By John Thiel, Let This Mind Be in You Conference, Study 6, mp3

Sin has done something to our human nature and makeup.

The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil. {8T 312.2}

   As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from the defilement of sin is to be complete. There is no act of wickedness that the law will excuse; there is no unrighteousness that will escape its condemnation. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfillment of every precept of the law. He said; “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” John 15:10. His life is our standard of obedience and service. {8T 312.3}

The terrible effect of sin upon our being that we have seen and explored, must be conquered and diffused by the infinite value of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are in such a condition that imperceptibly to ourselves we could be slipping into the wrong and there is not one of us who are not subject to this. Because we have to be conscious of this, if we are going to be truly restored, we must be truly conscious of what I have read. The description of what sin has done to our human organism so it has deranged it, our brain material is electro-chemical soup stirred up and confused by sin. It looks pretty hopeless but the Holy Spirit can come and give us an electric shock. It means an application of the infinite sacrifice and our restoration is to be complete. Here are some of the appeals to us so we might engage in that complete restoration:

Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

God wants to restore me completely and has paid an infinite sacrifice to achieve that. What should be as white as wool? How can sin that is scarlet be as white as snow? My sin can be as white as snow. It says you won’t be as white as snow, but your sin will be as white as snow.

What is sin? Sin is a perversion of that which is right. God can turn the perversion back into the right. That is why it says your sins shall be as white as snow. The perversion of what I have given you can be twisted back the other way.

Ezekiel 33:10 Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins [be] upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

Isn’t this the question when we come face to face when needing to do what is right? How is it possible that I can come out of this mess? As I lead people to the pure truth, they can say amen, this is what I want. The intellect has already been enthroned by the truth but the frontal lobe needs to be cleansed and the throne of the monarch needs to be placed there. This is the part where the truth needs to be recognised as academic knowledge but changes the force of my reasons and affections.

Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, [As] I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

These statements come to our intelligent mind. He informs us that I have a way of dealing with this and He informs us as to the true nature of our condition. That is why we say, how can I come out of it? I am too deplorable.

Isaiah 1:5 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

In the knowledge of all the truth we have, there is something about us He describes. You can have an intellectual knowledge of the truth and still be in that condition?

Jeremiah 17:1 The sin of Judah [is] written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: [it is] graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

Our physiology including the organ of our mind – the brain is inscribed by sin. How important is all this knowledge to us in regards to our recovery to be complete? We keep on falling but praise the Lord. Why? If you remain on the path of Gods activity, you will fall into the arms of the Lord. Here is the confirmation of this reality:

The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ. The soul must be cleansed from vanity and pride, and vacated of all that has held it in possession, and Christ must be enthroned within. Human science is too limited to comprehend the atonement. The plan of redemption is so far-reaching that philosophy cannot explain it. It will ever remain a mystery that the most profound reasoning cannot fathom. {DA 494.4}

Reasoning cannot fathom the realities of salvation.

The science of salvation cannot be explained; but it can be known by experience. {DA 494.4}

You can’t explain it academically so how can it be known? It can be known by experience.

Only he who sees his own sinfulness can discern the preciousness of the Saviour. {DA 494.4}

Only as you see yourself fall and fall and in a hopeless state can you say, isn’t the Saviour wonderful, He hasn’t given up on me yet. When He was hanging on the cross, He was experiencing the deplorable state I was in. You can make an experience that burns into your frontal lobe. Most people don’t like the burning of it because it burns out the carnal nature out of the frontal lobe. It can’t be taught in any other way to show me how sinful I really am and that God hasn’t forsaken me.

How miserable do you feel in the secret of your heart when you discover when everything you have studied you fall short of? Praise the Lord. Only these people can understand the restoration that is going to make me complete. It can’t be explained. Science can’t deal with it. It is only to be known by experience it. You can only experience it as you experience your frailty.

The Knowledge of Our Depraved Condition

When we see the length of the chain that was let down for us, when we understand something of the infinite sacrifice that Christ has made in our behalf, the heart is melted with tenderness and contrition. {SC 35.4}

What is melted? The intellect? No – the heart. That is the hard one. I want you to know that it is the problem of all human relationships. If you have human relationship problems in the home, it is because you have a hard heart. Be honest with it. That must be melted and it can only be melted when we see that I am in the pits and that the chain has come right down to me, Jesus Christ the ladder. Only then can we recover from our deplorable relationships whether in the home, church or world. Our relationship even with God can only be recovered this way.

The brain nerves which communicate with the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man and affect his inmost life. Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers, and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.–Testimonies, vol. 2, pp. 346, 347. {RC 150.5}

As you study and look at the commandments and the relationship problems and what the Ten Commandments are saying, as you look at Jesus, it makes you sink deeper and deeper into the sense of depravity of your being. That is when we are not looking to Jesus to see the chain let down for me. When you look down into the crevices of your mind, that breaks your heart and gives you the beginning of the whole recovering that is going to be complete. The revelation of all the material that we have handled assists in the intelligent co-operation our Redeemer wants us to engage in.

Proverbs 23:26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 

He says that when my heart is so overwhelmed with its depravity. Are you sick of all the troubles you are in?

   The work of gaining salvation is one of copartnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness. {AA 482.2}

   God wishes us to have the mastery over ourselves. But He cannot help us without our consent and co-operation. The divine Spirit works through the powers and faculties given to man. Of ourselves, we are not able to bring the purposes and desires and inclinations into harmony with the will of God; but if we are “willing to be made willing,” the Saviour will accomplish this for us, “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.” 2 Corinthians 10:5. {AA 482.3}

Man makes the most earnest effort and he fails again and again and that brings him to a position where he is dependent upon God for success. So many people have said to me, I’ve tried so hard and I can’t. Praise the Lord you can’t. What a strange operation, absolute helplessness until, Lord you have my heart. And you continue to hang your heart out to Him. It is an intelligent co-operation.

 There is a science of Christianity to be mastered–a science as much deeper, broader, higher, than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth. The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained; for men are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination. Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded, that one may become a learner in the school of Christ. The heart must be educated to become steadfast in God. Old and young are to form habits of thought that will enable them to resist temptation. They must learn to look upward. The principles of the word of God–principles that are as high as heaven and that compass eternity–are to be understood in their bearing on the daily life. Every act, every word, every thought, is to be in accord with these principles. {CT 20.1}

  No other science is equal to that which develops in the life of the student the character of God. Those who become followers of Christ find that new motives of action are supplied, new thoughts arise, and new actions must result. But they can make advancement only through conflict; for there is an enemy who ever contends against them, presenting temptations to cause the soul to doubt and sin. {CT 20.2}

Do you like conflict? How many times has that happened in our church? I don’t think I can do it anymore, it is too much. I can’t even enjoy coming to church anymore. What are they doing? They are doubting.

There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome. {CT 20.2}

Are you a passionate person? Are you a feisty person? Are you a person who is easily stirred? It is going to happen in the church and in conflict and as you are stirred, you discover the depravity of your soul and you are going to need the Holy Spirit more than ever more. As you interact with God you will change.

Appetite and passion must be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. There is no end to the warfare this side of eternity. But while there are constant battles to fight, there are also precious victories to gain; and the triumph over self and sin is of more value than the mind can estimate. {CT 20.2}

Intelligent work understanding and the actual experience is absolutely essential because if I don’t comprehend this experience, I will never be restored because if I don’t comprehend, I will think it’s a terrible mistake that I’m a Christian because it doesn’t seem right that I have to go through this grind stone experience. It brings out the reality that the imagination must be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. We must bring our imagination under the obedience of Christ.

The imagination which is so corrupted must be brought into the obedience of Christ. The healthy imagination needs to be brought into a healthy one as our imagination affects us so badly. There is a conflict with the imagination and a conflict with the other foe. Who is that? Our focus is now on the imagination and its tricks it plays on me that must be brought into the obedience of Christ and the other foe, two of them.

Imagination

 Those who in sincerity and truth believe the words of Christ sent to them through his ambassadors, will understand what is the import of those words; but those who have intrenched themselves in unbelief, will be as were the Jews, blinded to the light. By rejection of evidence, they lost their spiritual eyesight, and could not discern between good and evil, between truth and error, light and darkness. Those who are filled with unbelief can discern the least thing that has an objectionable appearance, and by beholding the objectionable feature, they can lose sight of all the evidence that God has given in manifesting his abundant grace and power, in revealing precious gems of truth from the inexhaustible mine of his word. They can hold the objectionable atom under the magnifying glasses of their imagination until the atom looks like a world, and shuts out from their view the precious light of heaven. {RH, April 18, 1893 par. 8}

The brethren that rejected that message did that. In the presentation of that beautiful message they picked upon little problems in Waggoner and Jones and the little things they said which weren’t quite right and Sr White had to correct Jones but she never said something that would cause that message to be dim. These men as they were listening to the pure message, held the objectionable atom. I see this happening much that the thing we are really on about is camouflaged that become big things and big mountains in front of us.

But instead of placing that which appears objectionable beneath the eyes, why not bring before the soul the precious things of God? Why make the things of priceless value of little esteem, while the worthless things are made much of? Why take so much account of that which may appear to you as objectionable in the messenger, and sweep away all the evidences that God has given to balance the mind in regard to the truth? {RH, April 18, 1893 par. 8}

Here are the glasses that after all these beautiful things we are learning, the glasses of Satan which are the magnifying glasses of your imagination, that can do this damage. Then comes Satan and there are two magnifying glasses.

 We need not be left a prey to Satan’s power. . . . The children of God should not permit Satan to place himself between them and their God. If you permit him to do this, he will tell you that your troubles are the most grievous, the sorest troubles that any mortal ever bore. He will place his magnifying glasses before your eyes, and present everything to you in an exaggerated form to overwhelm you with discouragement…. Take the Word of God as the man of your counsel, and humble your doubting soul before God, and with contrition of heart say, “Here I lay my burden down. I cannot bear it. It is too heavy for me. I lay it down at the feet of my compassionate Redeemer.” . . . {OHC 319.3}

Here are these two glasses. Your own imagination that you permit to let the thing enlarge, and it is only a little atom, a little point in the whole discourse that becomes the predominating exercise and everything you have learnt before has gone as this occupies your mind. Your imagination is diseased and Satan comes along and says, you poor fellow you are suffering as you shouldn’t be. He says you are suffering more than everyone else. These are Satan’s glasses.

  It takes special watchfulness to keep the affections alive and our hearts in a condition where we shall be sensible of the good that exists in the hearts of others. If we do not watch on this point, Satan will put his jealousy into our souls; he will put his glasses before our eyes, that we may see the actions of our brethren in a distorted light. Instead of looking critically upon our brethren we should turn our eyes within, and be ready to discover the objectionable traits of our own character. As we have a proper realization of our own mistakes and failures, the mistakes of others will sink into insignificance. {TMK 181.4}

We have to see how low we are so we can have compassion on those around us.

   Satan is an accuser of the brethren. He is on the watch for every error, no matter how small, that he may have something on which to found an accusation. Keep off from Satan’s side. {TMK 181.5}

As you hear me preaching you will find undoubtedly find something that Satan will point out to cancel out the rich blessing which the Lord is pointing out. That is what Satan does with each other. Satan puts his glasses upon our eyes to exaggerate each other. We should be looking at our own selves and see how low we are. Only those who see their own depravity can appreciate the preciousness of the Saviour.

Can you appreciate the preciousness of the Saviour when you see the other person? No way at all. You are enclosed in an armour of protection that the angels with their sharp arrows trying to shoot you into recognition cannot penetrate. That is what is written about the Pharisee. They were so sure of their own righteousness, that when the angels were trying to help them to discover their unrighteousness to be recovered form sin, the arrows couldn’t get through because they are occupied about others. That’s us when Satan and our imagination works.

The things our eyes behold are seen via the brain and how marred is our brain? We have already discovered it. It is a terrible soup of chemical derangement and everything that must go on in our brain must be purged and purified by the light of Jesus. As we look at the light of Jesus and then the faults and errors of others that Satan starts to raise, the whole thing can’t happen.

How We See Things

   You are a young man of intelligence; you desire to make your life such as will fit you for heaven at last. You are often discouraged at finding yourself weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits and customs of your old life in sin. You find your emotional nature untrue to yourself, to your best resolutions, and to your most solemn pledges. Nothing seems real. Your own instability leads you to doubt the sincerity of those who would do you good. The more you struggle in doubt, the more unreal everything looks to you, until it seems that there is no solid ground for you anywhere. Your promises are like ropes of sand, and you regard in the same unreal light the words and works of those in whom you should trust. {5T 513.2}

Trust no man. Now I’m more confused, I’m supposed to trust somebody? Those who would do you good, those you should trust – what a confusion. Nothing seems real. I know this experience very well. I wonder how well you know it. If you really let yourself go into this, you will realise you are wretched, miserable, poor blind and naked. It’s the only way we will know. My mind as it wants to get itself right, it will fail so badly and it will plunge you into seeing other people in this deplorable light.

   You will be in constant peril until you understand the true force of the will. {5T 513.3}

As you see these deplorable descriptions, as you see this in other people and your own mind goes bburr and you are going into this dreadful spiral spin of mental exercises, there is something inside that can say, stop no way. Your will is still there and don’t doubt ever it. The will must be understood how to exercise it. In other words, let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. The will must say, wait a minute, what was the mind of Christ in this condition? Read Psalm 22, 40 and 69 and you know that is exactly where He was. He said my God why hast thou forsaken me? Even that seemed He was forsaken of God. That is how deplorable the mind suffers, nothing seems real and there is the power of the will.

   But you need not despair. You must be determined to believe, although nothing seems true and real to you. {5T 513.4}

This is the deplorable mess of my brain.

I need not tell you it is you yourself that has brought you into this unenviable position. You must win back your confidence in God and in your brethren. It is for you to yield up your will to the will of Jesus Christ; and as you do this, God will immediately take possession and work in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. Your whole nature will then be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ, and even your thoughts will be subject to Him. You cannot control your impulses, your emotions, as you may desire; but you can control the will, and you can make an entire change in your life. {5T 513.4}

What is the change? The change from the madness of your mind.

By yielding up your will to Christ, your life will be hid with Christ in God and allied to the power which is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from God that will hold you fast to His strength; and a new life, even the life of living faith, will be possible to you. But your will must co-operate with God’s will, not with the will of associates through whom Satan is constantly working to ensnare and destroy you. {5T 513.4}

Satan’s glasses illuminate negativities around us whether it’s in your husband, wife or church members with the things said here and there. You say, how can they say that? When you let the mind of Jesus be in, what will be your thoughts about these deplorable faulty things around you?

The Mind of Christ

This is the mind of Christ. This is so hard to swallow because we are surrounded by so many who are doing the work of Christianity as they think, but are not of us. They don’t believe exactly like us but they do things in the name of Jesus. How should you relate to them in your mind? The disciples were with Jesus and they were loyal to Him and there were other things going on around them. There were the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes and still in the mainline church.

Luke 9:49 And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. 50 And Jesus said unto him, Forbid [him] not: for he that is not against us is for us.

Don’t forbid them, don’t tell them they are not right. Leave them alone, that is the mind of Christ.

Luke 9:51 And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? 55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. 56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save [them]. And they went to another village.

Put this in today’s terms. You know how apostate the Seventh Day Adventist church is? They are the equivalent of the Samaritans. In our interaction with them, it might be some friends of ours and we want to go and meet them and they go along and spurn us. Yeah that’s right, that’s them, they are damned. Because that is what the disciples were saying, shall cause fire to come upon them? That’s what we do when we say they are lost, they are finished, they are going to be destroyed.  What was the mind of Christ? You know not manner you are of. Get out of this spirit. I am here and you are with me and we are going to try and save souls. That is the mind of Christ. That mentality is going to put a completely different hue on our relationships. Whether in the home, church or our relationship to other churches. The mind of Jesus Christ that does not focus on negativities at all, that doesn’t take on the glasses of Satan.

 At another time during their early evangelistic labors, James and John met one who, while not an acknowledged follower of Christ, was casting out devils in His name. The disciples forbade the man to work and thought they were right in doing this. But when they laid the matter before Christ, He reproved them, saying, “Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in My name, that can lightly speak evil of Me.” Mark 9:39. None who showed themselves in any way friendly to Christ were to be repulsed. The disciples must not indulge a narrow, exclusive spirit, but must manifest the same far-reaching sympathy which they had seen in their Master. James and John had thought that in checking this man they had in view the Lord’s honor; but they began to see that they were jealous for their own. {AA 543.3}

We need to see our spirit. This is the problem. We are the recognised ones, we are really following Jesus correctly and therefore there is a spirit of saying the other ones are wrong and we forbid them in our mind, they have nothing do with Christ and as we see them doing certain things, our imagination says sorry, I can’t see what they are doing is for anything for Jesus, it’s all corrupted. Big mistake, its imagination. Jesus showed them you are concerned about your honour.

They acknowledged their error and accepted the reproof. {AA 543.3}

Do you?

  The disciples knew that it was the purpose of Christ to bless the Samaritans by His presence; and the coldness, jealousy, and disrespect shown to their Master filled them with surprise and indignation. James and John especially were aroused. That He whom they so highly reverenced should be thus treated, seemed to them a wrong too great to be passed over without immediate punishment. In their zeal they said, “Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?” referring to the destruction of the Samaritan captains and their companies sent out to take the prophet Elijah. They were surprised to see that Jesus was pained by their words, and still more surprised as His rebuke fell upon their ears: “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:54-56. {AA 540.2}

We have the truth of Jesus and these people are spurning the truth of Jesus that we know, why can’t they see this?

   It is no part of Christ’s mission to compel men to receive Him. It is Satan, and men actuated by his spirit, who seek to compel the conscience. Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederated with evil angels sometimes bring suffering upon their fellow men in order to convert them to their ideas of religion; but Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win by the revealing of His love. He can admit no rival in the soul, nor accept of partial service; but He desires only voluntary service, the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love. {AA 541.1}

How many times do we do that to each other? You don’t agree with me? You are damned, hurry up and change! You are a sinner! We don’t even accept the person might change for what they have done in the past. I can’t accept them anymore, they are damned. But Christ is ever showing mercy, ever seeking to win by the revealing of his love. He can admit no rival in the soul nor accept of partial service. He desires only voluntary service… What a beautiful mind stands before us. The words come, let this mind be in you.

In our relationships our own self even in spiritual matters colours our estimation of others. Because of our self and deplorable mentality, we see things through the glasses of our imagination and Satan capitalises on it and he puts his glasses on us to behold others through. You have double bifocals and you look at it from both sides and it’s distorted. Self is what Satan exonerates and our natural state of mind is to note the faults of others, but what is the real problem? Although we do not acknowledge the object of defaming another is to exalt self, self-exaltation is behind the practice the short comings of others.

Every time you see a short coming in someone else you are noting, what is motivating you? Self-exaltation. You had better believe it as it’s the word of God telling us this. If you want to deny it, deny the Lord because this is what it is. If you take this to heart, there will be peace in the home, church and all around me because I will recognise oh dear, I’m the crook not the person I’m looking at.

If we will let the mind of Christ preside over our internal conflict regarding this subject, what is written in reference to what I will do as I will look at others? If you let the mind of Jesus preside over your internal conflicts in these matters, if he presides, what will you deliberately under the power of your will in cooperation with God, what will you do?

This struck me once when I was in conflict in New Zealand and there was some shocking experiences and that is why my heart played up over there. There was a brother from the General Conference who was there and he was a wonderful gentleman. His name was Brother Devai. He was in the 51 movement but he was a man of God, no question in my mind, and he with trembling voice was trying to bring us together and when he read these words, it healed my soul toward the disgusting behavior of the ones who were trying ot destroy me.

Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

Can you understand the power of these words? If you somebody’s fault, you will not think about that because it is not a good report. It is probably not even true but probably just a figment of my imagination. It is probably not even just because I’m probably misjudging them poor soul. Is it pure? It is not lovely and it is not even good to think about. It is not of good report is it? What we usually do because it is not of good report is we report it to somebody else that negative report and I’ve gone beyond what I should be have been doing not even to think of it as it is not a good report. I’m only going to think of a good report.

Can you see this is answer to all our problems? As a man thinketh in his heart so he is. Let this mind be in you which is in Christ Jesus. Let’s get hold of this as this will prepare us to be among the 144,000. This is reality. We can study about the 144,000 about the seal in the forehead as much as we like, but if we do not do this, we will not be amongst them. When you think only those things;

Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

That is the mind of Christ. How can I be cruel to anyone who has hurt me? How can I be cruel to anyone because I see what they are doing is what the Samaritans did to Jesus? How can I be cruel to anyone who is not of our company who doesn’t believe exactly, who is not a recognised follower of what we know to be? How can we be so cruel and forbid them to be? How can we do it if we have the mind of Jesus? It doesn’t fit. We will only think and speak of the good.

Christ-like love places the most favorable construction on the motives and acts of others. {AA 319.2}

We are to place the best construction upon the questionable acts and words of others.

It does not needlessly expose their faults; it does not listen eagerly to unfavorable reports, but seeks rather to bring to mind the good qualities of others.  {AA 319.2} 

I often watch it. There is somebody saying something about someone else and another person says, what did you say? Have you ever done that? You have heard an unfavorable report and what did you say? I’ve heard people doing it amongst us. You hear something someone else is talking about and your ears go up. You will not listen eagerly to the unfavorable reports of others. You will put the best construction on others who are doing something iffy.

May God help us to let this mind be in us and we will fulfill the prayer of Christ and will be ready for his return. It is so easy to argue doctrine. It makes you feel good if you have the right doctrine, but to practice this is more important still.

Amen.