Shooting Down The Dirty Birds

 

You know the old saying: "You can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you CAN keep them from building a nest there." Is that really true?

Everyone tries to cast the blame for their failures and faults - and for their sin - on someone, or something else. That started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. It seems to be commonly accepted today that men are going to Hell because Adam sinned. The truth is men are going to Hell for THEIR OWN SIN, not the sin of Adam. No man will EVER stand before God and be judged for Adam's sin, but each man will give account of HIMSELF to God.

We are told by the pagan, heathen scientists and doctors that drunkards cannot help being drunkards because it is in their genes when they are born. The same bunch is trying to tell us that violent people are born that way and shouldn't be held responsible for their violence to other people. Now sodomites are trying to tell everyone that they were born that way and cannot help it. We should accept them as God made them.

Isn't it interesting that people who call themselves Christians, and say they believe the Bible are trying to say the same thing about THEIR sin? Because of Adam they were born that way and just can't help sinning, even though they have been redeemed and washed in the blood of Christ. It is something in their genes or in their blood that makes them tell lies and be hateful and commit adultery. And it seems that they think that force is much greater than the grace of God and the Blood of Christ.

Most of the problem lies in the mind and in our thought life. Most people seem to think that they are not responsible for their thoughts. They try to use the excuse that their evil thoughts come from some outside source - demonic forces or the Devil himself. But the Bible is clear when Jesus said that they come from out of the heart.

Matt 15.19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Mark 7.21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

Did you know how to murder when you were born? Did you think about adultery and fornication from the time you were born? No you didn't! You LEARNED to think about those things and filled your heart with evil. Now it plagues you with evil thoughts which it pulls out of the store you have laid by in your mind. When you continue to think those things now, you are guilty of sin. It isn't the Devil and it isn't anything about your nature - it is YOUR EVIL HEART and it is YOUR FAULT!

Your heart is the source of hatred, jealousy, envy, anger and bitterness. These things in your heart will cause you to wish evil on other people. If you are mad at someone you will begin to think about how to deal with them. Before long you have progressed in your thoughts to the point that you have beat them half to death and they are begging you to forgive them. In your mind you are justified and right in whatever you do, and it always turns out right in your mind - you always win and you don't feel that you have done anything wrong. Jealousy and envy will make you wish to see others fall and suffer. Looking will produce desires in your heart that will lead to evil thoughts. When you have adulterous thoughts it begins with something you look at, or have looked at in the past, with your eyes. That produces a desire in your heart that progresses into evil thoughts and then you find yourself indulging in those thoughts. It takes some willful thinking to carry through with adultery or fornication in your mind. When there is willful transgression, whether it is thought or deed, it is sin. When you wish evil on your neighbor it isn't a thought that was put there by some outside source, it came from the desires of YOUR EVIL HEART!

We are responsible for our thoughts. The Devil is the Tempter, and that is all he is. He cannot put a bottle to my mouth and make me drink. All he can do is suggest that I do it by appealing to my lusts - and he can't do that until I am drawn away of my lusts. He cannot MAKE you think about certain things either, but he can suggest things for you to think about. That is temptation and there is a great difference between that and WICKED IMAGINATIONS! God destroyed the world in Noah's day because "every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) heart was only evil continually." (Gen 6:5) One of the things God hates is "an heart that deviseth wicked IMAGINATIONS." (Pro. 6:18) You do not have to entertain everything that passes through your mind. You are to "gird up the lions of your mind." You are to have it under control.

Therefore, when you let thoughts progress in your mind to the point that you are acting out un-godliness or committing a sin in your mind, then you have sinned against God and will give an account of it to God. You can't go out and get drunk or commit adultery and say "the Devil made me do it." Neither can you think evil and say it is someone else's fault. It isn't that you were born that way and can't help it and it isn't the Devil making you have wicked imaginations. It is your EVIL HEART. Confess your sin and get your thought life right with God and see if it doesn't make a difference in your life.

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; -2 Cor 10.4 - 5

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