Knowledge is a good thing. "Elementary," as the detective Holmes says.

However, it can be used in a bad way, especially when it comes to our testimony to the world. Sometimes we come across as "holier than thou." Like Paul states in 1 Corinthians 8:1, "Knowledge puffs up while love builds up.

If you're reading the Word at all, from Genesis to Revelation, we're called to be holy. It doesn't take "brilliant deduction" to realize that as followers of Jesus, we can't just live like we did before salvation.

It's called, to use a theological term, "being sanctified." It's the day to day allowing the Holy Spirit to purify us and grow us in our "being Jesus with skin on."

Now, when those who aren't followers of Christ see us, even if we're walking in His love, they can easily be offended and accuse us of thinking we're better than they are. However, if we are living our lives in such a way that they "see our good works and glorify the Father in heaven," then their accusation is an indication they are being drawn by the Holy Spirit and feel conviction.

So, how do we live holy and not "holier than thou?" Let's find out.

Last week we dealt with the concept of depression: Where it comes from and the Biblical view of how to more than cope with it.

This week we dig deeper into how the Bible speaks to how we more than just "meditate" or silence ourselves and the voices we often fight. Though changing our thought life (our ruminator) is vital to defeating the oppressive forces, we have been given Biblical truths to both defeat the voices and fill the silence.

Philippians 4:8 and Lamentations 3:21-33 give us tremendous insight to how the Holy Spirit works to transform our minds into thinking God-thoughts. Biblical meditation isn't an emptying of our minds but filling them with His truth. We overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb and by our testimony.

We don't fight feelings, we identify them, and then make them align with the Word of God. Faith overcomes fear. Truth overcomes the lie.

Depression is not from our Father.

However, like many "big names" in the Bible, many of us have experienced the deep pit depression brings. But not everyone goes through the same experience. So, there's no "easy fix-all" when it comes to depression.

There are many causes of depression and, though we don't purport ourselves to be licensed psychologists, we have been equipped to bring a Godly perspective that can help in the process of being delivered from this pit.

Whether the cause of a person's depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, a personal failure, or any of the other seven other causes we've discovered over our combined decades of ministry, there is no need to live in the pit: God's Word gives us the insight to be an overcomer.

This isn't a "12 Easy Steps to Defeat Depression" podcast. But we are going to start with one of the most basic fundamentals of overcoming depression as well as some Biblical truths that most often are not discovered on a psychologist's couch.

This is part one of a two-part podcast that can shed Godly light on a very serious subject.