We Take Captive Every Thought to Make It Obedient to ChristDecember 24th, 2010“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Sprit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.”  Isaiah 59:21We Take Captive Every Thought to Make It Obedient to Christ For a long time, I have been wanting to talk with our brothers and sisters about the question of where our focus lies as we are living our lives. Many brothers and sisters are concerned about how to pass on the gospel to the next generation. I used to be just the same. In 1990, when I was a young man in my 20s, I was always wondering, “Who will be the next person to preach from the Bible?” I knew and believed the words of promise that say, “My words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring” (Isaiah 59:21), but I wondered who would carry out this work. This question was continually on my mind. Even though I did not live quite as I should have done in a spiritual sense, I was worried about the fellowship. Nevertheless, I never planned or even thought that I would be the one to carry out this work. At that time I thought that if someone took the lead and preached the gospel, a person like me might offer support from elsewhere, and I continued the work I had been doing, even though it was not easy and there were many times when I became discouraged. It seems that I spent several years merely wondering, as though sitting in a pitch black room, not knowing in which direction I should go or even if there was a door for me to go through. Then I started experiencing terrible physical pain. I could not bend over, I could not walk, and I had to spend four months sitting in a chair, and in this situation complaints just poured from my mouth. That was when the most evil image of myself was to be seen, this person who claimed to be saved.But then one day as I was talking with some brothers and sisters who had come to visit me, my heart melted within me. During this time, my life had not been easy from a physical point of view, but I needed to know how to be satisfied with my lot just as long as I did not go hungry. There had been something that had chained my heart all that time, but right there and then the chains just fell off. That would not have been possible were it not for the brothers and sisters around me.One thing I came to know for certain at that time was that if, as a born-again person, I took an interest in evangelizing, making a great effort and focusing all my thoughts and actions on this work, and yet was not able to accomplish anything, it was because of the hatred I felt in my heart towards the brothers and sisters around me.As this matter was resolved in my heart, I began to see the problems that had been in my heart and in my actions for such a long time. Then as I told the brothers and sisters what was in my heart and listened to what they had to say, the chains having broken away from my heart, I gradually began to see what the Bible was saying, and I began to listen to sermons once more. At the same time, I came to think very deeply about the significance of our gathering together and living our lives closely connected to one another.One day after that, I went to a prison in Mexico where I found I had no choice but to preach to the criminals there. More than ten years have passed since then. I no longer ask who will be the next person to preach from the Bible, but over the past few years as I have been living in this way, there has been a question in my heart that has been troubling me. We say that we are making a lot of preparations in order to pass on to future generations the gospel we proclaim, but I wonder how strong the power is that has a hold on the hearts of the young generation that will have to take this and run with it. We might call this the power of focus or perhaps perseverance.In the Bible, we find Jacob’s prophecy regarding the tribe of Benjamin. He said, “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and at evening dividing the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). Such was the nature of the apostle Paul who was of the tribe of Benjamin. So he never gave up on his mission of spreading the gospel to the Gentiles and he continued this work right up to the end of his life.As I came to understand these things through the Bible, it seemed to me that this does not only apply to the younger generation. Once we have embarked on a task, once we have set our hand to that task, we need to learn from the images of the many people in the Bible who were trained through God’s disciplining to see a task through to its completion. If the words of the Bible are of no help to me at all in my life, even though the words themselves are alive, they are dead to me. On one occasion, Jacob wrestled with a man all night and would not let him go unless he blessed him, and in the end Jacob received the blessing he wanted (see Genesis 32:24-29).What do we need to do from now on? If you think vaguely that God will know what to do and just get on with it himself, you need to think again. When God promised Abraham, “one who will come from your own body shall be your heir” (Genesis 15:4 NKJV), did Abraham just sit still and do nothing about it?God also commanded Abraham to take Isaac, who had been born as the son of promise, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on Mount Moriah. Abraham also had Ishmael, and after Sarah died, he had more sons through his concubine Keturah, but in order that God’s promise might be fulfilled, Abraham gave gifts to Ishmael and the sons of Keturah and sent them away, while Isaac grew up as his heir.Perhaps, as you are reading passages like this, you think that since God has given us this gospel for free, he will leave it with us for a long time and it will remain just as it is for future generations as well. If this is indeed what you think, you need to turn back to the Bible and consider this matter once again. You also need to put aside any thought that we are not responsible if the gospel should change some day or move on somewhere else, since it has been spread through us for several decades. Such thoughts are different from what the Bible says in several verses.The Bible says, “a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5), and, “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring” (Isaiah 59:21). A person who knows precisely what the Bible says will not be able to make comments like, “It will just happen. God will take care of it.” I have been sharing these thoughts with many brothers and sisters for a long time, and they have all said, “This is a matter for concern. We need to make all kinds of preparations for the sake of the next generation.” Yet, I think that to the same extent that we make these preparations, each of us also needs to organize the thoughts in our hearts in regard to the Bible.When it is time for one of our conferences, we gather together and are very busy for a while, but once the conference is over, the energy that unites us dwindles away. Once that happens, it is not easy for our hearts to become united again. Our thoughts and actions should be focused on fellowship, but in tiny ways they are continually being snatched away and taken elsewhere.I feel that at such times we need to gather together and spend some time considering Jesus in our hearts, calmly and carefully. If we do not, we may say that we are saved and have fellowship, spreading the gospel and engaging in various activities together, but it may be that we are spending our time merely wandering around in the vicinity of everything we are doing. So we need to gather and put in order the thoughts that are running around in our heads, and, through the Bible, think about Jesus who is the central figure in the Bible. If we do not do this, all our thoughts become scattered. Since the Bible says to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5), we need to put our thoughts in order in view of these words. This is an extremely important matter.As we have fellowship together, we discuss health issues and put into practice what we know to be helpful in this respect, and as we do this, our outward appearance changes. Yet, we also need to consider together to the same extent what our inner thoughts are focused on—where our thoughts are turning—and move forward from there. If we separate the state of our flesh and that of our spirit, and each begins to walk along a different path, we may come up against a problem.You Seek MeOnce as I was watching a documentary about the universe, I marveled at how mysterious it is. I am very curious about the universe. Astronomers tell us that in the universe there are billions of galaxies containing solar systems. Each of those galaxies contains billions of stars. They also say that the Milky Way, in which the Earth is situated, is more than 100,000 light years in diameter. The diameter of our galaxy alone is more than 100,000 light years, but the universe contains billions of such galaxies, many of them much bigger than ours. In the midst of all this, God gave the Earth a particular significance. The words of the hymn that say, “It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell” (The Love of God is Greater Far by F. M. Lehman) seem to express it very well. God who created all things passed through this entire universe to come to this tiny place, and he planted a seed of life in the heart of this person I call me, a person who is no more than a speck of dust on this tiny earth. Such is the mystery of God’s life. This is a principle and true science.The documentary also showed some photographs of the Milky Way taken by one astronomer using an infrared camera. The stars of the Milky Way seemed to be arranged in a row, but they say that when viewed from space, it looks more like a doughnut. There were also various colors to it: I could see red, green, and yellow. A computer had been set up to reveal the oxygen molecules floating in space in one color and the hydrogen molecules in another color when captured with the infrared camera, and when I saw these photographs it gave me quite a shock. Until that time, I had thought of the universe as empty darkness, but there are countless molecules spread out in that vast expanse. I had been ignorant of this.As I watched this documentary, I thought about how truly great Jesus is. On one occasion, Jesus looked at the many people who were following him, and said to his disciples, “You give them something to eat.” The disciples replied, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give it to them to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” His disciples said, “F

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