Engaging the Mind: A Journey of Faith and Learning

Jesus cites that but he adds one more category and that is you shall love him with all your mind neoplus says this is the Magna Carta for Christian uh learning and scholarship and intellectual exercise we're told of Jesus in Luke 2:52 that he actually did this and Jesus increased in wisdom imagine God limiting himself so much that he's got to learn a Hebrew alphabet and vocabulary Aramaic and and so it says of acts of Moses I think it's in Acts 7:22 um that Moses was educated in all of the wisdom of Egypt. [00:01:56]

There was a great admiration in ancient times in the biblical world uh not just for the wisdom and education of Israel my old teacher Jerry Haw used to point out but a a great respect for wisdom from other sources wisdom of Egypt in fact the early church fathers in the early centuries of the church actually studied deeply in the texts of the classic Greek and Latin thinkers and they sometimes spoke about this as spoiling the Egyptians. [00:02:38]

Charlamagne appoints uh alquin who is quite a brilliant thinker in that day kind of like Secretary of Education and thus are born what we know as the liberal arts they were the Seven Liberal Arts and the reign of Charlamagne began to uh be the central curriculum for an educated person they were called liberal arts liberal not in the sense of progressive Red State Blue State but Liberty Freedom that by being educated by loving God with all of our minds our minds might be free from ignorance and Superstition and pettiness. [00:03:33]

The study of grammar and then rhetoric making language a beautiful thing and then logic to be able to think clearly and then astronomy that was very useful navigation and so on mathematics GE ometry we can now measure the Earth um music the study of Music uh which contains so much beauty that was to be an educated person that came from followers of Jesus they loved education so much in charlamagne's day that they began to to uh copy ancient text now we have publishing and printing presses in our day. [00:04:11]

E Stanley Jones was a Methodist missionary he went to India in 1907 and he had a remarkable capacity for Learning and growth a very infectious Spirit uh he studied the people who were there he became a very good friend of Gandhi in fact he wrote a biography of Gandhi he won the Gandhi Peace Prize in 1963 Martin Luther King Jr told East anley Jones's daughter that uh it was Jones's biography of Gandhi that's part of what inspired Martin Luther King to nonviolence. [00:05:21]

They began what was called the Christian ashram Movement where he had a great respect for honoring of all people's faiths the faiths of India helped missionaries over there to gain uh greater appreciation for the strengths and the mindset of the Indian character uh and was able to do that in a way that also pointed to Jesus in a very Central means and he never stopped learning when he was 88 years old he suffered a severe stroke. [00:06:05]

Jones writes cultivate the New Life by daily disciplines commissioner bringle of the Salvation Army a center of great spiritual power suggest three things to keep the fire burning keep the drought open that's my mind always watching always ready to learn clean the ashes out keep putting in fuel how am I fueling my mind then keep confessing your sins after conversion don't be afraid to say I am sorry I was wrong. [00:07:38]

The rule about confessing your sins should be the circle of confession should be the circle affected by the sin if the sin has been against an individual confess it to that individual if against a family to a family if against a group to a group if against a church to a church what a difference it would make what a difference it would make two day if Christians followers of Jesus church leaders would just simply confess next pray for those who've wronged you this will be an antidote for resentment and bitterness. [00:08:11]

Constantly enlarge the area of your conversion make your conversion Tak in more and more areas of your life in the asham in India we gave the servants including the sweeper a holiday one day a week and volunteered to do their jobs for them the sweeper work included the cleaning out of latrines before the days of Flesh toilets no one would touch that job but an outcast but we volunteered. [00:09:18]

Some of our conversions are conversions limited and some are conversions unlimited some take in the individual life but not the social and economic some let their conversions function within their class or within their race but not among all classes and not among all Races so today it's conversion Unlimited today it's God what can I learn how can I love you with all my mind how can I be white awake what thought might come there is nobody from whom I you cannot learn something. [00:10:04]

There is no Source there is no moment in time with a mind that is awake and alive to God that the liberal arts that is the liberating Arts all truth is God's truth God loves a mind that is eager and hungry and wide awake and ready to learn from anywhere from anybody do it today why would you not learn something today this is my story. [00:10:46]