“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; no one seeks God. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe. For there is no difference; – Rom. 3:10, 21-22. (NIV)

Introduction

Dictionaries define righteousness as “behavior that is morally justifiable or right.” Such behavior is characterized by accepted standards of morality, justice, virtue, or uprightness. The Bible’s standard of human righteousness is God’s own perfection in every attribute, every attitude, every behavior, and every word. Thus, God’s laws, as given in the Bible, both describe His own character and constitute the plumb line by which He measures human righteousness.

The bad news is that true and perfect righteousness is not possible for man to attain on his own; the standard is simply too high. The good news is that true righteousness is possible for mankind, but only through the cleansing of sin by Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have no ability to achieve righteousness in and of ourselves. But Christians possess the righteousness of Christ, because “ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21. This is an amazing truth. On the cross, Jesus exchanged our sin for His perfect righteousness so that we can one day stand before God and He will see not our sin, but the holy righteousness of the Lord Jesus.

Establishing our hearts in righteousness

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life” – Proverbs 4:23

According to the above verse in Proverbs, our heart is the source of our life. Our life flows from our heart. The Holy Spirit resides in the spirit of the born again Christian. So there is a strong influence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the new-born Christian. But our heart is also comprised of our soul. As Christians we can choose to focus our soul on the Lord, or on evil things. If we focus on corrupt, immoral, and evil things our heart will be affected detrimentally. It will cause our heart to be crooked or wicked, instead of straight or righteous. So the Scripture says to keep, or guard, our heart. It is wise to protect our heart as what we allow to dominate our heart will inevitably become the fruit, or influence the outcome, of our lives.

One way to approach life is to continually ask the question, “How will this decision or action affect my heart?” Everything we do, every thought we entertain, everything we watch, read, or listen to, shapes our heart. Therefore, the future prosperity of our life will flow from how well we care for our heart.

Think of everything you do, every moment of time, as a seed. We have been given responsibility for choosing which seeds to plant in our heart. What will you grow in the garden of your heart? What seeds will you choose? Our heart is our garden, and our life is the fruit of our garden. So next time you are tempted to dwell on a bad thought, think, “Do I want this seed to grow and manifest in my life?” Next time you are tempted to indulge in a sinful action ask yourself, “Do I want the extension, or fruit, of this sinful action to be what I am known for?”

God gives us the freedom to plant whatever we like in our garden. God loves us regardless of the good or bad choices we may make in our lives. You may be reaping the fruit of some poor choices right now. And God is still saying, “I love you.” But He has wise advice for us; He desires we have a good life. He says, “Guard you heart with all diligence.” This Hebrew word translated ‘diligence’ conveys the meanings of: prison and guard (ibid). A superintendant of a prison is very particular as to what goes in and out of his prison. A prison has very tight security. Just as a superintendant watches over his prison, so we should also supervise our heart (our lives). We should exercise meticulous security with regards to what enters into our heart. Actually, even what comes out of it, as the Scripture says, “ Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” – James 1:19, as “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” –Matthew 12:34b.

If what goes into, and what comes out of, our heart determines the success of our lives, what is the first important principle to establish in our heart?  “In righteousness you shall be established;” – Isaiah 54:14

Righteousness is the key foundational truth we need to first establish in our heart. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” –Matthew 6:33. Notice Jesus said, “His righteousness”, not our own righteousness. We have to seek and understand God’s righteousness. Isaiah 54:14 says, “Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” God’s righteousness comes from God, not from within us. Humans cannot make themselves God’s righteousness, as all humans have sinned and are therefore inferior to God. God’s righteousness is a gift from God: “ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

Righteousness, or right standing with God, has been attained for us through the exchange Jesus made on our behalf. Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. God’s righteousness is imparted to us when we are made a new creature in Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:17. This righteousness is a gift from God and undeserved by us: “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”- Romans 5:17

Through our faith in Jesus’ blood, shed to remit our sins – Romans 3:25, God imparts righteousness to us by His grace. We actually become a new righteous creation, fully identifying in Jesus’ death, burial, resurrection and ascension. This is the foundational miracle we need to understand and have established in our heart. All the other miraculous promises of God come the same way, by God’s grace through faith. Righteousness must be established in our heart for us to truly have faith to receive our rich inheritance in Christ. Jesus has been made unto us righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:30). We are now “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us”. – 2 Corinthians 1:20

Establishing our minds in righteousness

God expects that, when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will be radically changed. In Romans 12:2 He tells us, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

This transformation is to be a metamorphosis, of a magnitude at least comparable to that by which a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. He expects us to become totally different.

Scripture uses many different images to express the change that should occur:  We become “a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.“ – 2 Cor 5:17. It is almost as if we become a new species. Scripture speaks of the “first Adam” who was earthly and fell into sin, and the “second Adam” (Jesus Christ) who was sinless and holy – Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor 15:44-49.

We are “made new in the attitude of our minds” – Eph. 4:23.

We “put off our old self” and “put on the new self” – Eph. 4:22,24; Col 3:9-10.

We “live by the Spirit” and not by the flesh – Gal. 5:16; Rom 8:13.

We become “instruments of righteousness” rather than “instruments of wickedness” – Rom. 6:13.

Each of these metaphors, in a different way, emphasizes the magnitude of the change that is expected. Each is dramatic and astonishing in itself; their cumulative effect is even more powerful. We are talking about a tremendous transformation. It should be visible to others, but its internal effect should be far greater than what others can perceive.

The goal of this transformation

What is the goal of this metamorphosis? Scripture states it in a number of different ways, which overlap and can be seen as different ways of expressing the same basic concept. Scripture often does this, because our minds are inadequate to comprehend, and our language inadequate to express, the full scope of God’s revelation to us.

To be continued!

Stay blessed!

For further inquiries please contact us on Tel Nos. 0243588467 or 0268130615

Email:  saltnlightministries@gmail.com

Website: saltandlightministriesgh.org     

SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS

You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.

Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27

​Introduction

​Modern culture is built on a comforting fiction: The belief that human beings can successfully manage multiple demanding activities at the exact same time. From corporate job descriptions demanding relentless “multitaskers” to educational frameworks praising divided attention, society treats simultaneous processing as the ultimate badge of modern productivity.

​Yet, this entire paradigm rests on a fundamental falsehood. The very definition of multitasking is wrong. For years, the concept went largely unchallenged until thinkers and researchers like Robert Grimmond-Thompson stood up to defy the concept, exposing multitasking for what it truly is: a cognitive and computational myth. By examining the structural realities of both silicon hardware and human neurology alongside the critical insights pioneered by Robert Grimmond-Thompson, it becomes clear that true simultaneous execution is a physical impossibility. Whether in machines or in minds, sequential execution is the universal law.

​Part I: The misappropriation of a computing metaphor

​To understand why the definition of multitasking is broken, we must look at its origins. The term was coined decades ago within computer science to describe how early mainframe systems could appear to run multiple software routines concurrently. It was a high-level abstraction describing an external user experience, not a literal description of hardware capability.

​When corporate culture and productivity gurus ripped the word from engineering and applied it to human psychology, they committed a catastrophic conceptual error. They infused the word with a dangerous implication: that the human mind functions like a multi-core processor capable of splitting conscious awareness into equal, fully functioning streams of parallel output.

​This is where Robert Grimmond-Thompson fundamentally challenged the cultural narrative. Thompson defied the premise that human consciousness can stretch across multiple focal points without penalty. By interrogating the limits of operational capacity, Grimmond-Thompson argued that applying a machine-oriented term to biological organisms created an impossible, toxic standard that actively sabotages human performance.

​Part II: The silicon deception-even computers don’t multitask

​The ultimate irony of the multitasking debate is that the machines that supposedly inspired the concept do not actually perform it.

​If you examine a traditional single-core processor, the idea of doing things “at the same time” entirely dissolves. A single CPU core features an instruction execution pipeline capable of processing only one single machine instruction at a time. It reads, decodes, executes, and writes back data in strict, chronological micro-steps governed by clock cycles.

​So how do computers run multiple applications? Through time-sharing or context-switching. The CPU divides time into microscopic nanosecond slices, rapidly leaping back and forth between programmes. It executes a fraction of a music player program, saves the state, shifts to a web browser, saves that state, and moves elsewhere. This is not parallel execution; it is high-speed, serial deception.

​Even as engineering advanced into multi-core architectures, true parallel processing within a single focal stream remains impossible. Separate cores handle distinct threads independently, but a single processing pipeline operates strictly single-file. If a machine built of ultra-fast silicon cannot truly process multiple instructions at the exact same instant without relying on rapid-fire context-switching, expecting a biological brain to do so is a profound error in logic.

By Robert Ekow Grimmond-Thompson

SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS

You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.

Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27