IS CHRISTIANITY A FORM OF BRAINWASHING?

I was watching an episode of "Walker, Texas Ranger" the other night when the sleazy criminal wife-beater was furious about his wife going to a battered women's camp.  He said they "brainwashed her" there.  It got me to thinking about that term, "brainwashing."  As if the healing process were somehow a bad thing.  As if the immoral thoughts of the criminal were somehow better than the right thinking that comes from seeing the truth.

It's a funny thing when the world thinks of Christians as being brain-washed - until you read the Bible.  It sort of admits to it.  But don't stop there.  The truth is, everyone was born in sin, and learned to think sinfully.  Our understanding was darkened, our concept of God was distorted, even twisted.  Our messed-up brains need to be washed!

Titus 3:3-7 says that we were once messed up.  We did and though all sorts of mean, hateful things, desiring things that may be good for us, but fulfilling those desires in twisted, warped, and unwholesome ways.  Then Jesus came because God loved us and sent Him to us so that we might be saved from the penalty, power, and one day the presence of those wicked things we were living and doing.  He "wash[ed] us" by making us new creatures and renews us through the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).  Then, after we've been made new, clean, and justified by the blood of Christ, we offer ourselves to Jesus in eternal gratitude.

In Romans 12:1, that eternal gratitude should be expressed by offering ourselves as living sacrifices - living for Jesus and sacrificing our own wants to meet His.  Not only is that giving Jesus every part of us, it is the example Jesus set as He did ONLY that which His Father in Heaven wanted.  True love serves, and does not take.  When Jesus loved us, He served us by meeting our sin-need.  Then, in thanksgiving, we love Him back by giving ourselves to meet His every desire for us. 

Romans 12:2 says that to do that, we must forsake this world - not following its ways, and be changed by the renewing of our minds - continually letting our minds be renewed by the Word of God, lest the old habits return. 

So, I suppose it's a really good thing to finally be able to think straight, thanks to the Lord.  Now, dear friends, will you consider letting YOUR minds be washed by the Word of God and be made a new Creature through Jesus Christ? 

And that's Just a Thought for today!  Have a blessed day in Jesus Christ!