BOOK OF REVELATION #11--- BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION

 

 

Chapter One hundred-forty:

The REVELATION of Jesus Christ #11

Chapter 17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Let's remember that a "woman" - "her" can most definitely refer to "a church" - Revelation 12 and the "woman" - there is the true Church of God. Here in Revelation 17, we have "the great whore" - "woman" - "the mother of..." Obvious this is not "the true Church of God." Let's look at some important phrases connected with the "woman" - this church. She sits on many "waters" - verse 1; (meaning given in verse 15) - many people, nations, and tongues. The kings of the earth have been in bed with her (verse 2). The inhabitants of the earth have been made "drunk" with her wine (looks kinda nice in the glass) she pours out (verse 2). She is very rich in a physical way (verse 4). The woman is "drunk with the blood of the saints" - verse 6. She sits on seven mountains (verse 10). The woman is "the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth (verse 18). In chapter 18, this woman, this "her" - is obviously also an "empire" indeed in a literal way as well, certainly at the time of the end she is. It was through her"sorceries" that all nations were deceived (chap.18:23). And once more in "her" was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all (the context is true saints) that were slain while she lived and was in domineering power (chap.18:24). Add it all up, put it all together, use some common logic, as we look at "woman" church history. Is this the Church of God, Seventh Day? Did that "church" do the above mentioned things? No, I do not think so. Is this the Baptist "churches" - did they do the above mentioned character functions in their history? Is this the Pentecostal "churches" - can you list them with the things done in Revelation chapters 17 and 18? Is this the Assemblies of God? Is this the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (the Mormons)? Is this the Jehovah Witnesses? Is this the Presbyterians? How about the chapters 17 and 18 being the Seventh Day Adventist church? Maybe chapter 17 and 18 is speaking about the Lutheran church. I DO NOT THINK SO! You can go down through all the "Seventh Day" observing churches and all the "Sunday observing" churches in the Yellow Pages, and I do not think you will tie any of them with Revelation 17 and 18 ......... EXCEPT ONE CHURCH ORGANIZATION. There has been and can ONLY BE ONE church that meets ALL that is mentioned in Revelation chapters 17 and 18. A church that sits on MANY waters, many peoples, nations, and tongues. A church that has political connections with "kings" and other high ranking world leaders. A church that does have WORLDWIDE influence that can and has made the inhabitants of the earth drunk in many ways. A church that has and does have great physical wealth and has had "nations" of physical riches under its control, hence an "empire" that influenced the world and nations in many physical ways, from beliefs, to religion, to philosophies, to government laws, to even war. A church that has in its history the real facts of killing "Christians" that differed with it, the blood of saints on its hands, in a very literal way. A church that has in many ways "reigned over the kings of the earth" and done it from having its own very real city within a city. A city that with the head of that church in that city, could decreed, order, have authoritative influence over even kings and governments, to do the "churches" biding. In all of the last 2,000 years, since Jesus ascended back to heaven, there has been ONLY ONE "woman" - ONE "church" that can answer to all that is written about it in Revelation 17 and 18. And that ONE church is the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH of the city of Rome!! It is NOT POSSIBLE that ANY OTHER church could fulfil all that is said about it in those two chapter of Revelation. There is not ANY OTHER church that is large enough, wealthy enough, POWERFUL enough, sitting on many nations and tongues, having kings and governments influenced or directing controlled by it, and that also has a MASSIVE history of KILLING other saints or Christians. There can ONLY BE ONE church that has ever been since Christ, or is today, that answers to all the points given in Revelation 17 and 18. And this church is, I repeat, the Roman Catholic church - the Papacy! This is so obviously true that just about all of your "old" (not sure what the new ones have to say) Protestant Bible Commentaries AGREE that chapter 17 is talking about the Papacy, the Church of Rome. I give you some of the comments of Albert Barnes, from "Notes on the New Testament" - one of the most popular and best selling Bible Commentaries of all time. Quote: OF THE GREAT WHORE. It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to represent a city under the image of a woman ... In verse 18 of this chapter it is expressly said that "this woman is the great city that reigneth over the kings of the earth" - that is, as I supposed, Papal Rome; and design here is to represent it as resembling an abandoned female - fit representative of an apostate, corrupt, unfaithful church... THAT SITS ON MANY WATERS. An image drawn from either Babylon, situated on the Euphrates ... or Rome, situated on the Tiber. In verse 15, these waters are said to represent the people, multitudes, nations, and tongues over which the government symbolized by the woman, ruled. WITH WHOM THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION. Spiritual adultery. The meaning is, that Papal Rome, unfaithful to God, and idolatrous and corrupt, has seduced the rulers of the earth, and led them into the same kind of unfaithfulness, idolatry, and corruption....How true this is history need not be stated. All the princes and kinds in the dark ages and for many centuries were, and not a few of them are now, entirely under the influence of Papal Rome. AND THE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH HAVE BEEN MADE DRUNK WITH THE WINE OF HER FORNICATION. The alluring cup which as a harlot she had extended to them....that is, they had been, as it were, intoxicated by the alluring cup she held out to them. What could better describe the influence of Rome on the people of the world, in making them, under these delusions, incapable of sober judgment, and in completely fascinating and controlling all their power.... AND I SAW A WOMAN. Evidently the same which is referred to in verse 1. SIT UPON A SCARLET COVERED BEAST....The word "scarlet" denoted a bring red color - brighter that crimson, which is a red color tinged with blue....The color was obtained from a small insect which was found adhering to the shoots of a species of oak in Spain and Western Asia....It is applicable in the description of Papal Rome, because this is a favorite color there. Thus it is used in chapter 12:3, where the same power (the one behind the power ) is represented under the image of a "red dragon." .... It is remarkable that nothing would better represent the favorite color at Rome than this, or the actual appearance of the Pope, the Cardinals, and the Priests in their robes, on some great festival occasion. Those who are familiar with the descriptions given of Papal Rome by travellers, and those who have passed much time in Rome, will see at once the propriety of this description, on the supposition that was intended to refer to the Papacy. I caused this inquiry to be made of an intelligent gentleman who had passed much time in Rome - without his knowing my design - what would strike a stranger on visiting Rome, or what would be likely particularly to arrest the attention as remarkable there; and he unhesitantly replied, "the scarlet color." This is the color of the dress of the Cardinals - their hats, and cloaks, and stockings being always of this color. It is the color of the carriages of the Cardinals, the entire body of the carriage being scarlet, and the trappings of the horses the same. On occasion of public festivals and processions, scarlet is suspended from the windows of the houses along which processions pass. The inner color of the cloak of the Pope is scarlet; his carriage is scarlet; the carpet on which he treads is scarlet. A large part of the dress of the body-guard of the Pope is scarlet....  (Of course today the Papacy does not use carriages and horse, but "scarlet" color is still used. Here Barnes is pointing out that in his day - middle 1800s - scarlet was greatly used by the Papacy - Keith Hunt)  I conclude, therefore, that if it be admitted that it was intended to represent Papal Rome in the vision, the precise description would have bee adopted which is found here. FULL OF NAMES OF BLASPHEMY. All covered over with blasphemous titles and names. What could more accurately describe Papal Rome than this?..... AND I SAW THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS.....The meaning here is, that the persecuting power referred to had shed the blood of the saints; and that, in its fury, it had, as it were, drunk the blood of the saints, and had become, by drinking that blood, intoxicated and infuriated. No one need say how applicable this has been to the Papacy..... AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS....The meaning is, that the warfare in which so much blood was shed was directed against the saints as such ... and deserved to be called, by way of eminence, martyrs....How applicable this is to the Papacy, let the blood shed in the valleys of Piedmont; the blood shed in the Low Countries by the Duke of Alva; the blood shed on St.Bartholomew's day; and the blood shed in the "Inquisition," testify...... SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS. Referring undoubtedly to Rome - the seven-hilled-city.....  (More than just interesting that Rome is built on seven hills - Keith Hunt)...... There can be no doubt that this refers to Rome - either Pagan, Christian, or Papal. All the circumstances combine in this; all respectable interpreters agree in this. This would be naturally understood by the symbols used by John, and by the explanations furnished by the angel. See verse 18. "And the woman which you saw is that great city. which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Every circumstance combines here in leading to the conclusion that Rome is intended. There was no other power or empire on the earth to which this could be properly applied; there was everything in the circumstance of the writer to lead to suppose that this was referred to; there is an utter impossibility now in applying the description to anything else...... End Quote The notes of Barnes on these chapters are very extensive and detailed. I have only reproduced a fraction of his notes, in his Bible Commentary. As Barnes came to conclude, as I have concluded from all the natural and historic evidence, when you take all the facts and all the verses on this "woman" that rides the "beast" - the woman that guides and rules over nations, peoples, and kings, and the woman that has killed the saints, has blood on her hands, there is ONLY ONE possibility as to who she is - THE MIGHTY ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH - THE PAPACY!! She sat on a "beast" - the secular/political/military machine of the Roman Empire, that had seven heads, or seven Holy Roman Empire resurrections. The SEVENTH resurrection is YET TO COME! It will be the very last religious/political/military power of Rome. Out of this NOW UNITED Europe, there will be TEN kings or governments that will give their undivided mind and strength and power to this end-time MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT. They shall try to FIGHT Jesus, the Lamb, on His return to earth (verses 10-14). And these same ten horns will finally come to see that the woman whore, is just that, she is a spiritual whore, she does not represent in any form, Jesus the Christ, she has been a false church, a deceiving church, a corrupt church, a DECEPTION that has influenced and made drunk just about all the world in one way or another. At her defeat by Christ and His armies at the battle of Armageddon. The people of the ten nation/kings will HATE the whore, and shall turn and make her desolate, naked, burn her with fire (verse 16). The armies of this coalition of the end-time Babylon Holy Roman Empire will be destroyed at Armageddon (Zech.14) but the people of the Empire will still be there in the various countries it ruled. It is they who will turn and start to ransack all the physical building etc. that represent the Empire. A mob action reflex. The average person by this time, will have come to see the real enemy was not the Christ from heaven but the very power they had been serving for 42 months. They will turn and hate the whore, and deal with her in no uncertain a way. We must also note that in this 17th chapter, the woman whore was the MOTHER OF HARLOTS! She did have children that came out of her and grew to be women in their individual manner. But all of them have some of the genes we might say, some of the character, some of the things that came from their mother. Of course Albert Barnes and others would not like to see that. They would hardly admit that all Protestant churches are the harlots from the mother church. Interesting it is, that the Mother has no difficulty in called the Protestant churches her "wayward" daughters, who need to come back to her. Let's look at a few things the woman whore has given to the world to make the world drunk on her spiritual fornications. The RC church has given the world the Roman Calendar, and now just about all the world bows to it in some form, great or small. Most of the world recognizes the 1st of January, some fully and completely, others at least in part. When we moved from 1999 to the year 2,000, the first of January, was acknowledge by Eastern countries as well as the Western world. And it is that way every 1st of January now. The RC church gave the world Christ-mass. In some form or other just about all nations give this season some acknowledgement, either religiously or the "celebrations" of that material festivity. Most of the Western world, even many "churches" observe Halloween, originally, from the RC church as "All Saints Day." The RC church conquered Britain and most Christian countries with Easter in place of Passover (I have a few in-depth studies on that on this Website). The RC church in giving us the Roman calendar had an easier way then to give is many pagan festivals, as well as how we regulate the hours of the day. So we have the day beginning in the middle of the night at 12 midnight. Those are a few of the "made all nations drunk on the wine of her fornications" theology and adoptions from the pagan nations. We must not forget of course the many false theological teachings it has made "Christian nations" drunk on, that she adopted and has passed on to her harlot daughters. Probably one of the most serious falsehoods was and is the teaching of sinners burning in a hell-fire for eternity, being in pain, screaming and burning but never dying. This teaching passed on into the Protestant churches and was used to bring "fire and brimstone" sermons to "get people saved." The most serious falsehood this woman church gave and passed on was the adoption of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the fourth commandment, which plainly states it is the 7th day of the week that is the Sabbath of God. And also that change was connected with adding the false pagan festivals of the year and throwing out God's festivals. So, putting it all together, as Albert Barnes said, there is just NO OTHER force or influence that can have had such a wide impact on the world, with nations, peoples, languages, kings, governments, and a so-called "Christian" religion of the masses, than the Roman Catholic church, the Papacy. She is the BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION that will yet, ONE MORE TIME, ride the Roman political/military Empire of Europe. Prophecy is marching on. The scene is taking shape in Europe. It will come to pass, only time is needed and God can give lots of time, if He so decides. I am 65 years old as I write these last end chapters of the New Testament Bible Story. If God grants me a long life like my father is having (he's now 87), will all this take place in my life time? Maybe, it certainly could, if God desires it. Then He may not desire it and this prophecy of the book of Revelation may not be fulfilled in my life time. But I do guarantee you that IT WILL COME TO PASS, as I've expounded to you so far. If you have eyes to see and ears to hear, you can see it all taking shape in Europe, with the RC church, with the people of the West, and with the nations of the East. The goods news is that MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT AND HER EMPIRE WILL FALL, and will be no more. And that brings us to Revelation chapter 18. ................. To be continue

PENTECOST MESSAGE OF 2015

 PENTECOST  2015  MESSAGE

PAUL  WAS  INSPIRED  TO  SAY  "LET  THIS  MIND  BE  IN  YOU,  THAT  WAS  IN CHRIST  JESUS" (PHIL. 2:5).

JESUS  SAID  THAT  THE  FATHER  AND  HE  WOULD  COME  AND  LIVE  WITHIN THE  CHILD  OF  GOD (JOHN 14:23).  JESUS  ALSO  SAID  IN  THE  SAME  CHAPTER,  "If  you  love  me,  keep  my  commandments,  And  I  will  pray  the  Father,  and  He  shall  give  you another  Comforter,  that  he  may  abide  with  you  forever. Even  the  Spirit  of  truth;  whom  the  world  cannot  receive,  because  it  seems  him  not  neither  knows  him,  but  you  know  him, for  he  dwells  with  you  and  shall  be  in  you" (verses 15-17).

WE  KNOW  FROM  MANY  OTHER  VERSES  IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  THAT  ALL  THIS  MEANS  IT  IS  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  US,  WHEREBY  THE  FATHER  AND  CHRIST  COME  TO  LIVE  IN  US.

HAVING  THEM  IN  US  MEANS  WE  HAVE  THEIR  NATURE,  THEIR  MIND!

IT  ALSO  MEANS  WE  HAVE  WITHIN  US  THE  POWER  TO  MATURE  INTO  BEING  MORE  LIKE  THEY  ARE,  IN  MIND,  IN  THOUGHT,  IN  ACTION.

SO  ON  THIS  PENTECOST  DAY  OF  2015  WE  SHALL  LOOK  AT  EXAMPLES, QUOTES,  STORIES….. THINGS  THAT  PERTAIN  TO  MATURITY  AND  THE  MIND WE  NEED  TO  HAVE  AS  CHILDREN  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH  GOD.

FROM  THE  BOOK:  "750  ENGAGING ILLUSTRATIONS"

Mind

At the Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, researchers hope they will develop the means for pilots to fly airplanes with their minds. The project is called brain-actuated control.

Writers Ron Kotulak and Jon Van say this is how it could work. The pilot would wear scalp monitors that pick up electrical signals from various points on his head. The scalp monitors would be wired to a computer. Using biofeedback techniques, the pilot would learn to manipulate the electrical activity created by his or her thought processes. The computer would translate the electrical signals into mechanical commands for the airplane.

Imagine being able to bank an airplane's wings, accelerate, and climb another ten thousand feet, all by controlling what you think.

Although controlling airplanes with the mind is yet to be developed, our mind already has tremendous control of one thing: our behavior. Our thoughts sooner or later lead to our actions.

Heart, Self-Control, Thoughts Prov. 4:23; Rom. 13:14; James 1:14-15

According to an October 29,1994, story from the Reuters news agency a Chinese woman named Zhang Meihua began to suffer mysterious symptoms when she turned twenty. She was losing the ability to nimbly move her legs and arms. Doctors could not find the cause, and the symptoms continued.

Two decades passed, and Zhang began to also suffer from chronic headaches. Again she sought help from the doctors. This time a CAT scan and an X ray found the source of the woman's mysterious symptoms. A rusty pin was lodged in her head. The head of the pin was outside the skull, and the shaft penetrated into her brain. Doctors performed surgery and successfully extracted the pin.

The Xinhua news agency reported the doctors expressed amazement that the woman "could live for so long a time with a rusty pin stuck in her brain." After noting the position of the pin in her skull, they speculated that the pin had entered her skull sometime soon after birth and before her skull had hardened. Zhang, now fully recovered, said she "had no memory of being pierced by a pin in the head."

Like the rusty pin in that woman's brain, unwholesome thoughts, bad attitudes, and painful memories can lodge in our minds and cause chronic problems. God tells us to renew our minds.

Attitudes, Health, Thoughts Rom. 12:1-2; Phil. 4:8-9

FROM  THE  BOOK:  "SWINDOLL'S  ULTIMATE  BOOK  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  QUOTES"

MATURITY

Under roman law there was a time for the coming of age of a son. But the age when this took place was not fixed as one might assume. Rather, the father had the discretion in setting the time of his son's maturity. A Roman child became an adult at the sacred family festival known as the Liberalia held annually on the seventeenth of March. At this time, the child was formally acknowledged as the son and heir by his father, and he received the plain toga adults wore in place of the toga with a narrow purple band at the foot of it which children wore. He was then conducted by his friends and relations down to the forum and formally introduced to public life. Lloyd Douglas gave us a glimpse of the moving nature of this moment as he described the coming of age of Marcellus in the opening pages of his book The Robe.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, patient with the old, sympathetic with the striving, tolerant with the weak and the strong, because someday in life you will have been all of these.

—George Washington Carver

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you 

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, 

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, 

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, 

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, 

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; 

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, 

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken; 

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings,

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss; 

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew 

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; 

If all men count with you, but none too much; 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run—

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

 And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

----Rudyard Kipling, quoted in Hazel Felleman, The Best Loved Poems of the American People

After a While

After a while you learn the subtle difference between

holding a hand and chaining a soul, 

and you learn that love doesn't mean leaning

and company doesn't mean security.

After a while you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts

and presents aren't promises,

and you begin to accept your defeats

with your head up and your eyes open,

with the grace of an adult, not the grief of a child.

After a while you learn to build your roads on today because

tomorrow's grounds are too uncertain for plans.

After a while you learn that even sunshine burns 

if you get too much. So plant your own garden

and decorate your own soil instead of waiting

for someone to bring you flowers. 

And you learn that you really can endure,

….that you really are strong,

….and you really do have worth.

---Anonymous

……

Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself.

—John McNaughton, quoted in Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote

One of the marks of maturity is the ability to disagree without becoming disagreeable.

—Charles R. Swindoll, The Grace Awakening

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether supervised or not; finish it once started; carry money without spending it; and... bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

—Fred Cook, quoted in Lloyd Cory, Quote Unquote

Maturity proceeds through four stages: help me, tell me, show me, follow me.

……

What does it mean to be grown up? It means such things as being fully developed, having marks of wisdom, not just knowledge; the self-discipline and commitment of an authentic walk with Christ seven days a week; the determination to obey God and to submit to the truth of His Word at any cost; the ability to nourish myself as an individual believer in God's Word; the compassion to reach out and care for other people whose needs are different from my own; the willingness to share in the responsibilities of the household—all of the above with an attitude of a contagious, positive spirit.

We're not unlike the thirteen-year-old kid that's six feet, ten inches in junior high school, whose dad says to him one day, "Son, I think you maybe ought to think about basketball." He has the height for it, but there's not a person who would question his lack of maturity for it. Put him on the same court with Moses Malone and he'd get his lunch eaten. Malone loves that kind of person on the court with him. Why? Not because the kid can't match him in height, but he hasn't the resiliency. He hasn't the maturity. He needs to do what? He needs to grow up. Even if he never grows another inch he has plenty of height to play in any pro basketball team. What he needs is to grow up.

……

Maturity  is  moving  from  soft  skin-tough  heart  to  tough  skin-soft  heart

……

FROM  THE  BOOK:  "STORIES.  ILLUSTRATIONS,  AND  QUOTES"

Mind

Someone Once Said 

The most important things in life are the thoughts you choose to think.—Marcus Aurelius

I think, therefore I am.—Decartes

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.—Buddha

It doubtless is true that people become what they think about.—Gary R. Collins

All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.—C. S. Lewis

If I knew what you think, I would know what you are. Our thoughts make us what we are.—Dale Carnegie

A man is what he thinks about all day long.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our life is what our thoughts make it.—Marcus Aurelius

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.—Proverbs 23:7

The Battleground

Every temptation comes to us via our thoughts.—Erwin Lutzer

The mind of man is the battleground on which every moral and spiritual battle is fought.— J. Oswald Sanders

Our defeat or victory begins with what we think, and if we guard our thoughts we shall not have much trouble anywhere else along the line.—Vance Havner

Self-control is primarily mind-control—John Stott

Every kidnapping was once a thought. Every extramarital affair was first a fantasy.— Leslie Flynn

It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.—Descartes

For 2,400 years, ever since Hippocrates located the seat of the intellect inside the skull, the mind has been forced to admit that its greatest achievements, its loftiest thoughts, its deepest emotions all arise from something with the consistency of Jell-O and the color of day-old slush.—Newsweek

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.— Jerry Seinfeld

……

Depression and the Mind

In his book Learned Optimism, Professor Martin Seligman makes a case for considering depression as arising, not from misplaced chemicals or lingering childhood trauma, but from negative thinking. Summarizing the research of Joseph Wolpe and Tim Beck, Seligman explained how cognitive therapy began to be considered a treatment for mental illness.

"Depression is nothing more than its symptoms," writes Seligman. "It is caused by conscious negative thoughts. There is no deep underlying disorder to be rooted out: not unresolved childhood conflicts, not our unconscious anger, and not even our brain chemistry. Emotion comes directly from what we think: Think 'I am in danger' and you feel anxiety. Think 'I am being trespassed against' and you feel anger. Think 'loss' and you feel sadness. 

"Depression results from lifelong habits of conscious thought. If we change these habits of thought, we will cure depression."

Martin Luther King, Jr's Seat

In the Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. King tells of growing up in Atlanta, Georgia:

I remember another experience I used to have in Atlanta. I went to high school on the other side of town—to the Booker T. Washington High School. I had to get the bus in what was known as the Fourth Ward and ride over to the West Side. In those days, rigid patterns of segregation existed on the buses, so that Negroes had to sit in the backs of buses. Whites were seated in the front, and often if whites didn't get on the buses, those seats were still reserved for whites only, so Negroes had to stand over empty seats. I would end up having to go to the back of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, "One of these days, I'm going to put my body up there where my mind is."

And he did.

Our bodies always end up where our minds are.

……

Spurgeon's Confession

Charles Spurgeon once made a remarkably honest confession to his congregation. In a sermon entitled "The Power of the Holy Ghost," he said: I hope that my will is managed by Divine Grace. But I am afraid my imagination is not at times. Those who have a fair share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is to control. You cannot restrain it.... My imagination has taken me down to the vilest kennels and sewers of earth. It has given me thoughts so dreadful that, while I could not avoid them, yet I was thoroughly horrified by them. These thoughts will come; and when I feel in the holiest frame, the most devoted to God, and the most earnest in-prayer, it often happens that that is the very time when the plague breaks out the worst.

……

Garbage

Leslie Flynn tells of a mother who was peeling vegetables for a salad when her daughter, home from college, casually mentioned she was going to a questionable movie that evening. The mother suddenly picked up a handful of garbage and threw it in the salad. "Mother!" said the shocked girl. "You're putting garbage in the salad."

"I know," replied the mother, "but I thought that if you didn't mind garbage in your mind, you certainly wouldn't mind a little in your stomach."

……

The Power of Suggestion

Franz Anton Mesmer was the talk of Paris in the 1780s. In spite of his training as a physician, he held the unorthodox view that a mysterious magnetic power permeates the universe and resides in human bodies. Treatment of disease, he proposed, could best be done by using magnetic forces from the environment to restore the patient's "magnetic equilibrium." Such view put Mesmer into conflict with the medical profession in his native Vienna, but laypeople were intrigued with the theory….

(A Word on Words: You are not what you think you are, but what you think, you are.

—NORMAN VINCENT PEALE)

When the doctor moved to France, his reputation preceded him and soon patients were flocking to experience magnetic treatments.

It wasn't easy to treat so many people on a one-to-one basis, so Mesmer developed a group technique. As many as thirty people would come at a time and sit around a large wooden tub known as a "baquet." The baquet was filled with water, ground glass, iron filings, and long metal rods that extended from the tub and were grabbed at one end by the patients. According to Mesmer, the magnetic fluid in the baquet somehow came to the people through the rods and led to all kinds of physical cures.

Mesmer did what he could to make the healing sessions impressive and emotionally powerful. Soft music played in the background. The room was dimly lit and thickly draped. Mesmer himself demanded silence when he entered the room. Often he wore a long flowing lilac silk robe, and walked about, touching the afflicted body parts with a long iron wand and making magnetic "mesmeric passes" as he waved his free hand through the air.

A few people had no response to this dramatic treatment, but many thought they felt forces moving through their bodies, and some went into prolonged convulsions. These involved jerking of the body, apparent dreaminess or stupor, and sometimes piercing cries. Mesmer's followers called this experience "the crisis" and claimed that it brought great healing.

But King Louis XVI wasn't so easily convinced and undoubtedly His Majesty's interest in Mesmer was sparked by secret reports that some mesmerites had radical political ideas. To investigate, the king appointed a Royal Commission and declared that it would be chaired by the American ambassador to France, a man named Benjamin Franklin.

The commissioners went to work with enthusiasm, conducting experiments and interviewing Mesmer's patients. After careful study, it was concluded that body magnetism did not exist, that the baquet fluid had no power, and that convulsions and proclaimed cures came as a result of the creative imagination of Mesmer and his highly suggestible followers. Shortly after the report was issued, Mesmer left France and the mesmerites went underground, but a half-century later mesmerism re-emerged in a more sophisticated form and with a new name—hypnosis.

……

As a Man Thinks 

One of history's sharpest minds belonged to Thomas Edison, the great inventor. Despite only three months of formal schooling, Edison and his inventions changed the world forever.

His secret? "One percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration," as he put it; and he proved his definition by working days at a time, obsessed with his projects, neglecting family and friends, and stopping only for short catnaps. Failure never seemed to discourage him. When about ten thousand experiments with a storage battery failed to produce results, a friend tried to console him. "Why, I have not failed," Edison quipped. "I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

Of all his inventions, perhaps the most famous is the electric light. He devised the prototype, then spent two years looking for the right filament, sending associates to the jungles of the Amazon and to the forests of Japan. He even tried strands of red hair from a friend's beard. Finally he utilized carbonized thread, and it worked! The world gained electric lights.

Our light bulbs today have three parts to them. There is the glass itself—the bulb surrounding the filament. Inside the bulb is a mixture of gases, commonly argon and nitrogen. Finally, in the very center of the bulb, is the filament. Most filaments today are made of a very tough metal, and when electricity flows through them, they become very hot—about 4,500 degrees—making them glow and give off light.

Light bulbs bear a fascinating resemblance to you and me. There is the outside covering, the glass bulb, the body—the part people see. Inside, like invisible gases within the bulb, are our personalities. And at the very center of it all is that part of us that glows and enlightens—the human mind.

The mind is the sum and substance, the axis and pivot, of our existence. It is the base of operations, the core of our humanity. Our minds are the most important things about us, and our lives are simply the overflow of our thoughts.

Dale Carnegie was once asked on a radio program, "What is the biggest lesson you have ever learned?" He quickly replied, "By far the most vital lesson I have ever learned is the importance of what we think. If I knew what you think, I would know what you are. Our thoughts make us what we are. Our mental attitude is the X-factor that determines our fate. Emerson said: "A man is what he thinks about all day long. How could he possibly be anything else?"

Why? An old maxim states: "Thoughts produce acts, acts produce habits, and habits produce character." The Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius said, "Our life is what our thoughts make it." Or as the Bible puts it, "For as he thinks in his heart, so is he." (Proverbs 23:7)

……

The Cauliflower Jewel

Each of us owns a jewel far more valuable than any displayed in the window of Carrier's or Tiffany's. It's a three-pound blob of gray pulp resembling a rotting cauliflower.

Unimpressed?

This jewel is the most incredible creation in God's universe, a fabulous, living supercomputer with unfathomable circuitry and unimaginable complexity. It is the human mind—a collection of billions of neurons, each as complex as a small computer. Imagine having 100 billion computers inside your skull!

Each of these neurons consists of a central nerve-cell core attached to a long tail and several thousand wispy dendrites. These dendrites reach out to make contact with other dendrites, and the number of connection points between these dendrites is perhaps one quadrillion in every human brain. According to one writer, the number of connections within one human brain rivals the number of stars and galaxies in all the universe.

That's not all, for each of these connection points is itself a marvel of complexity. The dendrites don't actually touch each other, but they efficiently and rapidly pass messages to each other through the form of electrical and chemical impulses in a series of processes that takes less than one-thousandth of a second.

"All of this is so complex," said one scientist, "that the brain cannot even begin to comprehend its own complexity."

What a jewel!

……

I Was Just Thinking About You

When Harry Truman became president, he worried about losing touch with common, everyday Americans, so he would often go out and be among them. Those were in simpler days when the President could take a walk like everyone else. One evening, Truman decided to take a walk down to the Memorial Bridge on the Potomac River. When there, he became curious about the mechanism that raised and lowered the middle span of the bridge. He made his way across the cat walks and through the inner workings of the bridge, and suddenly he came upon the bridge tender, eating his evening supper out of a tin bucket.

The man showed absolutely no surprise when he looked up and saw the best-known and most powerful man in the world. He just swallowed his food, wiped his mouth, smiled, and said, "You know, Mr. President, I was just thinking of you."

It was a greeting that Truman adored and never forgot.

Wouldn't it, be wonderful, if Jesus Christ were to suddenly appear before us physically or come suddenly in the cloud, if we could say, "You know, Lord, I was just thinking of you."

……

The Harbor

The Bible describes our minds by using the figure of a ship looking for a harbor. Though you may be unable to keep disease-ridden ships from sailing back and forth on the ocean, you can refuse them docking privileges in the harbor of your mind.

       

*Jeremiah 4:14 says, "How long will you harbor your evil thoughts?" (NLT)

*Deuteronomy 15:9 says, "Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought." (NIV)

*Job talks about those who harbor resentment in their hearts.

*The Psalmist talks about those who harbor malice in the minds.

*James talks about those who allow bitter envy and selfish ambition to harbor within them.

*Jesus conveyed the same basic idea when asking, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your minds?" (Matthew 9:4- NIV)

*Paul had the same thought in mind when he said, "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." (Romans 13:14—NIV)

……

From Charles Spurgeon's John Ploughman

Some will say they cannot help having bad thoughts; that may be, but the question is, do they hate them or not? Vain thoughts will knock at the door, but we must not open to them. Though sinful thoughts rise, they must not reign. He who turns a morsel over and over in his mouth, does so because he likes the favor, and he who meditates upon evil, loves it, and is ripe to commit it. Snails leave their slime behind them, and so do vain thoughts.

Good thoughts are blessed guests, and should be heartily welcomed, well fed, and much sought after. Like rose leaves, they give out a sweet smell if laid up in the jar of memory. They cannot be too much cultivated; they are a crop which enriches the soil.

……

Pepsi or Seven-Up?

Suppose you have a sponge and a pitcher of Pepsi Cola. If you dip your sponge into Pepsi and squeeze it, what's going to come out? Seven-up? No, when you squeeze a sponge soaked in Pepsi, Pepsi is going to gush out of it.

If you saturate your mind with questionable movies, videos, magazines, novels, music, and entertainments, do you think that holiness and happiness and godliness will flow out?

……

Glass Hives

When I was child my parents took me to the Tennessee Valley Fair to ride the rides and see the exhibits. One of the most interesting displays was the honeybees in glass hives. There appeared to be thousands of bees, all of them hustling and bustling in frantic activity beneath the pane of glass that covered their colony. The bee keeper showed us the queen and explained about the workers, the guards, and the drones, every one of them oblivious to the fact that their every move was being observed by a higher intelligence.

In the same way, our heads, are like glass hives and God sees every hustling, bustling thought buzzing through our brains. None are hidden from him.

1 Chronicles 28:9—The Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intents of the thoughts.

Psalm 7:9—The righteous God tests the hearts and minds.

Psalm 94:11—The Lord knows the thoughts of man.

Psalm 139:1—O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

Jeremiah 11:20—O Lord of hosts, You who judge righteously, testing the mind and the heart. . . .

Jeremiah 12:3—But You, O Lord, know me; You have seen me, and You have tested my heart toward you.

Jeremiah 17:9—The heart is [can be] deceiful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind. . . .

Jeremiah 20:12—O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous and see the mind and heart. . .

Ezekiel 11:5—Thus says the Lord:... I know the things that come into your mind....

Revelation 2:23—I am He who searches the minds and hearts.

Hebrews 4:12-13—For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Matthew 12:25—But Jesus knew their thoughts. . . .

……

FROM  THE  BOOK: "1001  QUOTES,  ILLUSTRATIONS  AND  HUMOROUS  STORIES"

Maturity

In First Things First, A. Roger Merrill tells of a business consultant who decided to landscape his grounds. He hired a woman with a doctorate in horticulture who was extremely knowledgeable. Because the business consultant was very busy and traveled a lot, he kept emphasizing to her the need to create his garden in a way that would require little or no maintenance on his part. He insisted on automatic sprinklers and other labor-saving devices.

Finally she stopped and said, "There's one thing you need to deal with before we go any further. If there's no gardener, there's no garden!"

There are no labor-saving devices for growing a garden of spiritual virtue. Becoming a person of spiritual fruitfulness requires time, attention, and care.

Bill Norman (Discipleship, Spiritual Growth)

………………..

OH  THE  GREAT  MIND  OF  MAN;  GOD  MADE  IT!  BUT  THE  BIBLE  SAYS  "THERE  IS  A  SPIRIT  IN  MAN"  -  THE  MIND,  THE  BRAIN,  HAS  A  PART  TO  IT  THAT  CANNOT  BE  SEEN,  IT  IS  INVISIBLE,  GIVEN  BY  GOD.  BOTH  FIT  TOGETHER  TO  MAKE  THE  MIND  OF  MAN  HUGELY,  MASSIVELY  GREATER  THAN  ANY  MIND  OF  ANY  OTHER  CREATURE  ON  EARTH.  I  HAVE  A  FULL  STUDY  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  CALLED  "THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN"  -  YOU  NEED  TO  STUDY  THAT  STUDY.

BUT  TO  BE  A  CHILD  OF  THE  MOST  HIGH  GOD  IN  HEAVEN,  YOU  HAVE  TO  OBTAIN  GOD'S  MIND,  HIS  NATURE,  HIS  SPIRIT  -  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  OF  GOD.

YOU  OBTAIN  IT  AS  PETER  SAID  IN  HIS  SERMON  ON  THE  DAY  OF  PENTECOST  IN  ACTS  2.  YOU  MUST  COME  TO  REPENTANCE  AND  BAPTISM  -  THEN  YOU  CAN  RECEIVE  THE  GIFT  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.  THERE  ARE  IN-DEPTH  STUDIES  ON  THIS  WEBSITE  ON  REPENTANCE  AND  BAPTISM.

THIS  PENTECOST  DAY  PICTURES  THE  DAY  IN  ACTS  2,  WHEN  THE  SPIRIT  OF  GOD  CAME  TO  EARTH,  FOR  HUMAN  BEING,  AS  NEVER  BEFORE  GIVEN;  TO  UNITE  WITH  THE  SPIRIT  IN  MAN,  AND  MAKE  A  CHILD  OF  GOD,  DIFFERENT  THAN  EVER  IN  THE  PAST  AGES.  BEFORE  THAT  TIME,  THE  SPIRIT  GUIDED,  INFLUENCED  MEN  AND  WOMEN,  BUT  IT  WAS  NOT  A  PART  OF  THEM  AS  IT  IS  UNDER  THE  NEW  COVENANT  TERMS  AND  AGREEMENT.  TODAY  GOD  THE  FATHER  AND  CHRIST  JESUS  HIS  SON,  CAN  COME  AND  LIVE  WITHIN  THE  CHRISTIAN,  UNITED  WITH  THE  MIND  OF  MANKIND,  IN  A  VERY  PERSONAL  AND  DIRECT  AND  UNITED  WAY,  VIA  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT.

FROM  THE  DAY  OF  PENTECOST  IN  ACTS  2,  THE  VERY  MIND  OF  CHRIST [THAT  IS  ALSO  THE  MIND  OF  THE  FATHER]  CAN  BE  IN  THE  DISCIPLES  OF  CHRIST.

AND  SO  IT  IS  THAT  THE  APOSTLE  PAUL  WAS  INSPIRED  TO  SAY,  "LET  THIS  MIND  BE  IN  YOU,  THAT  WAS  IN  CHRIST  JESUS."

MY  PRAYER  FOR  YOU  IS  THAT  INDEED  THIS  WILL  BE  A REALITY  IN  YOUR  LIFE,  AND  SO  YOU  WILL  BE  PART  OF  THE  FISRT-FRUITS  OF  GOD;  PART  OF  THE  FIRST  RESURRECTION  OF  SAINTS,  AT  THE  COMING  OF  OUR  LORD  AND  SAVIOR.

Keith  Hunt