Good morning on this 23rd day of September. This has been a good week with my body strengthening day by day following my most recent round of chemotherapy administered during the Labor day week earlier this month. I am scheduled for my next round of chemo beginning Monday morning next week. Lord willing I'll be in the pulpit tomorrow and I am eagerly anticipating bringing the message. I plan to preach the first of two sermons on the topic, The Apostle Paul's Principal Mindset And The Apostle Paul's Mindset Principles. The first message of the two will deal with his principal mindset and the second message will deal with his mindset principles. The idea for these messages came to me as I was meditating on some of the epistles written by the Apostle Paul and I thought about the frequently recurring themes which are mentioned so many times in so many different ways which were Paul's constant mindset. His continual concentration on these themes enabled him to face every difficulty, confront every problem, strengthen himself through every experience and to always stay on course throughout his many up and down experiences in life. So I went through all of the writings of Paul and made a list of all the mindset issues he revealed, then organized them in a systematic way and discovered they could be distilled down into six mindsets which is the subject of Sunday's message. The second message will deal with how Paul adjusted his focus including his thinking and actions to constantly establish and maintain these mindsets regardless of what he faced during his life. By knowing and following these same mindsets and using his methods to maintain them in our lives, we should all be helped to have maximum effectiveness as we strive to be what Christ wants us to be and do what He wants us to do regardless of the circumstances in our lives. Since a mindset is defined as a mental attitude or inclination, a fixed state of mind, it seems evident that our state of mind as we go through the various and sundry experiences in life makes a tremendous difference in shaping our responses and reactions as well as our attitudes, emotions, and outlook.
So Lord willing, I'll see you all tomorrow in church and have the privilege of personally thanking you for your prayers and encouragement. You are the very best!
Love in Christ,
Mel Brown