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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Chad Kreuzer

Victory In the Brain

Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word.

We thank You for the opportunity to open the Bible.

My prayer is that You will encourage us, that You will transform us through Your Word, through your Holy Spirit, through your divine power, my prayer is that each of us will leave different people than when we came.

We ask this in the name of our Savior Jesus.

I love, I like, I enjoy reading and I I've read some books on neuroplasticity, the human brain and how it can be transformed, you know, because for some years scientists thought that the human brain was basically fixed.

We have different portions of the brain that have different operations.

For instance, obviously in the rear portion of the brain you have the occipital lobe which receives information stimuli from the eyes.

The information is relayed to the back of the brain and for some time it was thought that that was it.

That was what that portion of the brain was used for no matter what.

Other portions of the brain, obviously we now know about the frontal lobe, it has to do with, it's the seat of spirituality, morality and the will.

Some have called the frontal lobe the citadel of the brain, the decision making center in the brain.

But scientists have discovered through several different experiments, 1 of which, in Spain, they have a school for the blind.

But actually it's not a school for the blind per se, the students, it's actually a school for the teachers of the blind.

And they want to give these teachers somewhat of an experience of what it is like to be blind.

So what they do is they blindfold them, but more so than just taking like a handkerchief and covering the eyes.

They actually totally cover their eyes so that absolutely no light can come in even through the shut eyelids.

Because when I close my eyes right now I can tell it's brighter up here than it is down here even though my eyes are closed.

The information is still or light is going still through my eyelids.

But what happens is, what they've discovered is when they take these individuals and they completely block out all the stimulation of the light from entering into their retina, what ends up happening is that within a very short time period, actually within the course of about 2 days, what begins to happen is the occipital lobe, the portion of the brain that is typically receiving the information from what you are seeing, actually begins after just 2 days to start, it becomes changed to the point where it begins to Take in the stimulation from your tactile sense your sense of touch and it also begins this rear portion of the brain Which normally would do have to do with sight begins also to take in the information not only from touch but from hearing Because of this and other studies scientists are discovering that the human brain is changeable.

It is not something that is stuck and unchangeable, which had been believed for some time, but it actually can be transformed by the things that you allow to come in through your senses.

Another thing that they discovered was they went into London and now if you've been to New York City you know that the streets in New York are very, it's like a perfect grid.

You have, you know, the streets are parallel and perpendicular and so, you know, the corners are basically 90-degree angles.

That's just how New York City works, Manhattan.

But if you go over to London in the UK, it's totally different.

You go over to London, and anybody ever been to London?

Yeah, London is not an easy place to get around like New York City.

I mean, New York City's got crazy traffic, obviously.

But the point being is that these roads are so curvy that London cab drivers, in order to become a cab driver, they have to take a special test to see if they know how to navigate the road system in London.

But what they've done is they've gone in and looked at the brains of London cab drivers.

And the hippocampus, or the hippocampi, of the London cab drivers, they've actually analyzed them and 1 of the works of the hippocampi, 1 of them, has to do with your spatial ability and memory.

And what they discovered is that the hippocampi of the London cab drivers is physically larger than the other people of the UK.

Well, we can account for that for possibly 1 of 2 reasons.

Either these men were born destined to become cab drivers in London, or by what they were thinking about, the information that they were allowing themselves to meditate and think upon actually physically changed their brain.

Obviously, it's the latter of the 2, right?

What you think about physically changes who you are.

Meaning, you are not stuck with who you are.

We have all been given, inherited, and also we have cultivated tendencies.

But sometimes we think I am who I was born.

Other people fear that, well, I was born a certain way so I cannot be changed, right?

And now many times people are afraid that, what if, what if people were born a certain way?

Well, if somebody's born a certain way, that means they cannot change, is the perspective of many people.

Could it be possible that some people are born, maybe their grandfather, their great-grandfather and their father were all intense, raging alcoholics.

Is it a possibility that that, you know, this great-grandson of a line of alcoholics, is it a possibility that somebody could be born with tendencies towards alcoholism?

So let's say somebody is born with that tendency, does that mean there is no opportunity for them to change?

The Bible teaches us in Romans 12, verse 2, it says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

So, we can be changed not by our own strength, not by who we are, but rather, our minds can be transformed.

The Bible has a powerful passage in Matthew 6, verse 22.

It says, "...the light of the body is the eye.

If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." It says, but...

Matthew chapter 6 and we're looking there in verse 22 and 23.

It says, "...but if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" It says the light of the body is the eye.

Now we've already seen that by human beings what they choose to allow to go in their eyes, if you cut off all stimulation to the occipital lobe, the rear portion of the brain, if you shut off all stimulation to your brain by cutting out all light, it physically changes what information comes into your brain.

They also discovered if they remove the blindfold that the brain can actually go back to what it initially would, you know, the stimulation which was the sight would be registered in the occipital lobe.

So the brain can be changed by what we choose to allow to come in it and the light of the body is the eye.

If we're looking, if the things that we are looking at are good and righteous and just and holy and pure and these kind of things, it will change the brain, it will change the body.

But if we're looking at wicked things, if we're looking at evil things, that also will become a part of who we are.

We're gonna look at several things as we go forward.

I want you to think about this just for a moment.

The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 4, turn with me there just for a moment.

In Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to be looking beginning in verse 22.

Galatians, Ephesians chapter 4, beginning in verse 22, the Bible says that you put off concerning the former conversation.

Now, some translations say that you put off concerning the former lifestyle.

This conversation has to do more than just the things that you talk about.

That word actually had to do with your lifestyle.

The Bible says that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.

And the next verse, in verse 23, says, and be renewed in the what?

And it goes on to say in verse 24, and that you put on the new man, which after God is created in Righteousness and true holiness get the picture here in Romans 2 and in in Ephesians chapter 4 Beginning of verse 22.

It says you need to put off the old man in verse 23.

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Victory In the Brain

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