THEOLOGY CORONOR

Ah, for His glory and delight!

     When my thinking is completely devoted to God, I find myself in His presence. The more I am in His presence, the more I desire Him. Renewing my mind can only better renew and transform my heart. (Piper 2010, 86). The true treasure and “fires of delight” are God Himself. The delight is being in His very presence. The more we know about who we love the more we love who we know. As we grow in our love of God, the second commandment naturally follows. We are to love our neighbor. So what might the fires of delight look like in Asia?
I have lots of neighbors in Asia, in Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in Soi 7. So I’m getting to know them, invite them into my home, share a meal with them. As I get to know them, I’m learning to love them. This is becoming a familiar process. It starts with my first learning to better love God with my mind. I’ve learned that this is a daily routine involving His word, prayer, and fellowship. Then the application that naturally follows is my truly loving of others. Sometimes people notice when they are loved. God certainly does. And it pleases Him.
In our international home group, we first studied how believers can be deceived. We learned that it starts and finishes in our thinking. Now we are starting a new study on prayer. God said to pray without ceasing. He has said this, and modeled much more, in His Word. We intend to know more about this command to pray. Prayer, at its best, is praying in agreement with the will, or the mind of God. To pray the mind of Christ requires knowing more of that mind, knowing Him, thinking His thoughts, His way, for His purposes. It comes back to the knowing God is loving God. We are created to be intimate with God. We are created in His image.
We are created to know, and to love God. He started it.

Good night, and thanks for listenig

Oh, to think like Christ…

But even as we press on with the mind of Christ, anchored in good doctrine, problems continue. The tempter is still battling for control of the mind of man. Man’s return to obeying God is possible. It starts with our surrendering control of ourselves to God. This includes the mind. Intentional thinking is required and is evidence that the mind of Christ is in us. More evidence comes as we grow daily, as we obey God each moment. The Bible says the clearest evidence is that we love one another.

Just like in the garden, every man gets to answer to the question “Did God really say…?”. It becomes clear the importance to study to show ourselves approved, to really know what He has said. The heavenly host is watching us reenact the whole story of the fall, one day, one step, one question, at a time. Amazingly, this is for His glory and His delight.  

Yeah, but remember that old guy told us this is the way…

     Early Church Fathers offer some direction if not renewal of Christian thinking. It’s always a good time to return to our first love. Again, the battle today may feel new, but the old original tactics are the same.
Augustine for example was aware that the ‘technologies of reason’, being tools, were created as an attempt to reconcile the separation of reason and faith. Augustine addresses being made one in the Divine. Clearly this involved the mind. According to McCullough, Augustine offered ideas how to better renew the mind. He recognized the quagmire of human reason apart from faith, i.e. the mind focused on material reality over the spiritual reality, or God. (Augustine, AD400. IX.2.13). This meant continued renewal in the mind was needed. For Augustine this is achieved by focusing on the spiritual, non-created truths. A goal of Augustine was to better understand, with the renewing help of the ‘technologies of reason’, what it means to create, in the mind,. By this he meant to think ‘Christianly’. He was seeking to be, by faith, renewed and transformed in the image of God, and to live, thinking Christ. (McCullough 2002, 17).

It’s mine…mine…mine!

The result has been the decrease in faith in a divinely-ordained natural order. This exclusive human thought and rejection of the divine has resulted in the preeminence of self-determination. This has become the preferred process of discovery. Fri instance, self actualization has become a core value in American culture. Secular thinking has become independent, ignoring God as relevant. Ultimately secular thought denies that God exists. Even theological thinking has often been seduced by the secular world’s application of ‘technologies of reason’, particularly in science. For instance creation versus evolution is the great battleground of reason versus faith. Despite his best efforts, the Christian man continues to lose his directions.

So who know what’s going on?

Back then, as now, the enemy tries to redirect or get man to change his focus, creating doubt. First, the temptation is to get the focus changed to man’s thinking, not God’s. Secondly, there is a subtle challenge to change the foundations or basis of understanding. With this comes the rejection of God’s Word, in favor of man’s own developing understanding and control of the universe. Thirdly, the goal of these efforts is to achieve mastery and independence of creation, and from the creator.

(McCullough 2002, 3).

Are we there yet?

In McCullough’s article “Renewing the Technological Mind” some historical tools of reason are described, tools for engaging in intellectual transformation and renewal. (2002, 2). These tools and the historical seasons of man they reflect are influenced by the science, philosophy, and achievements of secular man. Unfortunately, the influences often are to the detriment of theological thought. The battle may continue in new intellectual territories. But the tactics remain the same.

You did say there’s hope. right?

“Our emotions and intuitions are shaped by our intellect, which is shaped by our will.” (McCullough 2002, 14). This is evidence of the problem. The regenerate mind is to have the mind of Christ. Then, and only then, can man’s will be subordinate. The will or self is to follow and be shaped by the mind of Christ. Then the intuitions and emotions fall more into order. This is partly realized in the moment of salvation (justification). Yet we sometimes experience the process as transforming us over time, (sanctification). This is how we can daily have more of the mind of Christ. Jesus Christ Himself can become the dominating element in our thought process. Some say this is not ‘reasonable’. It is hard, because we first have to obey (agree and follow what He has said in His Word), before we fully understand or know it for a fact. And here is where faith’s preeminence is reinstated. It starts with the free gift of the faith of Christ. Then we develop our faith in Christ. First comes the obedience, then comes the rest of the story, the delights of loving God with our minds. And still the battle is not over.

OK, I’M IN… A BATTLE?

The battle is between the old will and the new conscience. There is historical and biblical precedent for this battle. Certainly our emotions and feelings, reason and faith, are in the middle of this battle. In man’s history, there has been an ebb and flow of this battle for the mind. There are mixed results, but always hope.

OK, SO…

      Be transformed by the renewing of the mind. (Romans 12:2). This is what God has called us to do. He provides the way through observing principles in His Word and relationally through the Holy Spirit. It’s one thing to be saved, born again, made perfect and new in the Spirit. But in the meantime, what about the mind? Here is where much of the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification takes place. In Mohler’s article, “The Way the World Thinks”, the conflict is described as the intellect (or conscience) being at war with the will. (2011, 8). At the fall, man’s will became preeminent, self became the primary focus. But with salvation, transformation and renewal of the mind directly challenges this preeminence, and reworks the mind into God becoming the primary focus. The Holy Spirit guides this process as He occupies our conscience. This is what the cross made possible. First the spirit of man is reborn from it’s state of death. It is made alive, and clean by the sacrificial death of Christ and His blood. This makes possible the indwelling of the Spirit. Man becomes a new creature. He then can be called a Christian. And now, the battle for the mind is engaged. The Christian is commanded to love God. Man is restored to loving God by first being redeemed and then renewing the mind. To know and love God requires being actively engaged in Christian thinking. To do this is to enter into a great battle.

     YES, SO WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

     At the fall, the sinless Adam became imperfect. He disobeyed God by doing what he knew God had told him not to do. The battle was first lost in Adam’s mind. He knew better. His thinking was no longer God-centered. His intellect was corrupted. He no longer is able to know God as God had intended. Man had chosen to think only for himself and he lost the delight of knowing God. He lost the opportunity to walk in the cool of the evening with His Creator. The intimacy was shattered. The like-mindedness gone. The sting of battle had begun. But if the battle for man’s mind was engaged at the fall, the victory for the battle of his mind was won at the cross. The work of the cross made way for the transformation and renewal of the mind.