In Nehemiah chapter 6, we read that the wall of Jerusalem was finished in 52 days. What a feat this was!
However, before it was finished Sanballat and Geshem tried five times to meet with Nehemiah and hinder the building of the wall of Jerusalem.
Seeing that Nehemiah would not meet with them, they hired Shemaiah as a false prophet who told Nehemiah that they should meet in the temple that night with the doors shut, because they were coming to kill him by night. Here also, Nehemiah refused to meet with Shemaiah.
How did he know to do this? To say no to some one who looked like a prophet? Read verses 12 and 13 below:
"And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. " (Nehemiah 6:12-13)
Friends, Nehemiah was a man who studied God's Word and knew His Ways. He used his mind. He was discerning.
Today, there are so many false teachers out there, who call themselves prophets and the like. We, too, like Nehemiah, must be grounded in the Scriptures and be discerning and think. We must think.
So many of us think about retirement, think about work, think about family, think about literature and art, yet when it comes to our faith, we hear people say it is not about what we think, but it is what is in our heart and what we feel.
That is false. The Lord Jesus said we should love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Mark 12:30) So, we must love God with heart and mind.
Writing about speaking, I would like to share a few more thoughts on this. This weekend Desiring God, the ministry of John Piper, is having their National Conference. It is entitled:
Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God.
John Piper has already written a book on this that he just released:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Store/Books/907_Think/
I have not read it, but it is on my list to do so in the near future.
Additionally, here are two quotes from the book about what thinking is and what is the purpose of the mind, respectively:
“It’s about using the means God has given us to know him, love him, and serve people,” explains John Piper. “Thinking is one of those means. I would like to encourage you to think, but not to be too impressed with yourself when you do.”
Soli Deo Gloria.
Today's post was submitted by Russ Shellhamer.
The problem with our mind is it can be deceived in order to get us to rebel against God.
ReplyDeleteThe enemy usually attacks first through our emotions: Something comes into our path which entices our emotions. It allures and arouses us and our emotions start to be seduced. We desire it because of our lust or pride! Our emotions start to deceive our mind. “Come on it won’t be that bad”. “No one will see” “It will feel so good” “These are good people, they just want to help” As the temptation progresses in our mind, we start to reason and rationalize why it isn’t so bad to fulfill the temptation before us Once our mind becomes deceived, our will chooses to sin. Yes our mind is a beautiful creation when it is submitted to the Lordship of Christ. When we choose to obey God, our mind, intellect, talents and soul are transformed by God’s Spirit and Word to bring us into a closer walk with Him. We start to have the mind of Christ. Without a submission of our will to God, our understanding of God is limited by the amount of gray matter between our ears. God only becomes as big as we can reason Him to be. But as we submit, our mind is transformed by the revelation knowledge of God’s Word This in turn affects our whole being: emotions, intellect and spirit and with God all things become possible.