"Renewing the Mind"
There must be a spiritual
renewal of your thoughts and attitudes.
Ephesians 4:23
Once a rabbi decided to test the level of obedience in his disciples, so he called them together and posed a question. "What would you do if you were walking along and found a purse full of money lying in the road?" he asked. "I'd return it to its owner," said the disciple. "His answer comes so quickly, I must wonder if he really means it," the rabbi thought. "I'd keep the money if nobody saw me find it," said another. "He has a frank tongue, but a wicked heart," the rabbi told himself. "Well, Rabbi," said a third disciple, "to be honest, I believe I'd be tempted to keep it. So I would pray to God that he give me the strength to resist such a temptation and to be obedient in doing the right thing." "Aha!" thought the rabbi. "Here is the man I would trust."
Science has proven the human mind never shifts into neutral. Like a computer, the mind receives and processes life giving miracle producing thoughts from God and fear based thoughts from surrounding worldly influences. Out of this database of thoughts, what we allow ourselves to meditate on will manifest in our lives. If we don't discipline our minds by replacing fear with faith, these fear based thoughts will manifest undesirable results in our lives. Job was an example of this. After severe calamity happened in his life, Job said, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true." (Job 3:25)
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What the mind attends to, the mind considers.
What the mind constantly considers, the mind believes.
What the mind believes, the mind eventually does.
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Science has proven the human mind never shifts into neutral. Like a computer, the mind receives and processes life giving miracle producing thoughts from God and fear based thoughts from surrounding worldly influences. Out of this database of thoughts, what we allow ourselves to meditate on will manifest in our lives. If we don't discipline our minds by replacing fear with faith, these fear based thoughts will manifest undesirable results in our lives. Job was an example of this. After severe calamity happened in his life, Job said, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true." (Job 3:25)
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What the mind attends to, the mind considers.
What the mind constantly considers, the mind believes.
What the mind believes, the mind eventually does.
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Renewing the mind involves replacing fear based thought patterns with faith based patterns. This process involves exchanging our thoughts with God's thoughts. The Bible is the Word of God or His thoughts recorded for us, so studying scripture renews our minds. The process of discovering fear based thoughts includes listening to ourselves and studying our actions. Every spoken word or behavior is the by-product of a thought. What we say produces either life or death in our lives. Because our words are a powerful creative force.
If we want to control what comes into our minds, we have to do more than just not think about the wrong things. If we become obsessed with trying to control wrong thoughts and we think to ourselves, “I don’t want to think a wrong thought,” that wrong thought is going to pop into our minds repeatedly against our will. The solution is not to try to stop thinking about wrong thoughts, but to provide a stream of positive life giving information found in scripture that replaces them. “If the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life." (Romans 8:6) In this renewal process, recognizing and then releasing our fears into God's care will prevent them from manifesting in our lives.
1. Is the entertainment industry creating fear?
If we want to control what comes into our minds, we have to do more than just not think about the wrong things. If we become obsessed with trying to control wrong thoughts and we think to ourselves, “I don’t want to think a wrong thought,” that wrong thought is going to pop into our minds repeatedly against our will. The solution is not to try to stop thinking about wrong thoughts, but to provide a stream of positive life giving information found in scripture that replaces them. “If the Holy Spirit controls your mind, there is life." (Romans 8:6) In this renewal process, recognizing and then releasing our fears into God's care will prevent them from manifesting in our lives.
1. Is the entertainment industry creating fear? TV, movies, videos, magazines, and music can create fear based beliefs that can steal our dreams and produce a dissatisfaction with our abilities, relationships, possessions, and/or appearance. All media forms are something like "junk food" for the soul. The diet we feed ourselves is totally within our control through our viewing and listening choices. If we indulge in a steady diet of junk food, we lack the solid nutrients that are essential for healthy thought patterns. Philippians 4:8 lists the “soul healthy” elements which help guide us in our entertainment choices: "What is true and honorable and right… things that are pure and lovely and admirable… things that are excellent and worthy of praise."
The entertainment industry provides an "all you can eat" buffet of junk food that can direct our focus from a love based perspective into a fear based focus. The entertainment industry looks at each person like a trophy size fish. If we become hooked by their alluring bait, we are slowly reeled in closer and closer. Their goal is to control our behavior through fear based propaganda and sensationalism.
Now, with your eyes opened to the aspects of soul junk food, you will no longer be uneducated about the entertainment industry's baited hooks. Instead, you'll use good judgment by keeping your eyes open and discerning to enticing bait. Jesus said, "If you know these things, which I have taught you, blessed are you if you do them." (John 13:17). It is not the believing in his teachings, but the doing them that blesses one's life. As you keep your heart and mind free of fear through good choices, you will discover the answer to the question Are You a Misfit?
Read the next chapter: Are You a Misfit? or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action ____________________________________________________________________________
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net
'No Longer Doubting', is an excerpt from the book "Jesus Freaks" and used with permission, 1999. By Voice of the Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com) and DC Talk; published by Albury Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The entertainment industry provides an "all you can eat" buffet of junk food that can direct our focus from a love based perspective into a fear based focus. The entertainment industry looks at each person like a trophy size fish. If we become hooked by their alluring bait, we are slowly reeled in closer and closer. Their goal is to control our behavior through fear based propaganda and sensationalism.
Now, with your eyes opened to the aspects of soul junk food, you will no longer be uneducated about the entertainment industry's baited hooks. Instead, you'll use good judgment by keeping your eyes open and discerning to enticing bait. Jesus said, "If you know these things, which I have taught you, blessed are you if you do them." (John 13:17). It is not the believing in his teachings, but the doing them that blesses one's life. As you keep your heart and mind free of fear through good choices, you will discover the answer to the question Are You a Misfit?
Read the next chapter: Are You a Misfit? or choose a title below.
Knowing God Power of Prayer Spiritual Warfare Glossary
Born to Love Renew the Mind Crisis Help What Readers Are Saying
Divine Connection Are You a Misfit? Love in Action ____________________________________________________________________________
Scriptures quotations taken from the New Living Translation® (NLT) Bible. Copyright © 1996 Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
CJB denotes scripture quotations taken from the Complete Jewish Bible® (CJB) Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern and used with the permission of Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., P.O. Box 615, Clarksville, Maryland 21029. This Bible is available through Messianic Jewish Resources at: MessianicJewish.net
'No Longer Doubting', is an excerpt from the book "Jesus Freaks" and used with permission, 1999. By Voice of the Martyrs (http://www.persecution.com) and DC Talk; published by Albury Publishing, Tulsa, Oklahoma.