Recently, I observed two very promising, bright and intelligent African American males in their early 20's who spent an inordinate amount of time playing X-box 360. These young men would spend hours day and night entertaining themselves with this game and when they weren't playing it they were glued to the tv screen or computer entertaining themselves by looking at others live their dreams. Athletes were experiencing their dreams, actors were experiencing theirs and even some of the Youtube content providers where experiencing theirs by becoming overnight sensations such as Antoine Dodson's "Run and Tell that Homeboy" video with over 67 million viewers. Watching this dynamic go on consistently for days caused me great concern. Not that these young men were running drugs or creating havoc in their communities, but because I saw a great waste of time and that rather than preparing the mind to be a great creative force in the universe, it was being molded into a briefcase where other peoples content was being stored. The mind was becoming too relaxed expecting to be fed with entertainment and Lord knows we don't need more entertainment in this world.
I pondered this a while and thought about how my life was distracted at times by my own desires to be entertained and how unproductive I was. I recall reading a very good back back in the late 1980's written by a Christian Pastor Dr. Paul Yonggi Cho: The Fourth Dimension. This book pressed me into a room of thinking about the things that I spent my time on and how my mind, my words and my actions shaped the world in which I lived. Now almost 30 years later and after many, many miracles and Faith testimonies, I find that the statement "Faith Without Works is Dead" is true and what is presented in the Bible in the book of James is very accurate.
So what I saw being lived out by these young men's lives were "Distractions to Successful Faith Living". You see they were not shaping their minds by the word of God, productive intellectual stimulation, or through speech. Their minds were being shaped by devices and video's. By the way, neither of the young men were employed. Wonder why?
Now what would happen if these young men spent theie time reading 30 minutes of the bible, sharpening their reasoning and critical thinking skills by taking free online college courses, or reading literature to build comprehensive skills. I know what would happen because I had to make this transformation in my own life. The answer is that their lives would dramatically change. Not overnight, but over time, they would see job offers, and they would be blessed with visions of what God wanted them to do to expand the universe. Sounds strange? Well if this were not true, why would the devil spend so much time distracting us with so many different devices and with people who mean us no good whatsoever? (Read the Book of Nehemiah in the bible for cross referencing on this).
So, I will end my blog today with this, in order for Faith to work, the mind must work in concert with it. You must prepare the mind like a farmer prepares the soil for a great crop. They break it up, pull out all the clods of hard soil and rocks and they make it into a fine seed bed so that the things that will sustain it can break through. I'm talking about water, fertilizer, heat, etc..etc.. If this is done properly, the crop will be abundant. If it is done poorly, the crop will be stunted, unhealthy or worst, it will never manifest.
Does Faith Really Work in Your Life?
