2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

How many times a day do you have a thought that is not a godly thought? If I were to weigh my thoughts, the scales would be heavily tilted to the worldly side. Now that is just me, I cannot speak for you. My opinion of what makes up a godly thought might differ from yours. What I call worldly, you might not. Perhaps you don’t give thought to this at all. I know there was a time when I did not.

There was a time my life when I did not give much thought to the influences around me. I did not realize just how much external words and images influenced who I was until I accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I was given the Holy Spirit who immediately started renewing my mind. One area that changed was my conscience. What did not bother me yesterday was now troubling to me today.

Before I did not have a knowledge of God much less have respect for God, nor fear of God for sure. Once I came to Christ love came to the forefront of my inner man. I began to care what God thought of me. I might not have had a complete understanding of God’s love, but I had respect for it. My conscience became the rain gauge of bad thoughts and behavior. I had to empty the gauge and clear my conscience thru confession and forgiveness.

This godly conscience we develop is instrumental in bringing our thoughts into captivity. To better understand how important this work of the Holy Spirit is in us, do this. Take a gallon jug of water and hold it out to your side while thinking God is good. Keep that thought. Which will you will drop first, the thought or the water?

Yeah, me too.

Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

I was looking into the issue of striving with the spirit and found a rather bizarre reference, an umpire. They did not have baseball back in Genesis 6:3 so the reference was added to point to the issue of judgment as if the spirit was calling balls and strikes as we pitch. Being one who was a pitcher in school I found this to be very interesting.

I would often throw pitches that looked good as they were coming at the batter but would not come across the plate. The batter would swing and miss. Strike! But if the batter did not swing, it would have been called a ball.

2 Timothy 2:5 And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

My slider was a great pitch and looked like a hanging curve. The batter would swing to hit the pitch as it came across the plate but just as the batter committed to the swing, the bottom would drop out and the ball came nowhere near the plate, nor the bat. I had pitched deceit, it was not lawful. But what a great pitch.

Such is the things of life. How many times do people pitch deceit at us hoping we will buy into their lies? So many times that we have become suspicious of even good pitches. Now here is a twist on the strive with the spirit as an umpire, one that you might not think about. What if the spirit, acting as an umpire, calls balls and strikes before the pitch is thrown?

The Holy Spirit being God knows all things and calls balls and strikes for the batter, “This one is going to be a strike, go ahead and try and hit it.” Now the effort is on the batter’s part to swing lawfully and if he misses, it is not a sin.

2 Corinthians 5:7 (For we swing by faith, not by sight:) LPT

But that slider looked so tempting!!