Think God’s thoughts after him…

Lutheran Christian Johannes Kepler, discoverer of the elliptical orbits of planets, when asked why he did science, is credited with replying that in scientific research he could “think God’s thoughts after him.” Thinking God’s thoughts after him is worship. Likewise, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ is worship. Worshiping with your mind and heart wide awake to the wonder of redeeming love is the only way for a boy to grow up into a true man of God.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 35

A lifetime wasted away…

Young men need special restraints to avoid slavery to technological fighting, shooting, car-theft, fantasy role-playing, and action-adventure games. These games were designed to place a large ring in your nose and lead you, unresisting, back to the computer-game trough, hour after hour, day after day—a lifetime wasted away, heart pumping with artificially induced entertainment as you blow away the latest cyber bad guys.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 76

And finally he is damned…

Puritan Jeremy Taylor described the incremental decline that a young man should expect to pass through if he forges friendships with worldly heroes and their sin: “First it startles him, then it becomes pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed, then the man is impenitent, then obstinate, then resolves never to repent, and finally he is damned.”

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 230

A sane, wise young man will take note…

The more absorbed you are in entertainment and popular amusements, the more incongruous praying will seem and the more unreal and irrelevant heaven and eternity will seem to you. A sane, wise young man will take note.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 265

We yawn at the enduring things…

Pop culture and all its technological distractions—movies, computer games, television, cell phones—sap your enthusiasm and make you yawn at the enduring things.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 195

Thinking God’s thoughts after him…

Lutheran Christian Johannes Kepler, discoverer of the elliptical orbits of planets, when asked why he did science, is credited with replying that in scientific research he could “think God’s thoughts after him.” Thinking God’s thoughts after him is worship. Likewise, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ is worship. Worshiping with your mind and heart wide awake to the wonder of redeeming love is the only way for a boy to grow up into a true man of God.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 35

The habits of mind, heart, and body…

Young man, you’re on the road that has more byways to hell than any other stretch of highway you’ll encounter throughout your days on this earth. With every breath you draw, you are developing the habits of mind, heart, and body that will shape who you will become in your adult life and that will shape your eternal destiny.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 24

Avoid mishandling God’s Word…

Avoid error and mishandling of God’s divine Word by taking the explicit over the implicit, by reasoning along with the writer in his context, and by avoiding superficial conclusions when biblical writers employ rhetorical devices in the course of their arguments.

— Douglas Bond, from Stand Fast In the Way of Truth, p. 275