see and enter into the world that He came to bring.  And though the fullness of His Kingdom becomes available to us when He comes in full revelation, we can begin to sample and foretaste that world which is to come.  It is “at hand” through repentance and change.  It is accessible to us through faith in Him.  There is so much available.

“… enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come (Heb. 6.4b-5 NKJV).”

Some of our desires, which this fallen world cannot satisfy, are to be fulfilled now through our development as His Kingdom apprentices.  Some of the depths of our hearts will only be touched in the completness of His Kingdom which is yet to come.

It’s good news all around!  Good news for the NOW, and good news for the TIME TO COME!

I am made for another world, both NOW and LATER.

I’m always glad to hear from readers.  Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/truenorthquest.