The biggest battle in the world today is not a military one but a mental one - for the mind.
Proverbs 23 verse 7 teaches us that as a man thinks in his heart so is he.
If you can capture a man's mind you have got him.
That was the battle after the resurrection with the unmagnificent seven returning to the fishing, and the risen Jesus had to make a special appearance and deal with Peter in particular.
If it had not been for that meeting on the shore up at Capernaum the whole of history would have been so very very different, and it is highly unlikely that we would have be where we are today.
This is why strong positive sensitive leadership in every walk of life is so vitally important, and this is being written when Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom have been found to be claiming excessive expenses, thinking they would never be discovered.
Almighty God has said, Behold your sins will find you out! It is not simply that your sins will be found out, but that you will be found out.
Jesus had to capture Peter's mind.
If you can captures a man's mind you have got him.
If Jesus Christ gets a hold of your mind, and your thoughts begin to focus upon Jesus and God and the Scriptures, everything else begins to change.
Your thoughts make your character.
Your thoughts determine your behaviour.
There can arise a struggle between ideas and ideals.
Today we hear of an ideological struggle.
It is nothing new.
Our minds are bombarded with new ideas and they come to us on two levels; the human level and the supernatural level.
Or, let me explain it another way; propaganda or prophecy; by man and men, or from Almighty God.
Propaganda today mainly comes through the eye, television and advertising which entices, whereas prophecy come through the ear and very few people want to hear what God has to say.
And, there is an enemy of God, Satan, who suggests that there are so many ways of looking at things and because of that a man can never really come to a knowledge of the truth.
Now, this was the type of thing that was happening in the Church of Jesus Christ when John is writing this letter.
This article is based on John's first letter in the New Testament.
Do take time to read it.
It is always wise to read the Word of God, for therein lies a special blessing as lambs and sheep are fed.
When you find Jesus Christ, and when you are committed to Jesus Christ, you can resist propaganda, and you can believe the truth.
When Communism was raging behind what was called the Iron Curtain, believers in Christ had a resistance to all the propaganda.
The answer was and is Jesus Christ.
There is a very similar battle on-going in these present days in Islamic nations where there is a commitment to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and a resistance to the teachings of Islam, and that resistance, we are learning, comes at a great price and cost.
Truth does not come by human discovery, but by Divine Revelation.
A discussion group seldom gets anywhere.
It can be interesting to begin with, but after a few weeks it loses that.
Did any of us here come to faith in Jesus Christ through discussion, or did God Himself break through in some way and reveal Himself? The Gospel is not propaganda, but it is for propagating.
Paul said that we preach Christ and Him having been crucified.
We do not need to manipulate people's minds.
Our task is to proclaim the truth.
How does the enemy attack the Church of Jesus Christ? Not by propaganda, but by false prophecy, a false word, a false message, coming through someone who claims to come from God.
John says, I do not want you to believe every prophet.
Over these past years we have seen mystical messages - by meditation - the flower people - or experiences of God through drugs - or spiritualism which is growing all over the north of Scotland.
We have every right to be suspicious and cautious.
In this we follow Jesus Christ, because Jesus did not put His faith and trust in man.
Jesus knew what was in man, and John knew what he was talking about.