Feeding The Mind
This little mechanic had great thrill in viewing the world from the branches of the highest trees, but sometimes the tree was not so big and he would come down with the tree. He kept in mind the names of the different trees and their uses as some are good for building some projects while for something else it would be disastrous to use. Some wood burns good and keeps coals for a while so you don’t have to keep making a new fire every time it needs more wood. The wood that burns up quickly and leaves no coals and is light and punky will give you the least heat for cooking your food or warming the house. Birch firewood is excellent, it is hard and burns a long time and leaves a lot of red-hot coals to start your next piece of wood burning. The birch bark is very easy to start the fire with and makes the job so pleasant.
We need to be like the wood that burns the best and keep the coals glowing and never let our bright light go out. We are to be like the firm hard wood and stand strong and true for Jesus no matter what anyone says.
Well, this little mechanic was given piles of comic books from friends at school, so they looked interesting to this young boy and he started reading. Of course, it is something that grows an a person, if you feed the mind with garbage reading, then that is what the mind wants all the more. The mind can grow dim of desiring truth and reality and the good and better things there are to put in the mind to build the character. Comics and cartoons are the devil’s invention to defame the image and character of God. God is a lover of the beautiful. When He created the world, man and everything else was made perfect and so lovely that there was not one flaw in the whole world. Man was created in the image of God and Satan delights to make fun of God and His beauty and perfection and he puts things all out of proportion in these cartoons. But the devil does not stop there for he is sly and puts deception also into things that seem to appear beautiful to the human eye. So our helper is the Lord to teach us to discern the good from the bad and our sword the Bible has a lot to say about what to put into the mind. This means we have to spend a lot of time on our knees repenting of our sins and asking the Lord for guidance every day. It’s called a walk with Jesus when we are obeying Him.
The mechanic’s mother was not pleased to see her son reading such things and warned him of the danger of reading fiction and looking at the cartoon characters.
Everybody helped with the garden. What mouthwatering beans and tomatoes came off those vines was beautiful sight. The soil was top quality and produced abundantly for the family. It was a sight to behold all the wonderful works of God to grow such a garden to help feed them through the cold winter. Can you imagine canning more than 300 jars of food on the wood stove? The Lord did His part and now it was up to the family to use the right tools to gather in the precious crop and fill and seal the jars. With all the little hands helping it was accomplished.
Music was an important part of the farm family and they memorized many songs. The Lord knew man needed this enjoyment for many reasons. God loves to hear us sing praise to His name and worship Him in song. The verses of the Bible kept in the mind by putting a melody with them is a pleasant way to memorize the Scriptures that are our rule of faith. They are a comfort to the despairing, lonely folk of earth who want Jesus for their guide. Hymns also will attract people to want to learn more of God’s love and touch the heart to receive Christ as their Savior. Using the voice and the lungs are a healthy exercise when done properly and done in humility can bring glory to God.
But we have to be alert to the fact that Satan has his tools working also in all the loud noise we hear so much, that the world calls music. This is demonic and hypnotizing all the way through in sound and in many words as well. The need to spend much time with the tool of prayer is so necessary to understand and put into practice in a closer walk with Jesus. The devil never sleeps and he is like a mad roaring lion, very sneaky and sly, creeping up on his prey unaware of the tightening of the jaws of the deadly beast destroying his easy catch. The lion will hypnotize you and it will not be known to you, most of the time, too late to be realized.
The little mechanic was thinking he would like to play the guitar. He received a cardboard 4string guitar for one Christmas present. Then he was taught more on a real guitar from some of his schoolmates. One of these friends had a medium sized guitar for sale for five dollars so he cut firewood for his Dad for four days with the Swede saw and then sold something for a dollar and bought his first real guitar. He practiced a lot and became very efficient, considering the tool he had to work with. But he sure enjoyed his new adventure and made a lot of people happy with his enthusiasm to sing for the Lord. He played it for a long time with much pleasure. Naturally endowed with an ear for music that God blessed him with, he had no trouble keeping it tuned properly.
It was battered and scarred and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bid, good folk?" he cried.
"Who'll start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar ... now two ... only two ...
Two dollars, and who'll make it three?
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
Going for three" ... but no!
From the room far back a gray-haired man
Came forward and picked up the bow.
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
As sweet as an angel sings.
The music ceased, and the auctioneer,
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said, "What am I bid for the old violin?"
As he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars ... and who'll make it two?
Two...two thousand, and who'll make it three?
Three thousand once and three thousand twice ...
Three thousand and gone!" said he.
The people cheered, but some exclaimed
"We do not quite understand ...
What changed it's worth?" and the answer came:
"It the touch of the master's hand."
And many a man with soul out of tune
And battered and scarred by sin
Is auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd
Just like the old violin.
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
Never can quite understand
The worth of a soul, and the change that is wrought
By the touch of the master's hand.
O Master! I am the tuneless one
Lay, lay Thy hand on me,
Transform me now, put a song in my heart
Of melody, Lord, to Thee!
~ Myra Brooks Welch ~
Their dog, Rover was afraid of thunder and lightning and would come in the house and crawl under the children’s bed until the storm passed.
One day a salesman came to the door with some books. He knew his work well and enrolled mother into a Bible study course. Just like in the parable, if the seed falls on good soil it will take root and grow to produce a good plant and bear fruit for the glory of God. They started studying the Bible more with these new lessons and learned that the dead are really dead and are still in the grave after their death. The dead do not go to heaven when they are put in the ground. What good would there be of a resurrection when Jesus comes if the dead are already in heaven? “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.” “Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 9:5,6
Another very interesting topic they learned from these Bible lessons was that the Sabbath had been changed by the Catholic Church and that the Bible Sabbath is on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The Catholic Church did this tampering with God’s holy law and boldly proclaim that they are above God. So this little family eventually became Sabbath-keepers in accordance with what the God of heaven teaches in the Bible.