daily java

Daily Java:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8)

You cannot seem to live right. You have all the wrong things in your mind and cannot seem to get any of the right things to stick. You are having a lot of trouble. Why?

You look at what you do all day. You surf the net (a term you don’t hear as much anymore), you listen to music, you read stuff. Is any of it Godly stuff? Does any of the stuff you do glorify God?

If it doesn’t, there is no wonder you can’t keep your mind straight.

I mentioned before recently the old computer expression, GIGO. Garbage In, Garbage Out. That means simply that if you program a computer badly, it will run badly.

In other terms, if you eat nothing but Twinkies and Little Debbie stuff, you will be soft and badly nourished. If you read nothing but porn, you will have problems. All of the work of God is undone by that.

It isn’t that he doesn’t want to help, it is that you have put so much in front of him that is not compatible with him that he cannot get through. He wants to, but there is this great big block of trash in front of him.

So what do you do? I knew a guy a few years ago that said he read nothing but the Bible. He never read newspapers or anything else. He didn’t care about current events or anything. He was an evangelist and he felt this made him more open to the word of God.

It may have, I don’t know. He didn’t seem any more open than anyone else, but at the same time, he may have recognized a failing in himself. He may have been afraid of how he would be if he allowed all the other into his mind.

In Romans 14, the apostle Paul talked about people who were afraid to do certain things.

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. (14:1-4)

He says to not argue about it among yourselves. Some can’t do certain things, some can. He says just shut up about it. We stand or fall according to the Lord’s power, anyway.

Some people have a lot of trouble with things and they turn strongly away. Non-smokers have trouble even being in a room with a smoker. They remember the bondage and are afraid of it. Alcoholics that have reformed are afraid to even be around alcohol of any kind. Overeaters feel the same about buffets. Everybody needs to know their weaknesses. It is an admirable person who will realize his or her problem.

Jesus said that sometimes it takes major surgery to get rid of something. In Mark 9, he says:

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. (9:44-47)

Strong medicine, stronger than I could handle, I think.

But what you need to do is to think about things that are good. The more you fill your mind with trash, the more trashy your mind will be.