Have you noticed how many people want background noise—radio, TV, some kind of music in their ears all the time? Our former pastor Brother Flowerday had an answer for it. He said it saved them the trouble of THINKING!
I “thought” this a curious answer, but it isn’t it true? What they hear is already generated thought—saves them the trouble! Problem, however, is it well chosen thought? FAR from it!
Our thought-life runs many directions, and all at the same time. That is why we need the reminder,
“Think about where your thoughts are.”
Most of all, think AHEAD!
Think about our choices. Think about the consequences of what we do.
Think before we speak.
Think before we act.
Think before we THINK!
You’ve heard the story of Moussey and Robin who “didn’t think.” It may be a child’s lesson, but it goes far beyond childhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QamhFYvzLW8 They didn’t think
God gave us our minds, and He wants us to THINK.
It is a life lesson for all of us. Our choices have consequences.
THINKING is so fundamental to Christ-like living that we can’t make progress without it.
If we THINK we will persevere in trials. The book of James speaks directly to this need. The New Jerusalem Bible is especially good.
James 1:12–15 (NJB) 12Blessed is anyone who perseveres when trials come. Such a person is of proven worth and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
It isn’t natural to persevere. The one who “perseveres” thinks. He doesn’t just react. He has patience—steady endurance. That is why God sees him as having “proven worth.”.
James takes it all the way through the consequences. Verse 13:
13Never, when you are being put to the test, say, ‘God is tempting me’; God cannot be tempted by evil, and he does not put anybody to the test .
If not from God, where does the test come from?
14Everyone is put to the test by being attracted and seduced by that person’s own wrong desire.
The result of NOT thinking. The results are inevitable.
15Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin reaches full growth, it gives birth to death.
Not thinking will take us down. Down, down, down to death.
Recall what Paul wrote about complainers?
1 Corinthians 10:10–11 10[Do not] complain, as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
They perished for their complaining! A serious offense. Couldn’t they realize what they were doing—against the God who had delivered them from Egypt’s iron furnace!
How does that lack of truthfulness square with the law of God? It doesn’t! Hear what Paul says, and notice that every command in the list is something to do with our words:
Colossians 3:8–10 8But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
One of the worst problems of not thinking is lost time.
Time lost to day-dreaming.
Time lost to willful pleasures.
Time lost to profitless pass-times.
What Bible command speaks to this? Again it is Brother Paul:
Ephesians 5:15–16 15See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Another part of not thinking is too easy acceptance. If we don’t think, we find ourselves…
Reading whatever we happen to see
Looking at whatever happens to be nearby
Talking to whoever is nearest
It is all part of a downward spiral, which ends in unbelief. What is the real problem of unbelievers and scoffers? Some may say they think too much? Looking more closely, isn’t it a refusing to think? Refusing the evidence? They close it out of their minds for things too near at hand. As Paul says,
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 3… if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Their blind minds refuse to THINK. Peter warned against this problem when he wrote his final epistle.
2 Peter 3:1–4 1Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
Notice Peter was writing to stir up their “pure” minds, minds that were thinking… so they would be reminded of what? Verse 2:
2that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
… he wanted them to be “mindful” of the Scriptures, the things written for their learning, the words spoken by whom?
2… by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,3knowing this first: [another something to “know”—to THINK about] that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
Peter says this is a time for reality thinking. He says, Don’t be like the scoffers who close their eyes and live in a dream world. Because “all things” do NOT continue as they were. There are signs everywhere that the end of the age is upon us. Paul said also:
1 Corinthians 10:11 11Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.
The ends of the ages—two ages–are upon us. The Apostolic age ended with the fall of the Jewish nation, and soon this age will end with the return of Elijah and Christ. This makes the present time of the utmost concern. As Paul wrote,
Romans 13:11–14 11And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. 12The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. 13Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. 14But put on the [character of the] Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.
Now is the time to REDEEM.
Now, while time is still stretched out. We have a hymn that is worth remembering. It is #108 in the Green Hymnal.
Make haste, O man, to live,
For thou so soon must die;
Time hurries past thee like a breeze,
How swift its moments fly!
To breathe, and wake, and sleep,
To smile, to sigh, to grieve,
To move in idleness thro’ earth,
This, this is not to live.
Make haste, O man, to do,
Whatever must be done;
Thou hast no time to lose in sloth,
Thy day will soon be gone.
Up, then, with speed, and work;
Fling ease and self away;
This is no time for thee to sleep
Up, watch, and work, and pray!
Make haste, O man, to live,
Thy time is almost o’er;
O sleep not, dream not, but arise!
The Judge is at the door.