Chapter 38 - The Mind of Christ

Chapter 38 amplified our understanding on The Mind of Christ using 7 Bible passages, as follows:

1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Philippians 2:1-11
Hebrews 5:11-6:3
Isaiah 11:1-5
1 Peter 4:1-6
Romans 8:5-11
Matthew 13:10-17

(Note: If you would like to look up these passages online, there are many online Bibles you could use. Here is one link: http://www.studylight.org/.)

Invocation:

“You, O Christ, who were tempted in all points like as I am, yet without sin, make me strong to overcome the desire to be wise and to be reputed wise by others as ignorant as myself. I turn from my wisdom as well as from my folly and flee to You, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Amen.” (A. W. Tozer in The Knowledge of the Holy)

Hymn:

The hymn for Chapter 38 was “I Want to Be Like Jesus” by Thomas Chisholm. (If you are not familiar with the song, just Google the hymn name and you will get multiple sources to read and/or hear it, as well as its history.)

Benediction:

“O Christ, I want the Spirit within me to duplicate nothing – nothing except You. For I want no manifestation that doesn’t manifest You – manifest You in Your sanctity and Your sanity. For You are life. Amen.” (E. Stanley Jones in The Way to Power and Poise)

Meditation Selections:

The meditation selections included excerpts from the writings of Oswald Chambers, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charles R. Erdman, William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther, H. Orton Wiley, W. Paul Jones, Karl Rahner, Gayle D. Erwin, and Alec Motyer. (Googling their names may give you some insight into their backgrounds and experiences, if that's of any interest to you.)

Some of the interesting quotes from the meditations included:

· “By sanctification the Son of God is formed in me, then I have to transform my natural life into a spiritual life by obedience to Him. …When He begins to check, do not confer with flesh and blood, cleanse yourself at once. Keep yourself cleansed in your daily walk. I have to cleanse myself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit… Is the mind of my spirit in perfect agreement with the life of the Son of God…? Am I forming the mind of Christ? …by degrees Jesus lifts me up to where He lived – in perfect consecration to His Father’s will.”
· “We have to learn to maintain an unimpaired state of character up to the last notch revealed in the vision of Jesus Christ. …To be unspiritual means that other things have a growing fascination for you.”
· “God never gives us discernment in order that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.”
· “The gift which the Holy Spirit creates in us is not uncertainty, but assurance and discernment. Thus we are enabled to walk in the Spirit and to walk in assurance.”
· Facilitator’s question: Is the mind of Christ the metric we should use for every spiritual issue?
· “Paul proposed that there should be no censorship nor obstruction to the systematic search for truth. This implies that the spiritual man is capable of evaluating properly the good and evil he confronts…”
· “Christ Jesus … made himself nothing. He made himself nothing, emptied himself – the great kenosis. He made himself no reputation, no image. …Reputation is so important to me. …But Jesus made himself of no reputation.”
· “If a friend does something which puzzles us, we might ask what it was that he ‘had in mind’ in doing it. …There is great stress (in Philippians 2) that the great change (from God to man) came about by voluntary decision. Verse 7 says he emptied himself, and verse 8, he humbled himself. In each case the reflexive expression points to personal decision and action.”

What do any of these quotes (or any of the meditations in Chapter 38 not quoted) mean to you? Please post your responses to the blog site:
(http://lhcndeeperlifeclass.blogspot.com/).

Thanks for your participation.
John