Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Mind, Part 1 (2|5)
Pages 100-106
• Strongholds of Evil
• Images Empower Wrong Ideas
• Deliverance from Destructive Ideas and Images
• Information
• Spiritual Formation Requires Thinking
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
2 Corinthians 4:4-5 (NIV) The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV) “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Strongholds of Evil
”The basic ideas of all temptation: God is presented as depriving us by his commands of what is good, so we think we must take matters into our own hands and act contrary to what he has said. This image of God leads to our pushing him out of our thoughts and putting ourselves on the throne of the universe. The condition of the ruined soul and world naturally results. The single most important thing in our minds is our idea of God and the associated images.”
What does this mean and what is your response?
Images Empower Wrong Ideas
“Individuals who suffer from a poor image of themselves are caught up in self-rejection and have no defenses against group pressures. They do not see themselves as the objects of God’s love, and they have no place to make a stand. - Henri Nouwen said: ‘Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.’ Self-rejection is, ultimately, our soul’s reproach to God, deriving from false images of him and his world.”
In what ways do you struggle with self-rejection? How could you accept your image as “God’s Beloved”? How would that change your self-rejection?
Deliverance from Destructive Ideas and Images
“The person and gospel of Jesus Christ - building on simple “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” - is the only complete answer to the false and destructive images and ideas that control the lives of those away from God. The process of spiritual formation in Christ is one of progressively replacing those destructive images with the images and ideas that filled the mind of Jesus himself. We thereby come increasingly to see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Is it possible to “progressively replace destructive images with the images that filled the mind of Jesus himself? Is this what it means to “have the mind of Christ”? (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Information
“Failure to know what God is really like and what his law requires destroys the soul, ruins societies and leaves people to eternal ruin. This is the tragic condition of Western culture today, which has put away the information about God that God himself has made available. Accordingly, the first task of Jesus in his earthly ministry was to proclaim God: to inform those those around him of the availability of eternal life from God through himself. He made it clear that by placing their confidence in himself, ‘believing on him,’ they could immediately enter into the eternal life enjoyed by those in ‘the kingdom of the heavens.’ This is basic information for human life. It was then and is now.”
Is it really that simple - believe on him (Jesus) and you will be granted entrance into ‘the kingdom of heavens’? Do you agree or disagree? Is there more to it?
Spiritual Formation Requires Thinking
“We must apply our thinking to and with the Word of God. We must thoughtfully take that word in, dwell upon it, ponder its meaning, explore the implications - especially as it relates to our own lives. What are we to do in light of the facts of the gospel and the revelation of God and of human destiny contained in the Bible? We must ‘pay greater attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it’ (Hebrews 2:1) We must thoughtfully put it into practice. We must seek the Lord by devoting our powers of thinking to understanding the facts and information of the gospel. This is the primary way of focusing our minds on him, setting him before us.”
Reflect on the gospel (New Testament) as basic information about reality - Is that a good way to think of it? What are the alternatives to thinking of it in that way?
EXTRA READING:
“The outcome or the fruit of reading Holy Scriptures is by no means negligible: it is the fullness of eternal happiness. These are the books which tell us of eternal life, which were written, not only that we might believe, but also that we might have everlasting life. The purpose of the Scriptures, which come to us might have everlasting life. The purpose of the Scriptures, which come to us from God, is to lead us to the fullness of the truth. In order to achieve this, we must study holy Scripture carefully, and teach it and listen to it in the same way.”
- Bonaventura de Balneoregio; born Giovanni di Fidanza (1221 - 1274)