Welcome to the Feminine Podcast. This is Nancy Wilson. Thanks so much for joining me today.

The topic today is imagination. And what is the Christian view of imagination?

Though Advent is a great time to consider activating our imagination, it is important to be

creative and imaginative all the time. Otherwise, we and our lives become very dull and stagnant,

or they drift into sin. So let me explain. First, a definition. Imagination is a human way of imitating God. He creates from his own heart and mind

and his perfect, infinite imagination. He imagined the stars and all the animals and plants and colors.

When we imagine a story plot or write a poem or choose a paint color for our room or even plan what's for dinner,

we are using our God-given creaturely imagination. It is a gift from God and it resides in our hearts.

But like all gifts, it can be twisted and used for evil. Sin always poisons everything. After the flood in Genesis 821,

God promised to never again flood the earth. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again

curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

All right, we have plenty of proof today that the imagination of man's heart is still evil from his youth.

So had God not promised to never again destroy every living thing,

he would surely have plenty of grounds today to do it all over again.

Notice, though, that the imagination comes from a man's heart, the imagination of a man's heart.

In Luke, chapter 1, verse 50 and 51, from Mary's Magnificat, she makes the same sort of connection. This is what she says,

and his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with

his arm. He is scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Sin comes from someplace, and in these two examples we see it in the imagination of their hearts. Sin comes from someplace, and in these two examples, we see it in the

imagination of our heart. We imagine sin and we imagine sinfully. Mankind is always cooking up some

new way to be evil. The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, going back to the quote from

Genesis, from youth. And our imaginations spring from our hearts. So basically, what is on the

inside works its way out. So it follows that if we want to have a sanctified imagination that glorifies God,

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