Scripture

Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

~Philippians 4:8, NLT

Quote

You can’t keep a bird from flying over your head but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair.

~Martin Luther

In our Monday morning Pastor’s prayer meeting the subject of bad or evil thoughts came up. One pastor confessed to having evil thoughts and wondered if he was alone. In seconds, he got full affirmation that we all struggle with evil or bad thoughts. This is a part of the curse and the condition of the world doesn’t help. If you watch TV, you are going to have some bad thoughts. As humans, we cannot think of two things at once so we rebuke the bad thoughts and we fix our mind on good thoughts: things that are honorable, pure, right, admirable and excellent. I like to read Charles Stanley. He is so knowledgeable and understanding about such matters. The battle field is our mind and so this is where Satan attacks. He bombards us with one lie after another. He is a relentless and ruthless liar. His lies are filled with fear and terror; they are demoralizing. Seldom do I sit down to pray that he doesn’t say, “You are wasting your time.” He tells me practically everyday that “God doesn’t love me: why should He?” The only way to combat him is with the TRUTH in God’s word. Satan’s goal is to make us feel impure, unloved, fearful and even condemned.

I heard a discouraged pastor say once, “I would resign but since no one cares, I have decided to stay just for spite.” This is why I hang on, it is out of spite for the devil. I do not want him to get the victory. Seriously, the only way I survive is by feeding on the word of God. The devil keeps shooting those fiery darts and I keep deflecting them with the Sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Without His word, His guardian angels and His spirit, I wouldn’t last till the water gets hot. So rebuke the bad thoughts, repent quickly and fix your mind on something true and noble. Actually proud thoughts are the ones that frighten me most. I quickly confess and asks for the LORD’s forgiveness and I tell HIM. I do not want to think proud thoughts, ever! The fool in Luke 12 never articulated his prideful thoughts. They never went beyond his self but God see’s the heart and his proud thoughts got him into a heap of trouble. So rebuke proud thoughts and evil thoughts and fix your mind on something good and pure life Jesus or a scripture verse.

Extra

June studies the weather daily so I don’t have to, she keeps me informed and we have two weeks of freezing nights. I think there might be one exception but there are a lot of twenties in the forecast. The sun is shinning and that helps. This is deer hunting weather so Jerry, Daryl, and Troy are happy. If your dog favors a coyote, you better keep him close to the house or Troy will get him. He has killed almost one a day in January.

I did better than anyone would believe last night. I think June got on to me twice. We dropped to many passes and in the end our defensive line just ran out of gas but they played their hearts out and I am proud of them. We have won our share. We don’t need to be hogs and think we can win them all. We still have the best coach in history and a program that would make anyone proud. It was a championship caliber game, something like a prize fight so we have nothing to be ashamed of but I have to be honest: I am glad it’s over. I may retire before next season even starts. Everyone was against us. I think the whole world was glad to see us get beat.

Busy day today and need prayer. Tim Taylor’s COLS at 1:00 and then June and I have a mission project to do. We could use some prayer. Bless you for reading the blog. You are special. Have a great day.