In Acts 19:18-19 we have recorded one of the most expensive bonfires in history. ”Many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.”

These people burned books that were worth a lot of money from a worldly viewpoint but in God’s eyes they were fit only for burning. Today there are a lot of books that cost great sums of money that are good only for bonfires in the sight of God. Solomon said that ”of making many books there is no end” and he said that in the days before the printing press was invented. Today we are flooded with books of every type and description and millions of dollars are spent every year on them.

Once we become convinced of the Truth of God’s word, we need to follow the example of those who heard Paul preach and burn the books that would draw our minds away from the things of God. We truly are what we think and we fill our minds with the things we read so it behooves us to choose our books as we would our friends. Recently, in a weekly letter called ”Perspective” we read, ”The man insists on the finest steak cooked to perfection, and he reads Playboy! He nourishes his stomach on the best food money can buy, and feeds his mind on photos of nude women. Pitiful what some men give their minds to chew on. They demand the best food for their bodies, and stuff their intellects with garbage. No wonder their hearts are starved. Bodies fat and well fed and intellects and emotions suffering malnutrition.”

We can only get out of a thing that which we put into it. When we pour from a coffee pot we expect to get coffee but this is only true if coffee was first put in the pot. If tea comes out, it is because someone put the wrong thing in the pot. The same is true of our minds. We can only think about things with which we are familiar. It’s impossible to think about our trip to Europe if we’ve never been there. Our minds record and store away for future meditation those things which we put into them. Our minds are filled by what we see, what we read, and what we do. It then stands to reason that if we want to do what is right, we must, like the little monkey, see no evil. This would mean that we would not go to places where we would see the wrong things. We will read only those things which build up the spiritual man because these are the kinds of things we want to feed our minds. Burn the books that draw one’s mind away from the things of God. This would apply, not only to books which pander to the flesh but also those silly empty-headed type of books that do nothing to strengthen our minds. If we fed our bodies on food that was not in itself harmful, yet had no food value, we would still die of malnutrition. We must feed our bodies with food that has value. So with our minds, let us make sure that everything we read is helping build us up because time is too precious to fritter it away on meaningless garbage. Television is a wonderful way to fill our minds with a lot of nothing. What a terrible waste of time. Not much can be said in favor of radio either. If we have been reading the right kind of things, we are better off even while driving, to turn off the radio and meditate upon the things we’ve read than to have these wholesome thoughts pushed right out of our minds by the things that come over the air. After all, we are what we think about all day long and if the world is telling us what to think because we are constantly listening to the thoughts of the world through radio, television, daily newspapers, etc., how are we going to think differently than they do?

Jesus told us that ’”out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, for a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”

Let us then choose with care what we read and what we see, for we will only get out of our minds that which we have put into them. No wonder Paul admonished us saying, ”Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are honest, what- soever 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.”