In This Issue:
A Tale of Two Minds
Our Thoughts
As We Think
A Recipe for Health
Volume: 911 June 19, 2023
Theme: Thoughtlife
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A Tale of Two Minds
Bill Brinkworth
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” II Corinthians 5:17
After one is saved, it is often argued that a child of God is “brainwashed. After having a lifetime of being filled with godless, worldly philosophies and unhealthy ideas, most brains need to be washed of unscriptural influences.
When one is saved, he becomes a new creature (II Cor. 5:17) with a new mind. Examine some of what the Bible says about the new, godly mind:
A godly mind should have desires and thinking similar to Christ’s. As the acronym WWJD suggests: What would Jesus Do? What would He do if He were in the situation in which you find yourself? We should have thinking patterns similar to those of the Son of God.
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” I Corinthians 2:16
A godly mind wants to please God.
It shares the desires that God has instilled in it. An unsaved person cannot experience this. This is why they do not understand the different thinking of a Christian.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” Hebrews 8:10 Also: I Peter 1:13, 3:8.
A godly mind should be an eager, willing one desiring to serve God and follow His leadership.
When Nehemiah took on the task of rebuilding the place to worship God, he was successful because there were people helping him with a mind to work. Work for God will not grow if people do not desire to work to accomplish the desires He has put in their hearts.
“So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work.” Nehemiah 4:6
David had a deep desire to build a place of worship. Because his background involved much bloodshed, God would not allow him to build the temple. Solomon, David’s son, could build it, according to God. David put his energies into getting the materials to build it, so the place of worship could be built. His godly mindset was to build a place to worship God even if he was not allowed to build it. The leader was determined to help another construct it. We need to have similar thinking in accomplishing something for the Lord.
“And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God:” I Chronicles 22:7
A godly mind should be a remembering mind. This mind remembers the spiritual lessons it was taught. It is a mind that can hear and understand the words and urgings of God. It is a spiritually sensitive mindset.
An example is Peter. Peter was not standing up for Jesus as he should have, but he remembered what he was told.
“And the second time the cock crew. And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept.” Mark 14:72 A “remembering” mind can be convicted of God’s will and way.
A godly mind is a “right” mind. When Jesus healed the demoniac, he put the man in his “right mind.” This implies there is such a thing as a “wrong mind.”
“And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.” Mark 5:15
Here is how God defines a wrong, ungodly mind:
An ungodly mind is a forgetful mind. No, I am not referring to the aged mind that forgets what it did yesterday. I am referring to a mind that chooses not to remember the things of God that it has already learned. That mindset does not want to hear the convicting voice of God.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Romans 1:28
An ungodly mind is a prideful mind. King Nebuchadnezzar had such a mind, and God taught him a painful lesson. The King learned the hard way who was responsible for his success.
“But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:” Daniel 5:20 Also: Romans 12:16
An ungodly mind is a reprobate mind. Its thoughts and desires are abandoned to sin. The commission of sin does not bother one’s conscience.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Romans 1:28
The world has often influenced an ungodly mind, or it has never had any godly precepts put into it. It prioritizes the temporary glitter the world offers more than it does living for the Lord and pleasing Him.
“Because the carnal mind is enmity [opposite of friendship] against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7
Are you a child of God? If so, there is no guarantee that our minds will have the proper thinking. We have to guard our thought-life and fill it with godly influences. As is often said to explain computer data errors, “Garbage in, garbage out!”
Are godly influences going into your mind? Are you letting that mindset lead you? Christian, is your mind the mind of Christ He intends it to be?
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” Philippians 2:5
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” — Proverbs 23:7
Our thoughts make us. They are the silent builders of the temple of character we are rearing. They give color and form to the entire building.
If we think properly, we are rearing a fabric whiter than Parian marble. If our thoughts are evil, the fabric rising within us is blemished.
The inner and the outer life will always correspond in the end. An evil heart will work through to the surface.
If a man’s life is righteous, you know his thoughts are just. Unjust thoughts will never yield righteousness in conduct.
Thoughts seem mere nothings. They are like flecks of cloud flying through the air and like flocks of birds flittering by and are gone. However, they are the most natural things about our life.
Our thoughts fly out like birds and take their place in the world. Our heart is still their home-nest, where they may return to dwell.
“The mind grows by what it feeds on.” — Holland
As We Think
Daniel Robbins, War Cry
The mind is like a crowded street
Where phantom thoughts like people meet;
Some hard at work, some idle are,
Some stay at home, some wander far.
Some thoughts wield power that ever lives
A power that inspiration gives,
While others dwell with us awhile,
Then pass, as transient as a smile.
Thus, come and go these thoughts of ours,
Some perfume-laden as the flowers,
While others sear our lives with blight
And bring no pleasure or delight.
Our thinking lifts us to the stars,
Or seals our hearts with prison bars
Confers on us both joy and strife,
For as we think we fashion life.
“He that never thinks, never can be wise.” — Johnson
A Recipe for Health
Gospel Herald
“We do not advance upward unless we yearn upward,” it has been said. Our thoughts shape our lives. We grow little or big by the ideals we cherish and the thoughts upon which we dwell.
“Avoid worry, anger, fear, hate, and all abnormal and depressing mental states,” said an eminent authority on health. This victory over harmful thoughts cannot be achieved by suppressing these feelings but by supplanting them with proper thinking, which is becoming the followers of Jesus Christ and the outgrowth of a close walk with the Lord.
“Thinkers think, and doers do. But, until the thinkers do and the doers think, progress will be just another word in the already overburdened vocabulary of the talkers who talk.” — Author Unknown