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Post by calfisher on May 9, 2017 19:11:00 GMT -5
"Please understand there is an absolute war on for your mind!"
Why You Shouldn't Wear A Nose Ring?
By Bill Holter
Did I pique your interest with such a goofy title? We'll get to that shortly but first let's take a look at the question raised last week, "what are the chances of gold being down 15 days in a row". I received the answer from statistician Jim Willie. The answer, "in a vacuum" is once in every 32,800 trading days.
This is something like once every 130 years but again, in a "vacuum". This meaning strictly by chance such as a coin flip. But we do not live in a vacuum, no, we are now living during THE most bullish backdrop in history for gold or conversely THE most fundamentally bearish backdrop for paper currencies and debt. We do not live in a vacuum, we live in an era where the power structure is pulling all the stops to retain their system of power and control, namely U.S. dollar hegemony. Without writing another entire piece on gold manipulation, please understand the world we live in is "painted". Let's take a look at some of the artists and their work.
It is obvious (to those who can see truth and took the correct pill), there is and has been a "war" going on for your mind. This is not a recent event as we have seen this since the beginning of time. A prime example is socialism vs. capitalism. Other examples are liberalism vs. conservatism, the belief or non belief in a higher being (religion for a lack of better term), self reliance versus dependence, truth vs. non truth, or even good vs. bad. This "war" has always been around, however, the current tools available to sway opinion have not.
Specifically, the internet. It now turns out and proof has been provided that many entities are "lying" to you. We know many instances where government lies to us from economic numbers to climate theories, to false flag events, and even the money issued. We suspected previously but now know for sure the media is biased as they don't even bother trying to hide it other than calling anything they disagree with as "fake news". Companies like Google and Facebook mess with the minds of younger people by "filtering" searches, spreading "their news" and basically "shaping thought". I would be remiss of course if I did not mention our universities and educational systems, "grabbing" impressionable minds at a young age is obviously the plan.
On the flip side (and though not always correct) are people like Robert Mercer. We see more truth from this side as their arguments are generally more logical and actual proof provided in many instances. But don't be fooled as the "hunger for power" is just as strong.
The "real news vs. fake news" war has gotten so bad that people don't even know what to believe anymore. I recently came across this link Scientists are Attempting to 'Prove' that 'Religious' People are Crazy – Study which was of particular interest to me because it suggests I have brain damage and am "crazy". I have said we will not try to turn a website into the "God channel" because religious perspective is not why people seek our opinion. I have however professed my faith as a Christian. There is some very logical reasoning as to why there absolutely must be a higher being or creator. (I will not go there now but will point you in the correct direction should you contact me.) You can believe in a creator or not but you cannot argue the world would be a much better place were everyone to live their lives as Jesus displayed in the Bible! Logically, "doing the right thing" is normally the more difficult thing because it requires an action of "good" versus an easier action of "bad". In any case, assuming you have read my work and heard interviews, I try to live within logic and with that comes truth. Maybe I am wrong but the search for truth is quite high on my list, brain damage isn't.
OK, so what spurred such an odd title and writing. My wife Kathryn recently had foot surgery so I have been doing some of her errands. I went to the local producers market for locally grown food and met some really nice down to Earth folks, farmers. Yesterday we ventured into south Austin (baby San Francisco) for pizza. The crowd was mostly young (college students) and definitely "different". I noticed that at most of the tables and booths, no one was talking or even looking at each other (even couples). Instead, they were texting (each other?), surfing the internet (posting to facebook?), talking on the phone or whatever ...but not interacting with whom they were sitting (except for selfies).
A group of four sat down next to us and the "smart" phones immediately came out. They were all eating pizza with one hand and using their phones with the other. One of the young girls had a nose ring ...with a big hunk of cheese hanging from it. She didn't know because she couldn't see it ...and no one sitting with her said anything because no one ever looked up from their phone. Being the insensitive jerk that I am (because the truth sometimes hurts), I said to everyone at our table (after turning my palms up) ..."so, now I know why you shouldn't wear a nose ring at an Italian restaurant". Their table didn't hear me and they walked out together with her cheese "hanging"...
So what's my point? Please understand there is an absolute war on for your mind! You can either sit back and be "fed" information, or you can actively "seek" information in a search for the truth. Financially the entire world is about to go bust, this is factual mathematics. I saw two opposite ends of the spectrum over the weekend, self reliant rural farmers and totally dependent (and brainwashed by technology) urban dwellers. When the financial (and thus social) ship hits the sand, which of these groups will survive? Which of these groups has the intellectual, social and moral fabric to survive in a world that stops because credit stops? This is a very real question because there is no question credit will cease for a time ... and maybe a very long time!
To finish, it is up to you to decide what is "real" and what isn't. It is up to you to decide what is "truth" and what isn't. Do not let anyone, any group, entity, or government force feed you "reality" because maybe it really isn't ...or won't be shortly. YOU must decide what is real and take responsibility for your decisions because no one else is bound to and few will be able to. Follow your own gut and use your own God given common sense! I do not know who to attribute this quote to but it describes our world pretty well "Common sense is not a gift – it’s a punishment because you have to deal with everyone that doesn’t have it"
Standing watch while rubbing my eyes,
Bill Holte
www.jsmineset.com/2017/05/08/why-you-shouldnt-wear-a-nose-ring/
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Post by calfisher on Mar 28, 2016 23:11:11 GMT -5
This is a presentation given on Good Friday. Seven speakers on the seven sayings on the Cross. I was given the fifth saying, "I Thirst"
THE FIFTH WORD. Turn with me to John 19:28. Hold your attention there while I paint a picture with words of what Jesus was experiencing.
Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished; or just upon being accomplished, were as good as finished; and as they were to be, would be in a very short time; even all things relating to his sufferings, and the circumstances of them, which were appointed by God, and foretold in prophecy, and of which he had perfect knowledge:
Do you not know, O children of God? How this man suffered for you?
The fifth word of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the scourging, the flesh hanging off of his back, the blood flowing freely from his wounds, the sweat running into his wounds, the crowning with thorns. His arms stretched out and the nailing of His hands upon the cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Via Dolorosa, called the Way of suffering.
The wounds were highly inflamed, and a raging fever was caused, usually, by the sufferings on the cross, and this was accompanied by insupportable thirst.
It fulfilled Psalm 22:15, “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death” (Psalm 22:15).
After hanging on the Cross for hours, without a drink of water, His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth, and He could barely speak.
Augustine said, “The cross was a pulpit, in which Christ preached his love to the world.” It’s true! He suffered on the Cross to pay the penalty for your sin because He loves you! He went through the agony and pain to save you from eternal suffering because He loves you!
Separation of the Son from the Father.
For the first time in history, the unity of the Trinity is broken. All of the spiritual pain that Jesus endured when his Father turned his face away from him as he took upon himself the sins of the world—all of it was voluntarily accepted and voluntarily endured by Jesus Christ for the glory of his heavenly Father and for the eternal well-being of his people. Nothing that happened to Jesus that day caught him by surprise. None of it was unforeseen. All of it was anticipated and taken into account by Jesus when he made that fateful prayer in Gethsemane, "Not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).
Jesus thirsts in a spiritual sense as well. He thirsts for love. He thirsts for the love of his Father, who has forsaken him during this dreadful hour when He must fulfill his mission all alone. On the Cross, Jesus was pierced in the heart with a spear, so the sins of our hearts could be pardoned. He wore a crown of piercing thorns, so that the sins of our minds could be forgiven. His hands were nailed to the Cross so that the sins we commit with our hands could be pardoned. His feet were nailed to the wood so the sins we commit by walking to them and in them could be justified. And He thirsted till His tongue stuck to the roof of His mouth, horrible thirst! to heal the sins of our mouths.
“He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5-6). The Apostle Peter tells us that Jesus “bare our sins in his own body on the tree” (I Peter 2:24). Surely these verses make it plain that the thirst of Jesus was part of the suffering He went through, as our substitute, on the Cross.
John 19:28 “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled” He said “I thirst”
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Post by calfisher on Apr 28, 2015 23:13:38 GMT -5
Discipline of Mind
There is an organ in the body that is about the size of a small head of cauliflower.
This organ has power over many different tasks in our bodies. It controls body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate and breathing. It accepts a flood of information about the world around us. It handles our physical motion when walking, talking, standing or sitting. It lets us think, dream, reason and experience emotions.
Which organ is it? Our brains. Each and every day your brain is activating thought modules which enable you to interact with the world.
It tells you when it is time to eat.
It helps you compute the speed of vehicles as you are trying to cross the street to determine if there is enough time to get across safely.
It helps you to appreciate a beautiful flower or beautiful scenery.
Our minds have been compared to 1,000 switchboards, each big enough to serve New York City, all running at full speed as they receive and send information.
There is not a computer made that can even come close to accomplishing all that the human brain can.
A human being has about 100 billion brain cells. (Neurons) The approximate times a neuron can fire is about 200 times a second.
Approximately 1000 neurons connected to each neuron.
A human brain's probable processing power is around 100 teraflops or approximately 100 trillion calculations per second.
Some people have estimated that the storage capacity of the human brain is functionally infinite- that is, we can essentially always find room to store more information if we want to, so no practical limit exists. A more principled lower estimate might be made using the numbers above. Let’s assume that a change in any connection strength between two connected neurons is equal to one bit of information and further assume (a huge over-simplification) that neural connections have just two possible strengths (like a bit in a computer, which is either 1 or 0). Then each neuron has ‘write’ access to 1000 bits of information, or about 1 kilobyte. So we have 100 billion (number of neurons) X 1 K of storage capacity, or 100 billion K. That’s about 100 million megabytes. Since in fact neural connections are not two-state but multi-state and since neuron bodies can also change their properties and thereby store information, this is a very low estimate, so you can see why some people have estimated it to be functionally infinite.
The Difference between Brain and Mind A computer requires hardware to perform its function. And the hardware needs software to make it run. Without software, hardware would be useless and without hardware, software can not be used. Brain is like the hardware and mind is like the software. But in reality, the difference between brain and mind are more complicated than software and hardware. In our culture we sometimes use the words brain and mind interchangeably even though they really do refer to separate, although often overlapping, concepts. The brain is an organ but the mind isn't. The brain is the physical place where the mind resides. It is a vessel in which the electronic impulses that create thought are contained. With the brain you coordinate your moves, your organism, and your activities and transmit impulses. But you use the mind to think. You can muse at what happened, what is scheduled and what maybe will happen.
The mind is the manifestations of thought, perception, emotion, determination, memory and imagination that take place within the brain. Mind is often used to refer especially to the thought processes of reason. The mind is the awareness of consciousness we know, the ability to control what we do, and know what we are doing and why. It is the ability to understand.
Modern Greek theories see the mind as a phenomenon of psychology, and the term is often used synonymously with consciousness. The Greek concept of “mind” comes from the word phroneo, and it means “to set one’s mind on a thing.” The Lord says, “You have to set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (see Col. 3:2). We must set our minds on things above because the mind is seeking to operate in the realm of its natural environment and not be controlled by the limitations of sinful flesh. Thus, the intent of the Spirit in its war against the flesh is to free your mind from being suffocated by the flesh.
This is the battle within all of us!
In a.d. 386, a 32-year-old North African intellectual, now living in Milan, Italy, was sitting in the garden of one of his friends, overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. This man was one of the great scholars of his day, but he was in a battle with his mind, seeking the meaning of life as he also struggled with lust and immorality. His mother, Monica, whom he loved deeply, was distressed with the fact that her young son was living with a mistress. Great sorrow had a grip on his heart as he realized that he had no power to break the hold of immorality on his life. Sitting there in the garden, his attention was aroused by the voice of a young man whose words rang in his ears, “Pick up and read! Pick up and read!” At the same time, he noticed next to him a scroll that his friend had been reading. As he picked it up and began to read, it appeared as though the words of the apostle Paul to the Romans (13:13-14) leaped off the page: “…not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” It was at that moment that a spiritual power descended upon him, and a faith was born within him. In his autobiography, Confessions, he wrote these poignant words to describe what happened that day: I neither wished nor needed to read further. At once, with the last words of this sentence, it was as if a light of relief from all anxiety flooded into my heart. All the shadows of doubt were dispelled. The name of this young academic scholar was Aurelius Augustine. Augustine would go on to become the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, a great pastor, and a Christian theologian. His writings would shape the course of Christian theology to this day.
A Monk Encounters the Apostle Paul In August 1513, an Augustinian monk who was a Professor of Bible in the University of Wittenberg, Germany, was troubled with his spiritual life. For years he had been trying to find peace with God, yet all his religious efforts could not bring the peace and joy that he was seeking. He had no confidence that God accepted him, no matter how hard he tried to please Him. Troubled by his lack of spiritual clarity, he opened the Book of Romans and was reading chapter 1, verse 17, “…The righteousness of God is revealed…by faith…” (NIV). This young monk could not comprehend what Paul was talking about because his mind had been telling him that God’s righteousness judged him rather than saved him. In an effort to penetrate the meaning of Paul’s words, he wrote: I greatly longed to understand Paul’s letter to the Romans, and nothing stood in the way but that one expression, “the righteousness of God,” because I took it to mean that righteousness whereby God is righteous and acts righteously in punishing the unrighteous…. Night and day I pondered until…I grasped the truth that the righteousness of God is that righteousness whereby, through grace and sheer mercy, he justifies us by faith. Thereupon I felt myself to be reborn and to have gone through open doors into paradise. The whole of Scripture took on a new meaning, and whereas before “the righteousness of God” had filled me with hate, now it became to me inexpressibly sweet in greater love. This message of Paul became to me a gateway into heaven. I am quite sure you know this monk. His name is Martin Luther. The discovery that he made that day not only changed his life, but would lead to the greatest reformation in the history of the Church. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Wittenberg door, he launched revival fires that spread across 16th-century Europe.
An Anglican’s Encounter With the Book of Romans In the evening of May 24, 1738, a young Anglican minister ventured out to attend a meeting with some Moravians who were gathering at Barclays Bank on Aldersgate Street in London. This young man had started his religious career with such high expectations. He had graduated from Oxford, where he had been a member of a radical group of Christians called the “Holy Club,” a club started by his younger brother. From there he crossed the ocean to work with the Indians in the state of Georgia. He then returned to England in despair and disillusionment because of his lack of spiritual power. As the troubled young man walked into the meeting that night, the most notable event in 18th-century English history was only seconds away. As he was sitting there in the meeting, someone began to read from Luther’s Preface to the Book of Romans, where he describes what happens when people open their hearts in simple faith toward the living God. That young man was John Wesley. In his own style, the young minister wrote these classic words: I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. The warmth that was generated in his heart that night was about to set all England ablaze with glorious revival. At the age of 35, his life was changed, and there would be no going back to the old ways of religion. The direction for his life was now set on a new path—one that would focus on this message of faith in Christ. He would know for the rest of his life that the God who is reflected in the face of Jesus Christ had come down to earth to visit him and had done for Wesley precisely what he could never have done for himself. His earlier zeal for holy living would remain with him, but it would be enhanced with an intense thankfulness for the grace and mercy given to him—a grace and mercy that was not based upon any work that he had ever done, but on Christ’s work alone.
It is in the mind that we wrestle with the spiritual and carnal nature. Because we have the power to choose, we find ourselves engaged in the daily battle of deciding between life and death. “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). Many give their lives to Christ believing that all they have to do is attend church on Sunday, turn over all their problems to God, and subsequently, God will keep the conflict and they then get to go home to live free from their problems. Au contraire, it doesn’t work like that. You can’t just take your sin and your circumstances to the Lord and leave them in some mythical place, thinking that this will resolve the conflict. It is natural that when you give your life to Christ you want to be free of all your issues. You come to Him seeking peace and a refuge from the troubling storms of life that daily permeate your existence. You want to leave them somewhere far, far away. So, you take them to the altar to leave them with God. But, where is the altar if it is not in you? The only altar on which you can lay your troubles is the altar within you. If God is in you, then He is the one who introduces the conflict in order that when you meet God at that place of surrender (the altar), He can begin to replace those things that have always caused conflict between your carnal or sinful desires and the will of the spirit. It is important to understand that your struggle is not with the devil; it is with God, for God has set you up, through the introduction of conflict into your life, in order to bring you to a place of maturity. It is God who often initiates conflict in our lives (except for that self-induced conflict that comes from our own immaturity). Since God is in humanity, when we meet Him at the internal altar, it is in our own minds and hearts where God begins to replace the sinful desires that are inherent in us. How does He do that? He must replace the old mind with a new mind that will now desire spiritual things. In seeking Christ, we eventually discover the freedom we have always longed for.
We are then Set Free indeed!
For the believer ‘the mind of Christ’
Corinthians 2:16 For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? “But we have the mind of Christ.”
For the believer a mind that is constantly being renewed.
You can't grow in your Christian life if you keep the Bible closed all week long. No one lives on one meal a week, yet many Christians try to get by with just a Sunday dinner of the Word served up by their pastor. How can we expect God's truth to do its transforming work if we never let it into our minds and hearts?
The potential of possessing the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16) introduces the scandal of today’s church—Christians who do not think Christianly, leaving our minds undisciplined. The Apostle Paul understood this well: “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Philippians 4:8). Each ingredient is a matter of personal choice. You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be influenced by that which you do not know.
There is a battle going on inside you between your old, sinful nature and your new nature that comes from Christ. If you want to win this battle, you’re going to have to change the way you think. THE 5-SECOND RULE Note carefully in the 2 Corinthians 10:5 passage the phrase “bringing every thought into captivity.” An outstanding Bible teacher once gave this wonderful word of caution: When one of those defeating thoughts enters your mind, you’ve got about 5 seconds to “take that thought captive.” If you don’t… that thought is going to take YOU captive!
Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Consider the loss of appetite most believers have for God.
When our minds are not being renewed by God’s truth then they are unguarded and susceptible to things which are detrimental and counter to sanctification.
The Scriptures point to the truth that our minds are the anchor of our heart.
God wants us to keep our minds:
Philippians 4:8, 9 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.”
There are six things in this text that Paul sets forth for us to practice
1) “Whatever is true?” God’s Word is truth!
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’”
If we are to live as those who have the truth of God and not the falsehood of the world then we will change our thinking so that it no longer engages in those things which are irrational but will rationally foster thoughts that proceed from God and not sinful man.
2) “Whatever is honorable?”
Honorable comes from the Greek word ‘semna’ meaning to worship or revere. When our thoughts are reverent they are dignified, serious and holy in origin.
Titus 2:2 “Older men are to be sober minded, dignified, self controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.”
Titus 2:7 “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.”
As believers we should think thoughts that are characterized by a moral reality that surpasses anything that this world would call dignified.
2 Peter 1:5 “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge,”
3) “Whatever is just?”
What we deem as ‘just’ or ‘right’ is often seen through eyes of selfishness and self preservation.
When we become believers our definition of what is ‘right’ or ‘fair’ changes because it is no longer defined by our character but by the character of God.
4) “Whatever is pure?”
The word ‘pure’ comes from the Greek word ‘hagna’.
Pure things are those things that do not contaminate oneself or others.
We are to have thoughts that are morally pure.
Do your mental deeds lead you to do things that are morally good or bad?
We should not harbor thoughts that are sinful or dishonorable to God.
Psalms 12:6 “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.”
5) “Whatever is lovely?”
When our thoughts are ethically beautiful they produce peace.
Means to be agreeable with one another and not irritable in how we think about things.
When people talk with you what do they take away from your conversations?
Do they see you as someone that they enjoy being with?
A mind that is ‘lovely’ is neither unkind, nor does it have the disposition of finding fault with everything.
A ‘lovely’ mind thinks thoughts of reconciliation and not divisiveness.
A ‘lovely’ mind knows the truth but does not use that as an occasion to cause a brother to stumble or as leverage for one’s own personal agenda
6) “Whatever is commendable?”
Do people see you as someone who is well spoken of?
When people talk to you, do the things which proceed from your mouth speak from a mind that is of good report?
Proverbs 10:31 “The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. 32 The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.”
What proceeds out of our mouths should be those things which are commendable and a testimony to the Lord and not the precepts of the world.
“Think about these things”
‘Think about these things’ comes from the Greek word ‘logizomai’ from which we get our mathematical word ‘logarithm’.
Paul is calling us, with the same fortitude that it takes to figure out a mathematical problem, to focus our minds on these six elements of right thinking.
Men, we need to be guarding our minds against the attacks of the evil one.
We must fill our minds with the things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely and commendable because we are those who now have the mind of Christ and have the capacity to live out our lives in obedience to God.
If we’re thinking what’s right, we can’t be thinking what’s wrong.
Notice that the result of focusing our minds on God (Isa 26:3) is peace, the opposite of war. We can be victorious in the battle with Satan for our minds. When we are, we will find our minds at peace with God. That prepares us to worship and serve Him with all of our hearts and minds.
Philippians 4: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”
Practice makes perfect. ‘We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’ “Aristotle” If we’re thinking what’s right, we can’t be thinking what’s wrong.
Holiness of mind:
The spiritual disciplines of holiness begin with the mind.
Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
As men we must be careful what we allow into our minds via the eyes and ears.
‘Your own mind is a sacred enclosure into which nothing harmful can enter except by your promotion.’ “Ralph Waldo Emerson”
‘So we must lay down as fundamental to our Christianity this truth: a Christian mind demands conscious negation; a Christian mind is impossible without the discipline of refusal.”
Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
Make boundaries and stick to them.
Daniel 1:8 “But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself.”
Modern day media programming is one of the greatest enemies of the Christian mind.
What do you allow in your home?
You are the gatekeeper of the home.
Whatever you allow into your mind will infect your life and those in your home.
Intentional programming:
It is good to keep things out of your mind which do not belong.
It is even better to put things into your mind that make positive changes.
Renewing of our minds happens by filling our lives with God’s truth.
Ephesians 6:10-20 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”
The sword of the Spirit shapes and forms our minds.
You can never have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures regularly. Sunday sermon is good but not enough.
You must feed yourself, allowing God to teach you directly through His Word. Good Christian literature to renew your mind.
The more we study God’s Word and the more we read Christian literature the more God develops a hunger to know Him more.
Pray now committing your mind to God and asking Him to help you be aware of the ways Satan is attacking you in this area.
Pray continuously throughout the day to rid your mind of the empty or destructive thoughts and to replace them with positive, constructive ones.
Pray God will use your victories to encourage others that are in the battle of their mind.
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Names
Apr 26, 2015 22:05:55 GMT -5
Post by calfisher on Apr 26, 2015 22:05:55 GMT -5
Names
(Have you ever been the first to witness a great event -- a truly world-shaking event, whose consequences would reach the furthest corners of the Earth? Have you ever imagined what it would be like to be that first witness, and to know that you were witnessing history being made?)
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Census has always been an irritant. There are many -- I am one -- who feel it to be intrusive, however necessary it might be. And the costs, both to the government and to the individuals it enumerates, should not be discounted.
I have the trust of certain highly placed persons. Because of my reputation for thoroughness and integrity, at the outset of the last two censuses, the tetrarch has assigned me the supervision of a district. I took advantage of this to tell him of the grumblings the census causes. On the first occasion he assured me that the complaints I heard were the braying of asses, nothing more. Census had never caused a revolt and would cause none. This last time he was slower to respond.
On my way back to Jerusalem with my tallies, I decided to take lodging at a country inn rather than travel through the night. The proprietors knew me from previous encounters. Well that it was so, for there was only one room left and a goodly throng clamoring for it. I tried to be unobtrusive about securing it for myself, but a few noticed and protested as vigorously as their fatigue would allow. To avert the disturbance, I slipped out of the common room as quickly and quietly as I could. When I'd divested myself of my bags, I descended the back stairs to wander the hills until my mind had quieted enough to allow me to sleep.
A census marshal has absolute authority over the procedures to be used in his district. Knowing the popular sentiment, I took the inconveniences upon myself. I went from town to town, consulting with local magistrates and figures of prominence, and took the count without requiring anything of the people save their names.
The local officials were always glad to see me go. What would be required of them and their neighbors afterward, of course, was money. Census is always about money: how many folk there are, and how prosperous, and what levy can be exacted of them without provoking an insurrection.
By the size and surliness of the throng on the roads that day, and at the inn, I knew I was passing through a district whose marshal was not so kindly disposed. As the law permitted, he'd ordered the people to come to him. He'd imposed enormous discomfort upon every man of that region, rather than burden himself with the dust and expense of my sort of circuit.
It was not a happy place.
In passing through a crowd, I am forever speculating. Which among these, I ask myself, is known to his neighbors as a person of substance? Which is reviled for his indulgences, or held in contempt for his dissolution? Which among them is known outside his village, and why? Which of them will become known? Which of them, by dint of deeds mighty or monstrous, will climb to stand on the shoulders of history? Which will change our world?
Usually it's a way of passing the dreary times, no more.
The day had provided me with copious fodder. There was an old man in a dirty samite robe, stooped nearly double from years of toil, who leaned so heavily upon his staff as he walked that I feared it might break beneath him. Yet when his wife addressed him in a manner he disapproved, he straightened like a spring suddenly unbound and struck her across the face with that same staff, to send her to the ground bleeding and blubbering. There was a merchant, a large, solid man in a rich cloak of gabardine, who intervened uninvited in a loud dispute between a traveler and a street peddler, to counsel them to moderation. They turned their wrath from one another to him, hurling the foulest of epithets into his face until he left them to resume their profitless quarrel. There was a tall youth of perhaps twenty, with a face of chiseled perfection and a body like unto the Greeks' statues of their gods. He strode smiling through the world as if he owned everything in it, and all marveled at his beauty as he passed. Yet when a raddled old harlot beckoned to him in terms too vulgar even to think them onto this page, he did not respond with derision or scorn. He stopped and went to her, spoke to her softly, pressed a coin into her hand, and passed on.
Of which of these would I hear again? Any? None?
Even if it should happen, I would not know. I did not know their names. My acquaintance with names was a professional one, confined to the tallies I carried in my saddlebags.
The Sun had dropped below the horizon, and the hills were growing cold. The traffic on the road to the city had dwindled to nothing. Outside the inn, the stragglers for whom there was no accommodation crouched and huddled against its southern wall, making what provisions they could for a night of unplanned exposure. In the near distance a shepherd surrendered his staff to his son and trudged back to his hovel for an evening meal.
Movers? Shakers? Doers of mighty deeds? Icons of superlative virtue or courage?
Not likely.
Even those acclaimed as such by the world often struck me as persons elevated to their stations by blind chance, rather than merit. One night, deep in his cups, a patrician of my acquaintance admitted as much to me. He called his chamberlain a more able man by far. In a better world, he allowed, their positions would have been reversed. I agreed, though I forebore to say so.
I passed no judgments. I was no mover nor shaker. I was a functionary, an industrious keeper of tablets with a gift for inspiring confidence in those of higher station, nothing more. No deed of mine would disturb the world's slumbers. My name would not be recorded in an annal of greatness nor praised from a tall tower.
There was some comfort in it.
The night grew cold. The clouds receded from the southern sky, and the stars brought their pale glory to that humblest of places. I headed back to the inn, with no thoughts but of a mug of mead and an early bed.
A faint commotion arose as I passed the stables. The doors were closed, of course, but human sounds issued from within. I stopped and laid my ear against the wind-worn wood. A woman was panting with increasing urgency. A male voice murmured repeated exhortations to courage.
It climaxed with a great cry, followed by a lesser one: the unmistakable wail of a newborn child. The tallies for that district would be augmented by one.
One what? Shepherd? Peddler? Laborer? Surely not a rich merchant, whose hands would flow with gold and whose path would be strewn with obsequies lifelong. Surely not a prince of the realm, whose stern gaze and unblinking eye would strike fear into lesser men and command them to instant obedience. Not a mover nor a shaker. Such were not born in stables.
I swung back the stable door and slipped inside. No one noticed.
There were only the three: man, woman, and child. A single frail candle burned against the back wall of the stable, casting their silhouettes at me like inverted shadows. The woman had wrapped the baby in a loose cocoon of white muslin, leaving only its head exposed, and was laying it in the feed-trough that stood between the rows of stalls. She straightened, stepped back, and wordlessly collapsed into the man's arms.
Around the little tableau, the horses were silent.
I stepped forward, started to address the couple, and stopped. He cradled her in his lap, his arms tight about her, his face ablaze with uxorious devotion. Her eyes, large and luminous, were fixed upon her new child.
It took all my strength to produce a voice. "Do you... require anything?"
Her gaze remained locked upon her child. He assessed me with a glance and nodded with a certainty I could not help but envy.
"Some water, perhaps."
I nodded and started for the inn, but something held me. I bent to the feed-trough, pulled the muslin back from the tiny face and looked into it, not knowing why or what I hoped to see.
The baby's eyes were open.
The eyes of the newborn are never open.
They were large, and dark, yet filled with the light of a million stars, and more knowledge than I had seen in the eyes of any man, high or low. They held recognition and regal acceptance.
I know you for what you are, that infant gaze said. Without knowing, you have sought me, and now I have come for you, and for all those like you. The humble and the just. Though you know not my name, though it be the least of the tallies for this census, and not even one of yours, when you hear it you will know it at once. On a day not far off I shall summon you, and instruct you in the ways of truth and righteousness, and together we will awaken this weary world to a dawn of hope.
The eyes closed. I stood and backed away.
"I'll fetch water," I whispered. Neither husband nor wife stirred. I slipped out of the stable and closed the door behind me.
The common room of the inn was crowded and painfully noisy. There were far too many folk there for its size. Servants moved quickly through the room with mugs, plates and coarse blankets, stumbling here and there, receiving muttered thanks or none at all. I stood at the arch to the kitchen and waited to be noticed.
"Is there water?"
A young girl turned away from the pot she was stirring and looked up at a portly man tending a large oven. He nodded. She filled an ewer from a dip well and presented it to me in both hands. I took it and thanked her.
"There's a couple in the stables..."
The man nodded. "We know."
"She's given birth."
"Is she well? And her baby?"
"I think so."
He took a loaf from a high shelf and brought it to me. "We haven't much left. The first harvest won't be soon enough for me. But we do what we can, as little as that may be."
I smiled. "It will serve."
He nodded and returned to his labors.
The family in the stable was as I had left it. The child was asleep. The man accepted the bread and water with grave thanks. He was dividing it with his wife as I left them.
We all do what we can. For some that is more than for others, but no effort is to be shirked. I was far from my place of resource, but that did not excuse me from my portion.
What of the child in the manger? What would his portion be?
I had met a great one at last. A king of kings, one whose proper place would be at the head of every table.
I hoped I might live to see him rise to his estate, but if I did not, it would be of little moment. I had seen him enter the world. That would be enough.
Jerusalem was a day's ride away. The next day I delivered the census rolls, and remarked again to the tetrarch how noisome and costly the census had proved, not for myself but for the least among his subjects. He thanked me with his usual courtesy, well beyond that owed to a lowly recordsmith, and bade me return to my usual duties. But each day since then I have remembered the child, and wondered what his name, the name I would know as I heard it, would prove to be.
Francis William Michael Ettore
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