"THINK" SERIES: PART 5 - "STINKING VS BIBLICAL THINKING"

"Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5)

What is it about "Stinking Thinking" that brings so many well-adjusted folks, especially Christians these days, to a not-so-good place? 

By the way, what is "Stinking Thinking" anyway? From all reports, the late great speaker, motivator, encourager, and man of God, Zig Ziglar was responsible for coining the phrase. The Cambridge Dictionary describes it as "a bad way of thinking, that makes you believe you will fail, that bad things will happen to you, or that you are not a very good person". That is the official definition. But in real life, it can be any thought derailing right thinking, period.

There is a story told about the Great Reformer Martin Luther. He said one night, the devil showed up at the foot of his bed with a long scroll of every sin ever committed by Luther. 

As he read those off, in Luther's all-too-real vision, the serpent of old, needled Luther and said "Do you remember this sin? ...." Then Luther would respond: "Yes, I do", and so it went. After this, it went on for a long time. Luther recounted that he felt like he was about the slip into hell when the Lord Jesus showed up. The Savior told Luther to tell the devil to go all the way to the end of the scroll and read what was at the bottom of it.

Luther told him exactly those words. The devil kept reading off sins. Finally, Martin Luther said, "Devil, in the Name of Jesus, I demand that you read what is written at the bottom of your scroll". At the mention of THAT Name, the devil did as was told. At the bottom of that long list of Luther's sins was written in red "All the Sins of Martin Luther have been forgiven by the Blood of the Lamb".

The enemy, from whose clutches Jesus saved us, if we know Him as Lord and Savior and are truly born again, knows our thoughts and sins because he put most of them in there. Every thought of greed and lust for money, riches, illicit sexual pleasure, and covetousness, came from him. Every thought that leads to an ungodly action, even for the strongest believer in Jesus, came from him.

He has a habit of throwing past forgiven sins, in our faces and it is pushed in our faces by thoughts that ambush us, in the most awkward or inappropriate of moments - from quiet time in the morning, or in the middle of a meeting at work, or having lunch with a pastor or anything. If we are not careful, this can defeat people who profess to be Christians, but who are not walking in any kind of victory, or deep Faith, or who have lives guided and directed by the Spirit.

Stinking Thinking invites the weak to make blanket statements, away from Scripture, that "God does not love me....or my spouse...or my boss hates me....or I can't stand that nosey neighbor".....and the next thing we know, we are operating on feelings and emotions far outside the bounds of Biblical Thinking.

Some of this Stinking Thinking may even have to do with self-esteem. If someone from your past - an old schoolmate who knew you as a party machine from senior year in high school or college, but now he or she sees that you more than likely, "party like it's 1699 (i.e. none at all), and you let some long-buried emotion resurface, to cause you to doubt your own identity in Christ, then it's time to move to Plan B.

Plan B is the return to Plan Bible and Biblical Thinking. We will look into this more in upcoming posts, but suffice it to say, Martin Luther, at the behest and prompting of King Jesus, has demonstrated the quickest way to grab those resurgent defeatist old BC (before Christ) "replays" and send them to the dungeon of forgotten sins, which Yahweh has stated is, "as far as the east is from the west".

John 1:12 underscores our Authority to respond as Luther did to the devil. It is the quickest way to defeat EVERY form of stinking thinking; horrible thoughts and anything from the pit of hell. The Bible says in this verse "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name".

We take every thought captive, reminding the devil, in the most authoritative statement, that we are Children of God and all our sins - not just those from last week, but those from our past, have been forgiven by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who defeated the accuser, on that fateful day on Calvary.

Father, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, we thank You that You sent Your Holy and Powerful Son, in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us, that we may be reconciled with You and have Eternal Life in Heaven. Thank You, for giving us the ability to not only take every evil and wicked thought captive but also, for then giving us the capacity and direction to bring these into alignment with Your Holy Word, in Jesus' Strong Name, amen.

Image Courtesy FREEBIBLE IMAGES (Thank you)

TOWARDS HOLINESS, PART 7: OUR THOUGHT LIFE

Every sin against God and our fellow man and woman, began as a thought in our mind.  Initially we have no control over what passes before our eyes, thereby triggering certain forgiven sins, past lusts, repressed memories or things from our childhood, which are normally left there in the past, not follow the normal course of life.

Without fail, a song on the radio, or some flirtatious comment, which then unleashes a torrent of terrible thoughts can often reboot thoughts in our minds, which were long disposed of. How many times have you and I, said to ourselves “where did that thought come from?”  The old argument of left brain/right brain has nothing to do with it. Being alive does.

When Jesus saved us from an eternity of death away from Heaven, His precious Blood washed away our sin. His perfect Grace granted us divine forgiveness and His offer granted us the privilege of committing our lives to Him, as Lord and Savior.

HOWEVER, we still live in the same body, the same house, drive the same car and go to the same job with the same (mostly) unsaved co-workers. We have the same beautiful family, eat the same food (maybe more Chick Fil A); and go to the same grocery stores. Our destination changed. Our outlook changed. Our language and conduct are supposed to be more edifying and uplifting but sometimes, well, our thought life gets in the way.

When these things pop into our mind and we suddenly feel like yelling out in church or ramping up your speed past a cop, or doing something uncharacteristically stupid, it is what some call “random intrusive thoughts”.  These thoughts are random because they come of the blue and then, they are intruding on our daily and routinely peaceful comfort zone. We never ask for, or need them. Yet, we are bombarded.

How we react to them actually has something to do with our journey towards Holiness and guess what, the Bible tells us how to deal with them.  Many verses give us direction and encouragement so we do not have to run off and think we’re going to hell because and dirty or disgusting thought was triggered in our minds.

The Bible says:

“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). How do we do that when we are bombarded by sexual images all day long, by short dresses in the office or by sales pitches for the next new smartphone or trinket, which we know will break the bank? 

Answer? – When that thought comes in – let it go immediately. Do not dwell on it. If it is an open forward act of flirtation from another person in your physical space which will dishonor God, trigger the response of running the daylights away, literally, from that person or thing! However, random thought of just outrageous stupidity comes into our minds, just move on.  Easy come easy go. Let it go away….and those random and even the intrusive ones, will go away if we do not dwell on them. 

One thing to beware of is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The awful (on the surface) and corrupt thoughts which invade our peaceful minds during almost every other day, can lead a small few of our brothers and sisters to some extreme behavior. 

For example, someone holding a baby once at a concert, down the row from me,  told me that a thought had just entered her mind, to throw the child down. She would not, and of course, did not do it. But if that young woman was OCD, she would avoid all balconies in the future, even after all her kids were grown up and moved away. If she had a bad incident with a cashier at one grocery store, she would avoid that grocery store chain. If she was on a flight from Florida and the plane hit turbulence over Memphis, she would quit flying altogether, even though it would save her two days driving to visit her aunt in California. All of this OCD stuff basically means a lack of faith and a defeated spirit by those who are not familiar with the Bible or how to apply it to their lives, period.

The Bible says:

“Prepare your mind for action, keep sober in spirit….” (1 Peter 1:13) How do we prepare our minds for action, when thoughts blindside us- all the time? This one requires work. Most random thoughts in our daily come and go. As long as we do not dwell on them, they have no hold on us. Even if they bug us for a short season, as long as we do not ACT on ANY of it, we will not dishonor God and His Word.

Answer?: Read the Bible daily and pray. This one is sometimes impossible for even strong, mature Christians may not have the time in the morning before work. But we do have time during the day and instead of watching mindless TV shows, how about 5-10 minutes of Proverbs and Psalms? Why is this important? Well, when Jesus saves us, He implants His Spirit of peace, joy and all wisdom in us. However we can only know how to access this Spirit of Truth, if we KNOW about the Word Who became Flesh. The Word is the Bible and its contents. The Word Who became Flesh is Jesus. Jesus helps us beat these impulses 100% of the time!

The Bible says: 

“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing….” (2 Corinthians 10:5) Sometime of these crazy thoughts which come into our minds can lead us to speculate, as to what it would be like to actually contemplate doing some of that whacky business.

If you and I are going to speculate, we had better speculate about the real-life consequences of that stupidity as well! More importantly, more pro-active than speculating is the 100% solid command to “take every thought captive”.

The Bible says”

“Think on these things” (Philippians 4:8c).

Is it possible for a person, of whatever age, to think positive thoughts all day, every day, forever and ever, amen?  It is NOT humanly possible, but God, we can actually do the best we can and walk in peace, constant joy and literally at Rest in the Savior, each day.

Taking every thought captive is the Biblical Command.  To take something or someone captive is as it sounds – that is, to get a hold of it, control it and basically lock down the person or thing.  What we are instructed here to do, by the Lord, is immediately recognize and be aware of the danger of a certain thought. Then SUBDUE it (make it captive) and, as the Bible says, make it subservient to the Will of Christ. 

There is absolutely NO chance that an ungodly thought will be obedient to what Jesus Christ requires of His disciples, so it will depart from our consciousness as soon as we bring Christ, or the Word and Holiness of God into the equation! To recap, what “taking thoughts captive and making obedient” as the Bible teaches, is NOT to make a bad or dirty thought a personal prisoner but immediately  seize control of it and hand it over to Christ.  That means “Lord, I don’t know where this evil thought blindsided me from, but I now take and hand it over to You, as the Bible says, knowing You will immediately dispose of it.  The success rate of this strategy is 100%!

A great exercise, if one keeps either a personal journal, or writes in the margins of one’s bible, or even owns a Journaling Bible (the ESV provides a lot of these), is to list each of these which the Bible recommends that we “Think On” and fill in our daily actions to address them.

As an example, the verse says the following: 

“Whatever is true -  The Word of God is true. Depend on it.

"Whatever is honorable – walking upright before the Lord (in Holiness) and therefore before all mankind, is the hallmark of a Christian woman or man of Honor. 

"Whatever is pure – think of Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God. Have the Mind of Christ, and the body will follow. 

"Whatever is lovely – look all around us. Look at God’s Creation – there is no artist who can create this beauty. There is no chef who can produce good food out of the ground such as we have, or no marine biologist who can manage His oceans. Contemplate His Beauty when down and out. 

"Whatever is of good repute – authentic bible-believing Christians do not go into bars, strip-(or so-called “gentlemen’s) clubs. We must strive,  with conduct becoming an officer of the army of the Lord of Hosts, to always maintain a reputation for clean living, speaking and acting. We must strive for excellence in work, volunteering, ministering and being gracious and loving. We must be seen as salt and light and not hot sauce and darkness.  All of these things, as we strive for excellence and things which are worthy of praise to our Great God in Heaven, are the things we MUST first think about….and then do. All of this in one bible verse – Philippians 4:8.

Just in case anyone thinks this is too easy or it is simple stuff or “I don’t need this, I don’t make mistakes or have any of those thoughts”, well….this is your first mistake.

The path to Holiness, or Christ-likeness, if this word sounds too “religious” for you) involved the whole person – body, soul and MIND. The battle for the soul, which ultimately affects the body, begins in the mind. If our mind is not set on Eternal Things, but on the fleeting pleasures of this perishing world, we would be in trouble. It behooves us to stay the course, persevere to the End and then see Christ, in ALL His Glory.