Sin affects the mind

From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham

Q: My closest friend through childhood was someone I always respected for his great mind and personality. But we eventually grew apart. I’ve learned that he’s in prison and bitter at the world. I’ve tried to reach him with God’s love, but he is even bitter at God. Is he hopeless?

– F.S.

A: When the mind is diseased by sin, it’s clouded and confused. There’ve always been skeptics who say that believing the Bible is for uneducated people (implying that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is anti-intellectual). This is contrary to truth.

The news reported about a young man by the name of Joel who was a living example of such a person whose mind was under attack. He was thrown in prison for trying to kill a man. When released, he was filled with hatred and did everything he could to show his scorn to society, only to land in San Quentin. Turned over to a prison psychiatrist, he was diagnosed as “criminally insane.” When released 11 years later, his godly mother was there to greet him and said, “Joel you need Jesus; you need to ask Him to forgive your sins, to give you a new life.”

Joel finally submitted his life to Jesus Christ. His mother’s faithful prayers were blessed by God and Joel’s life was transformed. He became a prison chaplain and won many criminals to Christ. Sin affects the mind. The Bible is proof of this. A person may be intellectually brilliant, but spiritually ignorant. “The natural man does not accept the things… of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). An intellectual mind can be turned into a first-class mind when Christ penetrates the very heart of a person. We must never give up praying for others.