Learning to Think...Rooted in the Bible

How often have we wondered, “what were you thinking?” If you have children you have undoubtedly passed through this experience more than once! I remember when our oldest son was about ten years old. We had bought a new car and it was parked in the garage.  His bike was at the front of the garage and he wanted to get it out. Only problem was that there was just enough space between the car, the side of the garage and his bike handles to get out.... and leave a long scar in the paint from the front to the back! You know the rest of the story. “What was he thinking?” 

 

I am still amazed at how often I have this same reaction to church leaders and the decisions we make. The programs we start, the people we hire, the people we then fire, the amount of money we spend.....on everything. It would appear that we believe that if we think it, God approves of it! 

 

Mark Noll in "Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity" points us to history in this regard. "Throughout the entire history of Christianity, problems have constantly arisen when believers equate the human acts of the church with the acts of God, when Christians assume that using the name of God to justify their actions in space and time is the same as God himself acting."

 

There have been times of such great consternation at decisions that just didn’t seem to make any sense, at least to me, that I finally wrote a book. The book may not ever be a best sellers but at least it forced me to ask questions about how we as church leaders think and therefore make decisions. That book is in the hands of my editor and will eventually see the light of day. When it does you can find it on www.scpglobal.org and it will be titled something along the lines of, Did God really tell you to make that decision? 

 

I have spent more time over the last decade working with younger leaders and I keep coming back to that question, “what were you thinking?” In those initial years, somewhere between 20 and 30 years of age, they are making significant decisions; decisions that will shape the rest of their lives. Decisions that have the potential of making hell of their lives. 

 

Who will they marry? Will they decide to follow Jesus no matter what the cost? How will they manage the assets that God puts into their hands for His glory? These are just a few. But the answer to each sets the trajectory of life. 

 

As I have worked more intensively with these younger leaders over the last decade and have seen up close the decisions that they are making, I have concluded that all too often we are not thinking! Disciplines are not being put into place that will help them make decisions that will carry the weight of the righteousness that God has designed that we live. 

 

There are undoubtedly lots of reasons for this lack of thinking, or maybe more fairly said, clear thinking. 

 

The educational system of our day does not promote thinking. At best, it has become an arena where people called professors can foist their ideas, unchallenged, upon young and as yet largely unformed minds. Of course, the hope of the system is to use this “learning” environment to change society into their convictions. For the follower of Jesus there is little if anything left in the educational system that will feed God, righteousness or eternity. 

 

The culture that is being formed out of this educational brainwashing thrives on not really pushing back on anything. Happiness comes from being yourself, appreciating yourself, enjoying yourself, accepting yourself! On the surface it says, be your own person. But under the surface is the unspoken and undeclared message, be like us. Be politically correct, have no real moral values, accept any and every lifestyle, and above all don’t advocate for any form of objective truth. 

 

One would hope that the church would be the bastion of just the opposite of the above. That we would be a people who unapologetically declare that objective truth trumps all other truth. That eventually time will be overwhelmed by eternity. We ought not apologize that our message is strident, even while our application is compassionate. 

 

But the churches are wavering. We have been assaulted by our society and found wanting. One church historian has said, “Cultural assimilation is all too often the prelude to ecclesial extinction.”Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth by Alister McGrath 

 

And even more telling as he points out the contrarianism of our Christian forefathers, “If the salt of the Christian faith were to lose its saltiness, what would remain? The church had to maintain its identity by safeguarding its distinctiveness.”Heresy: A History of Defending the Truth by Alister McGrath

http://a.co/gmAhbp2

 

Among the many conclusions that we could extract from the need for the church to be a contrarian to our present reality is that at the hour of greatest need for the church to be more contrarian, we have lost the ability to think contrarian as church leaders. We can teach, we can feel, and we can still gather. But our results leave me wondering, do we actually know how to think in ways that demonstrate God was indeed out in front of us. That if He didn’t unequivocally confirm and intimately provide, we were ready to decide not to move ahead?  

 

On the other hand, we can learn to think; the thinking discipline can mature over the whole of our lives. And, this discipline can begin much earlier in life. 

 

I am convinced that younger people can learn the role of spiritual discipline in their lives earlier than we anticipate or plan for. I am convinced that as they build these spiritual disciplines, they will grow “early onset” obedience to what God says to them through His word. 

 

They will make better decisions about the outcomes of their lives. As a result, they will put God, His calling and His assets at the top of their lives. They will make better decisions about education, vocation, marriage, and spending their assets. They will stand stronger against the overwhelming tides that conspire against them. They will learn to think, from God’s point of view. 

 

In our day of cultural uncertainty, the demand for humble yet wise, faithful and righteous leaders will be eternally vital to the residue of true Christians in our nation. And, will help to guide true Christians to mature in their relationship with God and do an ever better job of stewarding His assets. 

 

But to learn to think as a child of God, means that we embrace a few convictions very contrary to our day and age.

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1. We can grow in understanding wisdom first and foremost only from God’s point of view.   “The wisdom of God thus is always consistent with the laws of God—that is, with the Scriptures.” (ICR daily devotional, October 12, 2019, The wisdom of God, 1 Kings 3:28). The source of reliable, safe, wise, eternal thinking is found first in the Bible. Paul tells the Colossians that when he prays for them he asks that, “you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,”  Colossians 1:9

2. The Bible is a source book for many things. Wherever it happens to touch issues of science, medicine, sociology, history, etc. it will be proven to be reliable  and true. Even when some time may be needed to have the world’s knowledge about anyone of these issues to “catch up”. 

3. The primary “reason” for the Biblical revelation is to reveal God Himself. In relationship to Him we discover the purpose and design for His creation of us, those created in His image and likeness. For those who have been born again in His Son Jesus Christ, it is the optimal relational tool. You can find more of my thoughts on that topic in Divine Design: In the beginning (http://books.scpglobal.org). 

4. The power of scripture in this relational aspect is that God intends for us to use it daily as a tool for the Holy Spirit to give us guidance in maturing righteousness and making decisions which he has designed beforehand that we should walk in, as Paul so clearly says in Ephesians 2:10. As we fill our minds with His inspired word, the Spirit feeds the new person within us, providing alert to danger, encouragement for disappointment, calls to righteous obedience, and, even and especially directions for the many decisions that we make daily that are the incarnation of our obedience and His righteousness living through us. 

5. In short, our lives are founded upon scripture. It is our source of life and faith. Our daily lives are bounded by it. The affect is that anything (thoughts, actions, decisions) outside of the revelation of God in His word is always no. Inside of daily life lived rooted in Scripture, and listening to the Holy Spirit, we live 24 hours a day 7 days a week tethered to it and the Spirit. There is great freedom in this. The “environment” that this gives us means that we can be confident that the things that the Spirit brings our way are either yes, or a sanctified no, or maybe. He will ultimately clarify the maybe as we wait for Him to move out in front of us. 

 

I have rapidly outlined these things because they form the backdrop, the crucible, for learning to think. Without them we live at the whims of our flesh, or enticed by the world, or worse, too influenced by satanic forces. I think that this means that any kind of “occupation” that a follower of Jesus is led by the Spirit into, needs this same crucible. We are His, and He wants to orchestrate every dimension of our lives, to our health, and His glory!  

 

Why is it important to think?

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It is important to think because we represent God among His people. Or to say it more bluntly, what people all too often think about us, they think about God. Bible based teaching is important in this regard. But, when it comes to biblical measurements, our lives are more important than our ministries. The ways in which our lives demonstrate what we believe is the maturing result of learning to think, and to think rooted from Scripture, with the harvest being righteousness in action. 

 

This is the potential rub. There is danger in our humanity. As one patriarch warns, “He who watches not this thoroughly, who is not exactly skilled in the knowledge of himself, will never be disentangled from one temptation or another all his days.” (Overcoming Sin and Temptation by John Owen.) 

 

The longer one walks with God on this earth, the more we realize that there is great “protective” importance in eternal and therefore objective truth, in God’s wisdom found in His book, the Bible. 

 

In Hebrews 5:11-6:12, the writer warns the readers that, “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” Danger awaits those who through dull ears no longer really hear, and seek to understand....think!

 

The implications are plain to see. Such people are not acquainted with righteousness. The most obvious measurement of true wisdom is righteousness, seen, felt, lived. “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.” 

 

Such people do not take in mature food, therefore do not know the difference between good and evil. The good which is fed by the Spirit and grows eternal life, and evil which is fed by the world, the flesh and the devil, and grows corruption. “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” 

 

This is precisely the challenge of new life in Jesus. We were created to grow beyond the baby things of entry into salvation. “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity....” We were recreated to grow and walk more every day in the righteousness that has been given to us in Jesus. We were not recreated to continue to walk in the muck of disobedience. 

 

Why? Because it is impossible to “be born again” twice, again and again and again. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is applied to us once when we are born again.  “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” (6:4-6)

 

Even the nature of land that is properly fed to its nature, is to produce a crop. “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” (6:7-8) So, we who have been born again in Jesus produce a crop of righteousness commentate to our new life. 

 

The conclusion is stark and compelling. Don’t allow laziness to enter in, or your hope wavers. Instead, imitate those who have finished the course demonstrating faith and patience and thereby show that they have inherited the promise. “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (6:9-12)

 

Learning to think helps us, and therefore the others for which we are responsible to keep life (through eternity) in focus. To fend off the noise of the contextual truth that seeks to engulf us.

 

The writer challenges us not to simply “try.” God calls us to the constant use of what He has put into His “born again” ones!

 

I have found for myself that there have been phases of learning to think over the 50 years of helping to give leadership to the church. The desire was placed early, I think by observing my father and his constant pursuit to wisdom and understanding. I would hope that it is true that this pursuit rubbed off early in my life and cast the trajectory of my own submission to wisdom and understanding. 

 

What are the phases of life long learning to think?

 

1. Discovery. 

Somewhere, early on, the mind needs to be set on fire by the Spirit to a new level of inquisitiveness. Jesus promised that “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” John 16:13. 

 

The result of the instruction of the Spirit is not just religious confession but instead is distinctive and compelling, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:14-15

 

In order to cooperate with this, we need to set  reading, reflective and hermeneutical disciplines in place to spend time in pursuit of deeper knowledge of God already displayed in His word. We will immediately discover that lots of daily “life space” is demanded in our day of constant tumultuous noise. 

 

Through our time with God in His word we grow in wisdom in the general knowledge of who He is, and the righteousness He designs to mature in us. Additionally, we will mature in greater self awareness and understanding of ourselves  in regards to our gifts, functions and roles in our service to Him. 

 

Along the way, we will mature in knowing  where to go for the right kind of information, and, who to trust. Sadly not everyone who confesses to know God is trustable. This is one of the reasons I only half jokingly say that I prefer to read people who are already dead. I am able to measure not only what they said, but how they lived and finished the course. 

 

My rule of thumb is to stay with thoughts that start and end with explaining scripture. So much of todays Christian, contextually interpretive ideas are too based upon human opinion, too often produce little if any righteous living and are too focused upon gathering people to events that may or may not actually advance us looking and acting like Jesus. 

 

In spite of the present educational, cultural and even church contexts, we need to learn to read with the mind awake to the actual words, the back drop context, the relationship to other similar thoughts, and what it means to my context. This is true with biblical and non biblical literature. 

 

Reading in such a way that we move beyond the facts, to integrating the most important thoughts into our minds, hearts and lives is vital. 

 

2. Growing understanding 

Eventually we learn to cross check everything significant with which we come into contact. No matter what the medium! Spending enough quiet time integrating our learning to date helps to grow parts into wholes. Or to say it another way, we learn to recognize the outcomes of things, rather than just the immediacy of a thought.

 

Eventually we need to begin to document our conclusions: Learning to depend more on Scripture as my first source of truth, rather than other people.

 

3. Integration

Eventually we will become more  settled in the holism of God’s truth, rather than still detailing the pieces out of their natural Divine context. We will be able to explain in our own words, and with our own verbal defenses, what we believe in a way that is both humble and submissive.

 

We will discover that we have integrated enough of truth into our heart and life that the fruit of the Spirit is the evident proof of truth really learned.

 

4. Checking

We are in constant need of checking what other reliable sources are saying about the conclusions we are forming. A matured grid of thinking, now established in my being, gives us the Biblical validity of what is being said by others, and, more importantly, it’s potential outcomes.

 

We will discover that we are becoming able, quickly, with knowledge of who and where, to check new thoughts and discoveries in our own continued pursuit of knowledge and understanding

 

5. Settled

At last. maturity gives rise to quiet conviction and submissiveness to the sovereignty of God. And, we discover that we are able to give significant help to others just beginning on the journey. We are able to cross-check by instinct the words and ideas stirring around in the larger “Christian” world 

 

What are the disciplines to life long learning to think, rooted in the Bible?

 

1. Regeneration

New Birth is also a new beginning. Through it, God opens up the fullest potential possible this side of eternity of the image of Himself in Man.

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The very nature of the divine design imaged upon us, seen in Genesis 1-2 is potentially and partially restored in those who have been born again in Jesus. We are free to think, unbounded to the despotic control of the flesh.  Our thinking has as its goal righteousness, but is also enriched by the righteousness we have already received in Jesus. 

 

2. New birth opens potential new pathways to healing

As we see so clearly in Hebrews 4:12-16, the word of God has been designed by God to bring life long healing. At the moment of natural birth, we are born damaged. Sin has corrupted the image and likeness of God. New birth opens up the pathways for God to begin to heal the residue of the past and progressively heal the gateways that the flesh use to dominate. 

 

We can learn to think in concert with God’s desires as we submit to the Spirit of God using the word of God to enlighten and bring direction. 

 

New birth means that we can embrace each new day as one which is meant by God to be our arena of representing Him and stewarding the assets He places in our hands. 

 

New birth means that we can mature in setting relational disciplines into life: silence, solitude and submission. 

 

3  Our part in the journey of righteousness is to build a pattern of dedicated time into every week when, with the Word as the platform, we read and study. 

 

The Bible is the best starting point for all learning. Any topic one wants to pursue can rise out of Biblical study. Doing so, allows the Spirit of God to begin to build the “holism’s” of God’s story and not just expertise in one or more of the parts.

 

Doing so allows us to see how what others think, actually conforms to Scripture. Doing so reinforces the primacy of Scripture over and in all things.

 

4. Ask those on the journey ahead of me, which authors actually impacted the way they think. Those who want to learn to think, ought not be too swayed away from books that have stood the test of time. If we are to begin with Scripture as the ground for our pursuit, then only those authors, who have been shown to be able to do so, need be consulted.

 

5. Learn how to “eat and digest” what we are reading. The sheer amount of books in the world about any and every topic demands that the thinking person learn how to focus their reading and take out of each relevant book, the information needed to advance understanding.

 

A good discipline is not to underline everything one sees, but to underline only the thoughts most germane to the reason you picked up the book in the first place.

 

Learn to recognize primary thoughts from secondary thoughts. Take note of the primary thoughts, and note them down. Respond to the primary thoughts by recording your “mental dialogue” with them. Jot down as well, any of YOUR conclusions that come to your mind.

 

6. Learn to advance your knowledge into understanding by recording what you are learning. From time to time, create your own documented statements (essay, paper, article, or book). Even if they are incomplete, they reflect the beginning of a more comprehensive understanding on your part, not someone else’s, of the mind and will of God.

 

7. As you move from the discovery phase to the growing integration phase, collate new learning into your growing documentation of the learning to date.

 

If you have been faithful in documenting what you believe as a result of what you read, whether in outline or written out form, growth thoughts will be easy to add.

 

The new growth thoughts will check, correct, reinforce and/or advance what you have already written. The documentation is for you. You are not writing for publication.

 

If, when you have entered fully into the integration and checking phase, God gives you opportunity to publish, so be it. But, the discipline is for your own learning, and obedience.

 

KEY THOUGHT

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Obviously the ideas above do not encompass all of the reading that one will do in a lifetime. But, as surrounded as we are, and as influenced as we have become by form (how we do things) issues, and not function (why we do things) issues, learning to think is a first priority for this generation. 

 

The need is made more urgent because the proliferation of available human knowledge is so readily accessible.  So many of those ideas come encumbered and unchecked as to their presuppositions and motivations.

 

Spending too much time in form books, that will not stand the test of time, and not function books, that have stood the test of time, will: 1. Deter us from the most important truths. 2. Steer us away from the most important issues. 3. Cause us to exacerbate the challenge of nominalism rife in the Church today. 4. Stunt the creative cognitive powers available to all of us as image bearers of the Creator, and unleashed by our rebirth through His Son.

 

Dwight Smith, 

October, 2009

Edited, October, 2019.