reviewing Turning Point: "The Priority of a Devoted Mind" // worldview

This post takes a look at the April 14, 2013 episode of Dr. Jeremiah's "Turning Point" on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, entitled "The Priority of a Devoted Mind."

"You're not what you think you are, but what you think...you are!

... What you think, say, do, starts in the mind."

- Dr. David Jeremiah

The human mind is a truly astounding thing. As Dr. Jeremiah says, we are set apart from all other creatures because God has bestowed upon us the ability to think. It's an amazing gift that comes with the responsibility to use it as God desires. Matthew 22:37-38 says, "Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.'"

If what we think, say, and do starts in the mind -- and if we're supposed to be loving God with all of our minds -- then it should be a priority to make sure what we're putting into our minds is glorifying and pleasing to God.

So how can please God by devoting our minds to him?

1. We love God with all of our minds when we feed on His Word.
Dr. Jeremiah references the lengthy Psalm 119, and David's dedication and love for God's laws. The more we meditate on Scripture, the more we will love it, and therefore, the more we will love God. He says:

You cannot have a Christian mind without reading the Scriptures, because you cannot be profoundly changed by that which you do not know. [...] Generally speaking, a relationship to God runs along the same line as our relationship to His Word.

Taking the time to read God's Word must be made a priority in the life of every Christian. The more of Him that we pour into us, the more we will spend dwelling on Him and His Word...and that will further lead us to finding God's wisdom.

2. We love God with all of our minds when we find His wisdom.
Proverbs speaks often of the precious value of wisdom -- that beautiful thing that allows us to use the knowledge provided by God's Word and apply it to everyday life. However, how can the Holy Spirit provide us with the wisdom of God if we don't have any of God's Word in us with which to work?

Not only that, but when we read God's Word, it's also important to take the time and let that settle. Meditate on it. Dr. Jeremiah says, "In order to find wisdom, we must think and pray."

Once we find His wisdom, this allows us to follow His will.

3. We love God with all of our minds when we follow His will.
God has one perfect, holy will. He has a plan for everything, and a special, unique plan for each one of us. The question is, how do we know what that plan is? How do we find the calling that God has given to us?

The word "calling" implies that someone else has to be on the receiving end of the call, and that they have to be listening. We can't know God's plan for us unless we're openly listening. The best way to do that? Feed on His Word. Find His wisdom. Pray, so that we might find our calling and use it to fight His war.

4. We love God with all of our minds when we fight His war.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says this:

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

There's only one God, and there's only one way to that God: Jesus. (As Dr. Jeremiah says, there's only one way to become a human: you have to be born. So why not have only one way to be reborn?) We are fighting a perpetual war against Satan and against the world in order to bring others to Jesus, to defend our faith, to further God's Kingdom. It's a war that we can't fight on our own -- we need to know God's Word, His wisdom, and follow His will in order to do it.

As Christians, it's our duty to, as Dr. Jeremiah puts it, get into this "intellectual culture war," defend our faith, and "given an answer that brings glory to the Lord."

C.S. Lewis wrote this:

If all the world were Christian, it might not matter if all the world were uneducated. But, as it is, a cultural life will exist outside the Church whether it exists inside or not. To be ignorant and simple now -- not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground -- would be to throw down our weapons, and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen.

If we don't engage in the culture and don't meet the enemy where it's at, then we can't further the Lord's Kingdom.

Now we find that we've come full circle, because we can't "give an answer that brings glory to the Lord" when attacked for our faith if we haven't read the Bible, if we haven't been given God's wisdom.

When we read the Bible, we will find wisdom. When the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and discernment, we can follow God's will in order to fight His war.