Pastor Mike Nodland of the Christian Fellowship Church in Vining, IA.

My mom would get frustrated with me when I was a kid. She’d say “Mike, I have ‘half a mind’ to give you a whoopin’!” Now, I don’t know about you, but I knew that if mama ever got a “full mind,” she could shorten my lifespan. So, I’d better not push any more of her buttons than I already had.

A buddy of mine used to play “mind games” with our very difficult, bullying and manipulating district manager. Just as this man was about to board a flight home, my buddy would drop some incredibly disturbing thought on him regarding his future with the company based upon sagging sales figures he was responsible for or some other fact.

But what is the “mind?” A dictionary stated that the mind is that part which helps us be attentive of what is around us, the thinking part of us and how we feel about things. Experts identify 3 kinds of minds: the “fluid mind” which “goes with the flow,” the “rigid mind” resists change and new ideas, and the “flexible mind” which is the open-minded.

Interestingly, Satan plays mind games with us, in the form of lies. Antidote: the Bible says to set your mind on things above, like its truth! Upon what are you basing Truth?