So help me God.. to put my faith in You..

Take Captive Every Thought

For my Philippians course, I am reading Basics for Believers: An Exposition of Philippains by D.A. Carson. A few words from pages 115-6 struck me to be quite profound; albeit I already knew they were true, it was good to hear them again. And many thanks to Ken, who really challenged me to take a serious look at just how much I wanted my thought life to remain pure. Although your words hurt at the time, they were exactly what I needed.

And now, from D.A. Carson:

Clearly, David recognized not only that God knew his thoughts, but that any real reform in his life must begin with his thoughts. That is why the Lord Jesus taught, in the Sermon on the Mount, that murder can be traced to hate, and adultery to lust (Matt. 5:21-22, 27-30). That is also why, from God's perspective, the real measure in individuals lies in what they think. If you think holy thoughts, you will be holy; if you think garbage, you will be garbage.

So it should come as no surprise that the prophets insist, "Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts" (Isa. 55:7). One of the sovereign remedies against sin is to spend much time, thoughtful time, meditative time, in the Scriptures, for it is impossible to get rid of the trash in our minds without replacing it with an entirely different way of thinking. Even kings and leaders, extraordinarily busy people, are told to make this their first priority (Deut. 17:18-20, Josh. 1:7-9). There is no enduring sanctification apart from the truth of the gospel taking hold of our minds....

Our current danger is that we make very little effort to think God's thoughts after Him, to hide His Word in our heart that we might not sin against Him (Ps. 119:11). To hide God's Word in our hearts--as opposed to our computers--means we ought to memorize it, read and re-read it, think about it, turn it over in our minds. Only such committed absorption of what God says will enable us in turn to confront and change the unbiblical worldviews all around us, or as Paul puts it, to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God" and to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

posted by D-Rock @ 2:42 PM