Training Your Mind to Mind…

Hey hey hey!  It's a new week, filled with new things and you all know what that means…a new post with many new lessons from our previous Bible Study Session! :)

I'm truly excited to share what this past week's session was all about! It is my hope and prayer that you too, shall be as blessed as I was. The focus of the study was 'Guarding Your Mind'. Here, one of the key scriptures was Colossians 3:5-6,

"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to the earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."

Scary, huh? I'm pretty sure that none of us would like to be on the receiving end of God's wrath; the same wrath that destroyed the whole earth, all but one man and his family during Noah's time!? Thank you very much, but I'd rather sit that one out! (Get all the juicy details of this story in Genesis chapter 6).

The only way to ensure that we stay away from these earthly desires is by filtering what we feed our minds. The mind works under a very simple principle: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Living in this 21st century makes it that much harder to guard our minds. However, this is no excuse.

The world that we live in today is so sex-saturated that everywhere we turn, this agenda is being propelled. The media industry is growing everyday, and with it comes the notion that 'sex sells'. From billboards, to newspapers, magazines, steamy romantic novels and films, sex outside of marriage is now acceptable in the society we live in. Celebrities have become the standard, and many people no longer regard God's stand on sex being saved for the marriage bed.

Many young men and women are buying in to the lie that pre-marital sex is the ultimate way to show someone that you 'love' them. Others take sex very lightly and have multiple sexual partners; so long as you avoid unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, there's no harm, right? WRONG! God is very clear on this issue: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body." - 1st Corinthians 6:18

(Fornication - voluntary sexual intercourse between two persons not married) 

Now that we know what we ought not to do, it begs the question, 'so what CAN we do?' One of our facilitators, Reverend Pass, gave us a very good analogy to help us understand how the mind works. She took the centre of a roll of toilet paper and placed different pieces of paper that had been cramped together into it. The different pieces represented garbage that we let into our minds through the movies and series that we watch, the books, magazines and internet stories that we read and the music we listen to. After placing three papers in, the roll was stuffed.


However, when Rev. Pass placed a fourth piece of paper representing God's word, one of the garbage pieces fell out from the opposite end of the roll, and was replaced. She kept adding more wholesome paper (representing prayer, fellowship with other believers, service to God etc), which would replace the rest of the garbage. After some time, the whole roll was filled with positive pieces.

Likewise, we can apply this concept in guarding our minds. The only way to replace the junk that's already in there is by adding on the positives. It will take time, not to mention discipline and sacrifice, (because you will have to let go of some of your favorite tv shows, romance novels and love songs) but it's worth every effort in order to achieve God's standard. Train your mind to mind what gets into it!

That's it for today...I hope you've been challenged in one way or another! Much love for all the support.

Best Regards,

Olyvia Kahuthu


Learning and Applying More Truths...

Thomson's Falls, Nyahururu Kenya
Hello there everyone! It's been a while since our last post on the ongoing study that the Reformed Bad Girls are undertaking on sexual purity. This doesn't mean that we haven't been meeting up and sharing in our growth; quite the contrary, actually! We've been having a wonderful time, not to mention learning great insights as we meet up every Saturday morning.

For the past two weeks, the main topics of discussion were 'Avoiding Self-Destruction' and 'Avoiding the Destruction of Others'. For starters, these themes required a whole load of honesty from everyone within the group; honesty to oneself, to God and to the rest of the group. It was no easy feat, but since the study began a few weeks ago, we've all gotten rather close and that makes it easier to open up. Also, the key issues discussed in these sessions were not entirely new concepts, but they were very insightful.

Under the first topic on avoiding self-destruction, one of the key things discussed was 'Making Friends with the Mirror'. If we are all honest with ourselves as ladies, it is safe to say that at one point or another in our lifespans, we have all disliked this, that or the other about ourselves. For some of us, the insecurities come and go, but for others, there may be years of struggle. Sometimes, these insecurities come from within, while other times, the media and those around us may make us feel "ugly" and "inadequate" based on the world's standards of beauty. Whatever the case, it is important to focus on God's perspective, rather than that of men.

So let's take it from God's perspective. Psalm 139:13-14 says, "For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Here, the psalmist, David, expresses his understanding of himself. Unlike most of us, he wasn't shy to recognize the fact that God took His time to create man, and by virtue of this, it is safe to say that we are wonderful! It's not enough to just say it though, we ought to believe it in our hearts. Only then will we be able to fully beat down our insecurities.

Fun fact: What did David mean by saying he was "fearfully" made? The Hebrew word that is translated “fearfully” is yare. In Vine’s Dictionary it means “to be afraid, stand in awe, fear”. When used of an exalted person it means “standing in awe”. This implies honor, reverence and respect for the person. To be “fearfully” made means to be “awesomely” made. Yes, you are AWESOME! Ken-ya believe it?? ;-)

On the topic of avoiding the destruction of others, two key things that we looked at were flirting and dressing to impress. Flirting is one of those things that may come naturally, especially during the adolescent years. Young ladies want to get noticed by the guys, and if they don't, they tend to "help" the guys take notice by their words and their body language; this is usually where suggestive dressing comes in as well. The tops get lower, as the skirts rise higher. Most times, the young lady may have no intention of pursuing anything with the man she's flirting with; she just does it for the attention. What many of us forget is that guys are very easily aroused by visual things, therefore, it would be highly unadvisable to light a fire that you won't be able to put out. Do not flirt with a guy and expect that he won't act on his passions. Be your brother's keeper; do not be a stumbling block to him.

In conclusion, we all agreed that we would strive to live like Proverbs 31 women; desiring to be beautiful from the inside out, and not using what we have to manipulate others, rather to build up God's kingdom.

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."
  - Proverbs 31:30

I pray you have been blessed by this long post! :-) until next time…

Best Regards,

Olyvia Kahuthu

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