Mark R. Laaser - Taking Every Thought Captive

TAKING EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE

Copyright 2011 by Mark R. Laaser and Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City

ePub edition 2011 ISBN: 978-0-8341-2806-4

Printed in the
United States of America

Cover Design: Brandon Hill
Interior Design: Sharon Page

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com.

The Contemporary English Version (CEV). Copyright by American Bible Society, 1991, 1992. Used by permission.

The New American Standard Bible (NASB), copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked KJV are from the King James Version.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Laaser, Mark R.

Taking every thought captive / Mark R. Laaser.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ).

ISBN 978-0-8341-2741-8 (pbk.)

1. Thought and thinkingReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Spiritual lifeChristianity. I. Title.

BV4598.4.L33 2011

248.4dc23

2011024834

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

No one really writes a book alone. There are those who have contributed ideas, those who have reviewed ideas and content, and those who support through encouragement and prayer. hat has certainly been the case for me.

First and foremost is the person who has contributed, reviewed, encouraged, and prayed the mostmy wife, Debbie. We have been married for thirty-eight years. During that time she has gone through the good times and the bad and never stopped being my number one friend, companion, and soul mate. She is often way ahead of me emotionally and spiritually. She has been the main way that God has demonstrated his grace to me. It has been our ministry together helping couples survive the crisis of infidelity that has shaped and formed many of the ideas in this book series. To Debbie, I can never say thank you enough.

A great deal of inspiration has come through my work with men who struggle with infidelity and sex addiction. Each and every one of the hundreds I have worked with has taught me something. There is a smaller number who really helped shape the material in this book. Anonymity issues prevent me from recognizing them more publicly.

Several men introduced me to certain concepts in these books. I am honored to say that they are colleagues and friends. Chris Charleton first pointed me to the powerful example of the story of Nehemiah and how it reveals to us a plan for accountability. Eli Machen is a superb teacher on many subjects, and his ideas on vision are what originally influenced me about it. More recently, Greg Miller has been helping me more fully understand the value of our needing a team of people to help us heal. To all of these men I say, Thank you very much!

To the wonderful family of people at Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, thank you for your confidence, faith, and trust in me. Eric Bryant originally approached me about this series, and Bonnie Perry has nurtured it along.

And in all things to God be the glory. There are times for all Christian writers, I think, when they try to simply sit at the computer, quiet their spirits, and invite God to give them insight and inspiration. I pray that all readers of these books will open themselves to this quiet place and will allow God to speak to them directly through the imperfect words, thoughts, and ideas of this series. I could not put any book out there if I did not think that God was in charge of the process.

Mark R. Laaser
January 2011

INTRODUCTION
WELCOME TO THE JOURNEY

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what Gods will ishis good, pleasing and perfect will (Rom. 12:2).

The preceding words of Paul are two verses from different letters. They are short and powerful and also introduce you to the main theme of this book. I want to teach you that they are just as relevant to our time as they were to Pauls world in the first century. Mainly, I want to teach you how to take your thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ, and so transform your mind.

This is a bold task and I do not take it lightly. I feel so strongly about it because taking your thoughts captive is essential in todays world. To say we are swimming in a sea of immoral behaviors and messages would be to put it mildly. We are experiencing the same kind of moral crisis that has historically led to the decline of countless cultures. The world Paul wrote to in the first century was one such declining culture. In the first chapter of Romans, Paul does not hold back in describing the sexual immorality of that time. Then he goes on to describe people of the Roman world:

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know Gods righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Rom. 1:28-32)

The moral condition of the Roman world is why later in the book of Romans (12:2) Paul teaches that people should not conform to the ways of this kind of world but that they should transform their mind. The Greek word nous, which Paul uses here, is generally translated as mind but can also mean intellect, will, or reason. In New Testament times, the mind was also thought to be the center of moral thinking. Paul is teaching that the mind can be either evil, according to the ways of the world, or good, as it is transformed according to Gods will. To be good we will need our will, reasoning, and intellect. In Hebrew, there is no word for mind because another part of the body, the heart, was thought to possess the qualities of what we now know as the brain. So the heart can be pure, holy, courageous, clean, and stubborn, as well as evil or good. We still to this day use the word heart to describe character qualities, such as, He really has a good heart. The Bible, in fact, uses the word heart 570 times to refer to our mind and our character. The psalmist uses the word heart to show that a person can be perverse: Men of perverse heart shall be far from me; I will have nothing to do with evil (Ps. 101:4).

Today we know that our brain is where all the functions and qualities of the mind or heart take place. The brain reasons, remembers, plans, and decides. It can have powerful emotions like anger, sadness, fear, and anxiety. Thoughts all take place in the brain. In order to know how to take thoughts captive and how to transform our mind, we will need to know how to do so in the brain. The good news is that new scientific research shows that this is not only a spiritual phenomenon but an actual anatomical one as well. In chapter 3 I will teach you about all of this.