What Fills Our Minds

Here is a post from Jason Kinnard an Elder at our church who posts about what we allow to enter our minds.

What Fills Our Minds?

From the Blog at New Life Baptist Church
July 28th, 2010

Posted by Jason Kinnard

I lis­tened to a ser­mon yes­ter­day by Tim Keller in which he joked that when he is pre­pared for a ser­mon he quotes from many peo­ple and when he is not pre­pared he only quotes from CS Lewis. Because he has spent so much time read­ing Lewis (and he added George White­field), he knows not just what they said but how they thought and how they would have viewed a par­tic­u­lar sce­nario. His point was that know­ing some­one well means that their char­ac­ter becomes intrin­sic to the point that you are able to make appli­ca­tion based on their per­spec­tives. Because he knows the works of Lewis and White­field so well, when he speaks extem­po­ra­ne­ously that is what comes out in his speech. He con­tem­plated what it would be like for us if we knew Jesus as well and had his per­spec­tive so read­ily acces­si­ble in all of our applications.

It made me won­der what, or who, comes out most con­sis­tently when I speak. There was a time in my life when I had devoted many hours to the TV show Sein­feld. Dur­ing that time and for some time after, I used to mar­vel at how many basic, mun­dane obser­va­tions of life reminded me of a Sein­feld episode. I’d say, “That reminds me of when George and Kramer…” and on I would go in thought if not in words. Though the show has been off the air for 12 years now, except for syn­di­cated reruns which I have rarely seen, I can still not just quote cer­tain episodes, but even think of how a per­son or sit­u­a­tion might remind me of a char­ac­ter in that show. Though decreas­ing in scope, this real­iza­tion of its effect on me was sober­ing and chal­leng­ing, but also promis­ing. It is sober­ing in that I am reminded of how eas­ily worldly triv­i­al­i­ties can occupy my affec­tions. (The show was famously known as the “show about noth­ing”). It is chal­leng­ing because I see that I have the capac­ity, as do we all, to recall and apply spe­cific con­tent to my daily life. Anal­ogy and com­par­i­son are cham­pi­ons of appli­ca­tion. Now if only it could be con­sis­tently the Word of God that I am sat­u­rated with in that way. Lastly, it is promis­ing because I know that it does not rely on me to have the abil­ity to recall or apply these things, but I have the surety of the Holy Spirit, who con­victs of sin and right­eous­ness alike. He is the appli­ca­tor of my affec­tions, which include the con­tent I con­sume and how it relates to my Chris­t­ian life. He is will­ing and able to bring change in our hearts beyond our ini­tial repen­tance that leads to vis­i­ble stead­fast­ness worth modeling.

Charles Spur­geon said this of John Bun­yan, “Why, this man is a liv­ing Bible! Prick him any­where; and you will find that his blood is Bib­line, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He can­not speak with­out quot­ing a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God.

So, ask your­self along with me today, “what comes out when I speak?” What analo­gies form in my mind based on what I have read or watched? How do these things serve me well in my pur­suit of under­stand­ing who God is and know­ing Him? What comes out when I am under pres­sure? This is not a call to con­dem­na­tion but a chal­lenge for us as believ­ers to see that God has given us all great minds, but more impor­tantly, the Holy Spirit, to bring to mind what and how we are to think, speak, and act. May we, by His grace, be a peo­ple marked by speak­ing words of edi­fi­ca­tion and life to one another, even using seem­ingly triv­ial things to relate greater truths to our hearts for the exal­ta­tion of God.

Okay, this is Rooster Hill again not Elder Kinnard.....
This is why we limit both our (the parents ) and our kids reading, DVD & movie intake. Yes, we are the parents that do not read/watch Harry Potter (rev 22:15) or read the Magic Tree House (Rev 21:8), Junie B. Jones (Eph 4:29) and avoid most Disney movies (Jeremiah 17:9) you were wondering where we were, here we are! :) We believe these things pour into their soul and fill their imagination with things that are not of God(Jeremiah 26:14). Finally, if we are wrong we have done no harm but they can always watch and read all this stuff later but once they've read it we can never remove it from them memory.


I have added this link from Above Rubies to a CD/MP3 that I listen to periodically specifically about protecting our children's mind's called Guard Your Child's Brain space.