My Mind is Made Up

And since we have the same spirit of faith,

according to what is written,

"I believed and therefore I spoke,"

we also believe

and therefore we speak...

2 Corinthians 4:13, NKJV

When I was born, I didn't know anything.  Everything I know, I learned from somebody else.  So when you quote me, please don't give me any credit for it!  (...and in good conscience I have to admit that these statements are not original to me.  I first heard them from Rev. Howard Burroughs of Houston, Texas.  And in all likelihood, he got it from someone else, so...)

We are constantly inundated with a barrage of exhortations aimed at our knowledge, our beliefs, and our actions based on our knowledge and our beliefs.  The standard mantras of our post-modern world seem to be "open your mind" and "be tolerant".  The thing is, I can only do what my knowledge and beliefs allow me.  It's called having values, and if someone doesn't understand that, my contention is they probably don't have any.  Values that is.  True beliefs.

My values and beliefs are not my opinions.  I didn't just wake up one morning with the idea that I wanted to offend almost everybody at some time or other by speaking my mind.  Contrary to popular opinion, I do not think that I am right and everybody else is wrong.  Admittedly, when I speak, I usually do so with the conviction that I am right, but it's not arbitrary.  It's not me ascribing correctness to my own thoughts and behavior.  It is me expressing myself from the standpoint of what I believe.

And what I believe is something that was instilled in me from my earliest memories.  Mom & Dad believed in God as the ultimate sovereign of all that is and all that ever will be.  They believed in Jesus Christ as the uniquely begotten Son of God and Savior of all who died for our sins and rose from the dead and lives to bring us to God.  They believed in the powerful Holy Spirit who lived within us and gave us the power and authority and help and comfort of God to accomplish God's perfect will, plan, and purpose.  And they believed the Bible as God's revealed message to mankind, inspired, inerrant, infallible, and in need of no additions or subtractions.

I was four, and my folks didn't have alot of money, but a Bible salesman came to our door one evening and presented a line of Bible Story books--10 volumes for kids, 6 volumes for adults--which Mom & Dad decided were a good investment for a young Christian family just getting to know the Lord.  And every night thereafter, when it was time for me to go to bed, they read me a story from those Bible Story books.

Not only did they read to me every night, but they also took me to church every time the doors were open.  They raised me in the second pew, and taught me to sit up straight and be still and pay attention to what was going on.  I wasn't allowed to talk or sleep or play or make noise.  In the earliest years, I was given a Bible Story coloring book and a box of crayons to keep me occupied, but as I grew, I was expected to start listening to what was being preached.  I went to Sunday School and Children's Church, and I learned there as well.   And while I don't remember everything that ever got said in church, there are lots of things that impacted my young and impressionable heart and mind.

To their credit, Mom & Dad didn't leave my education up to my Sunday School teacher, our pastor, or the Skellytown Elementary School.  We talked about Father, Son & Holy Ghost at home.  We read and studied and discussed the Bible at home.  We went to the homes of Christian friends, or had Christian friends over to our home, and everyone talked about Jesus.  My Dad led lots of people to the Lord while he was working construction, and consequently he brought them home with him where they could study the Bible together.  And I can remember laying behind my Dad's recliner with my own Bible, listening to the discussion and even asking questions when I didn't understand something.

They weren't willing to leave my salvation up to random chance, or even up to the pastor's ability to communicate the gospel.  From the time I was three and a half until I was six, my Dad constantly explained my sinful nature and my need for a personal Savior.  After the spankings would come the lessons about how much I needed Jesus.  Every discussion was laced with references to Jesus and my need to have Him in my life.  And after thirty months of that, something in the message took hold.  One Sunday night at church, the pastor was making an appeal for sinners to get saved and receive Jesus Christ.  I was wiggling around, and my mother recognized my restlessness for what it was.  And right there on the second pew, my mother led me in prayer to receive Jesus.  Then she sent me to my pastor, who prayed with me again, with my Dad kneeling in the altar beside me.  I may have been young, but I understood my need and I knew what I was doing.  And that event shaped my entire life.

Someone asked me one time, "Haven't you ever questioned what you believe?"  And before they could even get the question out of their mouth my answer was a loud and clear, "No!"  Like Timothy, I knew I could trust what I was taught, because I knew those who had taught it to me.  My parents lived for Jesus, lived according to the Bible, every day from my earliest memory, and they did it right in front of me.  The instilled the faith and practice of true Biblical Christianity in me, discipled me in the ways of Christ, raised me in the training and admonition of the Lord.  And because it was something fully incorporated into ever fiber of my being, I knew that whatever contradicted the knowledge of truth was automatically wrong.

So I challenged my peers whose behavior was contrary to God's righteousness.

I challenged my teachers whose lessons contradicted the Bible.

I challenged my youth pastor when something he said didn't line up.

I challenged my college professors when they wanted to fill my mind with higher education.

And the first time I remember being told to open my mind, I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit with which I had become so familiar saying to me, "If you open your mind to her, you are selling you soul to the devil."

To this day, I continue to challenge that which is contrary to the Word of God.  When I speak, I'm not offering my opinion.  It's not my personal belief.  It's not my religion.  The Bible is simply my absolute standard for faith and conduct.  It is the source of all the knowledge I need to accomplish all that is really important.  And if your life, your actions, your beliefs, your words don't line up with what it says, well...you're just wrong.  Not according to me, but according to God.  And if it upsets you that I say that, I'm not sorry for speaking the truth.  I'm not doing it to hurt you, but rather to save you.

So when someone says, "Open your mind", what they are really saying is, "What you know is flawed, you need new information.  You must unlearn what you have learned.  You need to change."  And whenever I'm asked to change my mind, I'm reminded of how one smart (albeit fictional) man once responded, "Is there something wrong with the one I have?"

Basically, you got to me too late.  My mind was made up a long time ago, and there's no reason for me to quit believing now.  But for those of you who are still looking for answers, still searching for truth, for those of you whose minds are still open, Come to Jesus, and let Him close it for you.