Discipline of the Mind - 6.2

Welcome to The Student Podcast. This is where two guys get together and we discuss and learn how to be students of Jesus Christ. So good to have you today. So the day is coming. Yeah. What's the due date? December 20th. December 20th. It's a, I don't know, a projected due date, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a guest date. Yeah. Guest date. So anytime, I mean, she's 34 weeks now, so she's technically not preterm. She'd be late preterm now. And that's going to be exciting for you guys. Term is 37. So every week he's been in there, it's just blessing from the Lord. You know, okay. One week closer to a better outcome on one week closer and you know, 34 weeks so far with him. I'm really grateful for that. So, Praise the Lord. That's great.
I think this is the, uh, she enters into the highly uncomfortable phase. Yeah. She's getting more and more ready where she'd be like, yeah, I'm ready to have this baby out of me. I'm going to give him the eviction notice. Yeah. But also I think birth is just a completely new and unknown. So there's like that both sides of that coin. So yeah. Yep. How are you feeling about it? Excited. I don't know. I really just want to meet him. You just feel him move in there and kick her out and like you can It's just like so obviously a just a little person in there. I just want to meet you.
Yeah at the same time like not feel grossly underprepared to be someone in charge of taking care of his life and responsible for him. And like, I don't know, the trip just so gracious with everything at the shower. So that made us feel a lot more prepared than we were before that. Oh good.
Because it was like, Oh, if he comes today, I don't know what we're going to do. Cause like, yeah, we just, yeah. It was funny cause Think now that was in the 20 or so week range and women are asking me. So like, what are you doing? You're ready So, but yeah, we are more prepared than we were let's put it that way, okay. Oh OK, do you feel like, you know, if if you guys are driving home and she says, oh, it's the day you'd you guys would be OK?
Yeah. Are there any major things that you're like, oh, we really need this first? We don't quite have a functioning place for him to sleep. We need some bedding. OK. And we don't quite have a functioning place to change him. So does that just mean you have it, but it's not set up? We have it.
So like the pack and play is set up, but we don't have any bedding for it. So like, I guess he could sleep in there if we want to, but I would rather have a little bit of barrier there. And we have a changing table, but the mattress doesn't have anything on it. So we either need a different mattress that's waterproof or we need like some sort of a cover for it.
Let me speak from experience. Get the waterproof mattress. Yeah. Well, that's the thing is like, On Amazon, like all the covers are just cloth and all the mattresses aren't waterproof. Like there's two or three mattresses that are waterproof for sale on Amazon. And part of me just scratched my head like, why would you create a semi permeable membrane that you know is going to be exposed? Yeah, I know.
So it's yeah. So we're keeping our eye out for something like that. All right. Well, good, good. Yeah. Well, I would just encourage you to get the plastic one. Yeah. At least with the cover. Wipe down and be done with it rather than having to do laundry all the time. Yeah.
No, no, we did a plastic like cushion for the changing table. Sure. Like it was, sorry, it was a cushion and it had plastic, but then we also put like a cover over it. So Olivia would, you know, if the kid peed on it, she would take that off and throw it in the wash and clorox wipe it down, you know, right.
Um, but what a weird way to start this podcast, man. Yeah. That's a plan of the mind. There you go. Yeah. I was wondering what we were actually on. Cause it's been a very hot second since we've been in this. Yeah. Yeah. We've uh, we've taken a long break. I was thinking about that. How, uh, When was the last time we met for this? Well, let's see.
That would have been early October. I think early October, late September, because there was one week where you let me skip out and you helped me fix the camper instead. And that was. That was beginning of October because we were going out to, um, we're headed out to Geneva college for, Oh, that's right. For homecoming and for my niece's baptism. That's right. So yeah, probably late September though. Yeah. So you've, you've had almost a whole semester of school. Yeah. You've read a whole bunch of books. Yeah. Well, not books, but figures and yeah, notes and such. So, well, why don't we go ahead and pray and then we'll we'll jump into it. Sure.
Father, thank you so much for this day. Lord, thank you for getting Simon down safely from Iowa City. Thank you for the brotherhood that you have given us. Lord, we thank you and we rejoice. that we have friends. We thank you for the work of your Holy Spirit and we pray that this would be a time that we would grow in challenging each other, in admonishing each other, and in encouraging each other.
In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right. So, uh, last time I feel like what we did largely with discipline of the mind was talk about, uh, what not to do. Yeah. We talked, we pooh poohed on TV. We pooh poohed on, uh, social media. We pooh poohed on just about everything. Um, but it kind of left us in a place where if all you did was that'd be pretty much fundamentalism, you know, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Um, And so the question I think that he starts leading us into now is, okay, so what do you think about?
How do you cultivate a mind, the mind of Christ? And so what does he call that on, well your pages are different, middle of the chapter he takes a turn here. Yeah, he calls it intentional programming. The first section he talked about the passage in Philippians, it says, you know, whatever is lovely, whatever is true, pure, good reporting on these things. And he flipped that around to what not to think about the opposite of that. Now he's kind of going back and saying, OK, well, the truth and ability, the righteousness, the purity, the loveliness, admirability, excellence, praiseworthiness. These are the things we have to think about. And he kind of dives into like what that word think is as a deliberate and prolonged contemplation as if one is weighing a mathematical problem.
The word being the same word we get logarithm from. Yeah. Yeah. This is important. Logitsomai. I was going to leave the Greek pronunciation to you. But he's right with that, right? And he talks about garbage in, garbage out from computer programming.
I stole this illustration in my sermon on Psalm 19. And so that's how long it's been. Halfway through the year, I read this chapter. When I wrapped up Joshua, I did a one-take series on the word. I stole this story. Do you remember the story he talked about with General Harrison? Yeah, I do remember that. Now that's coming back. I remember you mentioning that now that you say that in the sermon.
Yeah, yeah, that's quite a story. Where this guy who was at World War II, he led the charge into Belgium, the Allied force charge, and what he read by the time he was 90, the Old Testament 70 times and the New Testament 280 times. That's a lot of reading there. Yeah, that's pretty incredible.
I was thinking about, there's a guy, I know his name is Benjamin Voss. His grandfather was J.G. Voss. And he took a picture one time of the back cover, like the inside back cover of his grandfather's Greek New Testament. And every single year, his grandfather read through his Greek New Testament.
And I just thought, That's amazing. Yeah. In the Greek language. Yeah. And in Greek. Yeah. So he read it every single year in Greek. And so, but just thinking like this guy's at war or Voss is busy teaching classes, doing all these things. And these very important men are reading God's word. Right. All the time. And so I just thought it was, I thought that was a great way that he pointed out. General Harrison's story tells us two things.
First, it is possible even for the busiest of us to systematically feed on God's word.
Second, his life remains a demonstration of a mind programmed with God's word. His closest associates say that every area of his life, domestic, spiritual, and professional, and each of the great problems he faced was informed by the scriptures. I thought that was a pertinent challenge.
If the dude's at the battlefront, and he's still able to read his Bible. What reason do I have not to read? Now let me know, you're at PA school and in the doldrums of studying, do you find this to be a difficult challenge that he's laying before you? I find it difficult when I make a habit of not reading God's word. When I'm reading God's word, this is easy.
I even was talking on campus with some other Christian students and we were talking about redeeming the time because the days are evil and how we spend our time and how we can make the best use of our time and just how easy it is even as students. You know, we're studying, studying, studying, studying, and then we can come up with so many excuses for why we didn't read God's word that day. You know, the 15 minutes you have before a class starts, what are you doing? You know, watching Netflix or YouTube or, you know, coming home and you're just, it is so easy. And I've noticed even in my own life, when you miss one day in God's word, it's easier to miss two days. When you miss two days in God's word, it's easier to miss three days. And it's almost as if Forming the habit forms the habit.
Yeah, right. It kind of builds on itself and I've noticed that like, yeah, it's busy But if you you fit it in I mean you only have 24 hours a day. What are you gonna do? You're gonna spend that time doing something. Yeah, right I could spend it doing studying and it's not really gonna do anything for me I could spend it entertaining myself, you know And that's not necessarily redeeming the time if I spend it this way in a systematic way, it's easy but how easy it is to come up with excuses and be like Well, God, I don't have time. And everyone has time. This guy had time.
Yeah. I mean, it's it's it's just true. Yeah. Right. We we prioritize the things that are important to us. And so I'm sure General Harrison missed out on certain things. Mm hmm. Because he prioritized it. And so I think part of the, I'm reading this book right now, Atomic Habits, it's here on the shelf. Not everything, I don't like everything in it. It takes a behavioralist bent at times. Not at times, quite a bit. But he talks about, for habits to become sticky, they actually have to be valuable to us. They have to be something that we desire. And so making a habit a desirable thing. I've been having fun.
One of the deacons at the church, when I was preaching on Psalm 19, he didn't realize how valuable honey was in the ancient world. And so he, he bought me some honeycomb. And I think maybe I shared some honeycomb with him. I've been sharing honeycomb with everybody. I'm like, have you ever had honeycomb? It's like, I'm sure people think I'm weird, but my, my mother-in-law was just here last week and I was like, Hey mom, have you ever had honeycomb? And she was like, I've had honey. And I was like, no, no, no. Have you ever had honey from the honeycomb? She's like, I don't think so. And I was like, let me give you some. Yeah. But the point is, you know, Psalm 19, it's more valuable than gold, sweeter than honey. Yeah.
And just like, do we, we're not going to do it. Most of us do not have enough willpower just to grind through it. But is it something that we desire? Is communing with God, listening to God, something that is prioritized in our soul? And I think sometimes, I mean, I'll be the first one to admit it for anyone who's listening. reading God's word is not always easy, right? We don't, I mean, I don't desire to read God's word a lot of the time. And I think a lot of making a habit that is desirable is asking God, change my desires.
I don't desire your word as I ought, change my desires. And at the end of the day, if you don't desire it, God still told you to do it, right? And sometimes it is, grit to start obeying God, but God promises blessing in that obedience. And as we do it, it becomes that honey to the honeycomb.
And even, you know, recently struggled to get into God's word on a regular basis, like something's missing, you know? because there had been a habit of getting into God's word. And then all of a sudden you pull that block out. It's like pulling a block out of the Jenga tower. It's like, wait, you know, you know, something's missing.
And I think that's what Christ is talking about when he was tempted. He's like, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And for the Christian who's truly depending on God's word, it is that food for the soul, something you depend on. Yeah, and yet at the same time, I know a whole lot of people who well-meaning, well-intentioned evangelical people, some of these people I'm related to, and some of them are in glory, so they know the Lord far better than I do now, have said things along the lines of, you know, like, well, I did my devotion, so I got my happy shot today.
Man, I've been reading through Ezekiel and before that, Lamentations, and before that, Jeremiah lately, and it's just like, Sometimes it's not easy to read. There are things in Ezekiel that I scratch my head about. There are things in Ezekiel that make me want to shut the Bible because this is hard to hear. And it's, I think there's a, where I'm going with this is some people use this almost like a, you know, a, a talisman. Like, Oh, if, if I just read God's, the word today, then my day's going to go okay. It's kind of like, no, it's, it's not a recipe for just having a good day.
It's a question of, Are you reorienting your heart and your mind day in and day out? And I recognize this, right? Because there was a period of time where, I mean, I haven't gotten out of a Bible reading habit for a long time, but it's been a couple years since I've just read through the Bible in a year, just for my own edification, just for doing it myself. So there's not a day that has gone by that I haven't been in the Lord's Word somehow in years. But I went ahead and just picked it back up. to systematically read through. And I have been shocked at how many times I'm like, oh, I forgot about that. How have I not picked up on that imagery before?
Like, I was really struck this past week with the freshness of the imagery in Ezekiel when he says, you know, the elders come and they sit before him. Ezekiel has his vision and he tells him to dig through the wall. As he's digging through the wall, there's a door. He opens the door and there's the elders and the elders have all sorts of unclean things and images and there are all sorts of idols in this dark room. He says, this is what's going on in the elders hearts. I know the idols in the hidden places of their hearts.
And it was like, I had totally forgot that imagery. As God's saying, I'm not going to listen to them. And so I think for myself, and if I'm any type of normal person, we forget vast amounts of material we read. And so coming to the Lord's word again and again and again is this constant renewal, constant refreshing, constant reminding that I've been having a blast lately. Not every day. There's mornings where my mind drifts off and I have to write down whatever I'm thinking about and then say, okay, I'm going to come back to that. I have to reread the page that I was just reading. But prioritizing, what's most important. I mean, prioritize YouTube. Right. Yeah. I got a few minutes for that. Right. Prioritize spending time with Olivia. The question is, what are you investing in? Right. I think that's what he's getting at with discipline of the mind here is that with scripture, uh, as we read God's word and we become in a pattern of spiritual discipline, then it self-feeds. Good habits feed good habits. Bad habits feed bad habits.
And so after he quotes Psalm 119, huge acrostic for the Lord's word, what's he want us to remember? He talks about how you cannot be profoundly influenced by that which you do not know, which is maybe stating the obvious, but it's true. You can't talk about how the Lord's Word is profitable for instruction, correction, reproof. got that wrong, but instruction and righteousness that the man of God may complete. And you know, God's word is honey.
Okay. It's one thing to know that. Then it's like, okay, go, go read it. Right. Um, you know, the water's there. Go drink. Um, you know, the bread of life is there. Go eat. And, um, I think like you're talking about not just cherry picking God's word, because it can be, you can be influenced by one part of God's word and be missing out on 90% of God's word. You're not knowing the 90% of God's Word, but coming to the whole counsel of God and being enriched by it, challenged by it, convicted by it. Yeah, I love it, right? The way to a Christian mind is through God's Word. Yeah. You know, I really just appreciate his bluntness sometimes.
Just like he was blunt before, you can't have a Christian mind if you're just watching television all day. In our generation, you can't have a Christian mind if all you're doing is watching TikTok all day. So what do you do? How are you renewed in your mind? Well, we go to the Word, we're washed in the Word, we're instructed by the Word, we're corrected by the Word, we're approved by the Word, we're trained by the Word. And so if we want to have a Christian mind, we go to the Word. But he warns us against my practice, I guess. No, he doesn't warn us against my practice, but what's he warning in that paragraph after that? Uh, he talks about being aware of Bible reading legalism.
Um, uh, you know, if I read the Bible every year, check good, good Christian, or kind of like you were talking about, you know, I had my dose of the Bible today, you know, it's a good day. And you know, in some sense, I understand what people mean by that. There's not saying that there's not benefit in reading God's word every day or reading through the Bible every day. Um, but I was, I was reading another book about, Elders, and it talked about, you know, immersing yourself in God's word day in, day out, hour by hour, any free time, just get into God's word. But then after that, he talked about be mastered by God's word.
Right. You can take in as much as you want. And if you're just taking it in for the taking in and it's not doing anything in between those years, you know, not sinking down in your heart and bearing fruit. Are you really doing much for your soul? Yeah. So I think I think what he talked about earlier, being influenced by God's word, not just being like, OK, I have to read God's word today.
It's my quiet time. Check done. You know, I got through the Bible this year. Check done. Oh, I know all the books, the Bible, whatever. Like, no. Do you know God's word? Is it taking root in your heart and is it bearing fruit and changing? Exactly, yeah, you know, is it living and active sharper than any two-edged sword? Is it convicting you? Is it teaching you? Is it reproving you? Is it correcting you? Is it building you up so that you could do the righteous deeds that God's called you to do?
You know, one of the dangers actually that seminary students have is this. And this is a huge problem at seminary is students will come into seminary and they'll have read quite a bit of God's word. And then what happens often at seminary is they start reading about God's word and then they lose, some seminary students really do lose the ability to be under the word. because they're so busy reading about it, studying over it. So instead of the word mastering them, they end up feeling like they've mastered the word. It's kind of like, I could memorize every declension in the world, and I could parse every single participle in the New Testament, but if it doesn't change my affections, I am no better than the heathen who hates it.
And so, Yeah, this Bible legalism, right? I regularly tell people who are starting their Bible reading plans, just pick a book like Mark. It's quick moving. Choose one story and read that story. Not the whole chapter, just heading to heading. I was just talking to a guy about this the other week with his family devotions. He really wanted to start doing family worship with his children and having them be meaningful. And so I was just telling him, you know, go pericope by pericope, you know, one story to another story and then stop and ask yourselves, you know, different questions about it and ask your kids, interact with it and see how well that sticks.
And I was really encouraged. He got a hold of me. We went out to lunch a couple of weeks later and he was like, this has been great. Like as soon as I got rid of this idea that I had to read a chapter every time. But we just know we're going to deal with one complete unit of thought and we're going to talk about that. And then if it's five verses, it's five verses. If it's half a chapter, it's half a chapter. If it's a full chapter, it's a full chapter. But it's easier because you know that this is one unit of thought. And so I agree with him on this.
On our website, every year we publish, you know, a couple dozen different Bible reading plans. I just just read one. If you're the type of person that you there's one reading plan we we've linked on their professor, someone reading plan, and it's not even Like it's literally you read eight different parts of the Bible a day and you just read one chapter in those eight different parts and you do that. I did that for a couple months and I was like, wow, that's great.
But it was like, I don't have that much time to devote to this. Um, there's a lot of other reading I needed to do and a lot of other work. Um, it's not poopooing on anybody doing it. That's probably poopooing on myself. Um, But I think he's wise to just say don't be legal about it, legalistic about it. What do you think about the listening to the scriptures part? Yeah. Do you think that's do you think that's legit? Yeah, I don't know. I, I like doing that.
Uh, especially so I've been, there's a, a guy at school who spent a few years in Ecuador and uh, he's fluently bilingual and I used to be fairly bilingual in Spanish and he's kind of, provoked me to get back into Spanish. Well, you know, I learn all day. I read all day. I really just get home and have a headache. I really don't want to just like learn more. It's like, what can I do that I'm already doing?
Just do it in Spanish. Well, duh, I could get back into God's word in Spanish because I got I used to read the Bible in Spanish. So part of just not only. He not only soaking up God's word, but just actually learning the language again, I've I've found a Spanish translation and just listen to it by audio to get the pronunciation back and just the flow back in. So that's been helpful to me. Yeah. And that, but no, um, listening to God's word is great, especially when you're doing something else. I think it's one way. I mean, we're supposed to do this for our children, right? Tell them that while they're walking, you know, that's not them reading and running into a brick wall. That's you telling it to them. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Well, one of my favorite things to do, uh, is in the summertime when I have a lot of time on the lawnmower is I'll actually just put on my audio Bible on my earbuds and I'll listen to it. I especially like to do that when I'm about to start a preaching series. Cause then I'll listen to the whole book multiple times. and just listen cover to cover, or sorry, beginning to end of the book again and again and again.
So I'm kind of being confronted about nuances. And I'm just, so again, there's a guy in our congregation who works by himself. And so he's not allowed to bring in any other materials. It's a very tedious job. But he's allowed to have his audio Bible.
And so, he listens to the Bible about three times a year. I mean, cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation, he listens to it every day. When he gets to work, he presses play, and it plays over the speakers in his office, and that's what he does. Like when I first met him, I was like, oh, that's interesting, because I was asking him about his Bible reading time. He's like, well, I listen to the Bible.
And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And so I started talking about it. No, no. That's that's my devotions. I do it while I'm at work. I listen to the Bible three times a year. And I was like. That's really cool, man. Yeah. Yeah. Or even just, um, there's some really great resources for the word sung. Um, the corner room does a really good job of just like singing straight scripture, um, word for word out of the ESV. Uh, a Psalter project is one I really like where they just, they just sing actual God's word. And like, I'll do that when I'm running, just like, you know, put it in. It's like, well, you're going to do something. I need something to listen to. Um, so. Yeah, that's another way to just surround ourselves in God's Word and be immersed in it, especially that can open up new time slots in our day where otherwise we might not be in God's Word.
Yeah, and I think it's helpful as well to remember that when both the Old Testament and the New Testament were written, Yeah, people were literate, but there were portions of the church that were illiterate. Right. And so, you know, hearing the word, when Paul wrote a letter to the church, he said, make sure this one's also read in Laodicea. And by the way, the letter I wrote to Laodicea, I want you guys to read that one as well. Yeah. Show and tell here. Yeah.
But it's just this reality that you can read, it's good, hear it, right? So you're talking about whatever your ability, you must read and study God's word. McShane's calendar for Bible reading is really good, the Bible is really good, topical guide to daily devotional Bible, really good, the Bible on audio cassette. I was listening to that on the way down just to refresh and I was like, Audio cassette, huh?
Mine says the U version app. That's a little bit more 2022. Get the U version app or I think it's just like the Bible app or something now and just press play. How amazing is that now? Like if you get a smartphone, you can press play. You know, I was thinking about this today. This is kind of a rabbit trail. I was on the phone with one of my friends in India today.
Just so encouraged by him. He's been suffering some persecution lately. A group of Hindus about four kilometers from his house. Assaulted him and attacked him and threatened if he didn't stop preaching to Hindus and continuing to Seek Hindus to convert they'd break his legs and eventually kill him And as I was talking to him, you know, he was he was just I saying how sometimes he weeps over these sayings and he struggles with it. And then he was saying, but Brian, Jesus has told me to pick up my cross and follow him. And I was thinking, there's someone who has internalized God's word as he's literally, his life is being threatened.
Where does he find a rock to stand on? It's because he reads God's word. And I was just so, so encouraged by this young guy. I mean, he's like 10 years younger than me and he's about your age and he's just like, keep going, man. I'm so sorry. I'm going to pray for you. But Yeah, and so it's not just this esoteric thing, but having God's Word in you is what gives you this foundation for thinking about, is this still worth it?
There's a book called The Insanity of God, Forget the guy's name right now who wrote it. But he essentially talks about going and interviewing a whole bunch of persecuted people in China. And he asked them all these different questions about being under persecution. And as he's talking to them, there are people who are essentially, if you were persecuted and you came out, you were like a leader in the church, you know, like right away because you were, you know, suffered persecution. So you must be holy, you know. And so he starts interviewing these people.
And what he comes to find out is many of them say, I really shouldn't be an elder. They made me an elder because I went to prison. But I wasn't, I didn't have much in prison. I just was there. But he started interviewing others who had gone to prison and he started to notice something. It was how much of God's word they had read before they went into prison that determined how faithful they were both in prison and how effective they were as elders when they got out of prison. And so he was saying that in amongst many of these church leaders in China, they would talk about the word has to be in you before you go into jail. And so, you know, like it's it's got to be in your heart because when you're in there, you don't have your Bible.
Right. It says, it's only what you went in there with. I just thought, man, and here we are and I've got a whole shelf of Bibles there and there's a whole bunch out in the living room and I could open up my laptop or open up my smartphone. Well, I don't have a smartphone anymore, but I can open up all sorts of resources and have a ton of Bibles. Just kind of has made me, more thankful talking to these persecuted Christians. Man, we are so blessed in so many ways. But he doesn't want to just stop with the Bible. The Bible is obviously first, primary, and foundational, but what does he go on from there? Yeah, reading good books, Christian literature. Yeah. Well, we can just summarize a few things with this.
He's talking to Dennis Prager, and what does Dennis Prager point out? He's a Jew and not even a Messianic Jew, I don't think. He says, I have bookcases of Christian books and I'm a Jew. Why do I have more Christian books than 98% of the Christians in America?
It's a sad criticism there. I think Ben Shapiro could say the same thing. And so we're, I don't think much has changed. No. Uh, and so, uh, he says men to deny ourselves the wealth of the accumulated saints of the centuries is to consciously embrace spiritual anorexia. Uh, interestingly enough, um, he talks, he then gives a list of different good books that he gives. Again, my, my version is dated. I'm sure as you listened to the audio version of it, what app did you listen to it on? Wait, what are you talking about now? So you said you listened to this chapter on your way down? Oh, Hoopla. Hoopla wasn't even around in my edition of the book. So there's Audible, there's Hoopla, there's Christian Audio, there's all sorts of free and paid ways to get Christian books.
So read two or three books a year is what he's suggesting and what are some of the books that he's recommending? I think this list is a slightly different than what you have just because he interviewed some more current folks. Oh, OK. He's got Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin, Near Christianity, C.S. Lewis, J.I. Packer's Knowing God, Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, and then a few more secular works, I believe. Yeah.
Yeah, well, I thought that while those things are Hopeful he by the way he lists does yours come with the appendix with all the people's answers it might It was fun to read through some of those It doesn't Let's just talk about in our lives, I thought this would be fun, what are the Christian books or books in general that God has used formationally in your life? I think the one that God used to save me actually, I mean God uses his word to save, but my mom had gotten me a book by Joel Beeky on the cure for backsliding and it sat on my shelf for a while. but was provoked to read it at a time where I was questioning a lot of things.
Like, God, I don't know if I'm backsliding. I don't know if I know you at all. And I don't know, it's not that thick of a book. And I read it cover to cover in less than like 12 hours and got to the end of it and just on my knees, just convicted. Of sin before God and so that I mean that one really stands out to me just and I don't you know, I don't know if there's anything really that special about the book today, but God used it and praise God for that I also found I really like Robert Murray McShane. Okay reading through his sermons on Hebrews and I don't know if he was characterized by very short preaching or if the transcripts we have are just an abridged version, but his sermons on Hebrews are very short, what we have in writing.
Maybe that's why he was so popular. Yeah. I can get out of here. No, um, but it was really nice food for thought especially on lord's day afternoons where it's like, okay, it's it's Pastoral material so it's not like heavy intellectual lifting It's devotional and it's brief and it's just very christ-centered and christ-exalting.
I really really benefited from that um I like yeah reading the puritans, uh, john bunyan wrote a book um all loves excelling I don't think I've ever heard this. You're giving me all sorts of new books, you man, this is great. Yeah, it's just a, he spends the entire, again, it's not a big book, it's one of those Puritan paperbacks, I think. He spends the whole book just meditating on Ephesians 3, where Paul prays that you would know the love of Christ and passes knowledge and it's height and depth and breadth and length and he just meditates and soaks in what is the love of Christ, you know, and how does it pass knowledge and how does it have height and depth. I don't know, just I appreciate more devotional, meditational reading personally. Every now and then I can get into, I don't know, even then I don't think I've read necessarily like a systematic theology book.
Okay. And a hot, hot minute. Sometimes when I really want to learn about an issue, I'll read it, but it's not as enjoyable and actually enjoyable. Yeah. It's intellectually enjoyable. And the fact that I get to wrestle with, okay, what do I think about this? And then come to a conclusion. But for my own soul benefit, I'd like some of those meditational works. But yeah. What about you? Oh boy. I was going to say, we're, we're surrounded by, um, your bookworm ness. Um, So that's a good question.
One that I'm rereading right now, Knowing God by J.I. Packer, that had a huge influence on my life. The one we're working through right now, Disciplines of a Godly Man, was one of the first books I read as a Christian, had a huge impact on my life. I've spent lots of time with Calvin and his institutes. That's been very helpful. There's a book that is on my top five now. I didn't know if my top five would change, but What's a Girl Worth by Rachel Denhollander. Part of that is just what's going on in my family falling apart. Very insightful, helpful book. Augustine's Confessions is another one that's been a big one. The Holiness of God is another one. And then Charnick's Existence and Attributes of God. Just looking around the room, you know, what books I pull off when I'm, but another early one that I read, I know some Reformed people aren't so happy about this, but Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.
I read this book, and I went to a Borders bookstore in Virginia. I just happened to be in the mall for some reason, and I went to the Christian section, and I was like, I'm gonna find a good Christian book. And I knew nothing about Wayne Grudem. It just was the thickest Christian book there.
And so I started thumbing through it and I was like, Oh, okay. Like this guy seems like he's like, believes the Bible and stuff. Like I had no theological grid work to like really evaluate by. And so I remember I'd go to Starbucks and I would sit there, this is probably for a good three weeks.
And I'd just sit there and I'd read through root of systematic theology. And that's actually the first time I read the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Shorter Catechism was in Grudem's Systematic Theology. So it's at the back and I just read through it and I was like, this is rich, like this is really great. So I can't say I read every single page of Grudem. But the Lord really used that in my life to kind of give me a broad, evangelical, like systematic framework to build off of that I was totally lacking in my life.
And so, yeah, I'd probably say that those are the big ones. If we were to talk about history stuff, that'd be a whole different ballpark, but I would annoy people with different, just name dropping books. But I would especially say, like I said, knowing God, Charnick's existence and attributes of God. Actually, I take that back. It's not the holiness of God that knocked me on my butt, but should be right next to that one shelf up, The Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul.
My pastor gave that to me. And in that, as I was working through it on a Lord's Day afternoon, I remember it's basically a rewriting of the holiness of God when he's in the first couple of chapters talking about who God is. And I remember being so overwhelmed with the majesty of God that my only thing I could do was get on my knees and just worship God in my apartment by myself, the sunshine coming in the window, middle of the summer, in the middle of the day on a Sunday afternoon just weeping. How majestic is our God? So Lord used each of these books in different ways.
Augustine gave me words to realize it wasn't just me. Much of my waywardness was someone else had experienced. You know, Packer gave me a framework to understand who God is. Charnick gave me depth to understand, especially in natural revelation, how everything declares His glory, and how the attributes of God are just everywhere in the scriptures.
And then Calvin writes in his Institutes in a way that's very antiquated, because he's dealing with issues from the 16th century, but yet In some areas it's polemic. In some areas it's very pastoral. In some areas it's very exegetical. And so seeing him work through issues systematically, work through those, I'd say those, in different ways the Lord used those books.
And Rachel did Hollander's book. Just really getting at the heart of a very, very important topic right now. And I think hers especially upholding at the core of it, you know, the Imago Dei and the dignity that we have as human beings and how we must protect especially the smallest of children. So all those books in different ways. And then this one. Challenging me to start reading this book.
There's some things that I'm excited to continue talking about in this book. because there are some things that I think he actually steered me wrong. Areas now that I would maybe tame it back a little bit as the Lord has worked in my heart, but I really, thinking back, there's so much of this book that the Lord used in a pivotal time in my life, the Arken Hughes Disciplines of a Godly Man. He's the one who kind of sowed the seeds for don't be an intellectual bum. You know, don't be the scandal of the evangelical mind. Go read a book. Yeah. So and make sure you read the book of books. Right. So, dude, that was a huge question. You shouldn't come into a nerd's office and say, tell me some of the books you like. No, that's helpful. I don't know.
I feel like this has challenged me to read. With as much reading as I've had to do for schooling the last several years, I just haven't had a lot of motivation and interest in reading outside of that. This chapter's provoked me to read more and what, you know, I only have so much time to read. So what am I going to read? And I've tried to, you know, just pick up a, you know, read a chapter here, a chapter there. And so some of those titles you dropped it worth reading.
Yeah. A book that I'm really enjoying right now, Tim Challey's Seasons of Sorrow, The Pain and Loss and Comfort of God. Yeah. Charlie's son died when he was 20 years old suddenly in 2020 and he's writing through his sorrow. So he's a writer and so in many ways he's very unguarded as he's writing because it's literally as he's going through it, his thoughts. of sorrow and grief and hope and pleading with God and fear and comfort. Really powerful book. I was sitting on the couch the other day and reading that and I was just weeping.
And Ellie, you know, almost five year old, she comes up, she goes, It's okay daddy, I love you. And I was just like, so I just put the book down and I just snuggled with Ellie for a little bit. I was like, I'm just gonna enjoy this child that God's given me, that she saw me weeping. She doesn't know why I'm weeping, but she just wants to come up and comfort dad. I was like. Lord, I'll take that gift. So I would suggest this book. I haven't read through all of it yet. I suggested it to the congregation in the email we sent out. But it's a profitable book for anybody struggling with sorrow. Well, what do you think about final thoughts? What are your final thoughts on discipline of the mind?
I think as men, God has gifted us to be more resolute by nature. We can really devote ourselves to what we're most interested in and usually that's work in the American culture as narrated that to be work and only work many times and or hobby or, or hobby or laziness, you know, lazy hobbies. And I think our Kent Hughes is really calling us to arms here with our minds. Um, and because as men, we can be very disciplined in external things, you know, going to work, excelling at work, doing a hobby, excelling at the hobby. And we neglect our minds. And if you look at how, especially husband's and father's sin gets wreaked upon the home is usually through sins of the mind. And so I think especially as we live in an age that vies for our mind, it's a battle for your mind. if you know if we only just don't fill our mind with evil things or with unprofitable things and that's all we do you know we're leaving a vacuum that's it's you know like something to come back in worse than before and proactively filling our minds with what is good and honorable and lovely and of good report coming, learning of God, what it is to truly be a man of God, training our mind to be a godly mind so that we can actually be godly men, I think is a really radical call and an aggressive call.
It takes a lot of work. It's a split second like training, training your mind, right? That's what scripture does is training your mind and day in and day out discipline. But if it doesn't start there, where else is it going to start? Good stuff, man. You want to close with some prayer? Sure.
Lord, we thank you for your word. You have not just left us alone, but you have revealed yourself to us in glory and majesty and beauty. And Lord, we thank you that we can read your Bible in our language. Lord, so many people in the world don't even have that opportunity. Lord, we get to read Christian books. Lord, we're surrounded by Christian books in this room. And so many people have nothing but the Bible with that.
And Lord, we are blessed. But Lord, we are lazy by nature, Lord. We don't love your word as we ought, and so we just ask for help as fathers, as husbands, Lord, as men of God, to be in your word, to come daily with discipline, but Lord, with eagerness. to hear what you have to say, to be encouraged, to be built up, to be convicted. And Lord, that your word would not just be something that passes in one ear and out the other, but that it would take root, that it would encourage, build up, convict, rebuke, or revive our souls, and most of all, point us to the glory of the gospel through Jesus Christ. Lord, you are worthy to be praised, and we just worship you in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen.
Well, thanks so much for listening to the, uh, what do we call this? The student, the student podcast. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the student podcast. Feel free to go over to the website, sharonharpc.org backslash student and find more information and other shows. Also, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple podcasts. We appreciate it. Have a great day.