The Power Of The Mind

INTRO. - ILL.- A man had bought a new gadget - unassembled, of course--and after reading and rereading the instructions he couldn’t figure out how it went together. Finally, he sought the help of an old handyman who was working in his backyard. The old fellow picked up the pieces, studied them, then began assembling the gadget. In a short time, he had it put together. "That’s amazing," said the man. "And you did it without even looking at the instructions!"

"Fact is," said the old man, "I can’t read, and when a fellow can’t read, he’s got to think."

The human mind is amazing. It has great power to do good or evil. It has the power to shape a person’s life. What we think about is what we are or what we do.

Now some quotes, stories and scriptures.

I. QUOTES ABOUT THE MIND:

- “Let the mind of the master be the master of your mind.”

How powerful is this thought! We all need the mind of Jesus! To become like Him we need His mind and His Spirit and this will only happen when we set our minds on His Word.

Phil. 2:5 KJV “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

NIV “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” To have Christ’s attitude we must have His mind, which will only come from His Word.

- "Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind."

I don’t know who wrote this, but it’s a great quote. The key to any kind of improvement in life is in the mind. The thinking controls the actions.

- "A wise man changes his mind, a fool never."

Actually, everyone is changing whether they want to admit it or not. The world affects us, changes us, affects our thinking. For example, TV and movies are powerful influences on children and even adults. Commercials influence us to buy products. That’s why companies pay millions of dollars to produce them.

Advertising pays and it pays to advertise.

Movies can influence a person’s behavior. Kids have watched violence and immorality and then have gone out and put these things into practice. WE MUST NOT BE FOOLED ABOUT THIS!

It’s sad to think, however, that the good doesn’t affect us as much as the evil does. Of course, we see less good than we do evil on the movie screen. HOW RARE IS A GOOD, CLEAN, POSITIVE MOVIE! I have seen only one in recent months and that is: CINDERELLA MAN, the life of boxer James J. Braddock who lived during the depression era. That movie will inspire you to better thinking and doing!

- "If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words."

What a person talks about is what he is thinking. Why do we not talk about the Word of God and Christ? Could it be that we are not thinking about them?

- "Out of sight, out of mind." This is often true.

- "A stale mind is the devil’s breadbox." An empty mind or a stale mind is an open door to the devil.

- "The body manifests what the mind harbors."

- "Your mind is what makes everything else work."

~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"A man is known by the company his mind keeps."

~ Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) American writer, editor, poet

- "An active mind cannot exist in an inactive body."

~ George Patton (1885-1945)

- "If you would perfect your body, guard your mind."

~ James Allen (1864-1912) English author of As A Man Thinketh

- "If you don’t control your mind, someone else will." ~ John Allston

- "She unbent her mind afterwards---over a book."

~ Charles Lamb (1775-1834) British writer, poet, essayist & critic (This should happen to us after reading God’s book)

- "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

~ Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English writer, statesman, publisher, essayist & poet

II. STORIES ABOUT THE MIND: TWO DIFFERENT MEN

ILL.- Dateline NBC, August 12, 2005, did you see it? THE BTK (bind, torture, kill) KILLER. Dennis Rader was a hometown boy born in Wichita, one of four sons raised by church-going, Lutheran parents. His mother has been described as loving, his father as tough but decent. One brother said their home was without problems, without abuse.

But while Rader appeared a clean-cut high school senior in his 1963 yearbook, he was already having bizarre sexual fantasies.