The Christian Mind

Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the LORD my God, and made confession, and said, “O Lord, great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and with those who keep His commandments, we have sinned and committed iniquity, we have done wickedly and rebelled, even by departing from Your precepts and Your judgments.” Daniel 9.3-5

The Christian Mind
Harry Blamires (1916-)
“The Church’s judgement upon the modern world is very different. It is properly expressed when we turn to our contemporaries and say: ‘Look what we’ve done, you and I; luxury here and famine there; juvenile delinquency, prostitution, alcoholism, the revival of slavery, racial discrimination; look what we’ve done. Look what our human nature produces when it gets a free hand, unrestrained by God. Do you want it like that? Do you like it? Is that your idea of a worth while world?’ In other words, the Church would have us turn to the world in judgment, with the utmost clarity and power in our identification of evil, yet in full acceptance of our common guilt – and finally, with a deeply moving message of hope.”

Daniel understood this, and included himself in his prayer of repentance for the nation, even though, as we know, he might have spoken not of “we” but of “they.” The Christian mind understands that evil is afoot in the world, and that it’s not always or only the other guys who are responsible for it. We all contribute to the work of evil because we all still struggle with the law of sin. We can’t help the world be reconciled to God as long as we insist on blaming them for everything that’s wrong, and insisting that our way is always right. The world groans and travails under the burden of sin, and we are still contributing, in our own ways, to that miserable condition. If we can accept our part in the world’s misery, acknowledge and repent of it, then perhaps we will be in a position to point others to the hope and renewal we have found in Jesus.

What about the misery and unhappiness in your own community? Does your church acknowledge any part in allowing this to continue? Should we repent publicly – as in worship – for the sins of our community?

Mission Partners Outreach
Thinking and living like a Christian begins in our daily lives, as we are going about in the world to which God sends us each day. Our Mission Partners Outreach programcan equip you to equip your church members to identify and work their Personal Mission Fields from the vantage point of a Gospel worldview and Holy Spirit power. I’m looking for some men to go through this program with me. If you’d like me to take you through this free, six-month program, and help you see how it could be used in your church, drop me a line at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Prayer and the Christian Mind
Prayer is the framework in which a Christian mind is engaged and nurtured. Here we commune with the Lord Who makes all things new, including our minds. Are you working to improve your prayer life? Download our free ReVision series on The Parameters of Prayer by clicking here(for the first installment). Get with a friend, or share this study with your group, and grow together in prayer, for a Christian mind and more.

Does the Lord want to use you to support the work of The Fellowship of Ailbe? Please look to Him in prayer over this question. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the Contribute button at our website, or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452. Thank you.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from The Christian Mind are from Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1963, 1978).