All posts tagged: Mind

Spiritual Warfare #3: Mind Meld

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The modern culture tells us that faith and intellect are two different things. Either you have belief or you have brains. You can’t have both. In the previous two articles on spiritual warfare I wrote about how most spiritual warfare happens. This week I promised to start fighting back. To do so requires unity between our mind and our faith. In spiritual warfare, the evil enemy has hijacked our reason and rationality. He has been able to make science the final word and pitched it against the Bible. Many people, even those who profess to be Christians, defer to science to explain creation, the progress of life, and the world about and in us. People who chose to believe the Bible to be true and accurate are mocked and thought to be less intellectual. In effect, Christians don’t use their brains and are just wrong or misguided. This elevation of science and rational thinking over faith and divine inspiration (man exalted over God) created an either-or atmosphere. Either you are a believer or you are …

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Will you complete the transformation?

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In Romans 12:1,2, the Apostle Paul makes a life-changing statement that believers are “transformed by the renewing of our mind.”  Though we are saved by faith, the transformation for the Christian takes place as we change the way we think. That word transformed is the Greek word ‘metamorphou’ from which we get the English word metamorphosis that describes the transformation that takes place when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. This transformation is a gradual process for a caterpillar. First it spins a cocoon and then in the safety of this container, the insect dissolves and the mixture of enzymes reform into a new creature – a butterfly. The two insects are so different they can no longer eat the same thing because its digestive system has completely changed — one chews on leaves and the other sucks nectar. Paul says the Christian must undergo a similar transformation. Unfortunately, we can’t spend a few days in a cocoon to complete this change. We are forced to learn on the job. Further, Paul tells us that …

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Are you vulnerable to satanic attack?

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Several years back my wife and I went to Sunday lunch with the pastor of the church we were attending at the time. The restaurant was bustling with an after-church crowd. Then we saw a couple sitting on the other side of the restaurant along its large plate-glass window. I don’t think they saw us, but I watched the pastor’s eyes immediately fix on them. They had attended his church several months earlier and had left offended. Though gone they were now accusing the pastor of all sorts of things, that simply weren’t true. These accusations had made their way back to the pastor and here they were sitting probably 70 feet away and it was obvious their presence was distracting him as I watched him repeatedly glance over. I had no idea what was going on in his mind. The couple had finished their meal and I watched as the waitress walked over to their table and dropped off the bill. As soon as that happened, the pastor pushed back his chair and stood …

Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel Photo: Bill Read/Flickr/Creative Commons

Are we hard-wired to believe in God?

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According to the Book of Genesis, God created humans in His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26). We were created to manifest in human form the characteristics of God. Along with this humans were created to connect with God allowing us to communicate and fellowship with our Heavenly Father. This is how God intended our relationship to function at the beginning. It took a while, but modern researchers are finally admitting what people have known for centuries — humans are hard-wired to believe in God. Not all scientists are convinced this is the case as it does cause some troubling concerns for those embedded in the evolutionary side of the debate. But nevertheless an increasing number are concluding that humans are built to believe in God. Charisma recently reported on a round table discussion shown on the National Geographic Channel addressing this very issue. On the program, Shaheen Lakhan, who holds multiple doctorates, states: “Psychologists and anthropologists deemed that children left to their own devices would have some conception of God. Some attribute this to our …

We need to protect our mind. Photo: Joe Goddard/Flickr/Creative Commons

A woman’s perspective: The garrison around my mind

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This past month I noticed a change in my pattern of worry. At times, it seemed non-existent. My husband knows firsthand my battle with worry and anxiety. I succumb to worry and it’s wandering ways often throughout my day. But lately, it’s as if my thoughts bounce off a guard rail that won’t let them pass through. My thoughts cease to stray and a cloud of peace settles over me.  At times, I have noticed an anxious thought wander in and then just disappear. My mind is protected by an unknown force and I experience peace in a way that I have not known before. It is the “peace” that Paul spoke about: “and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Philippians 4:17) We exercise our body to stay fit physically and in the same way we need to discipline our mind  and  learn to control our thoughts. The Apostle Paul tells us that we must literally take every thought captive: “and we …

Masked men in Lima, Peru Photo: Alex Proimos/Flickr

Do you know who you really are?

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Throughout scripture, we see mention of man’s heart. It was a term used to describe our inner being — our mind, will and emotions. The heart embodies our mental capacity as it remembers (Isaiah 42:25) and understands (Isaiah 44:18). The heart is considered the seat of our emotions (Genesis 42:28) such as anxiety (Proverbs 12:25) and joy (Isaiah 65:14). It is also the source of some admirable qualities such as courage (Psalms 27:14). In a nutshell, the heart represents who we really are. But do we know who really are? In one of the most telling descriptions of the heart, the prophet Jeremiah says: The heart is more deceitful than all else
 And is desperately sick;
 Who can understand it. (Jeremiah 17:9 NASV) In this verse, the message is clear we can’t trust our heart, because at its core is deception. Our heart has secrets (Psalms 44:21) that even we are not aware of. This is exactly the conclusion that Cordelia Fine, an Associate Professor at the Melbourne Business School at the University of Melbourne, …

Weird Bicycles and Booze

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[by Sandy McIntosh] I’m a fan of DIY projects, where people make things instead of just buying something off the shelf. The problem with new ideas is that they show our wrong thinking. And it turns out, we are set in our ways and we don’t know what the truth is. One odd trend is reverse steering bicycles. It’s a new fad. Reverse steering means the handle bars turn one way, and the wheel turns the other. There are many Internet videos about these experiments. Search “reverse steering bicycle” to see what I mean.

Thick-headed Christians?

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If someone calls you thick-headed because of your Christian beliefs, agree with them. It’s not only Biblical as Jesus tells us to agree quickly with our adversary (Mathew 5:25) , but it’s also true. And, it’s not a bad thing. Myrna Weissman — a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University in the U.S. — said her research shows people of faith have a thicker cortex compared to those who are not.