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Perspective:-
Your Mind Matters: Control your Thoughts
“I am so sorry, I did it by chance, forgive me.” “I am extremely sorry, I spoke unknowingly.” We are familiar with such pleas for pardon. But the reality is that no word or deed comes out of us without it being filled in our heart first.
The Lord Jesus makes it very clear. “For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” “From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” (Luke 6:45c; Mark 7:21–23).
Having regret over a wrong word or deed is definitely a good attitude. Nevertheless, if it’s a recurring practice, it is high time that we examine the thought pattern behind it. It is foolishness as well as self-deception to keep on making excuses and do nothing about the root cause for our misconduct.
Incredible Imaginations
The ability to imagine is one of the blessings man enjoys from his Creator. All scientific innovations and gigantic structures and towers are evidence of the power of human imagination. Before we saw something actually, someone saw it in their imaginations.
However, this God-given ability of man has been marred by sin. Instead of thinking and executing everything in accordance with God's plan and for His glory, man is constantly abusing this faculty.
Think about the fall of Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan did not actually force her to eat the forbidden fruit, but cunningly implanted a thought in her mind. She saw the fruit, thought about it, found it desirable and then took the fruit and ate it, breaking God’s commandment (Genesis 3:1-6).'
We can notice the same pattern in all others failures as well. Achan intently paid attention to the beauty and the value of the devoted things in Jericho and that led further to coveting it and finally robbing the things of God (Joshua 7: 21). David happened to see a woman taking a bath, he chose to intently and carefully look at her, enjoying her beauty, and the rest is history (2Samuel 11:2). No wonder David wrote later, “Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts” (Psalm 51:6a).
Incredible Imaginations
A Corrupt Mind Summarizing the sinfulness of the gentile world apostle Paul writes, they “became futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened”. Their evil acts against God originated in their corrupt heart (Romans 1: 21–23).
Remember, an unconverted, sinful mind is in darkness though seldom man admits it. Such a defiled, debased and hardened mind is at enmity with God. It cannot yield to God’s law (Rom. 1: 28–30; 8:6; Eph. 4:18, 19; Tit. 1:15). In other words, due to the inherent sin nature, the heart of man is wicked; and hence the evil desires and deeds are a natural outcome (Ecc. 9:3; Jer. 17:9; 1Cor. 2:14).
That’s why we see throughout the scripture, the Lord points out the evil imaginations of man as the cause for their misdeeds and even holds them accountable for these (Genesis 6:5; 8:21; 11:6; Prov. 6:18; Jer. 23:17; Ezekiel 11:5; 2Peter 1:14). However, God in His grace…..... ->>>More
Out line:-
The Mind of a Believer
- A Right Mind Luke.8:35
- A Sound Mind 2Timothy.1:7
- A Pure Mind 2Peter 3:1
- A Spiritual Mind Romans.8:6
- A Girded Mind 1Peter. 1:13
- A Garrisoned Mind Philippians. 4:7
- A Renewed Mind Romans.12:2
- A United Mind Romans.15:5
- A Christ-like Mind Philippians 2:5
Anecdote: -
How Thoughts Come True!
A salesman, driving on a lonely country road one dark and rainy night, had a flat. He opened the trunk--no lug wrench. The light from a farmhouse could be seen dimly up the road. He set out on foot through the driving rain.
Surely the farmer would have a lug wrench he could borrow, he thought. Of course, it was late at night - -the farmer would be asleep in his warm, dry bed. Maybe he wouldn't answer the door. And even if he did, he'd be angry at being awakened in the middle of the night.
The salesman, picking his way blindly in the dark, stumbled on. By now his shoes and clothing were soaked. Even if the farmer did answer his knock, he would probably shout something like, "What's the big idea waking me up at this hour?"
This thought makes the salesman angry. What right did that farmer have to refuse him the loan of a lug wrench? After all, here he was stranded in the middle of nowhere, soaked to the skin. The farmer was a selfish clod--no doubt about that!
The salesman finally reached the house, and banged loudly on the door. A light went on inside, and a window opened above. "Who is it?" a voice called out. "You know darn well who it is," yelled the salesman, his face white with anger. "It's me! You can keep your blasted lug wrench. I wouldn't borrow it now if you had the last one on earth!"
— Source: Bits & Pieces
Mission: -
The Need for Preachers with Quality
By Dr. Justus Samuel
The writer was discussing with a highly knowledgeable gentleman from a Western land on missionary matters. In the course of the talk, he posed a question that had engaged his thinking often – ‘where are the leaders?’
Look at any sphere of human activity today; whether in Politics, Economics and other Sciences, or Religion, the giants are few, if any. We are confronted with a world of mediocrity, and this is bound to affect the future adversely. The standards are likely to go down the incline. And this despite the fact that we have today centers of high learning in every imaginable discipline, and men are, no doubt, cleverer than in the past half a century.
The Pulpit Giants
When it comes to preaching, this is no exception. The world saw some real ‘giants’ of the pulpit in the eighteenth and the past centuries - men like John Wesley, George Whitefield, Charles Spurgeon, Charles Finney. We acknowledge that there are masters of the platform in our day - men who can draw audiences in hundreds of thousands, and there is a good deal of emotional - potential or charismatic attraction. Many of the preachers are sincere, but they preach to a relatively superficial crowd. If Spurgeon developed a sermon on 10 points, the modern speaker dwells on two or three.
The former’s audiences were more serious and gave of their time. Spiritual matters counted with them. We agree that days have changed and the length of preaching cannot be anywhere as long as in the last century. However, the ‘meat’ should still be there to be effective. This means that the preacher has to discipline himself and perhaps spend hours together to collate his material logically.
Even in former days, some of the giants like Whitefield were short speakers, but men with tremendous appeal. He went to the extent of saying that if one spoke for more than half an hour he must be an angel or his audience angels. But remember, Whitefield’s preaching was more to awaken people to spiritual realities, while Surgeon’s preaching was to people with a religious background drawn from the professions and the intelligent classes. Dr. Billy Graham did not speak for more than half an hour, but whatever he mentioned –statistics or historical references, or Greek or Hebrew references had been thoroughly pre-checked to avoid any possible error.
Among the Brethren
Speaking generally, their preachers were not the specimen with evangelistic thrust - they were more of the order of teachers and expounders. They combined the gospel with teaching, and this had considerable effect as evidenced ... >>>>More
Pulpit Echo: -
SIGNS OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
The expectation of the arrival of a baby excites every family, and they make every effort to make their home conducive for the coming little one. The progress and health of a child depends much upon the atmosphere at home. Similarly, the wellbeing and the development of a believer rest largely upon the health of the congregation. Let us consider briefly five marks of a healthy local church from the book of Romans.
1. Individual sanctity of the members. Romans 12: 1 – 3
Church is made up of individuals. Each one needs to be committed, separated and humble. If anyone is in sin, it will affect the whole congregation. No private life in the church of God. God will deal with the erring brethren (Joshua 7: 10, 11).
2. Love, not in words but reflected through life. Romans 12: 9 – 21
Christian love is extraordinary. It cannot be hidden. The impact of such divine love in action is far-reaching (cf. vs. 9 – 21).
3. A diverse community living in unity. Romans 12: 4 - 6
A local assembly..... ->>>More
Worthy Quotes:-
Thoughts-life
“God does not garrison the thought-life of a man who does not want it to be kept pure.”
__________ William MacDonald
“The Christian who fills his heart and mind with God’s Word will have a “built-in radar” for detecting wrong thoughts.”
__________ Warren W. Wiersb
“Sow a thought, reap an action; Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character; Sow a character, reap a destiny!”
__________ Author unknown
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