|
|
HOME
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- WAR ROOM -
THE GOSPEL
- BIBLE
STUDY - MORAL
ISSUES - KING
JAMES BIBLE - CULTS |
EVERY IMAGINATION OF THEIR HEARTS WAS EVIL CONTINUALLYThe
sin that destroyed nearly the whole world's population..... |
In
a practical sense, imagination is very dangerous. It convinces artists they are
geniuses, inventors they are misunderstood, and ordinary people that they can
assemble furniture without instructions.
|
Perhaps you can remember someone whom you watched destroy himself by evil and obsessive use of his own imagination. What we must understand is that we too can be sent into self-destruction mentally by God if we let our imagination run amuck and give in to the narcotic of evil thoughts.
Michael Faraday "Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature."
So, fantasy is not benign. Our thought processes lead to something, either Christian victory or destruction of the mind. And, God will not force us to control our minds. He gives us plenty of help and encouragement in his Word to help us bring our minds into captivity to Christ, but God will NOT force you to think straight. Do not let some Calvinist tell you that God is sovereign over your mind. God stepped back and let Eve make up her own mind about eating of the forbidden fruit. He gave you a choice to do good or evil with your mind because you are created in his image. Every act of God starts in his divine mind and goes outward to glorify him. Every action, event, spoken word, or anything else we do starts in our imagination, and we are 100% responsible for the results.
And, stop blaming the devil. He cannot read your mind, and he cannot control your mind. All he can do is present an outside temptation to you. What you do next mentally with the temptation is YOUR responsibility.
RUMINATION
Rumination: This is the process of over thinking and becoming obsessed with issues in one's life mentally. Rumination is almost always done to excess when we are alone. Any distraction is thus welcomed to break up the flow and eventual slavery to too much thinking.
Ruminant:
This is any animal, like cows, camels, hippos, buffalo, and many antelope which regurgitate the contents of their stomach and chew it over and over several times.So, when we become slaves of over thinking, we are chewing our mental cud. That does not sound like an innocent habit, right?
What is the topic of most rumination?
Answer: Trouble. Issues that have gone badly for us with other people. Issues of obligations that are looming in the future. Issues of our sins we have done which haunt us. Issues of family squabbles. Issues of disagreement at work, school, church, or in our own family.
We go over and over the thing, and we often carry on a fantasy debate or accusation by someone with whom we have a problem. We cover every angle, speculating what the other person will say when we will put the hammer to them. It never ends because the permutations of human interaction are endless, so we have to cover every angle with a winning argument.
Do not tell me you have never heard of this. Rumination is the scourge of all of humanity, and your culture and nationality does not give you immunity.
I brought this up because rumination is the ultimate form of the imagination run amuck. The mind envisions and speculates every possible twist of life and interaction with other people, and the thing never seems to go away. Finally, we realize how utterly worthless this rumination is, and we cry out to God to deliver us. He provides a way of escape. And then, we soon find out that our best intentions betray us and we dive right back into this defeating habit.
Where can out-of-control rumination lead you?
Answer: OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). You go on and on mentally running the same old soap opera of life, with the people in your life, until you start believing something very bad, and maybe even physical, is about to happen to you. Or you conclude that you have already done some treacherous thing to harm others or yourself. Rumination is where you go to try to solve a problem that probably does not even exist or would be best left unsolved.
HERE IS HOW IT WORKS- TED talk by Tauscha Johanson
The key to deal with rumination is to interrupt the pattern NOW, not later. It is not harmless. It has been known to lead to suicide or criminal acts.
I hope you watched the video above all the way through. What you may have already figured out is that you have a monster in you mind demanding to be fed. The monster feeds on endless cycles of desperate thinking about possible outcomes of virtually anything your mind imagines could go wrong. The longer you keep up these cycles, the bigger and more hungry the monster becomes.
Not getting rumination under control can lead to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and bondage to a mind eating monster.
It is time to starve the monster.
1 Kings 19:9 And he (Elijah) came thither unto a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah?
10 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.I guarantee you that Elijah did not come to the conclusion he was the only person in Israel left who feared God in one hour or one day. He must have spent many hours ruminating over the evil of Ahab and Jezebel and all the Israelites whom he very well knew worshipped Baal. The more he thought about it, the more lonely he got until he was the only one left who loved God..... he thought.
11 And he (the Lord) said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?
14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.1 Kings 19:18 (God answered Elijah) Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
This was no simple minded silly boy. He was a mighty prophet, chosen by God to do great works of faith and power for God. Do not assume you are a mental giant who can let his mind go into endless rumination and not end up in trouble.
So, God came to Elijah, first in a mighty wind, then in an earthquake, and finally in a still small voice. After this, Elijah got over the mullygrubs and went back to serving God.
The key to defeat rumination is the still small voice of God.
Where can we hear that voice?
The Bible- Read it out loud or bring up an audible Bible reading site online.
Old hymns of the faith sung without rock and rage genre
A Christian friend who is not having a rumination problem like you are
Praying to God
Singing to God- Find a source to buy the hymn book you use at church.
Sitting or walking in the creation
Doing some random act of kindness to anyoneIn other words, you need to give your mind over to one or more of the God-given distractions in the list above. I have a serious battle with rumination, so do not send me email arguing with me please. I know the battlefield well.
I find that playing old hymns from the web takes my mind to useful places. I also like to buy a hamburger, and go to the park and eat it sitting at a picnic table. I take my own drink along in a Thermos. Sit where you can watch some kids playing on playground equipment. Just going outdoors and sitting on the lawn glider works wonders for my mind. On very hot or cold days I walk on a walking machine in the home. But, I am facing a large window view of a green back yard. The best walk is when the temperature is friendly, and I walk on our road in the country. But, even walking around the block in the city gets you out where all sorts of things can distract your mind.
But, the best therapy for rumination and OCD is to open the Bible and read things God wants to say to you. Stay out of the Psalms where King David is feeling sorry for himself. They are useful, but for other times. Read just about anywhere in the Bible where God is giving you history or teaching from the Apostles. You cannot go wrong reading from one of the four Gospels about your Savior. Look for times he must have been tempted to worry, be anxious, and ruminate about what could go wrong..... but, he didn't.
|
SELF-LOVE- "We are superior."
Possibly the most deadly use of our God-given imagination is when we start thinking about how important we are now, and how we can convince people to exalt us. Politicians do this every time they speak. They talk and talk about what they have accomplished, and they are masters of taking any good thing that happens in the flow of life and claiming they made it happen. If the Stock Market goes up, the US President claims it was because of his fiscal policy. If it goes down, he blames the opposition or the last President before him.
The imaginations of tyrants like Adolph Hitler are first formed as they see themselves in the future becoming powerful and feared by the masses. There is even some attempt to pretend that they want to do people good as they exalt themselves. But, that seems to fall along the wayside as time passes. Once they gain the power they imagined, they forget any good intentions they once had. Do you see where the imagination can take us if it is not sanctified by God?
Here is a man whose imagination ran away with him:
Isaiah 14:10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.Note in verse 13 that Lucifer, who is also Satan, was remunerating about becoming God. He never got to the point of action. God caught up with him before he was able to take action. And, God will catch up with you when your heart and mind start conniving to exalt yourself.
I suggest you make a covenant with your soul that, when you start thinking how much better you are then someone else, the alarm goes off so you can stop that mindset. It is very evil in God's eyes for you to compare yourself to another believer. The standard for the Bible believer, when considering himself, is Jesus, and NO ONE ELSE.
2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Preacher, do you teach your people by example to boast about your local church? That is of the devil. Your church is no better than any other church. Truth is better than error, but the church is the people. So, when your people go around town boasting of the superior aspect of your local church, you are all filled with pride and doing the work of Lucifer. No wonder you believe in "pastoral rule." He is the braggy little scum ball who loves to have the preeminence. You will soon be taken out by Satan because God will hand you over to the devil to chasten you.
It is time to stop thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.
Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Preachers, evangelists, missionaries, and deacons..... Until you see every other saint around you, including the good old boy who just got saved, as BETTER than you, you are in danger of going into mental illness or even under the control of an evil spirit.
Consider please: When did Jesus tell anyone he was better than they were? When did Jesus compare himself to other people? He knew who he was, and he did not worry about comparing himself to anyone. Think hard about that please.
While you are ruminating about how great you are, or how great you will be one day, you are totally missing the thinking process that will give you a happy and fulfilled life.
HERE IS REAL LIFE PROOF THAT YOU NEED TO STOP LOVING YOURSELF
AND BE A FRIENDIf the world can figure this out, how much more we, who claim to live for Christ, should think this way?
If you spend a lot of time in deep imagination about how you can find a quick fix, whether is it money, toys, being praised, or any other cheap social narcotic, you will soon have bad health, and you may end you life with serious dementia, sitting in the corner of the lounge of a nursing home drooling on yourself.
So, get you mind off of your lust for selfish cravings, and see if you can find ways to be with friends who will build you up and keep you going. The Lord's Church is a very good place to start. And, if you are in a local church where people do not look each other up between Sundays, MOVE to another church NOW.
Proverbs 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
While you are ruminating about how to have a great life, you are missing something extremely urgent. Grab hold please. This is revolutionary. While your mind is all about you, there are thousands of people out there who are very lonely, some to the point of desperation. And, YOU ARE NO USE TO GOD WHO WANTS THOSE LONELY PEOPLE TO HAVE A LIFE. If you have the joy of the Lord, and if you export it to others, you are fulfilling the law of Christ.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in describing his personal life objective:
1 Corinthians 9:19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
23 And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.Here is something I have learned that may help you: The sun does NOT rise every morning, circle three times around your shoulders, and set in glory in the evening.
Get out of yourself, and find a friend who will hold you accountable. Jesus will sanctify your zeal, and good things will happen.
The Apostle Paul talked about people who let their imagination rule there lives. If you see anything of you in this text, you are in deep trouble:
Romans 1:21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,If God calls you to lead the pack, you are a fool if you think the pack is all about you. This applies in the home, at school, at work, and in the Lord's Church. While you meditate on yourself, your eyes are not on Jesus, and your zeal is not to serve his Church.
Now this is the Law of the Jungle --
As old and as true as the sky;
And the Wolf that shall keep it may prosper,
But the Wolf that shall break it must die.
As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk
The Law runneth forward and back --
For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf,
And the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
- Rudyard KiplingYou may wonder why I used wolves to show the picture of the pastor and the church. I did that because a wolf Pack cannot function without a leader- alpha wolf, and the alpha wolf cannot survive alone. He will end up digging in the snow and eating moles and rats, and he will get the mange. The alpha wolf never gets to eat deer or elk if he is a loner without a pack. The chase demands the whole pack in order to take down an elk. If you want to eat venison, preacher, get down on your knees, and ask God to search your heart to see if you are leading or if Jesus is leading. Are you one of the local church pack, or are you a self-willed tyrant?
DO NOT tell me, preacher, that the members are following Jesus if they are following you. That is a Roman Catholic lie that brings into question your salvation. You are not the damned Pope. I have heard Fundamental Baptist preachers say that, and IT IS A LIE. No one ever followed Jesus with ANYONE between them and Jesus. If a Catholic person comes looking for deliverance from the Pope's hierarchy, they will be repulsed if you keep chattering about "pastoral rule."
John 12:20 And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast:
21 The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.Those Greeks knew who they wanted to follow. And, Philip did not push Jesus aside and tell the Greeks to follow him.
If the plain sense makes good sense, stop teaching some other sense.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.If the people follow you, pastor, instead of Jesus, you are leading them to Hell. The only One who must be followed by the sheep is the One who died to save the sheep, AND THAT IS NOT YOU. The Lord's Church is not a pyramid scheme with you up yonder at the top.
You have only one job description in Christ's Church:
John 21:16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Teach, teach, teach, and get out of the way of the Holy Ghost.
When Jesus is in control of you, and when HE defines you, his Church is not complete without you. But also, you are not complete without his Church.
So, when your imagination starts feasting on YOU, and when your imagination begins to build a monument to your greatness, slap it down. You are thinking with Lucifer who said, "I shall be like the Most High." Pardon my bad word usage, but, YOU MUST BE LIKE THE MOST LEAST. This applies to both the sheep and their pastor equally.
HE WHO WOULD SHINE MUST STAND BEHIND THE SUN (SON).
Please forgive me if I have been a bit restrained in my language here. There may be children reading this. I do hope I have stimulated your imagination a bit though.
There have been local churches which thrived for quite a while without a leading pastor. But, a pastor without a church is, by definition, not a pastor. A pastor without a church ends up starting an online ministry and faking it. Or he sells insurance. LESSON: Christ can keep his Church prospering without you, pastor. See if that helps you keep a bit more humble. You ask for proof? I submit to you the Brethren denomination. Many of them have elders who teach and no ruling pastor, and I know of Brethren churches that have thrived for many years. We used to have Sunday night sings with a neighboring Brethren church. They lacked nothing because they had the same Lord we had. I would have been a fool to imagine they were defective. I also know of local churches in Africa which persevered in victory without an official pastor.
Romans 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Imagine THAT!
AMUSEMENT-
Definition- A-Muse- Against Thinking-
Amusement or entertainment are the same. They are designed to give you comfort, laughs, and, in the world, a massage to your libido. This is what is happening in Contemporary Worship. The platform leaders and musicians design the event to work up your body, mind, and spirit into a large rush. This usually ends in you going into a sensual slump, swaying around, and flailing your arms in the air as wave after wave of emotion sweeps over the crowd. The fact that everyone around you is totally overpowered like you are gives you the mental ability to ignore the Holy Spirit who is screaming, "Blasphemy, stop it saint."
The same process is happening when you sit at a front table near the stage for the floor show at the Sands Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. And, the same thing is also happening when you watch porn online. Everything is centered on your libido, and the only thing that threatens the scene is the possibility of being caught by someone you pretend to love more than the filth before your eyes. The imagination is totally in gear, and nothing else matters. The Holy Spirit is shoved over in the corner of your mind, and he is told to shut up and wait until later when, for the thousandth time, you will repent and confess your sin. It is the calculated and fully intentional flight from the life of Christ. The woman at the well, whom Christ lead to repentance and victory, to you, becomes a candidate for molestation or worse.
Here is a contemporary worship service in the Bible:
Exodus 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
5 And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
6 And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:Aaron knew the power of imagination in the people. Notice verse 5- Aaron forged the pagan calf of gold, and then he built an altar in front of the pagan calf to try to give some Jehovah context to the pagan worship that would follow. The people loved it, got naked, and danced like mega church lunatics. This is what is called, in the Bible, MIXTURE. In modern theological language it is called syncretism. God hates mixture. He even forbid the Hebrew people from mixing two kinds of thread to make cloth. When the genre of the divil and Nashville are all mixed up with alleged Christian worship, God is enraged. There is NO way to have both pagan and godly content in Christian worship. What results is 100% pagan, and God pukes (Revelation 3:16).
The Gospel and Bourbon Street do not mix under the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Only with the help of the devil can you justify this mixture in your imagination. In Exodus above you just saw that mixture in religion results in lust. Later in the chapter we read that they took off their clothes and made themselves naked as they "worshiped." They also got to raging and shouting so wildly that, when Moses later heard their Contemporary Worship, he thought they were at war. Hello, are you getting it yet? Can you see this with your God given imagination?
So, when you give your mind to Contemporary Worship every Sunday morning, you are conditioning your mind to go to your groin. By lowering your imagination into Hell on Sunday, you set the stage for the porn fest every night of the following week.
Is there a place for amusement in Christian worship? Is it OK to let music leaders inspire you to descend into emotional frenzy and call it worship?
Answer: NO
Why are you hanging out with such people?
Where did you get the absurd notion that worship must make YOU feel good?
Christian worship is all about exalting God, NOT about giving you a rush. Imgine that.
Psalms 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
The first clue that your local church has abandoned God-fearing worship is, who is getting the glory? Do you and your friends tell other Christians you meet during the week, "You need to visit our church. We have fantastic music and worship leaders"? Or, do you tell them, "If you love to exalt God, you should join with us on Sunday morning."?
I am not talking to sloppy agape woke Liberal Christians. I am talking to Fundamental Baptist King James Bible only people. And, I am talking to Heidelburg, Westminster, and Belgique Confession Reformed members of the consistory. I am talking to you Charismatics who claim to be sinlessly perfect and anointed and champions of the "Full Gospel."
If there is a lot of bragging and boasting about one another in your church, you are actually inhaling the fumes of Hell rising up into the mausoleum of the tomb you call your church. It is a whitewashed sepulcher.
You see, my dear reader, YOU are the one who must take charge of YOUR mind. God does not force your mind into submission to his will and glory. Like this.....
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 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.Controlling your mind is not about saying, "Here I am God, do it to me."
Your body goes where your mind goes. Control the mind, and the body will never offend God, OR you, again. Let the mind go where the flesh and the devil run the show, and the body ends up in the wrong crowd, the wrong fun, and the wrong bed. Contemporary worship is foreplay with a thin candy shell of pious words. Read that last sentence again please.
Your senses, and your imagination, turn on your libido. Your choice! Take charge of your mind. Which means, start planning to be in places, and with people, who also have their own minds under control. You desperately need friends who are stronger and more godly than you..... friends who will call you away from the flesh and the devil. I have known people who consistently chose friends who were weaker than they were. Who will inspire you to better thoughts and choices if your friends are all just getting started in the Christian life?
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
FIND A FRIEND WHO WILL CHEER WHEN YOU HAVE VICTORY AND STOP YOU WHEN YOU ARE DESTROYING YOURSELF.
Now, does your church, and your pastor, lead you on to living in victory, AND do they stop you when you are losing your joy or backsliding?
Better yet, do you have a friend so faithful that he or she can read your mind and give you a loving slap when your mind is going to Hell? If you do not have such a friend, you missed something very important.....
John 15:15 - Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
John 15:13 - Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14 - Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
James 2:23 - And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
If you are a Bible believer, you DO have a friend who will never let you down. Let your imagination go to your Friend for a change. Pick one of the four Gospels, and read it through slowly, stopping to ruminate, and see if you can visualize Jesus. There he is with little children, like yours. There he is talking to a sincere seeker late at night. There he is saying, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Is Jesus your best friend?
Positive Visualizing is wicked when it stays at home in your mind. Positive Visualizing is life changing when you visualize Jesus and what he would do.
WHAT A FRIEND WE HAVE IN JESUS
HOLLYWOOD AND YOUR MIND
It seems almost silly to discuss Hollywood and the imagination of Americans. It should be very obvious to a sane person that these Hell on earth sources of entertainment are loaded with inspiration to drive our imaginations into wickedness.
When you claim that you only accept the best that Hollywood offers, your are indirectly facilitating their lust to violate children.
EVERYTHING ABOUT HOLLYWOOD IS A LIE
Hollywood stars and producers are beasts of prey who abuse children and one another constantly. My uncle, many years ago, worked in Hollywood changing movie sets. He said the the lady stars would have sex with anyone interested anywhere convenient. I had a friend who was a wrestling promoter, and he was involved in Hollywood in music. He left because he could not stand the filthy sexual beasts. AND he left BEFORE he was born again.If you are feasting on Hollywood productions, you are feeding your imagination on filthy turds from Satan, and I do not want to hear about how careful you are. It is all filth. All Hollywood stars have a persona that is fake and is designed to fool gullible people like you. The star seems so decent, but if you get close enough, you will find them totally degraded. And, I do not want to hear about some alleged Christian Hollywood star you imagine is born again. If you worry me about this, I will tell you to move on to see if you can also find a whore downtown who is sincerely born again. Bah!
I knew a man who was a cabinet maker. He took jobs in Beverly Hills for movie stars to rebuilt all the cabinets in their homes. One customer invited him to come to a party where the star was going to show off the new cabinet work and other remodeling he had done to his guests. The star wanted the my friend to get credit and maybe new customers from his party guests. It seemed like a decent sort of thing to my friend. When he got there, he entered the party, and a receptionist asked him if he wanted to check his clothes. He was confused, and he looked into the home, and all the guests were walking around visiting and were totally naked. That star you think is decent..... that is your star.
If you feed your mind with the creations of such people, your imagination will soon want more and more, and you will lower your alleged standards bit by bit until you are watching filthy rubbish and telling your friends how really decent it is. "It just has a little bad language." And then, you will want to do what your movie star is doing.
You need to know that many Hollywood stars are members of witches' covens. I have heard stories to this effect. I have heard of Hollywood covens where babies are sacrificed to Satan occasionally. If you watch movies made by demon possessed performers, you could end up with a friend in you home and life who is a spiritual agent of Satan. You must know that Hollywood has produced hundreds of movies where the plot is based on demon possession and an exquisitely evil plot.
I have a friend today to whom I need to show grace for certain reasons. But, every time we are together, he tells me about this really great movie about some issue, or even worse, some socially sensitive fictional movie. Invariably, he tells me it has some racy parts, "but the message is very timely." Watching a whore hustle a man downtown is "timely," but it is not where I want to hang out. Ditto Hollywood.
Finally, you will let your kids watch the filth, and they will learn how to rationalize the way Daddy and Mommy do.
Job 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?
2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?
4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?If you have not made a covenant with your eyes, you will feed your imagination, and your imagination will tell you that evil is really good. From there on, you will run dead end into the wall of God's justice.
You may wonder why I can tell so many stories about Hollywood. Anyone who is born in California, and lives in the southern portion of California, will hear stories about the inside of Hollywood from time to time. If you cannot take the word of someone like me, you are doomed to make a abject fool of yourself. I have quite a few more stories which are too gross to pass on.
ADVERTISING-
Advertising is intentionally loaded to appeal to your libido,
your
pride, and your lust for the good life.
Five objectives of all advertising:
1. Advertising is designed to grab your imagination and promise you things to make your life fulfilled.
2. Advertising is intentionally seducing you into wanting things you either do not need or cannot afford. They also try to convince you that you are entitled and that you deserve to be treated better. Only by spending money on something can you be happy. This is because the advertising is a big lie. I estimate that only about 2% of all advertising is based on only informing you how to solve a real problem in your life.
3. Advertising suckers you into thinking someone out there cares about you. In fact, all they care about is grabbing your cash.
4. Advertisers fully believe that if they lie big enough, you will fall for their lies.
5. The vast majority of the time, advertisers extoll the most deadly or faulty aspect of their product. Oscar Meyer told us, in the 1970s, that they "only choose the best cuts." The truth is, all hot dog companies use "pink slime" which is the trade name for taking all the scraps and trash bits and pieces in a meat processing center, and at the end of the day grinding them into a slimy paste and sending it to the hot dog maker. In that pink slime, "the best cuts," are the nose, utter, lips, tail, and a few other unmentionables hanging off the animal. Remember this, and let it educate your imagination when you watch hot dog ads. Watch critically, and you will soon see that many companies claim the biggest fault of the product is the best feature of their product.
All five of these principles of advertising depend on you surrendering your mind and letting the creeps take possession of your imagination. Once your imagination has totally deceived you, you will buy the product every time.
Some stud with no shirt on, in an online ad, shows you some perfectly healthy vegetables, and then he tells you that in a few minutes he will tell you why that food is deadly and will cause you to die a horrible death. A full hour later, he is still promising to tell you how those vegetables will kill you. Only a fool with the imagination of a mindless baboon will watch the whole ad. Please shut those panic parties off at once.
Philippians 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)Do you feel stupid because of what I just said? Relax, we have all fallen for ads and made monkeys of ourselves. Just simply determine that you will guard your mind better in the future, AND get your kids started being critics of online and TV ads. I did that with my kids long ago, and they used to come running to the living room when commercials came on to hear their favorite stand up comedian, ME, mock at the ads. Let's make this a war, OK?
"I
WILL DO AS I DAMNED WELL PLEASE"
The will of men is all tangled up with his imagination.
When we imagine what we want people to think of us, our will soon tells us what we must do to be well thought of. When we ignore our conscience and imagine we can violate the voice of the Holy Spirit, we soon make choices, in our will, to act on our new definitions of right and wrong. We imagine that our actions will charm people and convince them we are special and worthy of their admiration. Later, much too late, we learn that people who had handed their imagination and will over to the Holy Spirit see right through our mongrel piety and stupid moral degeneracy. At this point, some Christians have a revival and go back to that tree in Bethel, and like Abraham, offer a sacrifice of repentance to God, Their imagination and will receive new life. Other Christians go right on making asses of themselves, and people finally must shun them to avoid being associated with their folly.
Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.If you are involved with any Calvinists in you life, they will tell you that everything that happens is by predestination of God. They often even claim that Eve HAD TO eat the fruit because God predestined her to eat and fall. They believe that God NEEDS you to sin and rebel against his holiness. These creeps totally ignore the mega-message all the way through the Bible in which God makes it very clear that his will is for you to glorify him and surrender your will to his will. No one is predestined to run the ship of their life onto the rocks of self-will. It has been my experience with Calvinists, and any Reformed Christians who follow their lead, that they soon walk, heads up, into personal sin and mediocrity. Somehow, they use their imaginations to create a god who is totally alien to the God of the Bible.
Those who understand the will of God know,
A) That God is very happy when we learn his will and do it, and,
B) Rejecting our own will ends in blessing and great joy.A Calvinist believes he can sin and reject the will of God, and that is what God wanted for him in the first place. Calvinism is a sick cult which is totally alien to Christianity. Oh, or course, like any cult, Calvinism has many teachings which are true to the Word of God. All cults do this. But, Calvinism, like all cults also, has necessary fictions which it uses to put its disciples into bondage to that loser at the law profession in Alsace Lorraine long ago, John Calvin.
THE HUMAN IMAGINATION IS EASILY THE MOST WICKED INSTRUMENT OF DESTRUCTION ON EARTH.
This is why, if you spend any amount of time with Calvinists, as I have done, you soon learn that they indeed "do as they damned well please" in many of the issues of life. They use tobacco and do not believe it will shorten their life. They drink to excess and joke about it as if their drunken stupor is just a jolly good Dutch happy hour. They lie in business and believe that the victim is predestined to be punished for his rebellion against Calvinist doctrine by being ripped off by them.
The first Reformed gurus, Martin Luther and John Calvin, hated this text:
James 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
16 Do not err, my beloved brethren.Rich de Voss, the cofounder of Amway cheated the Government out of tax revenue by using tricky export methods and had to pay heavy fines when he was caught. He still went right on teaching Sunday School classes in the Reformed Church and was featured in "Christian" magazines as a fine example of an upstanding Christian. De Voss, no doubt, believed that the US Government was predestined to be ripped off of tax funds by him because the US Government is a bunch of heathens. Calvinists are VERY prone to believe that unconverted sinners deserve to be abused by Calvinists. That notion goes all the way back to their founder John Calvin who burned Sevetus at the stake for disagreeing with him in interpreting Scripture. Calvin spent the rest of his life publishing tracts in which he tried to prove it was the will of God to burn a fellow Christian to death. THAT is the true doctrine of the WILL in Calvinism. "My will calls for your death, and God made me do it."
All of the above is to say this..... What your imagination mulls over and fondles will move on to your conscience, where it will be approved eagerly, and your will then tells you to act accordingly. One lady abandoned her husband and claimed she was obeying the teaching of Jesus to leave father and mother and family to serve God. The human imagination is easily the most wicked instrument of destruction on earth.
Virtually all of the Republican dominated states are experiencing a falling life expectancy. So, why is it deadly to hate liberals and be conservative? The answer is very simple, and recent research has proven this. All red states have refused to fund programs discouraging the use of tobacco products. Blue states, like that whipping boy blue state California, have heavily funded public information programs to discourage their people from using tobacco. The conclusion is obvious. The new report finds that the states doing the best to put in place proven tobacco control policies are California, Maine, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia, while the states with the most need to enact policies to reduce the burden of tobacco use are Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas.
Source- PRNEWSWIREFour states in the Bible Belt, Republican states, believe smoking will Make America Great Again. So, they block tobacco control and promote tobacco use. Tennessee, where every third man will tell you he is "called to preach," is easily the most intransigent in controlling tobacco use and sales. There is no state where you will find more tobacco spitting Baptists then in Tennessee. Somehow, the preachers of that state cannot find it in their sanctified imagination to help Christians there to stop rotting off their faces off by chewing tobacco.
When you imagine you can sin and get away with it, God does not step in and force your conscience and will to submit to his will. The whole responsibility for your imagination, conscience, and will are YOURS. If you are assuming that God wants you to sin in order to somehow make his grace look precious, I have a great deal in real estate I would like to offer you. I can sell you five acres of water front property just 80 miles east of Miami, Florida. You will have fishing and boat launching rights. The property is very private, and the view is epic. No HOA, and water rights are unlimited. Just $300,000. If you have a deformed imagination, you should be able to talk yourself into a mental picture of grand luxury and gracious living.
Thus, we see that the imagination, by run away rumination, carries your mind to lust and the motto, "Nevertheless, not thy will but mine be done." Your conscience is cast aside, and off you go to act upon what your uncontrolled mind told you. Nothing good will come from this plan.
God will not force you to behave yourself. You can, indeed, do as you damned well please, and neither God nor John Calvin will stop you. But, the text above in James tells you that this will not end well; it can even end in death.
1 Corinthians 10:13 - There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Far from sitting in Heaven planning your destruction, as John Calvin claimed, God is rather busy watching you and your mental wandering. He reads your thoughts, and he says, "Michael, get down there to Plains, Georgia and make a way of escape for that Baptist preacher sitting at his computer surfing porn sites. Send his wife to catch him."
I hope I have helped some saint, who is doing a lot of mongrel rumination, to see that God is trying very hard to send his mind in some other direction..... anywhere but where it is going right now.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.Somebody is watching you. You are doomed if you refuse to hand your heart (mind) over to God.
|
POSITIVE VISUALIZING
It is always a good idea to be optimistic about life. Whenever life seems to be going badly, we can always find some comfort knowing that God allowed things to be as they are.
But, there is a spiritual and mystical side to Positive Visualizing.
THIS MAN TEMPTS YOU TO BELIEVE YOUR DESTINY COMES OUT OF YOUR MIND
The man has NO God outside of himself. He is all about himself. Also, notice that he starts his presentation talking about the power of your imagination. It is an evil imagination that ignores God and makes itself godThere is a children's Bible song that says, "I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be." Most of the song is a bit trite and fluffy, but that one line is the correct optimistic way of speaking about your personal culture.
HEAR THE SONG HEREAs I am writing this article, it is 2026, and Donald Trump is US President for a second term. He wants Christians to believe he is a Christian. I am convinced he is not. There are many reasons I say that, but perhaps the most grievous aspect of Trump's personal culture is that he exalts himself constantly. No one is as great as he is. And, when anyone backs away from him, he attacks them viciously and makes a fool of them. Donald Trump has a vision of himself as the greatest human on earth today. No one is as wise and useful to humanity as he is, and if you do not agree, you are the scum of the earth. In the wee hours of the night he sits before his computer and bullies everyone from Congressmen to the Pope. This is not the behavior of a Christian. Do you have a mental image of this man as God's man to deliver America? If so, you have a very sick imagination.
Who triggers your imagination? Advertising is totally designed to force you to visualize yourself with the advantage of a gadget, insurance policy, gold, solar energy, and a million other toys and feelings that you are supposed to believe will fulfill your life. Do you find yourself visualizing yourself with the thing in the ad?
Clever politicians, teachers, TED Talkers, and preachers seduce you into visualizing yourself in submission to their new and wonderful thing or belief. Do you ever find yourself thinking how much better off you would be if you voted for some Famous Amos in Congress? How about the preacher who promises you that you will feel totally spiritual and pleasing to God if you tithe? You can tell by whom you give to, the church, the pastor, or Jesus. The seduction is strong. You must mentally resist and reject any message that promises you fulfillment outside of Christ himself.
Have you developed a vision of yourself in which you are the center of attention?
Colossians 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Is there any area of your thinking where Jesus does not have the first place? If so, your personal culture is wicked. I invite you to develop a visual picture of Jesus in charge of your whole life, but especially your mind.
THE WORLD
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
Do you reason from the Truth toward the world, or do you start reasoning from human and cultural assumptions?
There are two men..... one stands on the deck of an ocean liner and gazes at the shore scenery through binoculars. The other man stands on the shore and watches the ocean liner pass by. Which man is going to end up in Sydney, Australia? It may take nearly 30 days, but the man on the ocean liner is the one who will reach the destination. Both men admire either the shore or the ship. But their perspectives on their world are 100% dissimilar. How you view the world, as you go through life, will determine where you arrive in the end. Also, how you view the world will be the result of how your imagination presents the world to you.
When you are in conversation with unsaved people, do they lead the conversation and dominate? If so, you are not in control of your imagination and mind because the Holy Spirit is not in charge of your thoughts. You can look at the world as you stand on the ship, but you cannot stand on the shore.
I once joined a senior's social group hoping to make some new friends. Eventually, I found I was welcome into the gathering of the men in conversation, but the other men dominated so much that I seldom could add anything to conversation. I left the group because the men talked about low life topics, and, as the only Bible believer in the group, I had no opportunity to add anything or be salt as Jesus instructed.
Here is how the Apostle Paul started with the world's superstitions and took the men in front of him to the Truth.
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
23 For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.Paul went on to dominate the conversation and lead the discussion to Christ. Paul's imagination and mental force were directly controlled by the Holy Spirit.
We do not debate the truth.....
We declare the truth.Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones
When he talked about the resurrection of the dead, the men rejected Paul's words. At that point, Paul left and walked away. When your thoughts and mind become threatening or offensive to the world, you are a fool to start yelling and debating with worldly people. We do not debate the truth..... We declare the truth.
When worldly people are talking, and you sense they are clearly trying to dominate your mind, you must either force them to change the topic, or you must excuse yourself and walk away.
Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:
5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.The Galatian Christians did not let false brethren dominate their minds or church fellowship. When someone, whether a member of the church or the pastor, uses stealth to take control of your mind, you must rebuke them and avoid them.
Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.The imagination on loan:
Whenever we pick up a book, bring up YouTube, or surf social media, we are being tempted to loan our imagination to the world. And, the world lusts to take possession of our imagination. Our responsibility before God is to take every thought captive to the glory of God.
Our imagination is captive all the time to either Christ or to sin and the devil:
Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.2 Corinthians 10:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.So, the war for your mind and imagination never stops. Every trip down the avenue in town is loaded with candy for the mind. Every time we are visiting with friends, even believers, there are temptations to let our mind run after evil imaginations. It is up to us if we will let it go on or take the imagination captive for Christ.
PART TWO: SAFARI THROUGH THE BIBLE AND THE IMAGINATION
GENESIS
The first family of the human race lost control of their imaginations.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
This seductive lie by Satan was all that was needed to send Eve into a state of imaginative lust for the forbidden fruit. Satan could now sit back and let Eve use her imagination to finish the job of the first sin in human history. PLEASE understand that Satan provides the temptation, but YOU finish the job and the sin. Satan never forced anyone to sin. Do you remember the Flip Wilson Show on TV and his monologue cross dressed as Geraldine? The world loves it when someone tells them that the devil makes them sin.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Satan does tempt us, but he also knows that if he gets us to start following our imagination, we will fall. There is only one way to glorify God with our imagination:
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
The ONLY time the imagination is safe to use is when God is in control of our reasoning. So, we either reason with God, or we reason with our imagination.
So, stop gaslighting the devil as you groan over all the evil in the world. The greatest source of evil around us is well known to the Bible prophets:
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
And, the young man sits in prison singing ..... MAMA TRIED
Alas, this monster of vile creativity is in every one of us. It is urgent that someone tame the monster right now.
DAVID
Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.No one likes to be searched. The US Constitution guarantees Americans the protection from "unreasonable search and seizure.' The fastest way that a cop can get himself on YouTube is to illegally search someone's car or home with a cell phone camera going.
David was not like most of us. He welcomed being searched by God the Holy Spirit. There is a Christian hymn called "Search Me Oh Lord....." The sad thing is, the hymn writer did not seek the searching of the Holy Spirit regarding the music for the hymn. The music is taken unchanged from a Hollywood love song adapted from a Maori lullaby. It was sung by around twenty famous Hollywood singing stars and was very well known and sung from 1913 to 2012 in the casinos of Las Vegas. The hymn writer saw no problem in using a profane worldly tune for Christian words. He did not ask God to search his heart. Someone was asleep at the wheel, and it was NOT God, for God was not invited to do a search.
There are many examples of incorrect Bible teaching and distorted doctrine in books, online, and in pulpits. These men often go unchallenged, and some are even exalted by conservative pastors. I think of Sam Gipp who said, "There is only one man who stands between your family and Hell. That is your pastor." Blasphemy! Jesus is the only one standing between you and Hell.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Sam Gipp was a big cheer leader for what some Fundamentalists call "Pastoral Rule," which manifests as bullying and brutality by pastors..... even physical brutality in a few cases. Sam needs to read the word of David in Psalm 139. If Sam Gipp had been thinking correctly he might have noticed that his hybrid doctrine placed the pastor closer to Hell than the church member. Hmmm
I end this section again with the words of David:
Psalms 4:3 But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.Get alone with God, get quiet, and ask God to show you what he is seeing when he looks at your imagination. He will do exactly that if you are sincere and not willing to cover your sin and justify yourself.
KING DAVID PRAYS AFTER COLLECTING ALL THE BUILDING MATERIALS FOR SOLOMON TO BUILD THE TEMPLE
I Chronicles 29:17 I know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.
18 O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto theeThere are pious souls online who proclaim that the imagination is always evil as it is presented in the Bible. Well, the Bible certainly warns us about letting our imagination run amuck. But, we see here that David prays that the Hebrew people will keep the hope of a temple one day always in their imaginations. So, when Solomon came to the throne later, all he had to do was mention the building of the temple, and the people were eager to see Solomon perform what they had in their imaginations.
If any preacher or Bible teacher tells you that the human imagination is wicked and part of the fallen state of lost men, that preacher is a lazy lecher. You can bet he himself is daily using his imagination for either good or evil. Find yourself another Bible teacher at once. Imagine THAT!
The above principle applies to us who are pastors today. It is our responsibility to fire up the imagination of the believers to look eagerly for the appearing of Jesus Christ for his Church.
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;You can go out in the back yard and stare up into the sky looking for Jesus. That is OK if you want to do that. But, what the Apostle Paul is talking about here is when the believer builds up a vision in his mind of Jesus coming back for him. If your local church is not eagerly looking for the return of Jesus soon, you need to find another church to attend.
Talk about the return of Jesus to your children so that they will not be shocked when Jesus does arrive in the air and says, "Come up hither."
PSALM 4
My doctor in Tennessee gave me the following text to encourage me to deal more wisely with anxious thoughts I was having:
Psalms 4:3 But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.
4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? LORD, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.
8 I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.The text is all about your mind and your imagination. Verse 4 even suggests you talk to yourself. Some people worry about that, as if it is a sign they are losing control somehow. There is no better person to rebuke you than YOU. If your mind is wandering into anxiety, temptation, or selfish notions, BE STILL, lay in your recliner (long ago the Jews reclined on couches..... the Arabs still do), and see how long it takes you to bring your mind around to offer a sacrifice or righteousness to God, as David did.
Then, go outside, and find a green place and sit still there also. You will find that your mind will soon clear, and nature will calm your soul. God gave you natural things for that purpose. Why do you suppose God put Adam and Eve in a garden? Hey, I cannot hear you. Why?
This last thought leads us right on to the next topic and something that has been almost totally lost in modern technological culture.
SOLOMON
Where does Solomon tell us men that our imagination should go?
Proverbs 5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
Song of Solomon is a romantic love song. It has NOTHING to do with typology for one simple exegetical reason: All true types in the Bible MUST be cited by men in the New Testament, especially by Jesus. Song of Solomon is all about the way or a man with a maid, and in this case, they are married and totally devoted to one another.
Any man who indulges his imagination by rejoicing only in his wife's breasts will never go wrong. Any wife who meditates long and exclusively in the hunk God gave her will never find herself in the wrong bed. When the office men invite you to join them for lunch at Hooters, do you think at once about your wife's hooters? It is time to make full use of your imagination as your way of escape from temptation.
So, ALL of Song of Solomon is calling husbands and wives to let their imagination thrive on a love story that God wrote. This is not a Harlequin pulp novel. The actors were real, and the modern husband and wife, who need to light the fire of romance in their marriage, need to read this book together.
How about our friend above who carries his lunch to work? He is making sure he does not end up joining the folks who eat out at Hooters. This man will never be seen in a divorce court. He made a calculated choice based on what his imagination told him could happen if he goes along with the crowd. I know a man who kept his mind on his wife's breasts and carried his lunch. The guy in the next work pod saw this, and he decided to follow the same plan. There is a ministry to other Christians in letting your imagination be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.
When my wife and I were engaged, we found a decent book on love making in marriage. We both read it, and we both were startled at how little we knew about our own bodies and romantic urges. It was a very good thing that we read the book. But, I believe now that we would have done just as well by reading Song of Solomon together, at least on the first night of our honeymoon.
Hollywood will never make a movie based on Song of Solomon because there would be no place for fornication, adultery, and sodomy in the movie. The world, the flesh, and the devil hate this book because they want to provide for infidelity. The devil wants you to click the keys right now, and look at porn. Satan knows that, every time you look with desire on a woman other than your wife, you are one step closer to a divorce. And, I am told that the percentage of women watching porn is sky rocketing. To someone my age that seems like freak behavior. When I was a kid, the ladies were assumed to live to a higher standard than men. Not any longer.
What follows should be read by married adults. The old rabbis forbid young people from reading Song of Solomon until they were married. Just make sure your imagination is on your spouse as you read this.
THE BRIDEGROOM SPEAKS:
Song of Solomon 7:1 How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
2 Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
3 Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
4 Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
5 Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries. (Locks of her hair)
6 How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
7 This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
8 I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
9 And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.THE BRIDE ANSWERS:
Song of Solomon 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.Song of Solomon 6:11 I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.
12 Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.
(Amminadib was famous as a fast driver in a rush.)Song of Solomon 8:2 I would lead thee, and bring thee into my mother's house, who would instruct me: I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
3 His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.Song of Solomon 1:13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
If you are married and read this, you are in serious sorry trouble if those texts above did not make you feel a need to go hug your spouse. There is no other DECENT book with more graphic fuel for the fire of the romantic imagination than Song of Solomon. God put it in the Bible. Do NOT censor it from your marriage. Read it often together, and make it happen in your marriage, and we will never have to hear a prayer request in prayer meeting asking us to pray that he or she will come home.
Question: When you made your vows to one another, did you include your imagination. Sir, does you imagination belong to your wife? Or, is Meagan still on your mind? Lady, does your imagination belong to your husband? Or, does that hunk on Netflix give you a rush?
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Imagine THAT!
JESUS- WHAT WAS HIS IMAGINATION FIXED ON?
In her Magnificat of praise, after being told she would give birth to the Messiah, Mary says:
Luke 1:51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
All during his ministry in Galilee, Jesus was scattering the proud spiritual leaders of Israel. A faithful pastor, and his friends, will be regularly scattering the proud and judging their wicked imaginations.
Jesus and his imagination:
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
So, Jesus' imagination was always finding what his Father wanted him to do. If Jesus, who was and is God in the flesh, used his imagination that way, what should you and I do with ours?
Consider please..... Jesus never spoke a word of worry or fretting about tomorrow.
Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.I do not believe Jesus was relieving you of responsibility for your duties that are on down the road. Life is made up of events and appointments we must keep in order to deal with what is required of us. What Jesus is talking about here is rumination, over thinking, about possibilities.
The moral is this:
Tomorrow will be soon enough to think about what to do next. The old Mexican "Manyana" is used as a joke. The point is, some things cannot be fixed right now, and worrying about them now will not fix them any sooner. I have known many Hispanic people, and I am attracted to their way of letting go of worry about the future.
When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.
Winston Churchill
"When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened."
Winston ChurchillAction to take based on Jesus' suggestion about worry:
Take time to meditate on all the ways God took care of your yesterdays, especially the ones that happened suddenly for which you had no time to worry about.King David gives us a great example or backward thinking:
Psalms 16:5 The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
PAUL TO THE SAINTS IN THE CHURCHES
Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. This is Paul's instruction to us.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.The mind of Jesus was driving him to take authority over as many of the world's people as possible and bring them to worship him. Jesus wanted to be Lord of all men. He did not coerce them or force them to submit to himself. He taught them and reasoned with them to persuade them to come to him. Many did, and many more did not.
Your mind and mine must be always working on a plan to persuade men, women, and children to worship Jesus. Now, THERE is a great way to use your imagination.
Chet and I went door to door one early evening in our town. We invited people to visit our church, and we handed out Gospel tracts. Chet was always looking for a way to mentally but gently shock unbelievers who claimed to be religious.
At one house, a lady came to the door, and all around her were a mob of small kids. It was obvious at once that she was probably a Mormon. They believe that they need to have babies non stop. When we told her we wanted to invite her and her family to visit our church, she at once launched into a gushing story about the archaeological discoveries in Egypt which resulted in the story of Abraham and Moses in the Book of Mormon. Chet and I were well aware of what that was. Chet cut straight to the chase. Chet very kindly said, "Won't it be wonderful..... when you get to Heaven, you will be pregnant forever." A look of shock came over her face. She at once knew that Chet A) Knew very well what her Mormon Church taught, and B) For the first time she had been hit with a fact that had not be put so clearly before. You see, Mormons believe that each Mormon husband will take his wife to his personal Heaven, and they will populate their own personal universe by his wife giving birth to millions of spirit babies who will fill their kingdom.
We handed her some Gospel tracts to read and invited her to visit our church. Chet did not give place to the lady when she tried to take over the conversation with Mormon heresy. Chet seized the moment and left the lady with a very provocative thought to deal with. The reason Chet could do this so easily was because his imagination was frequently working on just the sort of thing he said to the lady. He had learned to use his mind to stock up on ammo for spiritual combat. He was not at war with the lady. She was a victim. He was at war with the devil inside of her.
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;See if you can bring some sinner's thoughts into captivity to Jesus.
PAUL TO PASTORS
Brother pastor..... where is your imagination going? I hear of many pastors these days who are addicted to porn. An evil imagination will take you there also.
But, I will assume you truly want to be used of God in the model of the Apostles. In which case, I ask you to look at the way Paul thought and talked about himself to the local church:
2 Corinthians 12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.
16 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you?
18 I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?
19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.Do you mentally ruminate in your imagination mulling over and over ways you can take power over the saints? Do you meditate about new laws (Baptist Standards) which you can foist upon the people? Do you worry your mind with suspicion of various members who have not shown total devotion to you?
If we could see Paul's imagination projected on a screen, we would see him ruminating on ways to edify the saints. We would see thinking of ways to use up his life to benefit the believers. We would see him worrying about certain saints who were weak. He would NOT be judging them mentally as defective. Every saint, in Paul's imagination, would be a potential victor and warrior for Christ.
And, most of all, Paul would be meditating in his mind wondering if, in any way, he has become a burden or pest, nagging the saints instead of encouraging them on to victory.
So, YOU, sir, how is it with YOUR imagination?
I want you to worry your mind a bit now and humor me. Here is Verse 16 again:
2 Corinthians 12:16 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.
What is this? Well, take it in context of the whole passage and the book. Whatever guile Paul used, he was trying to catch them to be edified and to have victory. There is no evil in stealth and asymmetric tactics IF you are feeding the sheep and leading them in green pastures for his name sake.
I am enraged whenever I hear of pastors who use guile to entrap the saints in a snare of the pastor's personal possession. There is no greater way a pastor can blaspheme the Holy Spirit than to use craft to make personal slaves of the saints. Indeed, when I see this, I assume that pastor is possessed of devils and should be destroyed as soon as possible.
John 21:17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Stop ruminating about how you can be great and build a mighty résumé.
Give your imagination to ways you can feed our Lord's sheep.
Carry a note pad, and write down events during the day which would make good parables to your teaching. Write down things godly people say that fire your own imagination.
Keep notes on the Devil and his imps so that you are not "ignorant of his devices."Imagine well fed sheep following Jesus.
CAN WE SEE INTO GOD'S IMAGINATION
God has allowed us to see his thoughts, and we should be greatly encouraged.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
What is God thinking about you? Answer: Be patient-- in the end you will see what he was thinking all along.
Psalms 139:17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
Psalms 40:5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
God thinks a lot about each one of us.
Ephesians 1:4 "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love."
You already existed in the imagination of God in eternity past. Read that again please.
Ephesians 1:9 "Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him."Everything we know, believe and are has its origin in the mind and imagination of God. He thought it, he spoke it, and there you are staring at this monitor. Like this:
Proverbs 8:22-31 "The LORD possessed me (wisdom) at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth... When he established the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep... when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man."
I know myself very well. What an amazing thought that God still delights in me in spite of myself.
And, as Jesus hung on the Cross on Calvary, you were in his imagination. He could see you hearing the Gospel one day, repenting of your sin, and following him for eternity.
We seldom think or preach about the infinite responsibility that God carries. Every thought in his mind turns to action, and he must see every action through to its end in eternity. Have you thought lately to thank God for keeping YOU in his mind and thoughts 24/7?
Matthew 10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
30 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31 Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.Now, we move on to see that God asks us to take control of our imaginations. He does not download his thoughts into our minds like AI programmers download code to robots. We are not "Copy" and "Paste" clones of God. We are agents living our lives out as we imagine and make choices.
Here is what God calls on us to imagine:
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.What does it mean to imagine what Jesus imagined, and will we then take action as he did. Watch the bold larger font in verse 5-11, and ask yourself if your imagination is like Jesus'.
Now, to any Calvinists who are worrying that I am letting you have too much agency, look at verses 12-13. Who is doing the work?
Verse 12- You
Verse 13- GodLet us now go to work on our imaginations.
|
PART
THREE: THE IMAGINATION
IN THE DETAILS
In this section we talk about issues of life in which our imagination often leads the way. We want our imagination to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. We want our imagination to serve God and us, not master us.
AN IDLE MIND IS THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP
Nearly 15 million men are without work, and that particular 15 million ARE NOT LOOKING FOR WORK. This number does NOT include unemployed men who are looking for work. This group of men is almost invisible to all the statistics quoted by the US Government and the media. This 15 million men is a group of men who are content to sit in front of a screen and do nothing to justify their existence. The majority of them are married, and the only income they have is what their wives go forth and earn. There are a significant number who game the welfare system and glean some "income" off of their friends' and neighbors' tax payments.
Again, this statistic is NOT the unemployment figure the US Government issues regularly. That number is ONLY men who are unemployed AND seriously looking for work. The 15 million we are talking about are invisible and hiding in plain sight. Almost no one thinks or talks about them. Most of us know one of more men who are sitting in front of a screen not working and satisfied with themselves. But, we look the other way. Pastors know such men who sit right there in front of them every Sunday, yet they do not rebuke them nor try to find work for them.
Most of these 15 million fugitives from the workaday world are White, and many have college educations. Illegal Mexicans in the USA are better employed than nearly all of the non-working Whites. AND, here is the terrifying part..... the illegal Mexicans have no high school diploma, while many of the White men have some college or even a degree. There is nothing more depressing than a man with a Ph.D. from Harvard sitting on his butt surfing the web all day long. But, there is such a thing..... far too many of them.
I do not have time here to talk about the motivation in the soul of these non-working loafers. From what I have read though, they are NOT victims of any social, cultural, or racial force. They have CHOSEN to sit in front of screens and play. Some surf the web for ways to make a bit of cash using various schemes and investment plans. They use their wives' incomes to fund their ventures, and over and over their short lived schemes blow up and turn to dust and run through their fingers.
I knew one man who had a wife and kids, and he told me he justified his existence by trying to get a book of poetry he had written published. He hauled his family from church to church on potluck Sundays so they could grab a free lunch. He had no interest in finding work.
I met a man who had his family held captive in an RV which they used to wander the USA talking about the great work they planned to do for God in Alaska. After visiting them in Arizona, they showed up five years later in a church we attended after we moved to Tennessee. He was still on his way to Alaska. He needed to find a home, find a real job, and do what he was talking about instead of making a life calling out of living out of the offering plate.
Of course, a certain number of men without work sit and surf porn sites all day and are addicted to visual infidelity while their wives are away at work.
What does this have to do with our topic, the imagination?
Answer: Plenty. While you surf YouTube, you imagination is captive of cyberspace and the creeps who manage it. They are doing anything imaginable to grab your imagination and hold you a slave to the screen.
The most grievous subset among the non-working men is pastors who sit in front of screens and diddle their lives away surfing YouTube and commenting in social media. They tell themselves their comment wars with Atheists are a ministry of some sort. When a pastor finds himself sitting for hours every day before the screen on the Internet, he loses the sense that he is justifying his calling as a pastor and Bible teacher. So, he tries to spend more time using Bible software and Google to produce better and better sermons. He may make a bit of progress as a Bible teacher by doing this, but the widow who never sees her pastor sits alone and eagerly waits for death to end her loneliness. Her pastor is as worthless as tits on a boar hog. And, I say that in all good Christian charity.
So, what does the Bible say about men who will not work?
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
13 But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.I have a solution to you pastors who have not clicked out of here in rage. If you are a screen slave, and you know very well that you are NOT called of God to while away your life in cyberspace, I have a solution for you..... get a job. Your "job" as a pastor does not seem to force you to get serious about the work of the ministry. So, get a part time job so that you have somewhere you MUST GO in the morning.
I thank God that he put me in churches that could not afford to pay me a full salary. It forced me to get out the door in the morning and substitute teach in twenty one public schools. Later, I left every morning to tune pianos all over central Michigan, southeastern Arizona, Tennessee, and Texas. For a while, I restored cars and resold them. That worked, but it did not get me out of the house early enough. You may tell me that you do not have a problem getting going in the morning. The fact is, ALL humans are tempted to get distracted in the morning if they don't commit themselves to a time and point on the map. If this were not a temptation which is common to man, why did God say this?
Proverbs 6:9 How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?
10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:Harry Golden, the Jewish satirist, once said, "A man must have somewhere to go in the morning." Whether you are a pastor, a high school drop out, or a Ph.D., if you are doing nothing to define you as a man, other than to sit on your butt here at this screen, it is time you commit yourself to start every day SOMEWHERE ELSE. If you are a fully salaried pastor, get yourself introduced to those farmers and good old boys at the local cafe round table who all start their day at 7:00 AM. You will have started every day fishing for men, AND you will hear the most priceless local gossip available.
And, King David said that long before I thought of it:
Psalm 104:20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.
23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.The lions justify their existence by stalking for food for their cubs during the night. Not so you. The normal way of life and survival for a man, both physically and culturally, is to go forth in the morning and seek his corn pon, either by working in the dirt or by working for the man. The only time you can talk about "being the man of the house" is when you leave it during the daylight and go home at the end of the day.
"The longer you sit on your butt, the smaller your soul becomes."
Steve Van Nattan
You may quote me on that.Personal: I have pastored four small to mid sized local churches. It has been my experience that I got more done for the Lord, and I felt more like a real man, when I was working part time on the side like the Apostle Paul. I did substitute teaching, restored cars, and I developed a thriving mail order business selling piano parts and tools to do-it-yourself novices. I also tuned pianos for 35 years all over the middle of Michigan, southeastern Arizona and for a while in Tennessee and Texas. I can also prove that my tent mending part time work resulted in my ministry as a pastor greatly increasing.
Do not miss the point, sir, If you are NOT a pastor and imagine your butt warming vocational disaster is not so serious, you are wrong. You are idle, and you will soon fall into sin and a lukewarm spirit. It will not take long for you to climb into bed with one of the ladies in the church, and you will soon find yourself selling insurance. You will learn to chatter on and on about your latest venture in self-employment. And, one day your wife will have had it up to here and tell you to get your ecclesiastical butt out in the market place or she will leave you. We will then all be asked by you to pray that you can save your marriage. Save it NOW..... get a job.
LAST GRENADE: Whatever job God brings your way is the one you should take next. If you have some sort of banal "High Standard" for what you will do as work, and you will not work for less than what you are allegedly worth, you are not there yet. You are still a loser.
Luke 14:7 And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
8 When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9 And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.Are you man enough to trust God to raise you up if you will start out by humbling yourself? Who is the one who promotes the Bible believing man who works?
Psalms 75:5 Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck.
6 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
7 But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.What is implied? The north is not in the list of sources for promotion. So, who does the Bible say is in the "Sides of the North?" Answer: God. If God promotes you, rejoice, He he does not promote you, rejoice. Either way, you are right in the center of God's will. What ever work God provides you is good work. Stop whining about building your resume. Try building your home, your marriage your family, and your church.
When an Arab, Jewish, Armenian, or Slavic American young man drops out of college and tries to become a web surfer, his father and uncles will hold a family council. They will quickly find a job in one of their law firms, real estate business, or retail business for the young loser. These cultures simply do not let their young man have the choice to drift and sofa surf. The punk brat is parked at a desk, told the answer the phone, and see how fast he can learn to justify his existence.
The rest of the White Race in American has no such ethic, nor does the Black Race. It must never be the ethic of the Lord's Church to accept this pernicious cultural evil as the new normal.
Imagine YOU working with your hands or mind instead of playing like a silly brat in a sand box,
A SENSE OF WONDER
Wonder is not about surfing YouTube looking for shock and awe Videos.
From time to time, I look out the window at the green world I live in, and I realize that I can barely recall the day, very long ago, when that world was a wonder to me. It was a place where my imagination would go on vacation. All that was obvious, and all that adults assumed they understood, was where I built castles, caught wild beasts, and fought with bears and tigers. And now, it is all gone and has been for many years. I still find myself longing to go back and be that six year old who saw the world with wonder. But, I long ago "put away childish things," as the Apostle Paul suggested, and I now have my world all organized into rational categories and safe assumptions.
Is there no place for letting the little kid come back and play in my head? Is that ungodly and a waste of time? I expect many good godly Pharisees in the Lord's Church would say it is not how I should use my mind. So, I go to King David, a man with a vivid imagination, even in his old age.
Psalms 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.The heavens talked to David. Do they talk to you?
Do you gain knowledge when you look up into the heavens?
The reason, in verse 3, that the creation speaks to men is because the revelation comes to us by informing our imagination, which God then uses to teach us some truth.
Verse 5 above proves my contention. This verse is 100% made up of mental images, to David, and the images tell me what God is telling me about the sun. Does the sun teach spiritual truth? Watch this.....
Malachi 4:1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.The Sun is a person, and that person is the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He destroys in verse 1, but he heals in verse 2. If we could not, at least for a short interval, use our imagination in Psalm 19 and in Malachi 4, we could not understand what God is telling us from "the Heavens."
When you look at the clouds, can you still see the animals up there? When you hear thunder, do you ever wonder it God is speaking? Or is he rolling along up yonder in his chariot? When you watch the water flow by in a creek or river, do you still ever contemplate where that water came from? Did any of it fall as rain last Spring, run into the street, through the city sewer, and into the sea, only to become rain again and run down the creek in front of you?
Someone reading here is getting bored with my imagery, right? If so, you are in trouble. If King David, under Divine inspiration, used his imagination to develop teaching in the Bible, why do you refuse to let God have your imagination back?
When we get old, and when little kids sit down next to us, many of them know that old people have memories of things as they were long ago. Nothing charms a kid like grandpa telling the story of the bear that broke into the storm cellar and ate up all the heavy cream stored there. "And, how did you get rid of the bear, grandpa?" The kid just knows that there is hero in the story.
So, how can you jump start your sense of wonder again?
Ask old folks about the old days. Then, shut up, and listen, AND visualize what they tell you about those days.
Stop, once in a while, and be very small again. Ask yourself what the world around you looks like to small people. Find a kid and ask him what he likes about his world.
When you sit and kill time in public, study the people passing by, and try to decide what they are thinking, where they are going, and if they know who Jesus is.
When you see something unusual or weird, STOP, and find out what it is and why it looks weird. I looked out the window one day, and I saw a monstrous many colored balloon floating into view and slowly getting low to the ground. Underneath was a wicker basket with people in it, and the man guiding the balloon was venting gas out of the balloon. I realized they were landing, and I yelled at our kids, who were home schooling, to drop everything and run get in the car. We then drove frantically down the road toward where the balloon was landing. The kids got to see something that the vast majority of people have never seen. And, God let it happen about a quarter mile from our home. Never let a strange or awesome thing happen nearby without making a life memory of it.
Never miss a chance to smell the roses. A manly man is real only if he also stops to smell roses.
Never miss a chance to give your spouse a little moment to remember the days of your courtship and first romantic feelings for one another.
WHEN IS THE IMAGINATION EVIL AND SINFUL?
2 Corinthians 10:5 - Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
The only danger in using your sense of wonder is when it takes you into sin, lust, and rumination about vain and worthless speculation. There are two very evil ways that our imagination can be wicked:
A. The imagination that tries to think of things greater and higher than God himself.
B. The imagination that promotes disobedience to Christ and the Word of God.The world around us is forever offending in these two ways. Godless men imagine they can bring peace to the earth without the help of God. They take life and risk death themselves as they imagine they are immune to the consequences of sexual freedom and rebellion against known warnings about health risk taking. Some defy the teaching of Christ to be a peace maker and wage war around the world and slaughter innocent people.
But, what is treacherous is to find people in the Lord's Church exalting themselves above God. Pastors become jack boots and abuse the sheep. And, like the wicked outside the Church, some members reject the teaching of Christ and the Word of God to love one another and open warfare against their brothers and sisters. Some even imagine they are saving the church as they destroy it.
Cast it down when that happens. The leaders of the local church must show no mercy on church members who ravage the church from the inside. They must be run off.
When is the last time you looked up at night to just look at the stars? Maybe if you do, God will tell you something.
HOW DO YOU READ THE BIBLE?
Do you believe that God really, really, really likes to talk to you?
Or, is it all history?
Do you ever imagine what it would be like to walk on the water with Jesus?
Do you ever wonder what it would be like to see all the animals appear suddenly?
Do you ever wish you could touch the face of Jesus, just once?In other words, do you read your Bible expecting to be part of the story right now and forever?
That is what prophecy is all about.
You will be there one day..... with Jesus.Imagine THAT!
Has anyone ever asked you the above questions before?
Why not?
Answer: We do not let the Holy Spirit have possession of our imagination.
Some Bible teachers distrust the human imagination so much that they demonize is at all costs.We read the Bible looking for answers to questions, and God gives us the answers.
But, do we not ask God where we are in the story from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22?
Do you suppose he wants us to know that?Psalm 23- Are you in that story? Do you feel like one of God's sheep? Has it ever occurred to you that God would not be known as a shepherd if he did not have a herd of sheep, and YOU are in his herd?
When a man in Texas tells his friends he has a ranch (spread) over yonder a few miles away, someone is sure to ask, "How many head are you running on your ranch?" A rancher without cattle is called an "Urban cowboy." That is what I am. I wear the western clothes and can hold my own in a conversation. But, sooner or later, it will become clear to any savvy Texan that I am all hat and no cattle. No one will shame me because Texans are very patient, but no one will think of me as a real rancher.
See if you can start reading the Bible, in the future, while you let your imagination insert YOU into the story. That is why God gave you his Word..... so that you would not arrive in Heaven one day and say, "Huh?"
You arrive in Heaven, and a man named Nahum says to you.....
HOW DO YOU WALK IN THE WOODS?
Isaiah 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Are you so busy looking for thorns and poison ivy that you do not see those glorious fir trees up yonder? Research has proven that fir, pine, juniper, and many other trees gas off chemicals that not only can be smelled, they stimulate the brain to produce oxitocin and give us a uplifting rush.
Also, when you are in the woods, take a deep breath. The trees are giving off loads of oxygen which also gives you a mental boost. And, leave Climate Change back in the city. Every time you exhale, you make a little flower happy. The flower NEEDS CO2 to survive. What a happy thought in this woke culture today. Someone should write a song.....
"I need the flowers, and the flowers need me,
Eat your heart out Al Gore and AOC."Living in the city, or even in the country while staying indoors all the time, is really depressing to the mind. It does the imagination no good. Even walking in a city park is proven to be a boost to mental health.
Full screen please for the video:
Now, tell me my dear skeptic, were you thinking any negative and provocative thoughts as you watched that natural scene and read along the lyrics? Make my day, and tell me you actually sang along. SEND MAIL
You need to go to town, buy a hamburger, fries, and some sweet tea, and go to a park and sit at a picnic table and eat and watch kids playing in the playground. If someone walks by, greet them. If they stop and talk, you may get to let your light shine for Jesus. If they turn out to be a born again believer like you, THAT is a perfect day. According to the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, you had a church service right there. You do not have to be in a brick and mortal building to have a church service.
Matthew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Imagine THAT!
BOREDOM-
PRODUCTIVE TOOL OR MIND DEADENER?
Possibly, my favorite memory of boredom was from growing up in Africa. We lived on a large island in Lake Victoria. There were two ways to leave the island. One was by a ferry on the east side which resulted in a 250 mile drive on poor dirt road to our shopping city Mwanza. The other option to escape was a small lake steamer that took four hours to take the shortcut from the island town of Nansio across the lake to Mwanza. Those four hours seemed like a dead loss to me in my young busy days. The throbbing of the ship's engine, the smell of dried fish, and the total lack of amusement were a killer. I would look at my watch frequently. All of my life I have mentally used that boat ride to measure anything that would result in four hours of boredom.
When it comes to rumination seeming to be our enemy, we have traditionally assumed that boredom is deadly.
"The idle mind is the devil's work shop."
This old proverb is NOT found in the Bible.
Is there any time when boredom is more frustrating than when we wake up in the middle of the night? Yet, it seems that King David knew what to do with those seemingly lost hours.
Psalm 1:2: But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
Some Ethiopians, as they rise in the morning, at once read a short Psalm. A great way to start the day.Psalm 63:6: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Psalm 119:148: Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
The tabernacle was open all night long as the Levites kept watch, as was also the temple later. So, David could go the the tabernacle in the middle of the night and ask a Levite to bring a scroll of the law for him to read.Psalms 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.
5 Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
This is the only place in the Bible that I know of where we are told to talk to ourselves.It appears that David never went to sleep because he was busy reading the Word of God. Not so. What this clearly means is that David did not allow himself to be bored if a scroll of the Word of God was on hand. Admittedly, David, being King, must have had a copy of the scroll of the law nearby at his disposal, whereas the average Hebrew did not. But, Psalm 63:6 above makes it clear that he had committed much of the law to memory so that he could ruminate on it in idle moments.
YOUR FEET WILL TAKE YOU TO TOWN.....
YOUR IMAGINATION AND A GOOD BOOK WILL TAKE YOU TO CHINA, KENYA,
OR ANTARCTICA.It is almost impossible to be bored today. When you sit in a waiting room of your doctor, Dr. Sanjay Patel comes on the TV in the corner and tells you to stop eating fat food and too much salt. While we eat alone in a restaurant we are prevented from being bored by the TV up in the corner with a cooking program or a football game. Airplanes have movies and piped music to damn boredom away. Even churches arrange activities so that we can be distracted every day of the week by some event that is allegedly very exciting. Sitting quietly with a King James Bible in hand is now considered dull. Even worship time in 90% of Churches has become platform centered, while we gawk and gush at those sexy young lady worship leaders and the tattooed hunk who plays the guitar and sings 7/11 songs like Willy Nelson. (A 7/11 song is seven words repeated eleven times.)
FACEBOOK REEL ON ENTERTAINMENT
What ever happened to: Psalms 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Are you bored? Pick up the old King Jimmy Bible, and read a few verses. Then ask yourself, "What is God saying to me in these verses?" Or, "What did Martin Luther think of these verses in his day?" As soon as Luther was converted he was at war with the Pope. What he saw in the verses you just read would have been colored by his spiritual battle experience. Now, if that does not fire you imagination, you do not belong here reading at my journal. Maybe you need to go out back and play in the sandbox with a four year old kid for a while and reboot your imagination.
But, I have hope for you. If you WANT your imagination to escape from the prison on boredom, you will soon stop stupidly feeling sorry for yourself, and you will start using those moments of boredom to solve problems, invent solutions to any number of life issues, and find your way to the future.
I know you have a problem with your cell phone. You deal with boredom by diving into cyberspace, right? Well, if you really must give way to this modern mental addiction in moments of boredom, try this. Bring up ChatGPT, and ask it, "What does the Bible say about boredom?" Add the letters KJV to the query. Voile- AI has given you Bible texts to ruminate on. Go to those Bible texts, and ask yourself if they apply to you. Turn that ominous cyber rabbit hole in your hand to good use..... that one which you dive into to nanny your mind. Make it work FOR you for a change. Stop watching videos on Facebook, and put chat bots to work helping you find new ways to use you mind.
I have vetted many chat bots, and the one which I found the least woke and biased, as well as academically informative, was perplexity.ai. ChatGPT is touted as the preferred chat bot. I have proven that it is greatly biased, and, like most social media, ChatGPT likes to nag and nanny us. ChatGPT3, which is free, is also dated and way behind the moment in data. This is done on purpose to motivate you to pay for ChatGPT4. There are several chat bots which give you up to the moment answers based on data scanned an hour ago. Google offers Google AI Studio which they claim does not store your questions. They give the best developed answers if you feel you can believe they really do not store your requests.
Please keep in mind that ruminating with the help of chat bots is still not a total escape from the nanny world of technology. The most productive use of boredom comes to those who shut off all technology options and stimulus and go inside their heads to kill time. Perhaps that is too narrow. I have found that the chirping of birds, or a little kid nearby humming, can make boredom almost a pleasure.
I have come to learn that, since AI puts all of our questions, as well as its own answers, into its data base, we can actually have a permanent impact on the data base of AI. If nothing else, as you hammer chat bots, you can force AI to answer serious spiritual questions. Ask ChatGPT to give you the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you may be shocked at how well AI does this. This is because AI surfs virtually all the data in the world and puts it to work answering questions.
AI has been used by millions of Bible believers from all over the world, and AI has scraped Christian books, and AI has scanned thousands of sermons. You can tell AI your conservative and literal use of the Bible, then give it a prompt to find something you need to know, and it will bring you the works and teachings of the Bible as it learned them from like-minded people. So, be creative. Use your imagination to mine AI for thoughts and discussions of Bible texts you are studying.
Keep in mind though, the Holy Spirit indwells born again people, not inert machines. So, no matter how good AI's answers are, God is not in them because God is not a machine. So, when you are bored, you will not hear from God at ChatGPT. But, you may force AI to fetch you the thoughts of some Bible believer who WAS taught by the Holy Spirit and produced God given thoughts which AI then scraped and delivered to you. It is indeed a tricky world our there.
A word about kids: Many Moms feel a bit intimidated when Johnny says, "Mommy, I am bored." I suggest you start your kids on the way to use boredom as a friend. Help them learn to escape into their imagination when they get bored. After all, kids are masters at using the imagination. It is their sense of wonder, and their ability to escape into let's pretend worlds, that we older folks wish we had not lost. Also, see if you can keep your teen agers from losing their sense of wonder. The best example will come from Daddy. Modern culture considers men with active imaginations to be effeminate. That is why we have so few Rudyard Kiplings around anymore. My Dad was fascinated with astronomy and studied it at one time. He expected me to know where the constellations were, and when we were south of the equator one time, I had to learn to find the southern cross. I did not think my Dad was not masculine because of this. I thought he was pretty smart.
Please understand this..... modern child psychologists are very troubled that kids today have no time to be bored. Playing, and ruminating at the same time, is absolutely essential to a healthy mind for a kid. The cell phone, and other forms of technology, have sucked kids' minds into cyberspace, and kids are allowed to become addicted to this stimulus by their parents and teachers. The results are coming in. We have young adults today who cannot think and reason intelligently. They expect everything they need to materialize suddenly, and they have NO SENSE OF WONDER. If you tell them about exotic places and the former days, their eyes glaze over, and they soon grab their cell phone to see if they have any new "likes" on Facebook. If you do not want a kid like that, you will have to FORCE THEM out of cyberspace NOW. And you, Dad and Mom, if you are addicted to your cell phone, you cannot expect your kids to become rational adults.
Now, do you really have any excuse to let moments of boredom depress you?
Mia Culpa: l have only recently figured out that I have wasted a lot of my life fretting about boredom. Since my wife passed into Heaven to be with Jesus, I have had many boring hours in my home, and I tend to start feeling sorry for myself. I have now determined to never let a boring moment go to waste. I intend to turn those moments into Bible time, invention time, or times to mentally solve problems. I have also recently started fleeing into the yard to my lawn swing to just sit and watch, listen, and inhale. It is very hard to be outdoors and bored at the same time. Get out of the house, and get out of cyberspace. Finally, I have also decided to stop trying to prevent boredom. Some of life's problems cannot be solved unless we embrace those moments of boredom.
NEGATIVE THINKING AND THE IMAGINATION
NEGATIVE THINKING IS COMMON BUT OFTEN FUTILE
Negative thinking is driven by an imagination that is not satisfied with what God has provided. That includes the world around us. God put you and me in this world at this time because he thought we could deal with it by depending on him. When we let our imagination start telling us that the world has never been as evil as it is now, we deceive ourselves. A study of world history will soon show us that there have been evil times far worse than anything we see today.
Imagine a banquet hall filled with national leaders, and the floor is covered with straw. That is there because those attending will be gorging themselves, puking on the floor, and gorging again, puking again, over and over. That was how Roman culture was during the day of the Apostle Paul. And, you see nowhere in his Epistles where he wrings his hands over the disgusting Roman culture.
The world is very subtly dangerous today because many evils of the past have been done away with. Slavery, sweat shops, and child labor have been outlawed. Safety laws make vehicles, planes, and roadways safe for travel. Long ago there were many deaths caused by horses bolting and running away with buggies and wagons. Because of regulating laws and codes, unregenerate men feel very safe. But, in their imaginations they are still totally wicked. So, we must not let our imaginations tell us that things are impossibly evil. Good things still happen. We can survive the same way the saints in Rome or Corinth dealt with the evil of their day.
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace,
Jesus gives the formula for keeping our mind on positive things:
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.It is not possible to do what Jesus commanded us in those verses and, at the same time, become preoccupied with negative and morbid thoughts. A very good way to get rid of negative thoughts and a darkened imagination is to do acts of love toward God AND to our fellow man.
WATCH THE VIDEO, AND I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU
Question: Would you take charge of your imagination every day by giving yourself the assignment to do an act of kindness every day? It could be to a stranger, or to a fellow Christian, at work, at school, just about anywhere and anyone. If you will do this, YOU will live longer and feel better physically.
PASTOR AND CHURCH MEMBER:
WATCH THIS TED TALK, AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS BELOW.Question: If you apply the TED above talk to your church, tell me, how is the level of compassion in your church family? How often do you see acts of kindness, and how often do you hear rough mean spirited talk about sinners, back sliders, and former members? Do you haunt everyone who leaves you church and use them as sermon illustrations to show what wicked people are like? The TED Talk speaker said that all you need is 40 seconds out of your life to say something compassionate and make a difference. Is that too much to ask?
Pastor: Do you start every day asking God to make you a blessing to someone? Do you watch the emotional signals you get from people you talk to to look for a chance to show compassion? If you are too busy, you are too busy to be of any use to God. There is NO way to better improve your state of mind than to show the compassion of Jesus Christ to hurting people. Start your day imagining that you will be a blessing to someone, and God will make it happen.
I have a homework assignment for you Pastor: I want you to read one of the four Gospels through while taking notes about all the times Jesus showed compassion. Look for how he affected people in his compassion.
All Christians: Do you suppose that if you get your imagination busy finding ways to show compassion in your home, church, work place, and the world, that it would make a difference in your home, church, and world? Churches can become cold emotionally. Home can become a place of routine without feeling.
Your home and church can only be revived if your imagination tells you that revival really exists. And, a church can only be revived if the saints visualize a revival and seek it by faith.
Isaiah 57:15 - For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Is that YOU? Is that the mindset of your church? Would you pray and search the Word of God to see how you can be the person God likes to dwell with?
If all of this talk about our imagination sounds silly to you, consider this..... you could be suffering anxiety and health issues because you will not give your imagination to God.
Finally, I take off from one of the benefits the speaker in the TED Talk spoke of. If a patient receives compassion from his care giver, he is more likely to take care of himself better and improve his own chances of recovery. Would you let you imagination take you on a compassion adventure if you knew some Christian would be inspired by you to take better care of his or her spiritual life?
My wife and I visited a Baptist church in Michigan one very cold February Sunday evening. After the service, as we stood in the foyer, people were bundling up to go outside in the sub-zero cold air. One family, who looked like they were not very well off, were wrapping their kids in sweaters. It was a heavy coat night. An older lady, very well dressed, and rather classy looking, saw the young daughter in only a sweater, and she kindly asked the mother, "Does she have a coat to wear?" The mother said she did not, but she assured the lady that they would go quickly to their car and everything would be all right.
The older lady told the mother, "Please bring your daughter around to my home tomorrow, and we will go shopping for a new coat for her." The mother looked like she was about to cry and promised she would be at the lady's home in the morning.
That is how it works. But, the wealthy lady had to be in a frame of mind to want to do acts of kindness, so that, when an opportunity appeared, she responded at once instead of too late.
Acts of kindness involve time, often money, and sometimes a second or third visit. If you imagine you do not have the time to do acts of kindness, consider please. It was VERY inconvenient to die for you on Calvary. I rest my case. You have the time, and my guess is, you have the cash to do simple acts of kindness.
We started this section talking about negative thinking. I moved to suggesting you use your imagination to lead you to acts of kindness for a reason. It is virtually impossible to have a feast of morbid negative thinking while doing acts of kindness for someone.
Do you know someone who is alone and may be feeling abandoned right now? How about giving your soul a jump start by calling them and just chat and maybe pray with them?
Pastors and church members: The man in the TED talk talked about burnout of care givers. He said,"The antidote for burnout has to be at the point of care." In other words, he got rid of burnout by becoming more compassionate in his duty in ICU. So, apply that to us. The antidote of a cold spirit and low zeal in the local church is not to stop attending. The antidote is also not to just become more busy. The antidote is to give yourself to God's people in compassion. As you do acts of kindness to other church members, your zeal and contentment in serving God will be restored. The same applies to your marriage and your home.
Let your imagination go wandering into these possibilities please. Good things will happen.
And sir, when is the last time you bought roses for your wife? See if you can imagine her face when you take her those roses you are going to buy her. If you are too busy, then imagine a holy God slapping you up the side of the head with a wet shingle.
And, pastor, imagine that widow who has not been taken out to dinner for years. Imagine her boredom waiting to be driven away by YOU. How about you and your wife taking her out to eat? Too busy? Watch it, buster..... God is watching, and he KNOWS you can make time. If you don't, God knows how to force you to make time.
I knew a man who was hired by World Vision to show care to donors. His only job was to visit regular donors to the mission and take them out to dinner and encourage them. He especially was loved for his tender hearted care of older widows who donated to the mission. And, he told me that Bill Pierce told him that all a widow needed to donate to be a candidate for his care was $5.00. My friend was NEVER bored.
KINDNESS AND PAYING IT FORWARD
Here is a guy who planned ahead, stocked up, and targeted people with kindness. We hear about random acts of kindness. That is a valid way to be kind. But, imagine how you could be kind to some stranger. By forethought and foreaction, you might be able to accomplish much more. Watch this guy.
https://youtu.be/_5ScmZewNjQ?si=bEQhnXT-XotwMpwQ
Do you ever ruminate about ways to be kind? Forethought is what helps you during frightening crises. I had thought through in detail what I would do if I ever lost the right of way on my motorcycle in traffic. Because I had thought many times about my choices in a highway crisis, my mind had the plan stored in long term memory. I figure that my mind went down through four possible forethoughts in how to react in less than a tenth of a second when the car in front of me slammed on the brakes. I chose the most rational option, and I ended up on the pavement with only seven stitches. I could have been killed.
Choice one was to leave the road and go into the ditch. There was a high curb that would stop that. Choice two was to lay the motorcycle down and try to wedge it under the back end of car in front of me. I had never practiced that of course. Choice three was to pile into the back of the station wagon in front of me. Very bad idea. For you motorcycle riders, the choice I went for was to try to go between the two lanes of traffic. On a two lane road, cars usually keep about four to five feel apart, and that is room enough for you to dodge into and possibly avoid a crash. I made it but clipped an oncoming station wagon, and that stopped me and dumped me on the pavement, and I got off with seven stitches. The bike only had a bent handlebar.
So, do you have any idea what you would do if you went to IHOP, and there was a homeless man sitting near the door. Would you go by on the other side, or would you help the man like the Good Samaritan? If you do not take the time to imagine yourself doing a random act of kindness, you will be sure to miss the opportunity when God arranges it.
Whenever I go shopping, I make sure to have a five dollar bill among the notes in my wallet. That will buy a kid most of the things he craves in a grocery store. I have had opportunity to give a kid a toy he asked his Mom to buy. She had refused him, and I asked if I could buy it for him. Mom said they did not need financial help. I told her I do not only give at church on Sunday, but I ask God to tell me who to give to anywhere. I asked her not to deny me the blessing of buying her son a toy. She melted, and in return for my five bucks I got a big hug from the kid. There is no better feeling than that.
If your imagination is leading you into dry morbid thoughts, try concentrating on who or where you can do some act of kindness.
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
When you imagination is primed and looking for someone to be kind to, it does not have to be someone who is needy.
LIKE THIS
PART
FOUR: SPECIFIC WAYS IN WHICH
THE WORLD HIJACKS YOUR IMAGINATION
Facebook and Social Media
There is no more delightful habitat which Satan loves than Facebook and other social media. He has people alone in front of a screen, he offers them "Likes" and "Comments" where they can show the world how wise they are and how disgusting the other people online are. Satan tells them that they need to bash and slaughter anyone they do not agree with. In the end, the imagination becomes captive to Satan himself. The Bible believer who thus hands his soul and emotions to the devil violates a serious command from our Lord.
2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;This is war, and your mind is either in the battle for Christ or for the devil. There is no place for R&R. There is no time out. The war never stops until you die or Christ takes us all out of here when he raptures the Church to himself.
The Jerk Factor
It is true in the social world that the biggest jerk, or bully, gets the most attention. Donald Trump used the jerk principle to seduce millions to follow him. Social media has become a platform where verbal brutality wins the day in the contest for power and influence.
I had an old friend from High School days whom I friended on Facebook. The friendship was very satisfying because, in one sense, we simply picked up where we had left off almost seventy years ago. Then, along came Covid. I posted on my timeline trying to show that having the vaccination was an imperfect option but a lot better then ending up in ICU with a tube shoved down ones throat. My old friend openly commented, not privately messaged, and told me that if I want to wear a diaper on my face I was a fool. This friend had been a missionary in Kenya and done great work for the Lord in some of Africa's most violent wilderness. What made him turn into a mindless jerk like that? I was floored, and I was revolted. I unfriened him because I do not keep any friend on Facebook who bullies anyone. But, it was a real kick in the stomach nonetheless.
The master of bullying in the media culture was Alex Jones. When gun defenders wanted to make their voices heard at the Austin, Texas state capital, they gathered on the steps of the building, but they did not invite Alex Jones. He defended gun ownership vigorously, but he used vicious bullying techniques in the process. The demonstrators wanted to avoid his image in their cause. So, Alex Jones went to the demonstration anyway. He stood in front of them and used a bull horn to drown out their leaders when they spoke. Jones had to be invited and front and center or he would destroy even those events he normally supported. Jones did the same thing to George W. Bush, standing in front of Bush at a campaign rally and blasting him with a bull horn. The local police picked Jones up, drove him around for 45 minutes, and dropped him off at the curb far from home. Selah
Rush Limbaugh was another jerk de jur. He used less violent words, but his specialty was to bully Liberals and Democrats daily. What made me sick was to find Christian men playing Limbaugh at work and feasting their soul on him. Limbaugh's lowest dive into filthy bullying was during the Bill Clinton and Monica fiasco. Limbaugh did a monologue every day in which Limbaugh represented Bill Clinton as having a conversation with his penis.
If you feast on such talk shows, or if you visit web sites of such bullies, you are giving your imagination to Satan. Only Satan is the author of such violence, and it is all over the Internet and social media.
Ephesians 4:29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
Movies
Star Wars- There were Christians who went to a theater to see the movie over and over. Movies from Hellywood are intentionally made to grab your imagination. When we let ungodly people take possession of our imagination, we are telling God to stay outside the door while we indulge mental pleasure and lust. For at least the duration of the movie, we have another god.
Artificial Intelligence and fake media- We have entered the age of fake media. There have always been people making fake news and media, but the Internet today is saturated with false stories in visual and audio format. This is powerful stuff, and when we watch it we have the story line imprinted in our memory. We can claim we know it is fake and we just want to be amused by it. But, there is a principle in this that God warns about:
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
The story line and plot enter our minds, and we react in some way. The fact that we yield to the urge to see the whole story proves that we are out of control by the Holy Spirit. Our imagination is in control, not the Lord.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is programmed to seduce you into a mental state of awe as it scans the web for answers to your questions. Many AI platforms are rolling out onto the web daily. Each AI chat bot has strengths and weaknesses.
Predictive AI uses data to predict outcomes in many areas of life. We will talk more about that later. What is deadly to your imagination is Generative AI which creates text, graphics, and music.
It is possible to get so enthralled with Generative AI that we spend hours creating graphics and music by using our imagination to provoke AI to create them for us. How is this dangerous?
First, there is the temptation to create imagery that is a lie and then post it online as if it is the truth. This is a form of deception which God cannot possibly like.
Second, we can become addicted to inventing clever graphics with a dream that one of them will go viral. This is a waste of time when we could be productive in something God likes.
Surfing the web is not a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Doomsday with AI- Some people dive into a sort of prophecy syndrome in which AI is prompted to predict the future. It is time to decide if you believe God:
Psalms 32:8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
I have added a AI generated graphic of a prophecy preacher:
You are not at the mercy of AI. God is in control if you are a born again child of God. There will be a way for you to survive as AI becomes more and more a part of the social order and culture. See more on this thought below.
During the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, many new inventions were made. The cotton gin, McCormick reaper, steam engines, telegraph, and hundreds of other inventions put people out of jobs. These new machines did the work of many men and increased profits. People back then became terrified that humans were about to be made redundant. Well, here we are, and humans are still busy going to work every day.
Robots and AI are already making serious blunders and proving that people are still needed. Stop ruminating about whether or not you will be given your pink slip and sent to the Gulag. God will never leave you nor forsake you.
Evolution
How much are we affected by evolution propaganda?
Family, Phylum, Specie- We use these words to describe the biological kingdom of creatures. These words came from evolutionists who use them to make their lovely big tee showing that we all came from an amoeba in a puddle on the side of a volcano. We need to stop using these words to group the creatures God created.
I have been troubled in recent months about all of the men and periodicals which defend creation and attack evolution. I believe some Christians are so committed to combat that they no longer know how to worship God. God has not called us to debate the Truth..... we are called to declare the Truth and go for a verdict.
There is NO DEBATE called for by God in this text where he addresses his people. He calls the nations, and he commands his people to declare who he is.
Isaiah 43:8 Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears.
9 Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled: who among them can declare this, and shew us former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified: or let them hear, and say, It is truth.
10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.
11 I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
12 I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God.
13 Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?
You are not called to debate. It has been my observation from experience that debates are never won. Both debaters, and their supporters, walk off thinking they won. Nothing is accomplished. I would suggest that we stop wasting time ruminating about evolution and how heretical it is. But especially, let us not debate with evolutionists and God haters. Declare the Gospel, and walk off.
Revelation 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
Stop casting pearls before swine.
Climate Change
I have news for you..... the climate has been changing for thousands of years. In fact, if it did not change, life would cease to exist on earth.
This is a New Age religion. The New Age teaches that Mother Earth is our goddess. We must bow to any creature which portrays divinity as represented by the earth mother. Well, keep going with this logic, and you will find yourself in a panic over the habitat of the dear creatures of the goddess. Any way in which the habitat of the goddess is troubled is YOUR fault. Climate Change teaches you that you are the enemy.
So, if you, in any way, deny that there is such a thing as Climate Change, or you deny YOU are responsible for destroying the earth, you will be attacked.
Stop letting them get to you. Avoid these people 100%. Do not debate with them. Let them go to Hell whining. They will never listen to the Gospel because they have their goddess.
When you are forced to respond to the Climate Change Gestapo, laugh at them. When mental midgets attack other people with insane claims, the most powerful thing to do is laugh at them. God is our example:
Psalms 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.
4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Trans sexualism
THIS VIDEO WILL REVIEW THE WAR ON KIDS TRYING TO ROB THEM OF THEIR GOD-GIVEN GENDER
This is war, and if you do not take an open position on the demonic propaganda, your kids may not know what you believe. This could result in one of you kids believing the propaganda in school or the neighborhood, and your broken heart later WILL BE YOUR OWN FAULT. Fathers must stand up and make war on this holocaust of the new normality.
Feeling bad, ruminating over the evil of trans sexualism without taking action, is not spiritual warfare. It is you thinking about it and doing nothing.
The divine belly issue
Philippians 3:18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.The world wants you to make your belly your god.
The world wants you to boast in the things you should be ashamed of.
The world wants you to turn from the narrow way and think about what the godless world offers you.I see videos online frequently of people eating enormous amounts of food at some steak house because the meal is free if they eat it all. This is a celebration of gluttony. I also see that every boulevard in America has thousands of fast food stores. The culture is very busy worshipping the god of the belly.
My son did onsite computer support for a family in Arizona who built a new mansion for a retirement home. The home had no kitchen as we know it. There was a nook with a microwave and small refrigerator. The home had many bedrooms and bathrooms, but no place to cook. The people told my son that they would eat out for all meals. Is the end of life defined by food? It sure looks like it to many people.
This cultural foolishness is the result of people being seduced in their imaginations into believing that prosperity is eating out at a $200 a plate steak house. Then again, there is the god of fast food where people believe that they should be eating garbage and chemicals so that they can make their food budget go farther.
This cultural pagan modern tradition all starts in the imagination. It is exacerbated by advertising on TV and the Internet of course. But, we also tend to get into conversation in which we inspire one another to go out in an adventure of finding fantastic food. The art of cooking good food is being lost in our culture because people lust for exciting food.
DEI- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion- The dumbing down of imagination
The woke DEI propagandists have only one motive in their nagging..... to give you a guilty conscience. They want you to imagine that YOU caused Global Warming. This is as rational as trying to convince you that it is your fault that Chicken Little was eaten by Foxy Loxy. Or that the smoke from your Bar B Que blinded the eyes of a driver on I-35 and caused him to tailgate the car in front of him.
Forced Diversity is a sure way to destroy the imagination. If you join an Irishmen's club, you do not expect to be forced to accept a Black man as a member. Forcing the club to admit a Black man is intellectual suicide. You cannot imagine a man of African descent being a Corkman.
The same applies to Equity. This is the belief that all activities in life must end with everyone experiencing the same thing as the rest of the group. That is not how life works. You can all start out with equal opportunities, but there will only be one winner.
1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Equity: And finally, it is irrational to imagine that we can make everyone feel welcome and as fulfilled as all of us. Some people just do not get the rush like others do.
STOP IT. Stop giving in to imaginations of wicked people who try to engineer the culture which homogenizes everyone to the lowest common denominator. Imagine being kind to people who lose at the game of life instead of pulling us all down to be equally losers.
Intersection- There is another woke notion that two or three minorities, who are treated badly, must be lumped into one group. They love to include Black Americans with sodomites and trans sexuals. This is a wicked way to treat Black folks. They were born Black which is not a sin. Sodomites were not born to be queer. They chose to join that sinful way of life. Stop letting the woke creeps tempt you to think wrong about minorities.
Advertising
This is a second treatment of this subject. I need to add to the thoughts you read above. The emphasis here is on the way the world tries to seduce you to control your imagination.
Why do we hear so many ads on YouTube and Pandora where the speaker has a British accent? They must do this for a reason. I have a theory that Americans get a rush out of people who speak with an accent because they seem more articulate. The ad companies know why, even if I am wrong. They know that British English seduces us in some way. Perhaps they sound authoritative. Whatever it is, these ad people are grabbing our imaginations with their trick.
Advertising is all about lying. Promises are made, and little short dramas are worked into ads of even fifteen seconds. In the 1970s there was an ad for male deodorant. The guy is talking to his friend, and he tells him he cannot get a girl. The other guy tells him to buy a brand of deodorant. As the ad ends, the first guy is walking away with a buxom girl on his arm, and he turns and shows the deodorant to you and winks.
The girls in this commercial should be avoided at all costs:
How do the commercial writers appeal to your imagination? They want you to visualize a girl sniffing your arm pit. Did it work? I certainly hope not.
You will tell me you cannot be fooled or moved by such tricks. The ad producers do not believe you. That deodorant ad goes into the long term memory (as you just saw with my little story- ugh), and you do not know how much it affects you.
This stealth trick bothered me greatly when we still had a TV in the home. So, I started mocking at the ads and lampooning them. It got to where my kids might be upstairs in their rooms, but when they heard an ad come on, they came tumbling down the stairs to hear my commentary about the ad.
We must fight back to keep our sanity. I encourage you to find ways to resist by launching mental and verbal warfare on ads you hear or see. This will tell your brain that the message is nonsense or even devilish. Also, be a star with your kids..... mock at the insanity of commercials to teach your kids to defend their own imaginations.
YOU MAY HAVE TO WATCH THIS TWICE TO CONCENTRATE ON THE SUBTITLES WHICH YOU MUST READ.
HERE IS HOW ADVERTISERS LIE TO YOUR EYES
YOUR EMOTIONS ARE BEING DETECTED, STORED, AND THEN SOLD TO ADVERTISERS
Philippians 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 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.Music
Start here to see a boy's imagination being empowered by music
Did you read the script? The boy was bored with music, and the lady conductor called him to the podium and helped my direct the concert. The boy's mother later said the kid was enthralled and had decided he wanted to study music.
Music is a universal language of the whole world. The children of Israel sang in celebration after crossing the Red Sea and escaping from Egypt. David wrote many Psalms to be sung. Habakkuk said that his prophecy was meant to be sung to the music of instruments he himself invented.
Habakkuk 3:19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
I knew a preacher in Arizona who made it very clear that he hated music during church services. His sermon was the main event. What blasphemy. Jesus sang a Psalm after he introduced the first Lord's Supper. The angels will sing in Heaven around the throne of God.
Nothing sets the tone for a gathering of the saints like Baptist convention music (I invented the name). Here is Charles Fuller moving the gathering and his radio audience in the 1950s.
But, no one understands the power to grab your imagination with music like that famous Choir Director from Heaven..... Lucifer.
Here is music composed to turn your thoughts morbid and hopeless.
When I was in the US Army, I was a Chaplain's Assistant. My Chaplain asked me to help him put together a coffee shop on the Army post for the soldiers to give them an alternative to the Marxist coffee shops off the post. I agreed with the understanding that we would include the Gospel in the activities. The first night we opened two things sent all of our effort to Hell.
1) The Chaplain told me we would not talk about Jesus or the Gospel.
2) We would allow the soldiers to choose the music to be played.
This is the song they wanted to play over and over. It is the most Satanic song ever to rise to the top of popular music. It is still played on the radio 50 years later.
Stairway to Heaven
The song is all about going to Heaven, but it is the Heaven of mysticism and Satanic spiritualism.Satan encouraged Eve to learn the difference between good and evil. That is what Satan still wants you to do, but he wants to send you to Hell by stirring up your imagination with his own special music.
I hope I have helped you see that your imagination is a war zone. God wants to control your imagination, and Satan wants it also. It is up to you to decide where your imagination will go with regard to music. Also, what you allow your kids to play in your home may well determine if they confess faith in Jesus Christ or rebel against him.
Here is "Christian" music played in the sensual stride style of New Orleans.
This music will tempt you to enter a sensual mental state and feel good and ignore God. This is because of the off beat used in this genre style.
READ ABOUT THIS IF YOU NEED MORE INFORMATION.ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE CALLED MIND CONTROL
All of the forces from society, Hollywood, the Internet, Social media, and more are being used to take over you mind. Think about your imagination, AND YOUR KIDS' IMAGINATIONS, AS YOU WATCH THIS TED TALK:
This may have been a bit hard to follow. Here are steps you can take to examine yourself.
1 Corinthians 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
Self-examination is a very godly thing to do.
1. Where were you mentally and emotionally five, ten or twenty years ago?
2. What outside force, or who, affected your mind so that you made changes?
3. Without quoting any human authority, contrast yourself long ago with you today. Do you like what has happened?
4. Who else has been helped, comforted, or changed spiritually or morally, because you changed?
5. Would Jesus follow the life path you have followed?
6. In other words, have you become a freak or a fake Christian or more like Jesus?
PART FIVE: HOW DO YOU LOOK AT PEOPLE?
Your spouse?
Is your spouse the only one who inspires your imagination sexually when you are at work or idle during the day? If not, then your imagination is the imagination of an adulterer. There may be no acts of adultery to be ashamed of, but God knows exactly where your mind has been wandering.
Matthew 5:27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."To lust after her" is all about the imagination. Whether the woman is walking past you downtown or online in porn, your imagination is craving sex with the wrong woman.
On the other hand, God is delighted when your mind goes into distraction for your spouse, like the minds of the lovers in the book Song of Solomon. The way to subdue your imagination and give it 100% to your spouse can be reduced to two exercises:
1. Read Song of Solomon, and talk to your spouse the way they talked in that Bible book. It is there to show you the delights of marital fidelity and the pure romance of faithful sex.
2. As mentioned above with negative thoughts, covenant with yourself and God to snuff out the wandering lustful thoughts and replace them with acts of kindness. And, no other kindness fits better here than toward your spouse. All it takes in modern life is a suggestive text message to your spouse. Just be VERY sure you are sending it to the right person.
Imagine your spouse opening a text message and reading this:
Song of Solomon 1:12 While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
13 A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.Stop letting Hellywood and the Internet define romance for you. Get your imagination engaged in lust for the one God gave you for life. Look here now..... Jesus said that in Heaven they do neither give nor take in marriage. This life, today, is all the time you have for romance. God created you to be able to be romantic. Make time for the one you made vows to long ago.
Your kids?
Does your imagination give you hope for your kids, or do you visualize them are eventually being only average at best?
Do you, Daddy, imagine your son going far beyond you and having knowledge and skills you never had? Or, do you resent it when your son speaks of things you never learned?
I was substitute teaching in a class of mentally handicapped kids in a school in Barstow, California. The class was doing a sheet of math problems, and one kid was just sitting there staring at the paper and doing nothing. I had seen this before, and I knew that a scolding would get nothing from him. So, I asked him why he was not doing any problems. He said, "My Daddy told me he never learned anything in school, so I probably would not learn anything either."
I was suddenly furious at the kid's father, but of course that accomplished nothing. I told the kid I did not believe he could possibly be that dumb. I suggested he try to do the top three problems on the page just to see if he really was so dumb. I walked away and came back later, and behold, the kid had done them and got they right. I then said, "That was great, I wonder how many more you could do," and walked away again.
Later, I came back to the kid, and he had finished the whole page, which even surprised me. I confess I did not expect that much of him. And, after I corrected his work, he had only gotten a couple wrong. I had the joy of telling him he had proved he was really a pretty smart kid.
What your imagination sets as a goal for your son or daughter is all you will ever expect of them. God sure does not think that way about YOU.
Romans 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.What can you do right now to fire your son or daughter's imagination to do great things, first for God, and then for you? How often do you tell your son or daughter that you are praying that they will do exploits and shine for Jesus?
Mom, do you put a note in your kids' lunches for school telling them you love them and inspiring them to do well?
FOOTNOTE: This is where I want to tell you that you need to imagine homeschooling your kids. Do not tell me you cannot do it. I had a couple with four kids where the parents had never finished public school. The public school insisted in putting their kids into Educationally Handicapped classes where they would learn nothing. They ordered the homeschool curriculum, and after a couple of months, I had a report from a business lady telling me that she never saw those kids figure out how much money they had, in order to buy candy in her store, until they started home schooling.
Your coworkers?
Terry was Armanian by heritage. Armanians are not lazy, at least that is the impression they want to give. If an Armanian young man is a loser, his father and uncles will find a job for him in one of the family businesses, order him to dress well, and sit the bum behind a desk in some office so that he appears to be part of the ongoing prosperity. I did not make this up. I saw it.
But, Terry was not a loser. He was working with me in his uncle's drive in dairy while I was going to college. Terry hustled at everything he did. He too was in college, and our job was to take customer's orders, fill them, and put the orders into their cars. It was a very inglorious job for an Armanian kid on his way to be a lawyer, doctor, or real estate tycoon some day. But, Terry was giving 100% anyway.
Terry became a close friend because I realized where he was headed, and it got into my imagination that he was a very good example to me. Some of the other workers were doing only what was required of them. Terry was doing that and much more. And, when I was on the same shift with him, the work seemed to breeze along without struggle.
What does your imagination tell you while you are at work? Do you think of ways to make the company prosper? Do you watch for ways to help fellow workers who are struggling to either learn the job or to master it? Does your imagination make a tyrant or slob of your boss, or do you see him as your ticket to job security? Do you rejoice when the boss prospers?
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
16 Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.These two verses are all about you being happy when others around you prosper and do well. That means even when you are passed over for promotion. Perhaps there is no greater test of our control of our imagination than to be passed over or to not be noticed for doing good work. Our imagination can come up with a dozen conspiracy theories as to the reason we were not noticed.
DO YOU WORK IN THE LOCAL CHURCH?
This can also be found in the local church. Musicians can become offended when they are not asked to perform. Sunday School teachers can have hurt feelings because the pastor does not notice their hard work. Pastors can be offended when the people do not respond to their great high powered sermons. It is all about ME..... the old "I" problem.
Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.
12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:
13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.
15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.
17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.When a Christian to whom you have been a friend, you have taught the Word to, or you have helped them with the issues of life, comes and thanks you for your love and kindness, do you send them away "whole"?
You may say, "I cannot do that.... only Jesus can." You are theologically correct, but maybe your work in their life is not finished yet.
Is there some other area of life and Christian victory which they have tried and failed to get right? Maybe you are not done with that saint as a servant of Christ to them. They thanked you, they are your friend. If they are not "whole" yet, that is your next way to bless them. If you are worrying about whether or not you are appreciated, or you are feeling sorry for yourself because you were not chosen for promotion, you are absolutely worthless as a servant to your friend.
This is all about your imagination and rumination over how you are being treated.
Your Christian friends?
We need to talk more about our friends in the Body of Christ and our imagination.
Bill was, by the world's standards, a loser. He had gotten so deep into drugs and alcohol that his parents agreed to his being given shock treatment. Shock treatment is where the prefrontal lobes of the brain are given electric shocks in an effort to tame the mind. It has vicious side effects and is now illegal to use.
I finally met Bill one day. When I got to his parents' home he was hiding in his bedroom. He finally came out, and we talked for a while. I did my best to be friendly and not suspicious. It was not long until he went back to his bedroom again, and I asked him mother if I had said anything to offend him. His mother started crying, and she said, "Pastor, you have no idea what just happened. Bill has been hiding from everyone for a long time. You are the first one he has talked to in ages. It is obvious that he likes you. Really, this day is a landmark and a real blessing to us."
I was amazed. All I did was treat Bill like anyone should be treated, with decency and friendliness. As time went by, Bill started coming to church. He had confessed faith in Christ years before, so he needed to be welcomed back home by the people of God. He would slip back into sin for an instant, but he would be at our kitchen table Monday morning telling me what a loser he was. I would help him confess sin and help him get up and keep walking. At any moment in time, Bill looked like a loser. But, watched over time Bill was actually making real progress in his Christian life. He finally was on his own, fully employed, and married.
Part of Bill's progress back to Christian victory was that I always dreamed of him finally being free from the old bondage of defeat and weak morals. And, God honored my dreams and made it happen.
It is about time, friend, that we all start looking at one another the way God looks at us..... more than conquerors.
Pastor: How do you think about those folks who come out to church gatherings?
A pastor I know is sound doctrinally, compassionate out of the pulpit, and walks orderly. But, when he preaches, he spends a lot of time talking down to the saints in a voice loaded with frustration and impatience. I fear that, in his private thoughts, the members of the church are a great disappointment to him.
No pastor who has really studied the way of Jesus with his unpredictable disciples has any business getting impatient with the saints in his church.
Impatience was not what filled the imagination of Jesus.
Regarding Jesus: 1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
When Jesus found the disciples sleeping instead of praying with him in the garden just before his crucifixion, he told them to take their rest. They had no idea how serious that night was, and they were not living up to the task Jesus expected of them, that is, to pray. He did not rage and gripe about their dedication. He accepted them as less than perfect but still his best friends.
Your voice and manner with the saints tells them what you think about them. Do not kid yourself, sir. Those people you imagine are so dull of spirit and mind are reading you like a book. One day they will start slipping away one by one, and you will go looking for another church. You will blame the people of being spiritually cold and lazy, and you will go on down the road and do it again. YOU, sir, are the loser because you refuse to replace your fleshly imaginations with the patience of Jesus.
Pastor, if you show impatience and a short fuse with the sheep, they will soon be thrashing one another. YOU are their example, and you have no business complaining one day when the whole local church explodes in your face in a rip snorting church fight. Church fights almost always start in the imagination of the pastor. He loses the mind of Christ, and he starts showing that the way to solve problems is to thrash one another and be mean tempered.
To us all, I would suggest we again use the principle of replacement. When we get impatient with another church member, and our mind starts through those deadly permutations of condemnation of others, we need to at once set our affection on things above.
Ed works six days a week in a noisy factory. He is under threats to meet quotas in his work, and he is known as one of the best employees. But, if he asks for a five day week, the owner tells him he can find Vietnamese immigrants anytime who will work seven days a week. So, Ed is exhausted on Sunday morning and struggles to simply climb the few steps into the church. During the singing he is with it, but about ten minutes into the sermon Ed nods off and dozes. One Sunday his wife jabbed him with her elbow gently to wake him back up. The pastor, knowing this may be the only hour of peace during Ed's week, whispered to Ed's wife, "Let him sleep."
When the pastor did that he spoke more powerful words to the whole congregation than in nearly any of his sermons. The people knew about Ed's employment struggles, and they saw their pastor show a moment of patience and tenderness. The only way that pastor could seize that moment and get it right was by thinking tender and kind thoughts about Ed many times. Ed was his friend, not just a tithing member.
Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
Your Pastor, or Christian leaders, AND over thinking
Is someone driving you to over thinking? Do Bible lessons end with your mind being bombarded with words of men who seem to invite you to condemn yourself?
You know that you are born again. You know God has made precious promises to you. But, every sermon on Sunday morning seems to end with the pastor finding some way to convince you to condemn yourself. If there is known sin in your life, the Lord may be using the message and pastor to encourage you to make decisions for victory. That is good. But, if you did not come to church feeling guilty already about some sin, beware of the pastor who drags out ten verses of Just As I Am to hammer you until you flee to the altar in desperation to try to turn off you over thinking mind. You have been lead to fear by a pastor who may be possessed with devils.
How can I be so bold? Answer: Because it is not God who leads Christians to fear.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Over thinking never ends with you feeling at peace or uplifted by God. Over thinking nearly always ends in fear and self-condemnation.
I have watched the Holy Spirit use sermon after sermon I have preached, usually teaching from a Bible book, to bring some change in the life of the members I loved. I am 100% convinced that the common practice of brow beating the saints into "walking the aisle" or "staying to pray" is doing violence to the Holy Spirit. The best time to get right with the Lord is when you get home and sit still and think about what you learned from the Bible. That is when the Holy Spirit, who is in you, who you have from God, can use your imagination to show you what you need to do to please him.
Over thinking is a dead end. It never takes you on to victory. It always takes you to guilt, and it is a big waste of time. It you have the notion that it is your lot in the Christian life to be hammered every Sunday morning until you mind is a puddle of jelly, you need to find another church where the pastor teaches and then lets the Holy Spirit tell you what to do with the sermon or lesson. If you do not hear distinctly from the Holy Spirit about some sin in your life, your obsessive compulsive rumination, as you try to dredge up sin, is a form of spiritual sedo masochism. Stop it please.
Indeed, when we let the devil press us into pathological over thinking, we are sinning. I do not want to be guilty of doing what I just told you a Bible teacher should not do, but I need to show you that God insists that you conquer the over thinking and find ways to have peace of mind:
John 16:33 - These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
When you realize you are over thinking, grab your Bible and read. Get your mind on the good things there. Bring up Alexander Scourby reading the King James Bible online, and fill the home with sound from God's Word.
John 16:33 - These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
When you have tribulation in the local church, keep moving until you find a place where peace is the normal way of church life.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
You can have peace of mind and think about things which are not traditionally thought of as "spiritual." Simply do an inventory of your wandering thoughts, and use the list of guides above to determine if your thoughts are under control.
Next time that little demon asks you, "What if this happens," immediately turn to your Father who is right there with you and start casting..... "casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you." Also, you need a godly Christian friend who knows how to listen to you and then lovingly rebuke you and turn your mind back to Christ.
Tell me, Christian friend, WHO CAN COUNT ON YOU TO LISTEN AND YOU LEAVE THEM WITH PEACE OF MIND? There are very few experiences in this Life in Christ like leading a mentally troubled saint back to rest in Christ.
HERE IS A VIDEO MESSAGE ON THE SUBJECT OF CHRISTIANS AND OVER THINKING
The most deadly distraction to the
imagination- RevengeAs I write this article, the United States is under the oppression of easily the most vengeful President in our history. President Donald Trump boldly promised during his campaign speeches that he would get revenge over his enemies. And he did. Because of him, many Americans have become vengeful. It is now the new normal.
The most deadly way that our imaginations can take a detour directly to Hell is in ruminating ways to get even with those who offend us.
"If he says this, I will say that" "If she gossips about me, I will destroy her by telling all her sins."
So, what does God say about getting revenge?
Romans 12:19 – “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”
Trump's lust for revenge is proof enough that he hasn't the slightest notion of what it means to be a born again Christian. No true child of God would publicly promise to get revenge as boldly as Trump does.
Proverbs 24:29 – “Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work.”
When, during idle moments, we ruminate on ways to "get even," we are 100% out of the will of God. The texts above prove this. When we fall into this sort of use of our imagination, we should at once cry out to God for help, and start singing a hymn.
RESENTMENT, AND A LUST FOR REVENGE, WILL KILL YOU.
COUNTERFEIT SOLUTION TO REVENGE GIVEN BY A SPACED OUT GURU
The first two solutions to revenge are good. The third is deadly. The Bible tells us to focus on Jesus Christ, not on ourselves. Satan will always tell you to think about yourself.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.If a Hindu guru can figure out how to deal with revenge, we who are in Christ have no excuse for letting our imagination run into the Hell of vengeful thinking. We know better because we follow Christ.
PART
SIX: SPECIAL TOPIC-
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, YOUR IMAGINATION,
AND YOUR
FUTURE
One of the most discussed issues right now is, what can we do to survive the elimination of humans in the work place as AI makes humans obsolete?
First, there are many sane and articulate people in the tech world who do not believe robots and AI will totally eliminate humans from the work place. Many of the prophecies of the tyranny of AI coming soon are not based on anything real. They are driven by sick minds who love to cause panic and make themselves seem wise. Someone put a mic in their face, and they suddenly see the future clearly, that is, if you are a sucker enough to believe them.
So, let us put our imaginations to work. The Wright brothers dreamed and ruminated about a machine that could fly through the air. Their imaginations eventually evolved into calculations and design ideas, and one day they flew through the air. Your cell phone is the end of a lot of imaginations, starting with Alexander Graham Bell's, that evolved into the first telephone on March 10, 1876.
So, use your imagination to think of areas of the work and service world which robots and AI will not be able to dominate.
Brian French writes that AI cannot fully replace humans because physical work, emotional connection, and complex judgment still require people.
MIT Sloan researchers highlight human capabilities like empathy, connectedness, ethics, creativity, and leadership as areas less likely to be replaced by machines. If a job takes a soul to master, a robot will never do that job.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is the UK's leading professional body for HR and People Development. Through its research, qualifications, and membership frameworks, it shapes recognized standards that guide HR and L&D professionals in building strong, modern workplace practices. CIPD’s future-of-work publications emphasize that AI changes work, but people professionals still matter for ethics, people management, and organizational judgment.
Service areas humans still dominate:
Healthcare bedside care and patient-facing roles.
Teaching, counseling, and social work.
Skilled trades like electricians, plumbers, air conditioning, and carpenters.
Emergency response and disaster work.
Leadership, project management, and ethical decision-making.
All of the above employment options have one startling thing in common- Imagination and intuition. This is the skill of identifying a problem with people, machines, people groups, etc, and staring at the thing while one's mind races. We used to call it Yankee ingenuity. All humans are capable of it. Some make good money using their imagination and intuition to solve problems. A robot will never be able to do this. Why? Answer: because all of the above work skill areas are rampant with problems that have no known solution. We humans were made by God to figure our solutions to problems that no one ever solved before. Some of us get paid very good money to do this. Why should that not be YOU?
You will never see a robot smile, like our friend to the left. Is it his wife, his boss, or a coworker who helped him solve a connectivity problem? The day we see robots smile and laugh, that will be the day we are in deep trouble. Until then, relax, and imagine what you can do to smile about your work.
AI will handle more routine tasks, but humans will still be needed where trust, empathy, moral judgment, and physical adaptability matter the most. Start using your imagination to look down the road and identify work that robots will never do, and see if there is something you would like to do. Indeed, maybe you have employment right now that, with some promotion, you could transition into before the big showdown with AI arrives at your work place. Get some friends together, and have a mental jam session to help each other do this.
Proverbs 8:12 I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
Finally, God did not bring you to this moment in time, culture, and progress to watch you flounder and be a cast away. If God could add wisdom and understanding "in all manner of workmanship" to Bezaleel, he has not run out of his reserves of those skills today. He can add to you what you need to keep your place in the working world.
Like this:
Exodus 31:1-5 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri... And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.
Ecclesiastes 10:10 If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct.
In Matthew 24:40–41, Jesus is talking about the End Times and says, “two men will be in the field” and “two women will be grinding at the mill,” which shows normal labor activity continuing at the time of His coming.
In Luke 17:34–36, parallel language describes people in everyday routines, again suggesting life and work are still going on before sudden judgment.
Finally, Revelation 13:16–17 describes a system in which people buy and sell only if they have the mark of the beast, which clearly assumes economic activity during the Tribulation. They are buying and selling when the Antichrist demands that all people on earth take his mark. This means the world's masses are earning incomes.
"And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built..."
(Luke 17:26–28)Life will go right on in a flow of activity typical of life for the past thousands of years. That includes income making.
It is time to work smarter, not harder. Please stop believing all the prophets of doom. Stop ruminating over when and how you will lose your job. God has work for you to do.
HOW
DO WE THINK?
How can we take control over our imagination?
2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
So, first we need to determine if our imagination is toying with high things which we know very well offend God. Such things need to be cast down, that is, totally rejected on purpose.
Finally, we need to arrest and take captive every thought that leads to disobedience to Christ.
I find that staying indoors all day tends to lead my mind into ungodly thoughts. If I go sit on the lawn glider with a cup of tea, it is amazing how the world outdoors calls my mind away to thoughts which I do not feel guilty about. There is a new fad called "Forest Bathing." All this consists of is going to a forest nearby and walking or sitting a while. The higher oxygen level, and the sounds of birds and nature, cleanse the mind of rubbish thoughts. Anyone who has gone camping in the forest knows that this is an old method to cleanse the mind and soul. Thousands of New York City inmates go daily to Central Park to find this God given distraction.
In other words, you will have to make a serious effort to find out where your mind is disciplined into submission to be like Christ. He went to the wilderness to get away from people. Maybe if you live in California or Arizona you will want to go out into the desert. I find the desert very mind cleansing myself. I also love to go to the sea shore and walk out on a long pier and just inhale.
HOW DOES GOD THINK ABOUT YOU?
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
God thinks about you and imagine all sorts of good things happening to you by his power.
SO, HOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT GOD?
God is our example. We should use his thinking pattern to guide our thinking about God. We should also use his thinking pattern to guide our thoughts about one another.
|
CONCLUSION: TAKE AWAY
So, we end back in our mind. If you want every imagination of your heart to be evil continually, just start thinking about how evil this world is and how badly they treat you. You will soon be a reservoir of self-pity, and your imagination will go on to show you how to be unfaithful to your wife, mean tempered to your kids, and worthless as tits on a boar hog to humanity and God.
OR.....
You can rebuke your mind and think about the patience of Jesus, the best memories of your spouse, and the possibilities of your kids to prosper better than you have.
You, pastor, can also think about the special things you like in your wife, the little joys your friends in the pew have brought to you, and you can go on to more and more rumination that leads you to one day be mistaken for Christ himself. Imagine this..... "Jesus must be like our pastor."
An old pastor in Rumania had been put in prison by the Communists. He had suffered terribly, and a prison guard was curiously watching him. Eventually, the prison guard was accused of some offense by his Communist overlords, and he too was put into the prison with the Christians. The old pastor gave the imprisoned guard the Gospel. The guard said, "I have heard all of this before, but I cannot believe. Tell me, pastor, what is Jesus like?" The old pastor patiently said, "Jesus is like me." The guard at once said, "Then I can believe in your Jesus."
Can you say, "Jesus is like me?"
No? I understand. But, tell me, can you imagine one day being able to say that? If you cannot imagine that, I pray you soon find healing for your imagination. Being like Jesus starts in your imagination and will absolutely happen when you reach his throne.
LET! The text below starts with an active verb. To let is only done on purpose by an act of the will. God will not force you to think like Jesus. It is up to you.
Philippians
2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name:.
Imagine one day being exalted by God himself.
Imagine living until that day walking humbly with our God.
Micah
6:8 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;
and what doth the LORD require
of thee,
but to do justly,
and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with
thy God?
LINKS:
HOW TO HAVE FRIENDS AND SURVIVE
PYRAMID SCHEMES AND YOUR IMAGINATION
RUMINATION MAKES YOUR PROBLEMS GROW
GREAT DISCOVERIES WHICH HAD THEIR ORIGIN IN A MAN'S IMAGINATION:
SEND MAIL, and tell me how you survive mentally.
BACK TO MORAL ISSUES MENU PAGE
BLESSED QUIETNESS JOURNAL ENTRY PAGE
ge