Trelawny Tragedy: Man Kills Two Children, Hangs Self

Published: Tuesday February 26, 2013 | 8:22 am3 Comments
WESTERN BUREAU:
The community of Wait-a-bit in Trelawny woke up to shocking news this morning that a man earlier slit the throats of two children then hanged himself at their home.

The police say the incident happened around 2.30 this morning.

The man is said to be the father of the two children aged between two and five years old.

Our sources say only yesterday the man had a dispute with the children’s mother, who later packed up and left the home saying she was going back to her mother’s house in Coleyville, Manchester.

It is reported that the man went to Coleyville and tried to persuade the woman to return home.

However she refused.

He then went back to Trelawny and committed the double murder-suicide.

We must never give-up the fight for reparation

Message Body:

Latest News:
World’s fastest man has a French connection
Sickle cell ignorance slammed
Slavery payouts fuel reparations debate
The institutions and ordinary people who benefitted from slave trade revealed in UCL study
Written by Elizabeth Pears
26/02/2013 12:04 PM

WEALTH: The Bank of England grew rich because of slavery

THE EXTENT to which some of Britain’s wealthiest families profited from the exploitation of enslaved Africans has been made public for the first time.

Historians from University College London (UCL) spent three years compiling the database, which exposes individuals and companies who made a fortune from the Empire’s dark past.

The Legacies of British slave-ownership project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), breaks down a £20million sum of taxpayer money paid to slave-owners in compensation for the loss of their ‘property’, when slavery was made illegal in 1834. The sum represented 40 per cent of the Government’s annual spend and would be worth £16.bn by today’s standards.

Project leader, Professor Catherine Hall, told The Voice: “We want to put slavery properly back into British history. It’s a time associated with shame and there’s a real reluctance to talk about it.”

Compensation was paid, Hall explained, to get the powerful slave-owners, a strong interest group with representation in both the House of Commons and House of Lords, to agree to the Emancipation Act.

She added: “It had long been accepted that if the government took ‘private property’ then it should be compensated as they would do with docks or railways.

“The irony of that is that the whole moral argument for abolition was that people should not be property, so the £20 million goes right against the case people had been making. Radical abolitionists were opposed to it but in the end it was the only way to get the legislation through.”

Hall said that it was clear that historians from 1808 onwards, following the 1807 Slave Trade Act, were already focussing their writing on abolition as the story that should be told.

“The focus on our project is slave ownership,” said Hall. “It’s specifically about the Britons who were involved and who brought the profits back here. We think that’s something British people ought to know about. We are also returning to Eric Williams’ [first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago] argument about the link between capitalism and slavery. Our findings absolutely confirm and extend the arguments that Williams makes.”

Williams argued in the 1940s that the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 was motivated primarily by economics not morality.

Despite the huge compensations paid to former slave owners, the freed slaves received nothing. Most were forced to work as apprentices to ‘earn’ their keep.
Activists have long been calling for the British Government to accept their role in slavery through meaningful amends.

Hall said that “proper evidence that is properly accessible about the scale of the money that came in” could form an important aspect of the reparations argument.”

However, activists wanted to make clear that compensation did not necessarily mean financial payments.

“Reparations to rigidly locked into financial compensation; that undermines the ethics of the whole situation. However, despite David Cameron’s recent comments about colonialism having some good sides, Britain owes Africa and her children across the diaspora an immeasurable debt that still has not been repaid,” said Toyin Agbetu, founder of Pan-African human rights organisation Ligali.

Esther Stansford-Xosei, co-vice chair of the Pan-African Reparations Coalition in Europe, said: “The economic disempowerment is very real for the descendants of the enslaved in terms of the lives we lead in Britain today.”

The experienced reparations activist, who is undertaking a PhD in the history of the movement in the UK, added: “It’s problematic to just see reparations as money, it’s much broader than that. Reparations comes from the Latin word which means ‘to repair the damage.

“People of African descent have been harmed and continued to be harmed by the legacy of slavery even within our own personal families. You see it in street violence, and in inequalities in health, education and the criminal justice system. There is a real need for internal cohesion. Despite being fractured by history, the best way to get this taken seriously is for the community to show a united front”.

Five strands of reparations based on 1995 UN Framework for Reparations

1. Restitution: to put a people or group in the position they would be in had slavery/colonialism not happened relating to property, land and restoring dignity

2. Compensation: for loss of income, damage to reputation and loss of trading rights with regard to economic activity

3. Rehabilitation: social welfare and legal support a community which has experienced historical disadvantage need

4. Satisfaction: initiatives like memorial days, changing the curriculum

5. Guarantees of non-repetition: a commitment it will never happen again

***

The database is available online at www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs
Posted on: 26/02/2013 12:04 PM

Ex-soldier accused of deadly rampage on wife, in-laws in Clarendon
Mayhem! Father-in-law says he was attacked by ex-soldier
BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter [email protected]
Tuesday, February 26, 2013

THE Clarendon police were last night searching for ex-Jamaica Defence Force soldier Wilbert Pryce who Sunday night allegedly shot dead his mother-in-law, injured his wife and mother of his two children in Bryan’s Hill, then went to a nearby community where he was accused of raping a woman.
According to the police, the shootings and rape were the latest in a series of attacks carried out by the former soldier, who was two years ago released from prison where he served a three-year sentence for abusing his wife, Tamara Pryce, who it appeared was the main target of his attack on Sunday.
Tamara Pryce (at left), who was shot and injured allegedly by her estranged husband Wilbert Pryce Sunday night in Bryan’s Hill, Clarendon. (Inset) her mother Maxine Fearon, 45, who was killed in the attack. (Photos: Bryan Cummings)
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Tamara Pryce, who was shot multiple times, was last night in hospital in serious condition.
Police said the ex-soldier’s mother-in-law, Maxine Fearon, a 45-year-old dressmaker and farmer, was at home on Sunday night with her daughter and other family members when Pryce drove up to the house about 9:45.
“Reports we received are that he went to the house and started to shout that he wanted to see his estranged wife,” one police investigator told Jamaica Observer yesterday.
The policeman said the former army man, who apparently became angry when his estranged wife did not come outside to see him, forced his way into the house, after which explosions were heard.
“Reports we received are that he went into the house and opened fire, hitting Fearon, the mother of his wife, who died on the spot,” said another investigator. He added that Tamara, in an attempt to escape, ran to a nearby bar where several residents of the community were having a drink.
“A sit me sit down and hear the screams and see when the man run down the woman all the way from her house over to the bar,” a resident alleged. The woman, he said, was then shot several times.
“Him run her down [and] shoot her as she entered the bar, and that was when she jumped over the bar counter and tried to escape, and that was when him come over her and shoot her again and cuss a bad word (expletive) and walk away,” said another resident, who claimed to have witnessed the shooting.
Glen Fearon, husband of the slain woman, said he had just arrived from work and parked his motor car when he heard the former soldier threatening members of his family.
“When I bend down and look into the yard me see the man a walk around the yard with a gun in him hand and him a beat down the grille to the house,” he added
Trembling with fear, Fearon said he made a desperate call to the police, but after more than one hour of trying to get help, he became frustrated and decided to venture to the home.
“I waited for a while, and then it look as if he left, and me start to walk down to the yard,” Fearon said, adding that he, too, was attacked by the former soldier.
“While I was walking to the house, him come around, and me and him start to struggle, and him use the gun to hit me in the head,” Fearon said, pointing to a bandage on his head. “While I was running me hear several shots. All me a
run me no know what was happening,” said the obviously shaken Fearon, who told the Observer that he rushed to the Chapleton Police Station.
Bleeding and worrying for his life, Fearon said he was left disappointed with the response from the police, as they told him to go to the hospital but allegedly asked nothing about the incident.
A brother of the slain woman, who is also a member of the police force, said he was at work when he received a call from his sister that she was being attacked.
He said that he made a desperate attempt to alert police in the area and tried to get to the house.
“She called me on the phone and told me that he was outside. While she was talking to me I heard her scream out for help,” said the policeman.
Yesterday, police investigators said they received reports that Pryce, after fleeing the community, went to another area where he was accused of raping a woman.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Mayhem_13729035#ixzz2M4IS3bZT

– Drama unraveled at Nairobi’s Parklands area after a man who is a happy events’ organizer was attacked by twilight girls taking off with his wallet and pants.

According to sources, the events’ organizer cum film maker who is popular in Mombasa and Nairobi wanted a quick s*xual satisfaction and went to the area which is infested by prostitutes.

After negotiating with a bootylicious girl, he settled for a quickie worth Sh. 2,000. The two ended up at the back of his car where the illicit affair happened but after s*xual satisfaction the man blacked out.

Half an hour lapsed as the man slept peacefully and when he woke up he was caught in shock as tens of twilight girls surrounded him laughing at his nudity. The girl, his wallet and neither his trousers were anywhere to be seen.

Transformation: A Personal Journey

By John W. Schoenheit

The Balance of Doctrine and Practice
The older I get as a Christian and the more I read the New Testament, the more clearly I see that we Christians must pay serious attention to how we think and act. This is a shift in my understanding from a couple of decades ago, when I thought that the doctrine I believed was of supreme importance, and how I behaved came in a distant second in God’s eyes. I have now come to believe that we must be very concerned about both doctrine and practice.

My Changing Perspective
Over the years my beliefs about what the Bible says have changed. I had what I considered to be a very good start doctrinally and understood a lot of truth even early on in my Christian life because of my teachers. Nevertheless, I have seen my beliefs on many subjects change through the years. I believe it may be helpful to some others if I give some perspective on why my beliefs changed and also why I initially believed that knowing right doctrine was more important than living a godly life.

The Bible is a large and complicated book, and it takes a lot of effort, and not a small amount of background study, to understand it. My Hebrew professor at Reformed Theological Seminary used to say that the rise in absurd doctrines in the Church is directly proportional to the decline in the knowledge of the original languages. Although I work hard to rightly understand and interpret the text, and it is tempting to focus on the “absurd doctrines” of “other Christians” (it always seems so easy to see the mote in someone else’s eye), I have been just as aware of the continual growth in my own theology over the years. As my knowledge of history, archaeology, manners and customs, and the ancient languages has grown, my theology has changed.

In the last twenty-five years I have modified, and even occasionally completely shifted, my belief about quite a few things, including faith, the operation of the manifestations of holy spirit, my future Hope as a part of the Millennial and Eternal Kingdoms of Christ, and the importance of Christian character. I should also say that, especially in the last eleven years during which I have been involved in the translation of the Revised English Version (REV), I have grown tremendously in my understanding of hundreds of verses, often realizing that I had been misreading some of them my entire Christian life. Do I believe that I am more approved before God now than I was 25 years ago because, in my opinion, I have more truth now than I did then? No, I do not.

In fact, my shift from believing that doctrine was more important than character to believing that they are both very important was due in part to a shift in my understanding of a verse about being approved by God. Note the King James Version, quoted below:

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

As a young Christian, I read this verse and took it at face value. It seemed clear and simple. The way to be approved before God was to study. Hey, that worked for me, because I am a good student and even a self-confessed nerd. I’ll just pile up knowledge and God’s approval will be assured. Fifteen years later I read the NIV and the following translation:

2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

There is a world of difference between “studying” to be approved in the sight of God and “doing my best” to be approved, which would mean doing my best in every area of my Christian life. In my “study” of why the two translations differed so much, I found that when the King James Version was written, only about ten percent of the population could read, so the word “study” was not used as much for “book learning,” which is how we usually use it today, as it was for “deliberate effort” (Oxford English Dictionary). So understanding the English versions in light of the time when those versions were made, there was really little or no difference between “doing my best” to be approved, or making a “deliberate effort” to be approved. In each case, being approved before God was not about what I knew, but the effort I put forth in my life for Him. [1]

Doing our best for God involves doing our best in both doctrine and practice. God wants us to be correct doctrinally, and doctrinal error can cause serious problems in a person’s life. Jesus said that if we continued in the truth that we would be set free. So if our Christianity is a burden, or confusing, then it is a pretty safe bet that our doctrine is not correct. We need to take the words of Jesus seriously when he said that we should seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33). We should not put God on a “back burner” while we use our time on earth to please ourselves. We have an obligation to understand the doctrine by which we live. We believe certain things about God, truth, and how we should live as Christians, but why do we believe those things? God said He wants everyone to be saved and “to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely, and correctly, the [divine] Truth” (1 Tim. 2:4 Amplified Version). If God says He wants us to know the truth, we should make a diligent effort to do that.

Every Christian should be seeking to understand what he or she believes and why, and to understand God. Sadly, some forms of Christianity keep people in ignorance, teaching and re-teaching that God is unknowable and His ways are mysterious. God says otherwise. He says we can know Him and calls us fools when we do not: “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children; they have no understanding” (Jer. 4:22). God says He wants us to know Him, and He says He wants us to know truth. Let’s give God the effort He deserves and make a diligent effort to do that. [2]

What About Our Old Nature?
In my journey in recognizing the importance of godly character and behavior, I came face to face with another reason that I had not placed much emphasis on godly character. I have been taught that “the flesh profiteth nothing” (John 6:63 KJV), in other words, there was not much you could do in the physical body to please God. That seemed to make sense from what I understood about the New Birth.

Early in my Christian life I was taught about the New Birth and becoming a new creation in Christ. The great news about the New Birth is that the Christian literally acquires a new, holy nature, a righteous standing in the sight of God, and is guaranteed everlasting life. [3] What God has done for Christians is so great, so magnificent, and so glorious that He tells us that what He did for Israel under the Law is not glorious in comparison.

2 Corinthians 3:7-10 (abridged)
(7) Now if the ministry that brought death [the Law], came with glory,
(8) will not the ministry of the Spirit [the Administration of Grace] be even more glorious?
(9) If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!
(10) For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.

Praise God for His magnificent gifts! How thankful and awed we should be. There is no way that the Church deserves a glory that is so great it makes the glory of Israel “no glory,” but God gave us that “surpassing glory” for His reasons and to fulfill His purposes. God deserves all of our thanks and praise, and what God has done in us and for us should be the subject of great focus in our lives. However, even though we are now “holy” children of God, we still have a body of flesh. What do we do about that?

In light of the New Birth and guaranteed salvation, what we did in the flesh did not seem to matter much. For example, in the book, The Two Natures in the Child of God (by E. W. Bullinger), I had read lines such as: “If the flesh of itself ‘profiteth nothing,’ then it is clear that we cannot worship God with any of the senses (which all pertain to the flesh).” Bullinger pointed out the names of the old nature as “the flesh,” “the natural man,” “the old man,” the outward man,” “the heart,” “the carnal mind,” and “sin,” and stated: “The first thing we learn is: It cannot be changed…Men are never weary in their efforts to improve it; but they are constantly receiving bitter disappointments…” Concerning the heart, Bullinger asserted that the old, fleshly heart “cannot be cleansed,” while the new spiritual heart “needs no cleansing.”

Bullinger went on to say: “All efforts to improve the flesh, all provision made for the flesh, all ordinances connected with the flesh, all end in corruption and death: all ‘perish with the using’ (Col. 2:22 KJV). …If we believe His [Jesus’] estimate of it [the flesh], we shall never seek to make it, or force it, to do anything for God, either in the way of worship or service; we shall never try to get it to do anything by way of meeting God’s demand for righteousness.” “All the so-called ‘good’ works done by the old nature are ‘dead works.’” [4]

Teachings such as that, which I received early on as a Christian (both doctrinally and as a part of the general absorption of the Christian culture I participated in) colored my understanding of how to please God more than I realized. Often a person who is taught that one pair of each kind of animal got on Noah’s Ark is then almost never able to see that Genesis actually says that seven pairs of clean animals and birds got on (Gen. 7:2 and 3). In that same way, the teaching that what I did in the flesh did not matter caused me to not “see,” and give proper attention to, the many verses on subduing my flesh and forcing my body and mind to obey God.

Rewards in the Kingdom
I had been a Christian for more than twenty years before I clearly understood that the Bible said Jesus Christ would ride down from heaven with his armies, conquer it, restore it to a wonderful condition for living, and rule it from Jerusalem. [5] Once again I found that, as with the Noah’s Ark example I gave earlier, the preconceived picture that I held in my mind (a fuzzy picture at that) about living in heaven forever obscured the many clear verses showing saved people would actually be on earth forever. There are literally dozens and dozens of verses in both the Old and New Testaments that made it clear that saved people would not be “in heaven” but on earth. Jesus will come from heaven, fight the Battle of Armageddon and conquer the earth (Rev. 19:11-21), set up his palace in the newly rebuilt Jerusalem, and for 1,000 years reign over all the earth with a “rod of iron” (Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; 12:5; 19:15 KJV). [6] This 1,000 year kingdom is called “the Millennial Kingdom.” After which there will be a great war (Rev. 20:7-10), the second resurrection, and the Eternal City will come from heaven to earth, in which the saved will live forever (Rev. 21:1-4).

When Christ sets up his Millennial Kingdom and rules from Jerusalem, it will be a “kingdom” in the true sense of the word, with all kinds of activities and needs, and every kind of job that is done in any country or kingdom. Thus, for one thing, there will be people assigned to rule and administer with Christ (Isa. 1:26, 32:1; Jer. 3:15, 23:4; Ezek. 44:24; Matt. 19:28; 2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 2:26). James and John understood this, and asked Jesus if one of them could sit on his right side, and one on his left, in his kingdom. They wanted to be Jesus’ second and third in command, a bold request and one that made the other apostles angry, no doubt at the possibility of them getting a lesser position in the Kingdom. Jesus told them that the positions of authority would be given by God (Mark 10:35-41).

The Bible specifically mentions many jobs in Christ’s world-kingdom, some having more honor, some having less. These include:
• builders (Isa. 54:12, 60:10, 61:4; Jer. 30:18; Ezek. 36:10, 33; Amos 9:14).
• farmers (Isa. 30:23 and 24, 32:20, 61:5, 62:9; Ezek. 36:9 and 34, 48:19; Amos 9:13).
• herdsmen (Isa. 30:23 and 24, 60:6 and 7, 61:5; Jer. 31:12).
• vinedressers and vintners (Isa. 25:6, 62:8; Jer. 31:5; Amos 9:13).
• metalworkers (Isa. 2:4, 60:17; Mic. 4:3).
• fishermen (Ezek. 47:10).
• landscapers (Isa. 60:13).
• servants (Isa. 14:2).
• cleanup duties and gravediggers (Isa. 9:5; Ezek. 39:14 and 15). [7]

It should go without saying that the Bible does not, indeed cannot, name every job that will have to be done in the future kingdom of Christ, and some of the jobs that clearly seem to be implied include things like cooks, butchers, and bakers, because meals and feasts are clearly mentioned in Scripture; musicians, because although it is likely that everyone will sing and make merry, it seems there will be a need for specialists as there always has been (cp. Isa. 35:10, 65:14; Jer. 30:19, 31:4); and weavers, tailors and seamstresses, because clothes will be worn in the Kingdom (cp. Ezek. 44:17–19; Rev. 19:13,14).

What We Do In the Flesh Matters
As my understanding of the future kingdom of Christ grew, so did my understanding of how important it was to live for Jesus now, in this life. I came to realize that what I did in my flesh mattered; in fact, it mattered a lot. Verses that had been “cloudy” to me in years past now took on a new, and very important meaning. One of those verses is in 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Before understanding the Millennial Kingdom, and the rewards and jobs that were associated with it, I could not really fit this verse into my theology. Oh, I was happy to know that I would somehow receive for the “good” I did even if I did not know exactly how that would happen, but I could not figure out how I would receive for the “bad” I did. As I began to study that subject in more depth, I began to pay attention to the fact that there are a lot of verses about receiving good or bad for what we have done in this life. Colossians 3:25 says people will receive for the wrong they have done. 1 Thessalonians 4:6 says the Lord will punish people for sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 says if we build on Christ in our lives we will be rewarded, but if we do not, we will enter the kingdom like someone who has gone through a fire—with nothing. 2 Timothy 2:12 says that if we deny him he will deny us. 2 John 1:8 says we can lose what we have worked for. 1 John 2:28 shows we could be “ashamed” when Christ comes.

I was now looking at my flesh in a totally new light. While I could not earn salvation by my flesh, God expected me to use my body and mind to serve Him in ways I had not understood before. I came to realize that it was my choice to serve God wholeheartedly, halfheartedly, or not at all, and thus it was ultimately my choice whether I would rule with Christ or be a laborer in the Kingdom.
Changing the Mind and Body By this time in my life-journey as a Christian I found myself paying great attention to verses about what our minds and bodies were supposed to do, and there are loads of them. One thing that became obvious was that even the best Christians needed to be diligent to control their bodies. Paul wrote:

1 Corinthians 9:27
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Paul made his body his slave so he could win the prize; not salvation, but rewards in the Kingdom. Our bodies are to be our slaves, not run our lives. We are not ever to be satisfied with thinking, “Well, that is just the way I am,” which loosely interpreted, just means, “This is the way my flesh has always been and I do not feel like making the effort to change.” Scripture was clear that I was not my own anymore; I had been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6:20). Now I was to live for him. Here’s the cool part. I was dead in sin so he bought me with his blood. Now while it seems I should just serve him because of that, Christ goes above and beyond and says the eternal life was a “free gift,” (Rom. 6:23 ESV), and if I give my life in service for him, I get paid for it in rewards. Amazing.

In this journey of change, I realized I had placed too much emphasis on the “grace” that I had been given as a Christian. Many times I ignored God’s rules or gave in to the desires of my flesh rather than diligently fighting against them, because I felt I could live by grace. Or, sometimes I did not take my obligation to obey God as seriously as I now realize I should have, because I felt that God’s grace would cover me. I now realize I was misunderstanding grace, and that while salvation is by grace, our rewards in the Kingdom are not. No wonder Paul wrote: “do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature” (Gal. 5:13).

I can see why God takes the time to tell us, quite a few times actually, that we will be repaid for our efforts in the flesh, because there is a lot to work on. Our flesh is ungodly and relentless, so we have to be decisive and steadfast to “win,” so to speak. Just in the Church Epistles of Paul, a very partial list of the things of the flesh we are to get rid of includes: bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, every form of malice, and filthy language. We are not to be proud or conceited, and not to repay anyone evil for evil. We are to have no involvement with sexual immorality. We are not to be envious, boastful, rude, or self-seeking. We are not to act in secret and shameful ways, deceive people, or distort the Word of God. We are not to be involved in impurity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, jealousy, selfish ambition, or drunkenness. We are not to lie or steal, or use language that does not benefit others. We should not use obscenity or tell coarse jokes. [8]

Along with the things we are not to do, there are many things we are to do. We must have sincere love, hate what is evil; cling to what is good, be devoted to one another and honor one another above ourselves. We must always have zeal, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. We are to share with God’s people who are in need, practice hospitality, bless those who persecute us, and have equal care for every Christian. We are to be patient, kind, keep no record of wrongs done to us, be zealous in building up the Church, and should share of our finances. We are to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates our bodies and spirits. We should be joyful, peaceful, longsuffering, kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled, forgiving and thankful. The kinds of things we are to hold in our minds and think about are to be true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. We are to ask for God’s forgiveness when we fall short. [9]

Wow, how are we going to do all that? How are we going to be that good? The answer is, we need to be transformed. Thankfully the Bible tells us how to do that.

Transformation Romans contains a very clear verse about the “how” of transformation.

Romans 12:2
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 God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

A major key to experiencing transformation is that we must renew our minds. Unfortunately, the English phrase “renewing of your mind” is not very helpful. It does not communicate the meaning of the Greek text, which tells us to bring our minds up to a new quality. We do that by what we allow ourselves to think, because what we allow ourselves to think, and the thoughts we allow ourselves to act on, profoundly affect us and slowly form our character. Also, what we hold in our minds gradually seeps into our hearts, and becomes part of the belief system that orients our lives. The Bible has many verses about people who thought and acted in such a way that their hearts became dark. For example, Romans 1:21 speaks of people who became futile in their thinking and their hearts became dark as a result. Ephesians 4:18 speaks of people whose hearts became hard. Matthew 13:15 speaks of people whose hearts became calloused, and 1 Timothy 4:2 speaks of people whose consciences have been seared as if with a hot iron. In contrast to the downward spiral we experience if we indulge our flesh, David prayed for a clean heart (Ps. 51:10), and we are told to purify our hearts (James 4:8). It can be done.

The Bible promises that transformation will occur, perhaps more slowly than we would like, but it will occur if we will bring our minds up to a new quality and act on our godly thoughts. That is not easy to do. Satan has made sure that our society is packed with ungodliness, and thus our senses are bombarded with images and sounds that work to short-circuit any transformation process. Furthermore, our sin nature is constantly trying to pull us down into the muck of life. But complaining about the difficulty of the battle will not change things, it is what it is, and it is why God will give wonderful rewards and crowns to those people who work to strive for godliness, good character and obedience. Let’s make up our minds to be knowledgeable in our doctrine and sterling in our character. The world needs that, and God deserves it.