Painted with the Sinner’s Brush

I came across a song I wrote ten years ago…. Changed by Love

“I hate it how the world creeps in, and tries to take me back again.

Just when I thought my mind was free, they come in through some door

And paint a picture of someone, that I no longer recognize,

with just enough blood on their brush, to bring me to the floor!”

…©Cindy Palin/March 30th, 2007

What kind of “world” creeps in and drags your mind out of His light? Is the world to blame, or are our bad habits and cyclical circumstances a result of our own choices? Has your curiosity left the door open a crack? For some, it is willful disobedience that has swung it wide. What kind of activities consume your days? What programs and games are filling your screen time? What kinds of “nano-bites” are eating away your morality?

Discipline in our lives is crucial. For our body we want to eat the right things and get exercise. How are we taking care of our minds? Our culture is more concerned about the outside, but the health of our mind determines what kind of person we truly are. The Bible is God’s food for a healthy mind, and yet our culture continues to turn to clever sounding manmade mantras.

Is it possible to have a free mind? It is difficult to understand what freedom in Christ means, until you experience it. To many, God’s commands and boundaries sound harsh, and unrealistic. Doing what ever “we want”, seems to be the current definition of freedom. The depression statistics in teens is evidence we have not taken godly truth and wisdom seriously. Doing “what ever we want” is leaving quite the bondage wake.

Most of the anxiety our medical charts are reflecting, comes from an unhealthy mind. That anxiety is often a sign of our need for repentance. The gnawing feeling in the pit of your stomach may not be anxiety at all, but the muffled voice of the Holy Spirit calling you out of sin. 

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You do not have to remain painted with the sinner’s brush…..

If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin (1 John 1:7 MSG).

For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:3, 4 Berean Study Bible).

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2 NIV).