How I Am Starting to Think More Biblically

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. The you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good, and pleasing and perfect.” (Romans 12:2 NLT)

I had a memorable history teacher in my ninth-grade year at Punahou in Honolulu. This charismatic Samoan man named Al Harrington was a local entertainer who also played a bit part in the Hawaii 5-0 series as investigator Ben Kokua. Besides throwing erasers at students if he caught them not paying attention, he gave us some practical life lessons. One of them I have never forgotten. He would assign us papers to write for class and he left us with this sage advice. “Do you know how to start to write a paper?,” he would say, with all of our attention on him, waiting for another one of his gems of wisdom (and not wanting to get hit by an eraser!) “START to write the paper!”

This advice was kind of obvious, a bit corny but full of wisdom! When we simply start something that we need to start something amazing can occur.  The ideas that are bottled up often begin to break through the mental dam and flow into a stream of more ideas for us to write. I have written about the problem of “biblical illiteracy” in the American church. That sounds a bit overwhelming for us to tackle individually. It is a well-documented problem, and it explains why there is so much false ideology influencing how we in churches interpret the Bible here in the U.S. Rather than allowing the Bible to influence how we interpret the culture, far-left ideology is now influencing how we interpret the Bible!

So, I have taken stock of myself, “to start to look at the man in the mirror” as Michael Jackson sang in the 1980’s. I need to start saturating my mind with the word God once again. “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom He gives.” (Colossians 3:16 NLT) I need to begin to see the word of God again as the key provision I have to see through the lies and deception and live today courageously for Christ. ‘All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare his people to do every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT) And if a prominent author, pastor or author is teaching something that seems a bit off I need to become like the Bereans who, though they eagerly listened to Paul’s message they “searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth.” (Acts 17:11 NLT)

So what have I started and what can each of us start so we can begin to impact our culture through biblical thinking and stop being impacted in our faith by cultural anti-Christ, unbiblical teaching?

I have started to consider the time I spend on my mobile device. I have looked at how much time am I glued to the computer screen or the television? Even in reading good books, and I love to read, I need to honestly ask, “Has that taken the place of saturating my mind with the word of God?” Filling up with these other things is eating a diet of MacDonalds’ and Taco Bell and realizing we have no appetite left for what is healthy and nutritious.  So along with my morning daily quiet time I have found at night before I read something or look at my phone, I use the “Daily Bread” guide for reading through the Bible in a year. If I am to be thinking biblically, I need to make that a priority and put it into practical action.

“Sow a thought, reap a deed, sow a deed, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character, reap a destiny.”-unknown.