Book Life

I just love to open a new book. A book is the mind of the author in black and white. And it can be a meeting point, a place of discovery, or it can be a battleground.

A good book prompts the reader to question issues and his own beliefs.

A great book raises questions about the author and what has driven him to write about the issues.

The greatest book exposes both the author and the reader and leads to some conclusions about both.

The book of Philippians holds some of the most challenging verses in the Bible. Chapter 2, verse 5 commands: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus...” To have the same “mind”—the same goal, the same worldview, the same heart attitudes as Christ, Himself—seems to be outside my reach. There is so much of my mind that gets in the way of Christ’s mind. In order to have His mind, I have to look out through His eyes, to see others as He sees them. I have to look at myself as He sees me, too, nakedly and without pretense. There is nothing that His eyes cannot penetrate. And what is the purpose of all this? The challenge continues in chapter 3, verse 10. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death...” Without the mind of Christ, I can never truly be His “soul mate”, intimately becoming one with Him. Without the mind of Christ, I will never experience His resurrection power in my own life. Without His mind, I can never truly suffer on behalf of another, nor appreciate what He suffered for me. And the only way I can climb into His mind is to immerse myself in His Book.