Lynn H. Blackburn

Philippians 4:8 ~ Whatever is honorable . . . think about these things.  (ESV)

As we continue our 31 day journey into renewing our mind, today we’re going to talk about what it means to think about things that are honorable.

The Greek word that is translated here as honorable is “semnos” and it means “August, venerable, reverend. To be venerated for character, honorable.”

I’ll be honest, this one had me a little stumped. Because the other three times it’s used in the New Testament, it’s referring to dignified, sober-minded, honorable men and women in the church.

So what’s Paul telling us here? Think about the honorable people in the church?

Well . . . kinda.

We rely on the authority of the Scriptures as our final judge of truth, but many men and women of God have taken the time to write down their insights and experiences and we would do well to spend some time thinking about those things.

How do we do that? We read their books. And I’m not talking about fiction.

I write fiction. I love fiction. I read fiction in just about every genre. I believe good fiction can and does impact lives.

But fiction cannot and should not take the place of time spent first in the Word and second in the pages of works written by honorable men and women of the faith.

If you haven’t read any non-fiction lately, you’re missing out on a treasure of mind renewing wisdom.

Don’t know where to start? Well . . . for the past several months I’ve been posting reviews of non-fiction books that have had an impact on my walk. You could start with A Praying Life, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, I Used to Be So Organized, or Grace for the Good Girl.

Another idea is to find out what books have been studied in the past few years in Bible studies (both for the men and women) at your church. Or pay attention in services when your pastor mentions an author.That’s why a book by Tim Keller and the biography of Deitrich Bonhoeffer are next up on my TBR (to-be-read) stack.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a different approach to this subject, but for today, leave me a comment and tell me what works of non-fiction you’re reading, or have read in the past, and how they impacted you.

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I’m so glad you’ve joined us. We’re in the middle of a 31 day exploration of what renewing our minds looks like. If this is your first time visiting, you can find links to previous 31 Days of Renewing posts here.