The Science of Christianity

Disciplining Your Thoughts
 
The thoughts lead to the actions that lead to the habits that lead to the character formation, which determines your ultimate destination.
 
Therefore the most important aspect of your life is cooperating with the will of God in disciplining your thoughts.
 
The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination.
 
In the book of proverbs in the Bible the wisest man declared: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Prov 23:7) In explaining this and other scriptural references pertaining to the importance of right thinking, we discover the Bible solidly teaches that man’s feelings, passions, and behavior are subject to and conditioned by the way he thinks” p. 14
 
“It is not events either past or present which make us feel the way we feel, but our interpretation of those events.” p. 15
 
“Our feelings are caused by what we tell ourselves about our circumstances. What we tell ourselves can be either truth or a lie. Misbeliefs often seem true because they contain some shred of truth and partly because the sufferer has never examined or questioned these erroneous assumptions.” P. 16
(Telling Yourself the Truth – Backus & Chapian 2000)
 
God wants us to be able to control our thoughts, feelings and actions. This may begin to happen when we pay more attention to our thoughts - identifying and banishing our assumptions and misbeliefs. When we put sincere effort into this direction with prayer the Holy Spirit will bless our efforts in leading us away from temptation and protecting us from evil.
 
Part 2 of God’s Matrix for Your Salvation is called the Lost Doctrine of Right Thinking because right thinking is presented throughout the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, but almost never presented in churches. Part 2 clarifies our deep need for the spiritual technology of God’s Matrix for our salvation which is outlined in Part 3.
 
The Science of Faith
 
“…We cannot obey the gospel unto salvation, until the science of faith is better understood, and until more faith is exercised.”
{RH, October 18, 1898 par. 7}
 
In all that Jesus did on earth, He had an eye single to the glory of God. . . . Divinity and humanity were united in Christ, that He might reveal to us God’s purpose, and bring us into close union with Himself. This union will enable us to overcome the enemy, for through faith in Christ, we shall have divine power. {CTR 347.4}
 
 By looking constantly to Jesus with the eye of faith, we shall be strengthened. God will make the most precious revelations to His hungering, thirsting people. They will find that Christ is a personal Saviour. As they feed upon His word, they find that it is spirit and life. The word destroys the natural, earthly nature, and imparts a new life in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes to the soul as a Comforter. By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude. This is what it means to live "by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God." This is eating the Bread that comes down from heaven.  {DA 391.1} 
 
Moses had:

1. A deep sense of the personal presence of God. He was not only looking down through the ages for Christ to be made manifest in the flesh, but
2. He saw Christ in a special manner accompanying the children of Israel in all their travels.
3. God was real to him, ever present in his thoughts.
4. When misunderstood, when called upon to face danger and to bear insult for Christ's sake, he endured without retaliation.
5. Moses believed in God as one whom he needed and who would help him because of his need. God was to him a present help.  {CC 85.2} 
6. Moses realized in his own experience the promise that God will be a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him. He had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
7. God will reward the man of faith and obedience. If this faith is brought into the life experience, it will enable everyone who fears and loves God to endure trials. Moses was full of confidence in God because he had appropriating faith.
8. He needed help, and he prayed for it, grasped it by faith, and wove into his experience the belief that God cared for him.
9. He believed that God ruled his life in particular.
10. He saw and acknowledged God in every detail of his life and
11. He felt that he was under the eye of the All-seeing One, who weighs motives, who tries the heart. He looked to God and trusted in Him for strength to carry him uncorrupted through every form of temptation. . . . The presence of God was sufficient to carry him through the most trying situations in which a man could be placed.  {CC 85.3}
12. Moses did not merely think of God; he saw Him. God was the constant vision before him; he never lost sight of His face.
13. He saw Jesus as his Saviour, and he believed that the Saviour's merits would be imputed to him. This faith was to Moses no guesswork; it was a reality. This is the kind of faith we need, faith that will endure the test.

 
Oh, how often we yield to temptation because we do not keep our eye upon Jesus!  {CC 85.4}