- The Power of the Word against Sin – Apostle Michael Orokpo
- The Mystery of Death And Glory by Apostle Joshua Selman
- Basic Prayer Lessons – Heart Check by Apostle Arome Osayi
- DEALING WITH PRIDE AND VAIN GLORY – APOSTLE JOSHUA SELMAN
- DEALING WITH SIN FOR AN OUTPOURING BY GBILE AKANNI
- How Sin Affects God (The concept of Grace) – Rev Gideon Odoma
- PASTOR DAVID OGBUELI – FREEDOM FROM SEXUAL SLAVERY
- PURITY WITHIN A MUST – PASTOR W. F KUMUYI
- The Culture of the Wise Purity and Prayer Apostle Arome Osayi
- THE WAY OF THE ALTAR by Apostle Arome Osayi
Read Through;
You must remember this: You can never have a Christian mind without
reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced
by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can
then be informed and directed by God — your domestic relationships, your
child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life. The
way to a Christian mind is through God’s Word!
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
DISCIPLINE OF MIND (Disciplines of a Godly Man by R. Kent Hughes)
Intentional Programming
Paul recommends that we focus our minds
on truth, nobility, rightness, purity, loveliness, admirability, excellence, and
praiseworthiness, and ends with this loaded charge: “Think about such things”
(Philippians 4:8, italics added).
The word he uses is logidzamai, from which we
get the mathematical computer-like word logarithm. It means a “. . . deliberate
and prolonged contemplation as if one is weighing a mathematical problem.”11
The way I handle my mail gives an example. Frankly, most of it gets tossed. I
read the return address to see if it is an ad, perhaps open it, scan a few lines —
and away it goes. But if it is an outdoor catalog, say the Orvis catalog, it gets
deliberate and prolonged contemplation — especially the Superfine graphite fly
rods. We are to think about the wonderful elements God wants us to put into
our computers. God calls us in His Word to a massive and positive discipline
of the mind.
Scripture
This can only happen through a profound exposure to and continual immersion in God’s Word, accompanied by the illumination of the Holy Spirit — an
exposure that is within the reach of all literate and semiliterate Christians.
Lt. General William K. Harrison was the most decorated soldier in the 30th
Infantry Division, rated by General Eisenhower as the number one infantry division in World War II. General Harrison was the first American to enter Belgium,
which he did at the head of the Allied forces.
He received every decoration for
valor except the Congressional Medal of Honor — being honored with the
Distinguished Silver Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the
Purple Heart (he was one of the few generals to be wounded in action). When
the Korean War began, he served as Chief of Staff in the United Nations
Command — and because of his character and self-control was ultimately
President Eisenhower’s choice to head the long and tedious negotiations to end
the war.
General Harrison was a soldier’s soldier who led a busy, ultra-kinetic life,
but he was also an amazing man of the Word. When he was a twenty-year-old
West Point Cadet, he began reading the Old Testament through once a year and
the New Testament four times.
General Harrison did this until the end of his
life. Even in the thick of war he maintained his commitment by catching up during the two- and three-day respites for replacement and refitting which followed
battles, so that when the war ended he was right on schedule.
When, at the age of ninety, his failing eyesight no longer permitted his discipline, he had read the Old Testament seventy times and the New Testament
280 times! No wonder his godliness and wisdom were proverbial, and that
the Lord used him for eighteen fruitful years to lead Officers Christian
Fellowship (OCF).12
General Harrison’s story tells us two things. First, it is possible, even for the
busiest of us, to systematically feed on God’s Word. No one could be busier or
lead a more demanding life than General Harrison.
Second, his life remains a demonstration of a mind programmed with God’s
Word. His closest associates say that every area of his life (domestic, spiritual,
and professional) and each of the great problems he faced was informed by the
Scriptures. People marveled at his knowledge of the Bible and the ability to
bring its light to every area of life.
He lived out the experience of the Psalmist:
Oh, how I love your law!
I meditate on it all day long.
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
for they are ever with me.
I have more insight than all my teachers,
for I meditate on your statutes.
I have more understanding than the elders,
for I obey your precepts.
(119:97-100)
You must remember this: You can never have a Christian mind without
reading the Scriptures regularly because you cannot be profoundly influenced
by that which you do not know. If you are filled with God’s Word, your life can
then be informed and directed by God — your domestic relationships, your
child-rearing, your career, your ethical decisions, your interior moral life. The
way to a Christian mind is through God’s Word!
Again, we must be careful not to create a Bible-reading legalism — “good
Christians read the Bible through once a year.” The Bible nowhere demands
this. Some simply cannot read well, or fast, and speed reading is not the answer.
As Lucy told Charlie Brown: “I just completed a course in speed reading and
last night I read War and Peace in one hour! . . . It was about Russia.”
My own brother, who is severely dyslexic, having had the misfortune of
receiving his schooling before much was known about learning disabilities, only
learned to read well enough to get along in his trade. Recently he became a
Christian, and with his newfound motivation to know God’s Word he purchased tapes of the Scriptures. His wife also reads to him. He is reading better
each year.
Most people, however, will find that reading the Scripture through once a
year is the best way because it requires only five pages a day and offers a reachable annual goal. Believers, whatever your ability, you must regularly read and
study God’s Word. If you refuse, you are in effect “editing God” and will never
have a fully Christian mind.
In the Resources section of this book, you will find several detailed plans
for annually reading through the Bible (“M’Cheyne’s Calendar for Daily
Reading,” “Through the Bible,” and “Topical Guide to Daily Devotional Bible
Reading in a Year”) and also sources for obtaining the Scriptures on audiocassette (“The Bible on Audiocassette”). I would encourage you to avail yourself
of these opportunities.
Christian Literature
Along with reading the Word, we ought to be reading good books. The brilliant Jewish radio talk show host Dennis Prager, a man who makes sure he is
well-informed, said in a recent interview in The Door:
One thing I noticed about Evangelicals is that they do not read. They do not
read the Bible, they do not read the great Christian thinkers, they have never
heard of Aquinas. If they’re Presbyterian, they’ve never read the founders of
Presbyterianism. I do not understand that. As a Jew, that’s confusing to me.
The commandment of study is so deep in Judaism that we immerse ourselves
in study. God gave us a brain, aren’t we to use it in His service? When I walk
into an Evangelical Christian’s home and see a total of 30 books, most of
them best-sellers, I do not understand. I have bookcases of Christian books,
and I am a Jew. Why do I have more Christian books than 98 percent of the
Christians in America? That is so bizarre to me.13
It is bizarre — especially when a commitment to Christ is a commitment
to believe in things that go far beyond the surface of life. Sadly, the bulk of the
non-reading Christian public are men, who buy only 25 percent of all Christian
books.14
Men, to deny ourselves the wealth of the accumulated saints of the centuries
is to consciously embrace spiritual anorexia. Great Christian writing will magnify, dramatize, and illuminate life-giving wonders for us. Others have walked
the paths we so want to tread. They have chronicled the pitfalls and posted
warnings along the way. They have also given us descriptions of spiritual
delights which will draw us onward and upward.
In preparation for speaking and writing about the subject of the mind,
mailed a questionnaire to thirty Christian leaders, including such people
as Charles Colson, James Dobson, Carl F. H. Henry, J. I. Packer, Warren
Wiersbe, and Calvin Miller. I received twenty-six responses.
The survey asked four questions:
1) What are the five books, secular or sacred, which have influenced you
the most?
2) Of the spiritual/sacred books which have influenced you, which is your
favorite?
3) What is your favorite novel?
4) What is your favorite biography?
The devotional/theological books mentioned most were C. S. Lewis’s Mere
Christianity, Oswald Chambers’s My Utmost for His Highest, John Calvin’s
Institutes, A. W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God, and Thomas a Kempis’s The
Imitation of Christ. The most frequently mentioned biographies were Mr. and
Mrs. Howard Taylor’s Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret and Elisabeth Elliot’s
Shadow of the Almighty. The favorite novels were Leo Tolstoy’s Anna
Karenina and Fyodor Dostoyevski’s The Brothers Karamazov (which was, for
example, the favorite of Charles Colson, Wayne Martindale, Harold Myra, J.
I. Packer, and Eugene Peterson). These titles make a superb list from which to
select if you have not done some serious Christian reading. (All the survey
responses can be found in the Resources section of this book — “Personal
Reading Survey.”)
Also, today many books are available on audiocassette (great for listening
as you drive to work or when traveling, etc.). For example, my own town’s public library carries tapes of such great books as Pride and Prejudice by Jane
Austen, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor
Dostoyevski, the Diary of Anne Frank, Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne,
Homer’s Odyssey, Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, Lord of the Rings by
Tolkien, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and many others.
Men, you need to fill your mind with good stuff.
I am not suggesting a
manic spree (George Will, for example, is able to read two hefty books a week).
But many of you would do well to commit to reading two or three good books
this next year.
