Seminal Thought and Meditation

You know, the summer is one of those times where it causes us to look up, doesn't it, at the heavens. We look up at the stars and we gaze at the spectacular creation that God has made. You know, there's nothing more beautiful than a sunset, particularly looking out on the ocean. When the sun goes down, it is like the sun reflecting upon the waters. It's like a golden highway, as it were, you know, that is paved to the sun. I don't know if you've ever looked at it that way, but it's like a, you know, the yellow brick road, as it were, of gold leading up to the sun.

It is just a beautiful, beautiful sight, or a gorgeous mountain scene. You know, there's nothing more beautiful than something like that, as well. And to be able to see these things, brethren, and to think, to begin to ponder, and to begin to consider, you know, what is man's purpose? Why am I here? Why has God put me here upon the earth? And what does He want from me? What does He want me to be doing in my life? You know, when my wife and I were preparing to come back, you know, we looked across the street from where we were eating breakfast, and there was a man who was in clothing that looked like he had taken from the trash bin.

I mean, it looked like, in fact, he had made his clothing out of material from discarded umbrellas. And, you know, he just had these all over him. And, of course, his face was sort of dirty, and it was sort of an older gentleman. And, you know, it is interesting to look at someone like that. Of course, we don't judge them.

You know, we don't look down upon someone like that because they are a potential Son of God. We know, someday, that person will... maybe if there's mental issues, that they will be healed, and they will be transformed by being re-educated. But, you know, what is amazing is you travel around, you see different people. Sometimes the story of a person's life is etched, as it were, in their face. Have you ever noticed that? You know, you look at people's faces, and you can almost see that some have really had too much life.

They've lived too much life too soon. You know, they... and you can see that the anguish on their faces, and the anguish that is in their eyes, and the lines that are on their faces where they have become premature, truly old. Or you can see it in other ways too, with people. Not necessarily, again, that kind of etching in their faces. Sometimes people's faces show other things. You probably have seen people, like I'm going to describe here, and have to describe to you.

Sometimes somebody can have a face of somebody that has a belief that they're superior to everyone. You ever been around anybody like that? It's like they sort of, you know, put that chest out, and they sort of look down at you, wherever you may be. You may be standing right in front of them, but they're looking down on you. And basically, if they're talking to you, their attitude is, I'm only talking to you, or listening to you now, because there's nothing better else to do.

Some people can be like that. They can have this superiority complex about themselves. While there can be other people, again, it's sort of their life. You can tell it when they speak to you, or they talk to you. There could be this inferiority that they might have. Sort of that beaten-down, woeful look about them. Again, much of the same problems of the man, the gentleman I was telling you about, that, you know, was getting his clothing from the trash can. Then you can have others, brethren, that have another look, a fierceness on their faces.

It's like you're almost afraid to talk to them, and you're afraid you get into a fistfight with them. But they've got this angry look on their face, this wrathful look, and they have a fire in the eyes. And you are concerned, again, even talking to them. I know I've been in visits, Minnestero visits, believe it or not. Many years ago, I remember one gentleman I visited with down in Phoenix.

I didn't know if I was going to get out of the visit alive. I mean, the guy looked like he was a sort of a skinhead type person, and I was just telling him about God's way of life. Maybe it was just me, but in a way, I was there by myself, by the way. And you wondered if you were going to get out without being unscathed.

If I was afraid I was going to say something, he might end up beating me to half the death. I've been in cases, by the way. One of the first visits I ever went on, and it was with Jerry Ost. Many of you remember Mr. Ost was up here, but here he took me on a visit, and a man threatened us with a shotgun. And by the way, I wasn't even in the ministry. I was a student at Ambassador College.

I'm thinking, what am I getting into here? When you have to back out of a visit, I remember Mr. Ost saying, you know, okay Jim, we're gonna back out of here. And so we're sort of walking to the car, looking, making sure we're keeping an eye on this character. So again, people can have certain looks that are sort of etched into their faces, and you can tell it.

What do you think about this, brethren? Then there's the other type of person. You know, you look at them and you can see a peace of mind that is in their face. You can see that they are happy in life, generally speaking. You know, not that they don't have trials and troubles as well, but they have peace of mind, and you can tell that. But think about people that have, again, the superior attitude or the inferior attitude, and the anger, the wrath on their faces, or what other emotions that people have on their face.

All this could be avoided if we were to change one thing, and that is the way we think. You know, that dirty word, think, that many people just simply refuse to do. So, brethren, how do you think? How do you think? What is going on in your mind right now? How do you think? You know, when you think of making the decision, you know, what is the first thought that comes to your mind? When you're analyzing a problem, or you're analyzing what to do in your life, what is the first thought within your mind?

Well, you know, I'm going to talk today, I'd like to talk to you today, about the subject of seminal thought, what I call seminal thought, in meditation. And that is how we think. It has to do with how we think, and talking about how we should think is God's people.

You know, the average person talks 30 minutes a day. 30 minutes a day. So, we're not a lot of talking. We've got a lot of John Waynes. Yup. Nope. Whatever it is that people say in the 30 minutes a day. Not counting sleep, the average person then thinks about 15 hours a day. You know, you ever lay down your head on the pillow, and you just can't stop thinking?

Well, you know, that's a part of the process I'm talking about. Sometimes you've got minds that are just racing all the time. 15 hours a day, on average, we tend to think. Now, I'm not going to go to Matthew 23, verse 24, but you know what Christ called the Pharisees and the the scribes? He called them blind guides who strained at gnats, and what did he say? Who swallowed camels. You know, you ever gone to a picnic and you ate a gnat?

Now, if you had a camel that flew in your mouth, you might know it. You know, you get this little bug out of your tooth. Christ said they strain on a gnat, and they swallow a camel. Well, brothers, sometimes in our thinking we could have a gnat philosophy.

In other words, brethren, we're putting off thinking about the most important things. And so, 15 hours a day, we're thinking about the gnats, and not the camels.

You know, Christ talked about how the scribes and the Pharisees, how they strained at a gnat and swallowed a camel. He talked about how they tithed men and anus, but that they did not do the weightier matters of the law. You know, not that they shouldn't have tied. Nobody said that you shouldn't have left the others undone. You know, it's Matthew 23, verse 23, and he said, so that's when in that context he called them blind guys who strained at gnats but swallowed camels. But the problem with the scribes and the Pharisees is the way they thought, the way their thinking was, brethren. And I submit to you, brethren, that our problem is the way we think sometimes.

And we get ourselves in all kinds of trouble. You know, it's amazing how we can be as human beings. We tend to eat, don't we, the very best that we can afford, at least, and nutritious meals, at least we hope we're not making a diet out of McDonald's and that sort of thing.

Because obviously that's going to cause us to have health issues. But we tend to eat as nutritious as we can because we know it produces good health in the body.

And the old saying, what is it? The old saying, we are what we eat. You and I are what we eat.

You know, the old IBM adage, garbage in, garbage out. If we don't eat the right things, we're going to be unhealthy. But, brethren, what about our minds? What about our minds? You and I are what we think, and our mind can only be the sum of what we put in it. You know, Christ talked about how that you can't get good fruit out of a bad tree. And, you know, our minds, though, are the sum of what we put in it. So what we dwell on and think about is what we are. That's what we are.

So what are you dwelling on, brethren? Hopefully we're dwelling on the subject at hand here. And that is how to think better about meditation and seminal thought as God's people learning to think properly as God's people. You know, whenever we grow up, we mature physically. And, of course, that's pretty much automatic, isn't it? Generally speaking, we mature physically. Then we mature mentally. We begin to develop mentally. And eventually we get down to the emotional maturity that needs to come over a period of time. And so that is the order, brethren, that we mature physically, mentally, and then emotionally. Now, the problem is, while physical is sort of automatic, you know, you can, of course, you can mature physically if you don't eat the right things. You're going to, you might actually retard the problem of developing physically. But the same is true with all the other aspects of a human being. But most mature physically, but many don't mature mentally, and far fewer mature emotionally. Often minds, brethren, frankly, unfortunately, their minds of people are broken down and rusted out.

And my wife and I were talking about how that some people have brains that have never been taken out of the box. Brand new! Never been used. At least, that's the way it seems. Maybe it's been used, but for the wrong reason. You know, Christ talked about how that you can see but not understand. You know, we can see things, but we can sometimes not observe, not really see what's going on. We can hear, but we might not comprehend. We may not understand.

You know, sometimes people, again, see many things, and it's quite evident the way things are going. It's like, you know, you see the dark cloud in the sky, and you've been in an area for a while, you know, that when you see a cloud like that, there might be a tornado. It's like in Oklahoma. I grew up in Oklahoma, by the way. Now, you might be surprised. I never saw a tornado up front, the personal. You know, I never was around it that way. I was always on the news.

Well, you know, and there were many of the smaller towns around where I lived that were hit by tornadoes. But you know when to get in, out of the outside, and, you know, into a storm cellar. You know, your wind starts kicking up, and it looks like the tornado could happen. You don't want to be out to see where it is, you know, because you might end up, you know, getting hit upside the head by something flying through the air. But, you know, you observe, in other words, and you understand, hey, it's time to get in, out of the weather. But sometimes, again, people don't come to that. And I'm talking not just about weather, brothers.

I'm talking about people's lives and what they do not observe.

Let's go to 1 Kings chapter 3. 1 Kings chapter 3. Know the story, the account over here.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, it is one of the most famous about Solomon.

But in 1 Kings chapter 3, down in verse 16, it says, "...Now two women who were harnessed came to the king and stood before him.

And it says, And one woman said, Oh, my Lord, this woman I dwell in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened the third day, after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth, and we were together, and no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. And this woman's son died in the night because she lay on him." So they were both harlots, and this one woman lays on her child, and it dies.

So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while your mate turned and slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed he was not my son whom I had borne." So again, we all know this story, don't we? And Solomon here showed incredible wisdom. There's no question about that.

But how did he come up with this wisdom? How did he come up with this wisdom? Remember the story about how he said, well, bring a sword, we'll divide the baby. Give one to one, half to one, and one half to the other. And the true mother said, no, just give it to the other woman. And Solomon knew that this was the mother, the true mother of the child.

But here's an example, rather, where Solomon was using his mind to figure out how to deal with this problem. And he was able to find out who was the real mother by this. And so he used his mind, coupled with the Holy Spirit. And God has given us, brethren, the Holy Spirit, that we can discern things. We can figure things out. Now Solomon, by the way, didn't always do this, but here he did. Early on, Solomon got a reputation for being the wisest man on the face of the earth, and people flocked to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But again, Solomon didn't always do that. We know that made a lot of mistakes. And neither will you and I. By the way, always make the right decisions, have the right discernment. You know, we're not going to achieve perfection in these physical, mortal bodies of ours. But brethren, we need to work toward that. We need to learn to use our mind coupled with God's Holy Spirit. We as God's people need to focus on learning how to think.

And ultimately, thinking, brethren, is meditation. That's what meditation is, thinking. And meditation, brethren, is the key to your spiritual growth in your life, learning to think in a godly way. And it's hard, you know, when we've got these ruts that have been, you know, etched into our brains. Isn't that changing the way we think?

It's always reassuring, by the way, to come to services and see the group that's talking about the Bible. You know, as today, you know, I saw quite a crowd in there, you know, talking about the current readings, you know, from the book of Hezekiah. And it was really interesting to see that discussion going on. You know where Hezekiah is in the Bible, don't you? It's part of the reading program. Maybe you've not heard about that one, but I'm hoping you're using your mind right now. But if you wonder what I was talking about, you might come up and talk to Mr. Roram about it, or Mr. Spears, or Caramidian, they'll tell you what I'm talking about. But anyways, we need to learn, again, how to think. Because ultimately, thinking is meditation. And meditation is a key to our growth as Christians. Thinking is harder than anything else we will ever do.

You know, sometimes people want to be in a managerial position. Maybe they're looking at the manager, and he's got a tie on, he's in that comfortable office. But you know what? Once they get in that position, they wouldn't want it. Because thinking is hard.

Thinking is difficult. Now, I'm not saying that ditch digging doesn't require thought.

There's a smart way to go about ditch digging as well. But it is a different kind of thinking. You know, sometimes people think and they go, ouch, that hurts when I have to think.

But thinking is harder than anything else we ever do. Brethren, and many simply don't want to bother thinking. So they abstain from that mental exercise, and they go into escapism. Some people escape by getting plastered with alcohol, with drugs, get involved in mind-blowing things, escape by getting involved in filthy pornography and other things of this world. They escape that way. This world is filled with escapism. And they waste their lives by being entertained. Sometimes just being entertained by television. Watching television, long hours of the day. Or listening to music all the time, or whatever to occupy the mind.

Let's go to Proverbs 7. Proverbs 7 over here.

Again, Solomon learned these important lessons, recorded these things for us. It's always great to go through and talk about the Proverbs.

But in Proverbs 7, beginning verse 1 over here, it says, So here Solomon talks about the simple-minded, who do not take God's way to heart. They're not thinking about it. They're not occupied by it.

And the problem with the simple-minded, brethren, or the simple, as it says here in the New King James Version, the simple-minded don't think. They simply do. And they fall into all kinds of trouble as a result of it.

No, they don't think things through beforehand. And invariably, they need to be rescued.

It's like, you know, you can see, sometimes when people start making their decisions, it's a train wreck in the making. I know with our children, sometimes I have tried to take the time, Joan and I have taken the time and say, now think through what you're wanting to do. Let's think it through. You know, this leads to this, and that leads to something else, and this is what's going to happen.

I like it, by the way, what one of our ministers said to a young person at a master college who wanted to go over to Shreveport. You know, the young student had just turned 18, decided he would go over to Shreveport. Over there, by the way, you could buy alcohol after 18. You couldn't do that in Texas. And he went to the minister, and he said, you know, you think it'd be all right to go over to Shreveport, you know, take a young lady over there, and have a drink, and maybe go dancing.

You know, and anyway, the minister didn't really say, no, you shouldn't do that.

His answer was this. He said, I wouldn't do it. Mr. Armstrong wouldn't do it. Jesus Christ wouldn't do it. But go ahead.

You know, I hope the young person didn't do it.

But, you know, people have to be told what could happen, you know, by their choices.

No, maybe nothing would have happened. But, you know, is a bar place where God's people are be hanging out? You know, the place where everybody knows your name, they recognize you when you walk through the door. Man, you've been there a lot.

They said you'd drink up as soon as you walk in.

That's not too good to be noted for that in that way and in that manner.

But sometimes, brethren, people can be simple minded.

You know, one of the things that we find, at least I found this in my life, you know, is that when I started reading the Bible, you know, and I really started believing this book, it started to change me. And the reason it did is because it changed the way I thought.

Therefore, it changed my actions. I thought through some of the things that I shouldn't be doing, and I decided, well, I better not do that. Like when I learned about the Sabbath, you know, I used to go out, by the way, with my buddies every Friday night. I've told you this before. And they'd come by our place, come down that long dusty road to where we lived at the end of this road, and I could see them coming. I just learned about the Sabbath, and I believed it. I believed I ought to be keeping the Sabbath. And I went out to them, and they said, hey, time to go!

And we always went over to Beverly's Drive Inn over in Arkansas, Fort Smith. And everybody did, and they would go around gawking at the girls, by the way, to be truthful. And that was the day of the big hot rod cars and all of that. But anyway, I had to tell them, I'm sorry, I'm not going tonight with you. And I said, I keep the Sabbath now. And of course, they just said, hahaha, laugh, laugh. Oh, come on, get in. Get in, let's go. You know, they knew me that well. And I said, no, I'm not going to go.

The reason is, again, I had learned it, and I knew what I could not do. I couldn't be preoccupied. The last thing I needed to be is go looking, you know, after a girl, lusting after a girl.

And frankly, we never saw many girls anyway. We saw each other more than we saw the girls.

You know, we were afraid of girls, basically, you know, you know, both boys are afraid of girls. But anyway, I hadn't changed my, I had not changed my thinking about that, by the way. But, you know, you ever go to a dance and then the boys were over here and the girls were over there, and they're afraid to talk to each other. They're afraid to do that. Well, I didn't go that night with my friends. So when you really start reading the Bible, you start thinking about the Bible, I mean really thinking about it, and I hadn't done before in my whole life, it changes you. Because it changes the way you think, and the way you consider things. Now, let's go over to Matthew chapter 23 over here, Matthew 23 and verse 24.

You know, Christ had told the scribes and the pharisees that they were blind guys, straining gnats and swallowed camels. But notice in verse 25, What do you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of extortion and self-evulgence.

Blind pharisees first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. What do you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like white washed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness. Even so, you are also outwardly appearing righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

And so here Jesus Christ, brethren, was saying the way they thought was what they actually were.

You know, let's not hide it. You're nothing but a tomb.

You know, you're like bones, dead bones here.

Look, a Christian's ways, brethren, must match inside and out.

Our thinking should match what we do as God's people. Otherwise, we're nothing but a bunch of Jekyll and Hyde's, aren't we? You know, if we come into the parking lot and all of a sudden we change, you know, we're Jekyll and Hyde. This has happened to people, you know. They may be arguing with one another, mates arguing with each other, driving the parking lot. You know, everybody's so happy.

So, brethren, you know, we need to, again, change the way we think. You know, somebody comes up, one of the ladies come up to another lady and she says, what do you think of my new dress? And the other lady says, oh, it's really nice. It's you.

And they're probably, you know, they're thinking, they're actually thinking that no good flirt.

There isn't enough material in that dress to keep my five-year-old daughter warm on a hot day. You see, the match. They say one thing, but think another thing.

Some fellow comes up and he says, you know, isn't it great that John got that new job making a hundred thousand a year? Kind of positive, again, about the accomplishment of other brethren?

Person says, yes, that is a wonderful thing. He got that kind of job. Actually, thinking, though, how did that no good louse get that job? I worked harder than he ever looked, worked himself. Where somebody comes and says, how would you like to help with a setup crew?

Answer, sure, I'd love to help. Man is thinking, man, I should have avoided him today. Or worse.

You know, maybe be at late at church all the time just to avoid. You know, in other words, the way we think. Does it match a Christian's way of life? And, you know, the way we should think should be positive. Our way of thinking should be higher than that of normal human beings, you know, that trek this earth. Let's go to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. We see over here, brethren, in Isaiah 55 and down in verse 7, here we're told in Isaiah 55 and verse 7, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

So when we begin to read the Bible, begin to see the truth of God, we forsake our thoughts, sometimes carnal thoughts that we may have, and we're wanting to live God's way of life. Think God's way of life, in other words, as God's people. And let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him and to our God, and he will abundantly pardon.

So part of the process, brethren, of being forgiven means we gotta change the way we think. We're not like other people in this world, brethren, but we're different.

And, you know, if we're gonna be like God, we gotta change what we're doing. You know, God's not gonna change, is he? Jesus Christ, we're told, is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You know, there in Hebrews 13, verse 8, over in Malachi, God says, I don't change. Therefore, you know, the sons of Israel are not consumed.

If God changed, God would have blotted Israel out a long time ago, but he made certain promises, and God doesn't renege on those promises. So being like God, brethren, means we change the way we think. Never try to catalog for a day the things that you think about.

Just write down again, what did you think about?

A lot of it is harmless, of course. Gotta get my world changed, you gotta dig that hole, or, you know, fix that faucet, or pipe, or whatever. Work on the dinner, you know, gotta start doing that three, or whatever, in order to be ready.

But, brethren, how often do we think about things to really improve our lives?

I mean, we dwell on it. How can I do better? How can I improve my, the way I think?

And our life, in terms of how we are living. You know, that we live more godly lives. Let's go to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, verse 14. Psalm 19, verse 14. You know, it's good to think about those things. You know, if we begin to think more about those things, we might actually find that we might be changing. We might change a lot more rapidly.

Do you ever wonder how it is, brethren, that one person comes into the church?

It's like they grow so rapidly. You know, maybe within a few years they've learned so much.

Then there's some people that come to the church, and it's like they're about the same place they were 20 years before. Not the same. I know we all change. We all overcome. We can all only grow at the pace that we can grow at. But, brethren, I believe that all of us can grow faster than we really give ourselves credit for. We can improve in so many ways faster than we can even imagine if we really dedicated our lives to changing our lives and improving them.

But Psalm 19 verse 14 says, let the words of my mouth, Psalm 19 verse 14, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart.

You know, here David was saying, be acceptable in your sight. O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

You ever started thinking about something, brethren, that you shouldn't be thinking about? And you said, oh, I'm sorry, God, I don't know what put that in my mind. What made me start thinking that way? And sometimes, you know, thoughts so bizarre you rebuke them.

You know, Satan fires, we talked about fiery darts. You know, I think he lampoons our brains sometimes, and that's where some of these bizarre ideas come from.

They come into our minds, and we have to learn to put those out and not to begin to dwell on those things. Because, you know, the process of sin comes about. It begins as a thought ends again by actions and then, of course, destruction. You know, thinking is so important, brethren, to our growth as God's people.

And how we think again is so very important. For instance, if you want to think about weeding your garden, that's acceptable. If you want to think about weeding a marijuana patch, not acceptable. Not what God's people ought to be doing. You want to think about how you can have a better relationship with someone in the church, that's acceptable. Thinking about disliking somebody or, you know, hating somebody, not acceptable. Rooted out of our minds, because God doesn't hate you, does He? And we give Him a lot of reasons.

Doesn't? Is that the fact? I mean, you and I have given God a lot of reasons where He doesn't. He could say, you know, I don't really like you, if you wanted to. You heard about the guy, didn't you? That, you know, he had terrible things happen to him. You know, he had a crop in and, you know, the storm came through, hail storm came through and just beat his corn to pieces. Lost everything. You know, not only did that happen, but his house burnt down.

And all this animals died. And, you know, out of desperation, he ran out of the field, he grabbed some soil, and he reached up to God. He says, why, God? And a voice said, you just ticked me off.

But how'd you like God to be that way with you and me?

You know, but sometimes we can be that way to each other, can't we?

You know, you just did something that ticked me off, and I don't like you. Well, God, thankfully, is not that way, brethren. And we need to be transformed into His kind of thinking. And again, we each change when we begin to change ourselves from the inside out and make the outside and the inside the same. And again, our mind is only as good as what we put in it. We watch soap operas all day long. What does our life turn out to be? A soap opera!

What do you think that the way it is? That's the way people's lives are.

If you don't believe that, you know, watch some of these, the don't watch, I'm not saying watch it, but watch some of these programs that are on television. The reality shows, as they call them.

I'll tell you, we're in a heap of trouble if that's reality. But I fear that there's a lot of people that have messed up, mixed up lives.

If we dwell on being alone all the time, we're sad, sad, sad.

Brethren, that's what we are. And that's what we're putting into our minds.

Proverbs 23. Proverbs chapter 23. Over here, verse 7. Proverbs 23 and verse 7.

You know, here's Solomon again, the wisest man, other than Christ that lived.

Didn't turn out so well at the, toward the end, but hopefully redeemed himself at the end when he came to that conclusion that we read in Ecclesiastes.

But in chapter 23 verse 7, it says, For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Eat and drink, he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

So, as we think in our hearts, that is what we are. Brethren, according to the Bible.

As a man thinks, so he is.

That's what we are. And that's how God judges us, by the way. He didn't look on the outward appearance. He looks at our hearts.

To see what the truth of the matter is.

Again, if you spend all day thinking about how lonesome you are, guess what you're going to be?

Lonesome.

Or, you know, if you think about how poor you are, and you don't have, because that's what you dwell on, well, that's what you are. Poor. And you will always be poor. That's all you think about. Being poor.

You know, if we intend to change what we are, brethren, we have to stop the kind of destructive thinking and consider what we ponder and what we think about.

We must put quality items into our minds, brethren, by meditation.

Now, again, what is meditation? Well, again, it is thinking, but, of course, light thinking.

But what is meditation not? Well, meditation is not daydreaming, which is what many people think is daydreaming. Meditation is not a trance where you say a word over and over and over again, like some guru sitting at the top of a hill, like in the BC that you read about.

You know, that's not what meditation is.

You know, with your eyeballs sort of rolled back in your head and, you know, you're in this horrible trance. No, this is not what meditation is. Let's go to Joshua 1. Joshua chapter 1, over here. In Joshua chapter 1, you're, of course, God talking to Joshua over here, recorded for us today as all these interesting tidbits of information that we receive.

You know, here God told Joshua, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth.

Oh, this is what you're going to be occupied with, Joshua.

You know, the king was supposed to write down, in fact, the Pentateuch every single year by hand. And you really learn a lot that way. I remember when I first started learning about the Bible, you know, I went through and outlined the Old Testament. You know, just did an outline. In fact, I had the notebook somewhere before I ever went to Ambassador College. I outlined, you know, most of the Pentateuch, I believe, I have in that outline.

But the book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, and you shall meditate in it day and night, 15 hours of thinking about it. Now, I don't think God intended that Joshua never get up and go out and do things, other things, but he wanted to be thinking about it in everything that he did, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. And it says, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

You know, do you and I want good success? We want our way to be prosperous?

Well, what are we dwelling on? What are we thinking about? So meditation, brethren, means it's controlled in the sense that we are thinking about God's way of life. You know, not necessarily, by the way, always just looking at a verse and sort of getting entranced by that verse, but trying to see the application of it. You know, maybe if we're studying and we're meditating about the meaning of scriptures, it is amazing what we can come to see. Our minds can be, you know, opened up. You know, sometimes you can look at situations and you find out you're reading it entirely wrong. I'm not going to go over to Psalm 73, but you can read, you know, over there about Aesop. You know, talking about there in Psalm 73, if it's the passage I was thinking of over here. Let me make sure first before I direct you over there.

But you know, you can live in this life and you can begin to think, well, what is the benefit of living God's way of life? Now I'm looking at my neighbor over here. He doesn't live God's way of life. And look at it. He just seems like he blessed hand over fist. He's always got this or that. Now, doesn't matter how he lives, it seems like he's just life seems to go well. Maybe the town's drunk, but he just thinks going well for him.

You know, and no matter what he does, maybe not have that high of a morality.

You know, and sometimes, of course, the wicked, they look and they say, well, you know, God must be blessing me. I'm doing really well. We're all happy. You know, we get to vote, and the kids go out on the weekends and have just a great old time, you know, getting drunk on the lake and, you know, enjoying life their way, of course, doing whatever they do. And many people, of course, have very strange lifestyles. But, you know, you can observe people like this, and it's like they don't fall into trials. They don't fall into troubles.

And, you know, Asap began to wonder, well, what's the benefit of obeying God?

Of walking in God's ways. And he said, I was thinking that way. I began to almost be tempted to just go ahead and give up on God's way of life. And then he said, I went into the house of God, and I understood what the fate of the wicked was going to be. Then I understood.

Then I understood. No, you don't want to go down that road. Asap came to realize, not the road you want to go down. He began to see things differently. In other words, when he began to use his mind and began to look at things from God's perspective.

You know, you see your buddy across the street. He does whatever he wants. He doesn't live by any code of law or whatever. You know, my attitude toward situations like that, you better enjoy it, fella, because someday you're going to have to answer for it. You know, you better go out and you better live it to the full, because this is all you're going to get. If you don't repent, if you don't turn to God, that's all you're going to get. That's all you'll have.

Even Christ said, you know, what does a prophet have made if he gains the whole world? If you add everything imaginable, you were the salt in the burnai. You had money coming out of your ears, and you were wealthy and had anything you want. If a man gained the whole world and lost his only, his own soul, his salvation, this is nothing. This life is nothing, brethren. Don't trade. You know, this is what we meditate. We begin to see. Don't trade, brethren. This little sliver of life that you and I have. If you're lucky, you live to be 70 or 80 years of age, you know, don't give up eternity for 70 or 80 years of doing your own thing in this world.

What a terrible trade it will be for some people. But some people will make that trade, you know, because they refuse to listen to God. Asaph came to see things differently. And you know what? When he was looking at the world and how the wicked were prospering, there was one thing missing when he began to wonder what this had benefit, you know, to obey God. He did, he had not invited God into his thinking.

But when he walked into the house of God, then God entered in the picture. And then he, it set things straight. He saw things the way that he should have seen them. So meditation, brethren, is thinking but inviting God into our thinking. That's loss. God's ways. God's spirit.

You know, we again have to invite God into our thinking.

If you dislike someone or something and you brood on it, brethren, you think about it all the time, you tend to get angrier and angrier about it. But if you invite God into the thinking processes, that changes, doesn't it? Hard to keep angry when you invite God in your house, your middle house, as it were, and Jesus Christ is sitting in there. You know, Christ could, you know, look across at you, maybe, as you're sitting in your chair inside of your mind, and he could say, well, look, look, you know, you're angry with so-and-so, or you're angry about some of these things.

Why shouldn't I be angry with you? Because, I mean, because of you, I had to die.

But I'm not angry with you, Christ could say, but I love you. You see, it's kind of hard to hang on to those hurt feelings that we maybe got hurt, and we were angry at someone else or something else. We change the way we think. It's hard to stay mad when we invite God into our thinking. Like an example, brethren, of Jonah. You know, when Jonah was given the job of going and preaching to the Assyrians, and he knew that if the Assyrians recovered that they were going to attack Israel and destroy Israel, and he didn't really want to do it. You know, he didn't really want to do it. He was a reluctant prophet. But you know the story, he got swallowed up by a great fish, and shows another thing, brethren, if God wants you to change your way of thinking, you might be swallowed by a big fish.

And you'll make it through because you'll be spit out on the shore, because God's not done with you yet. But, you know, Jonah said some pretty hard things to God.

It would be hard for me to say the things to God that Jonah said to God.

But, you know, God tried to explain it, you know, to Jonah. He said, you know, all these young children are here. They don't know the difference between right and wrong, you know, good and evil. They don't know any of these things.

And, you know, God wanted to spare the people of Assyria, Nineveh. He wanted to do that. You see, God doesn't sit upon his throne and say, who can I smite today?

You know, I haven't smited... how's that word go? Smit anybody today. I guess it's your turn.

And, you know, God... no, God doesn't do that. He doesn't want to do that.

And when the Ninevites responded, you know, God provided an open door for God to do what he did.

But Jonah got very angry with God. God, though, on the other hand, was very tender, wasn't he? He reasoned with Jonah. It's like with God, God works with us, brethren. He wants us to change the way we think. You see things from a little different perspective. You know, husbands, have you ever had an argument with your wife? Oh, come on, be honest. You ever had an argument with your wife? You disagreed about something, and you went into the pouting mode. You put that loop out, and you just gave her the silent treatment. And maybe she did make a mistake, and you were going to let her know it, that she made a mistake. And she comes to you, and she puts her arms around you, and she kisses you on the cheek, and she bats those eyes at you, and she says, please forgive me. It's kind of hard not to forgive her, isn't it?

It is hard not to forgive her. But God does us that way. Of course, He doesn't put His arms around us, and flash His eyes at us, and bat His eyes at us. But we know He asks us, brethren, to forgive one another. And He shows us love, in spite of the fact that we have, maybe, anger in our hearts, and He tries to bring us around. Brethren, meditation, brethren, is thinking into which God is invited in the process.

That's what we need to learn to do, invite God in the process. And in simple thought, by the way, is a part of that. Soil thought and meditation. It's like when Isaac was, you know, after the death of his mother, Sarah. I'm not going to go back to this, but in Genesis 24, verses 63-67.

You remember the story that after Sarah died, that Isaac was out, and he was thinking. Maybe the sun had gone down. He was looking at the beauty of the desert.

In the middle east, the desert was very beautiful. Have you ever been in the desert?

But what do you think he was probably thinking about, besides his mother's death? You know, I'm sure one of the things he was thinking about, I feel much more alone. I remember when my mother died, by the way, I felt alone. There's a feeling you have. When your father dies, which has happened to me, three years later, my father died, you feel very alone.

But, you know, think about the fact that Isaac had no one. I remember Abraham had sent his servant to get a wife for Isaac, and Isaac was out here meditating, thinking about these things. Maybe he thought about how alone he felt. About that time, you know, Rebecca was coming, and she was being brought to Isaac. She was going to be his wife.

And it says she was the first to actually begin to smoke there because she lighted off her camel.

And she ran to Isaac. But, you know, here Isaac, though, was out there. He was meditating. He was thinking. And this is where, brethren, in fact, it's best that you can get into a situation. You can see nature. You can see how beautiful God's creation is, and just begin to ponder, and to begin to think. Now, when you lose your parents, by the way, which you lost Sarah, his mother, you begin to ponder what is going to be my path more. Well, it's ahead of me. What am I going to be doing? And we know that Isaac was one of those patriarchs of God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a patriarch of God who was a very righteous man.

But, you know, meditation, brethren, is like prayer, but it is not prayer.

It's different. And again, a good place to do that is under the stars like Isaac did.

But meditation in life is the simplest and most powerful thing that you and I can do besides prayer. Your mind, which is a gift of God, wrestling over a problem, a concept of desire, and inviting Almighty God into your mind to resolve the problem.

Though this is the function of a human being, this is why God gave us minds to begin with, to tackle problems in a godly way, to look at different things and to try to find solutions that are godly. No, one key, brethren, to avoiding pitfalls in life is what I call seminal thought. When you think about this, brethren, problems that people have, all people, that includes you and me, occur because we do not utilize seminal thought from a biblical perspective. And we should train ourselves, brethren, our minds to begin thinking in the right way in our thought processes. Oftentimes, people don't begin this way, and the result is going to always be bad. The problems, by the way, are written as a result of seminal thought. You know, in the case of, we know that the Bible tells us again what seminal thought is. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13, give an example.

Over here, brethren, in Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 3, Proverbs 13 verse 3, notice this. Again, Solomon wrote this down for you and me, brethren.

And I would say to all young people, you need to think about this, especially.

You know, there's an old saying that sometimes fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

But verse 3 says in Proverbs 13, he who guards his mouth preserves his life.

But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.

We want to be careful what we say to other people.

Now, in the case of Solomon, he learned this proverb through seminal thought.

He was thinking, in other words, in a godly way.

You know, it's like you ever heard of the story about the guy who went to heaven? He was at the pearly gates. I know we don't believe in going to heaven, but I'll tell the story anyway. But he went to the pearly gates, he died, went to heaven, and he was at the pearly gates. And Peter met him there. And the man said, I'm ready to go into heaven. And Peter said, I'm sorry. I can't find your name here. That you did anything worthy of being in here. He said, can you tell me at least one thing that you did? He said, well, he says, he said, there was this time, he said, when I was, you know, at a bar, and I walked out, and there were these bikers, these mean, terrible, angry bikers. And they were, they were beginning to beat up on this woman. And I walked over to them, and I said to them, you keep your hands off of that woman. And Peter said, well, I don't have a record of that. When did that happen? He said, oh, about two, three minutes ago. And so he was at the pearly gates. But, you know, Solomon learned this, by the way, Proverbs chapter 13 verse 3, perhaps he learned it as a young man when he got two black eyes for speaking up when he shouldn't have, you know, or he saw this and learned from this experience, this lesson. Chapter 15, let's notice chapter 15. So you want to be careful what you say.

There is a time to be brave, though. I don't mean to imply that there is.

But verse 17 of chapter 15, it says, Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, and oftentimes herbs are sort of bitter, than a fad-calf with hatred. You know, you can eat the most sumptuous steak, you know, on the face of the earth. But here he says better that to have a dinner of herbs where love is, than a fad-calf with hatred. In other words, you get a marriage where there's love, doesn't matter what you eat, because you do have love.

You know, you wouldn't trade that, of course, for a bad marriage. And, you know, even if you could eat the best food available.

What does this lesson teach us, brethren? You don't marry somebody for money.

Love has to be a part, you know, of the relationship.

And this is true, brethren, for any wrong reason that you marry somebody.

You know, it'd be better to be absolutely poor than to marry somebody that you there's not love there. But, you know, you can go through the Proverbs and see, you see, Solomon learned through seminal thought these things.

And he sort of rolled back his thinking and said, well, now what could cause this individual to avoid this problem? And so we have the Proverbs to read. And all the Proverbs are about that, by the way, but he employed seminal thought. Let me tell you what seminal thought is, brethren.

Proverbs 1 verse 7. Proverbs 1 and verse 7.

The fear of the eternal is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

So, seminal thought, brethren, and in meditation, seminal thought is always beginning at number one. Number one, the fear of God.

We're going to think something through, brethren. Begin with the fear of God.

Begin with the respect for God, respect for his laws, respect, you know, for those things God that teaches is in his word. The fear of God is the seminal or the beginning thought. And I mean, no small number, brethren, of our own brethren, our own people, brethren, that do not think of God first. And they fall into all kinds of trouble, whether financial, morality, you name it. You know, marriage problems, you name it. It just goes on and on and on and on. You know, so we need to again see the Proverbs and see how to avoid these things.

You ever done a little thought process and, you know, wanted if you could relive your life, how would you live it? What would you do differently? You know, say, well, you know, if I could do this, I'd go back to this particular point. I made a terrible mistake there. I wish I could redo that. And then you start dwelling. No, no, I think it started a lot earlier than that. You know, I go back to this stuff. And then you start thinking about it. It's like I was thinking about, you know, how wonderful it would have been if my brothers had been able to go to Ambassador College when I was in, you know, meditating recently. You know, because I went off to Ambassador College and I thought how my brothers would have had the opportunity to do it. Of course, you can't relive this life, can you?

And then I started thinking about it. I said, well, you know, it'd be wonderful. My dad, mom had actually come to see the truth. And you know what? No, that wouldn't be it.

If my grandparents had known the truth, you know, and maybe all of us could be a part of God's Church. Well, you know, we know that's not the way it works, is it? You can't redo those things.

You know, so we need to meditate but begin with similar thought. Brethren, invite God in the process, too, through His Spirit. And add depth, brethren, to your meditation. You know, all the greatest inventions came from people who originated through concentrated thought. And God, brethren, if we begin to concentrate on our thinking, will become more real to us. Thomas Edison, by the way, was a great thinker.

And he developed the light bulb and many other splendid inventions. He spent hours in the lab thinking about these things. Ben Franklin pondered life. You know, who hasn't read some of Ben Franklin's philosophies of life? Pythagoras and others developed great things because, on a physical level, they were thinking. They weren't meditating, as we're talking about today, and that is inviting God into their thinking processes. But great things came up, brethren, through thinking. I'm not going to go to 1 Timothy 4, verses 14 through 16, but I do want to read it to you. Here Paul was writing to Timothy, and he says, and do not neglect the gift that is in you.

He says, it was given to you by prophecy with a laying on of hands of the eldership. Same thing happened to you and me, brethren. This gift that God is entrusted with, the Holy Spirit, and not only the Holy Spirit, but the knowledge of God. And Paul told Timothy, meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue with them, for in doing this you will say both yourself and those that hear you. Brethren, the greatest invention of all is right thinking into which God is invited. And when the quality of our thought improves, brethren, so will the quality of our lives. So, brethren, use seminal thought and meditation and begin to make some real improvements in the way that you live in this coming year ahead of us.

Similar thought, brethren, is a key. Begin inviting God into your thinking processes and your meditation.