"For God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7, KJV).
"[The demon-possessed man] was clothed and in his right mind."
"At the same time my reason returned to me..." (Daniel 4:36a, ESV).
"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7).
EMPHASIS IN BOLDFACE MINE!
It has been said that we are what we think about all day and that we are what our thoughts make us are what we are. "We aren't what we think we are; but what we think, we are!" Nevertheless, some misguided souls need to get their thinking straightened out, that's all!
Did you know that your brain is capable of being diseased and will ultimately decay into dust? There is such a thing as mental illness, in that the brain can have misfires, "mal-connections," or lapses to do bizarre behavior, and even lose touch with reality and have delusions. Most mental illnesses, such as being bipolar do not mean the person is "crazy" but that he suffers a disability of mood swing that keeps him from functioning normally in society and of adjusting to the culture and his environment. I do not believe in calling people nuts, crazy, wackos, out of their mind, coo-coo, beside oneself, gone off the deep end, off his rocker, mentally disturbed, suffering from mental issues, or especially insane (except in extreme cases which are very rare). "He's lost his mind! (he may just be confused by the author of confusion)."
Stigmas are uncalled for: In reality, people with mental disorders are less likely to commit crimes than so-called normal people, and there are many normal criminals out there too. Giving psychiatric help to criminals only produces mentally healthy criminals! Christians believe mind or thought preceded and is over matter or creation: "In the beginning was the Word...." Note this: The brain and mind are connected but involve more than chemical reactions.
Our mind is different from our brain and is dependent upon it in the body we indwell but will be set free and glorified in glory. Our character and personality, and not necessarily our IQ will remain intact and we will have nothing to complain or fret about. Personally, I do not believe there will be retarded or even geniuses in heaven, but all will have perfect minds in perfect bodies like Christ. There are many diseases of the mind such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases that can greatly debilitate and do harm to one's living style and comfort zone. But I do not believe our spirits can be infected by disease!
(Modern science is monistic or believing only in the physical and that which can be demonstrated, repeated, and proved by natural causes. However, we Christians believe in dualism that we have a mind separate that is not material. Unbelievers are just as human as Christians, but they are dead spiritually and lack a right relationship with God and man (definition of righteousness). Christians have a special dimension to life that is beyond just being conscious of the material world, but of God and spiritual things and concepts--this can never erode or fade away.)
We are vessels of honor and will never lose our fellowship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit, and fellow believers. This is something the devil cannot snatch away nor afflict us with. For example, we may lose short-term memory or ultimately memory of lifetime acquaintances, but we will never lose our knowledge of God or awareness of His divine presence within us. Others cannot see our relationship with God except through the fruit we produce, but we can never be separated from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:39 declares that even disease can't harm our fellowship and security in Him). God will never put His children to shame because they are vessels of honor and would rather take them home to be with the Lord than suffer at the hands of the devil like an unbeliever succumbing to his diabolical activity.
Talents can be neglected and deteriorate, but gifts are given and God does not take back what He gives: Philippians 1:6 that says He will finish what He has started in us and will not give up--so we should never surrender though it seems we are capable of temporary setback, failure, and unfaithfulness. No matter what trial we go through God is with us ("When you pass through the waters I will be with you..," says Isaiah 43:2). Jesus didn't save our brains, but our souls and this includes our intellect because the will is driven by it (the will is that by which the mind chooses or the faculty of choice and referee driven by the intellect and emotions). If our mind was destroyed we couldn't be "set free" or make choices!
Dr. Karl Popper with Sir John Eccles wrote a must-read and classic entitled The Self and Its Brain in which they distinguish, and separate these two entities of our being (we are a "living being" distinguished from animals and have the breath of life itself endowed by our Creator). Having a mind makes consciousness possible, and this is subjective and not in the material world--there is something out there besides matter and that, of course, implies a Higher Mind, or God Almighty Himself as Creator. Consciousness and thinking are mental and not material or physical events! Most psychiatrists believe we are just a bunch of chemical reactions and any disease of the brain can be fixed by some drug therapy and physical treatment---they deny the existence of a soul!
They also deny the personhood consisting of being a living soul and having any spiritual existence--Christians according to Freud and modern psychiatry are suffering from a neurosis or psychosis. To distinguish the spiritual dimension, a relatively normal person can appear as a spiritual giant because of his "knowing the Lord" with his mind. Our minds do remain intact as we enter eternity, and can operate independently of our brains, which are just part of our physical bodies and subject to defect and shortcomings. Soli Deo Gloria!
"[The demon-possessed man] was clothed and in his right mind."
"At the same time my reason returned to me..." (Daniel 4:36a, ESV).
"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7).
EMPHASIS IN BOLDFACE MINE!
It has been said that we are what we think about all day and that we are what our thoughts make us are what we are. "We aren't what we think we are; but what we think, we are!" Nevertheless, some misguided souls need to get their thinking straightened out, that's all!
Did you know that your brain is capable of being diseased and will ultimately decay into dust? There is such a thing as mental illness, in that the brain can have misfires, "mal-connections," or lapses to do bizarre behavior, and even lose touch with reality and have delusions. Most mental illnesses, such as being bipolar do not mean the person is "crazy" but that he suffers a disability of mood swing that keeps him from functioning normally in society and of adjusting to the culture and his environment. I do not believe in calling people nuts, crazy, wackos, out of their mind, coo-coo, beside oneself, gone off the deep end, off his rocker, mentally disturbed, suffering from mental issues, or especially insane (except in extreme cases which are very rare). "He's lost his mind! (he may just be confused by the author of confusion)."
Stigmas are uncalled for: In reality, people with mental disorders are less likely to commit crimes than so-called normal people, and there are many normal criminals out there too. Giving psychiatric help to criminals only produces mentally healthy criminals! Christians believe mind or thought preceded and is over matter or creation: "In the beginning was the Word...." Note this: The brain and mind are connected but involve more than chemical reactions.
Our mind is different from our brain and is dependent upon it in the body we indwell but will be set free and glorified in glory. Our character and personality, and not necessarily our IQ will remain intact and we will have nothing to complain or fret about. Personally, I do not believe there will be retarded or even geniuses in heaven, but all will have perfect minds in perfect bodies like Christ. There are many diseases of the mind such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases that can greatly debilitate and do harm to one's living style and comfort zone. But I do not believe our spirits can be infected by disease!
(Modern science is monistic or believing only in the physical and that which can be demonstrated, repeated, and proved by natural causes. However, we Christians believe in dualism that we have a mind separate that is not material. Unbelievers are just as human as Christians, but they are dead spiritually and lack a right relationship with God and man (definition of righteousness). Christians have a special dimension to life that is beyond just being conscious of the material world, but of God and spiritual things and concepts--this can never erode or fade away.)
We are vessels of honor and will never lose our fellowship with God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit, and fellow believers. This is something the devil cannot snatch away nor afflict us with. For example, we may lose short-term memory or ultimately memory of lifetime acquaintances, but we will never lose our knowledge of God or awareness of His divine presence within us. Others cannot see our relationship with God except through the fruit we produce, but we can never be separated from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:39 declares that even disease can't harm our fellowship and security in Him). God will never put His children to shame because they are vessels of honor and would rather take them home to be with the Lord than suffer at the hands of the devil like an unbeliever succumbing to his diabolical activity.
Talents can be neglected and deteriorate, but gifts are given and God does not take back what He gives: Philippians 1:6 that says He will finish what He has started in us and will not give up--so we should never surrender though it seems we are capable of temporary setback, failure, and unfaithfulness. No matter what trial we go through God is with us ("When you pass through the waters I will be with you..," says Isaiah 43:2). Jesus didn't save our brains, but our souls and this includes our intellect because the will is driven by it (the will is that by which the mind chooses or the faculty of choice and referee driven by the intellect and emotions). If our mind was destroyed we couldn't be "set free" or make choices!
Dr. Karl Popper with Sir John Eccles wrote a must-read and classic entitled The Self and Its Brain in which they distinguish, and separate these two entities of our being (we are a "living being" distinguished from animals and have the breath of life itself endowed by our Creator). Having a mind makes consciousness possible, and this is subjective and not in the material world--there is something out there besides matter and that, of course, implies a Higher Mind, or God Almighty Himself as Creator. Consciousness and thinking are mental and not material or physical events! Most psychiatrists believe we are just a bunch of chemical reactions and any disease of the brain can be fixed by some drug therapy and physical treatment---they deny the existence of a soul!
They also deny the personhood consisting of being a living soul and having any spiritual existence--Christians according to Freud and modern psychiatry are suffering from a neurosis or psychosis. To distinguish the spiritual dimension, a relatively normal person can appear as a spiritual giant because of his "knowing the Lord" with his mind. Our minds do remain intact as we enter eternity, and can operate independently of our brains, which are just part of our physical bodies and subject to defect and shortcomings. Soli Deo Gloria!