Any Thoughts?

Please review my writing style, NOT the content. This is from my blog. lifethesedayscaylie.blogspot.com please read and review!

"Bringing up there, down here."

That was the slogan of winterchill this weekend. The mission was to help us close the gap between us and our Creator. Let me just say, it was awesome. I just want to share some of what the speaker, Dave shared with us, because it really hit home for me.

The first topic he addressed was what he called "mental floss." By this, he meant keeping our thoughts in check. He put it very bluntly:

To change your life, you have to change your mind.

Yes. It's that simple. It's not about feelings, or your environment, its all about your mind and what you allow to seep into it. He used Romans 12:2 (I love this verse, its up in my room. The whole chapter is amazing.)
"Do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

The renewing of your mind. NOT the renewing of your emotions, or the renewing of your circumstances, because we all know that we can't control those factors of our lives at every moment. But a thought has infinite and unbelievable power over our hearts and our actions.
The way he put it, many thoughts will eventually become a belief. That belief will eventually become an action. Its how we work. This can be a great thing, if we're filling our minds with the Truth, but it can be harmful if we aren't careful. In fact, the power of our thought life is so strong that it determines every part of our life. For some, that could be a discouraging statement. But the good thing is that we have complete and total control. We've been blessed with total access to Christ and his truth.

So, you might be asking, "How can I begin this renewing of my mind?"
We need to begin the process of exposing and acknowledging the thoughts that are false. Catch yourself every time you find yourself pondering on something that is ungodly, and recognize that it is not from Christ. It is, in fact, from Satan. The devil puts lies in our heads. What we need to understand is that both lies from Satan and truth from Christ come to us in the same way. Through our minds. Are you beginning to see how critical our thought life is?

For most of us, every thought that crosses our mind feels true. Feelings make our actions come alive. However, it takes discernment from the Lord to be able to separate the lies from the truth. Discernment and knowledge are critical. Constantly reading God's word is so important, because it's a direct letter from our Creator, containing absolute unchanging truth for our lives. So, pray for discernment and stay in the Word. 2 Corinthians 10:5 says to "take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ." I love how straightforward the Bible is. Take every thought captive, because its about more than just our feelings, this is Truth we're dealing with. So, to sum this up, begin by recognizing the lie that you are being fed by Satan. Then, immediately replace it with the Truth (this is where knowledge of God's Word comes in). Pray for discernment always.

Repeat the process. There's something to think about!
-Red Rose

Reviews

[Fabian G. Franklin]

"many thoughts will eventually become a belief" and books such as the Bible are full of thousands of years of the thoughts of others and many presume that with that much readily available doctrine; there is no longer a need to think for themselves; or for that matter, to have a personality (the scriptures have their personality laid out for them in 3000 year old words) I am a student of world religions. I have studied many sacred and "holy" books and not just one. Being also a student of world history I can tell you that knowledge of "scripture" is fairly useless without knowledge of history. For instance, who wrote the Bible? Is it trustworthy? Can it be proved? I mean, I have read Dr. Seuss but it doesn't mean I'm going to put a hat on my cat. Would it shock you to know that none of the books of the New Testament were authored by the men whose names they bear? Or that the only "scriptures" contained therein which can be honestly attributed to the authors they suggest are the letters of the proselyte Paul; previously Saul of Tarsus? There was no Hebrew Bible before the Babylonian Captivity; LONG after Moses was dead. And parts of the text of the Old Testament were quite blatantly plagiarized from much older "heathen" texts such as The Epic of Gilgamesh and the history of Sargon the Great whom Genesis refers to as Nimrod. Plagiarism is not a new art it would seem. Sargon was placed in a basket woven of reeds by his mother and set adrift in the waters of the Euphrates as a baby...sound familiar? You see, if you are going to invent a hero, one first needs a definition of what a "hero" is and Sargon of Akkad fit the bill nicely to the ancient peasants that would later (much later) become the Hebrew nation it would seem. My entire point is this; if you are going to entrust your "immortal soul" to a book, would it not be of great benefit to you to know from whence that book originated? Oh, and the idea of an "immortal soul" comes from the Egyptians and their religions. Many of the other Judaic customs of the old testament came from Egypt as well and from Zoroastrianism. The idea of an all powerful Diety and an arch nemesis stems from Zoroastrianism (so we can thank them for the devil). Akenaton worshipped an all powerful God but apparently, he had no need of a devil. His God worked both good and evil and ruled everything. His symbol was the disk of the sun and it is where we get the idea of "halos" in art around the heads of religious figures, saints, the Virgin Mary and the Christ etcetera. I strongly encourage you to study history and the texts thrown out of the "Bible" as well as those put in. One can gain some insight into the truth if one is willing to diligently search for the truth and not just accept blindfolded anything one is told. Remember this, the bible was written by many, many scribes over thousands of years. These scribes were men whom Jesus called, "Liars, cheats, wolves in sheeps clothing, whitewashed tombs, serpents and broods of vipers" So my question would be, can one or should one trust one's "immortal soul" to persons answering to those descriptions? I think the subject would at least require a bit of personal research into the credibility of the authors. God has never written a book, after all and we only have the words of those men that they were inspired by God. It's just something to consider.

[Rachel U.]

Firstly, I can't really review this. Why? Because it's not a literary piece. It's more like you're talking as a mere conversationalist. It actually felt a little evangelist in style. Which is fine, it's just not suited to my style of reviewing.
In addition to which, it really was not thought provoking for me. However, seeing as I've studied the concept more times than I care to count, it could just be my own personal bias and experience. You probably should put a note that this is meant for Christians in your description, because an atheist might be a little irritated at having read this, waiting for some philosophical tidbit, and coming out only with a Bible study.
Regardless, interesting little write.
-No rating.

[Liverpoolfan]

I definitely have a few thoughts. Just a few. Although you will have to bare with me in order to get through them. I have a tendency to waffle. Which is, of course, something that you shouldn't do in any piece of writing. And here I am doing it again... Waffling about waffling. I'm not even sure if that is really possible. Hmm...
As you can see that this engaging piece of writing has got me thinking about many things, and I probably need to begin the process of renewing my mind.
I think, Miss Rose, that you are most certainly a very good writer. This is not necessarily the piece of writing which I would usually read, but I felt I compelled to because of your message. Not only do you know how to write, but you know how to sufficiently charm someone into doing what you want!
Anyway, I am extremely glad that I read this. It turned out to be a truely wonderful piece of writing. However, at the start I feel more description could be needed. Then, I think that, you should re-read your work and try to pick up a few grammar mistakes. I'm sure I spotted a couple, although I wasn't really focusing on these. I just wanted to sit here and read your work. It is simply that good. In addition, it could be possible to improve some sentences by rewording them slightly, but there aren't that many which you need to do this for. And, lastly, what possessed you to write the word 'you' in the piece of writing. Generally, this is often frowned upon. However, for this piece of writing, for you, I feel that it works.
Well and truly... you are a great writer. I shall definitely be reading more of your work soon.

[A Lone Creative Nomad]

PREACH IT SISTER!