Startled by a Loud
Voice
in My Head!
Now I'm not your usual psychotically unstable person
that wanders around town hearing voices when no one around within
eyesight is talking and No, I wasn't wearing an earphone
and a battery-operated radio or mp3 player!
I did,
however, have my laptop on my lap sitting sideways on my living room couch
with a blanket because it was cool. I was typing away with one finger
the words that usually come into my mind when I'm writing something of a
religious nature. Often to put on my web-site but not always.
As I was typing down these words, usually coming along quietly as thoughts
usually do I was startled by something
different.
A very LOUD THOUGHT, as loud as a VOICE
speaking into my head --out loud! And what it said was this --
"As a Man thinketh, so is he!"
That's great, I thought. It was just what
I needed to write next in what I was writing, so I wrote it down. But
the LOUDNESS, and the startled feeling haunted me for a few moments and I
decided to LOOK IT UP.
Who said that? I thought. I should
know. Maybe Jesus. Sounded like something Jesus might say.
When I "heard it" and hear it I did, not just
"thought it", it seemed to me to be an Exact Quote, not just a paraphrase, and
I was sure I'd find it in Strong's Concordance. Exact. Not
a paraphrase.
I couldn't find it. What a
shock! What a disappointment. "As
a man thinketh so is he" --
is not in the King James Bible. Not
in those words, anyway.
I WAS SAVED FROM FAILURE IN MY IMMEDIATE SEARCH IN
STRONG'S CONCORDANCE BY THE FACT THAT "THINKETH" IS AN OLD ENGLISH WORD, WHICH
APPEARS ONLY SIX TIMES IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE. THE TEXT I WAS
LOOKING FOR WAS
Proverbs 23:7
"As a Man Thinketh" is a
literary essay by James Allen, published in 1902.
Basis of the book
The title is influenced by a verse in the Bible from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 23, verse 7: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so
is he". The full passage, taken from the King James Version, is as follows:
- "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire
thou his dainty meats:
- For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:
- Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.
- The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy
sweet words."
While the passage suggests that one should consider the true motivations of
a person who is being uncharacteristically generous before accepting his
generosity, the title and content of Allen's work refer to the reader himself.
Allen's essay is now in the
public domain within the United States and most other countries. It was
released October 1, 2003 as a
Project Gutenberg
edition.
About the book
This book, written in terms of the responsibility assumption, opens with the statement:
- "Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
- And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
- The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
- Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills: —
- He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
- Environment is but his looking-glass."
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I DECIDED TO PUT JAMES ALLEN'S
ESSAY ON THIS WEB-SITE, WHICH I DID, ON THE PREVIOUS PAGE -- AND THEN TURN
BACK TO SOLOMON'S ORIGINAL WORDS WHICH ARE NOT OF A POSITIVE SORT, BUT
NEGATIVE. SOLOMON WAS TELLING US TO WATCH OUT FOR A CERTAIN TYPE
OF INDIVIDUAL AND I RECOGNIZED THE APOSTLE PAUL RIGHT AWAY! |
Proverbs 23:1 "When thou sittest to eat with a
ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: 2 And put a knife to thy
throat, if thou be a man given to appetite."
3 "Be not desirous of his dainties: for they
are DECEITFUL meat.
4 "Labour not to be rich: cease from thy own
wisdom. 5 "Wilt thou set thine eyes on that which is not? for
riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward
heaven."
6 "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an
EVIL EYE, neither desire thou his dainty meats."
7 "For as he THINKETH in his HEART, so is he:
Eat and drink saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee."
AS I TOLD YOU EARLIER, WHEN THIS VOICE IN MY HEAD
STARTLED ME BY BEING SO LOUD, AND I LOOKED UP THE WHOLE TEXT IN STRONG'S AND
THEN THE KING JAMES' BIBLE, I IMMEDIATELY THOUGHT OF THE APOSTLE PAUL.
TO FIND OUT WHY, YOU'LL NEED TO CLICK ON THE NEXT PAGE!
SAINT PAUL'S CONFESSION!
Click Here!
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