The purpose of Lundgaard’s book is to draw our attention to the Beloved—to the triune God. It is to draw our attention to Him, not so we can admire Him from a safe and comfortable distance, but so we can truly draw near to Him. 

We make a lot of all the distractions that come with life in the modern, always-on, electronic world. And certainly it can be hard to have minds that remain focused for any significant stretch of time before the next beep, the next buzz, the next little burst of dopamine. Yet we do not need to look far into the annals of church history to find that distraction—and especially the kind of distraction that keeps us from being spiritually minded—has always been a challenge and that God’s people have always had to take action against it.
Centuries ago, John Owen wrote a book about issues like this. The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded is not one of his better-known works, though perhaps it should be. But there is a legitimate concern when it comes to reading it today: while Owen’s works were never particularly easy to read, the intervening years have made them harder still. Some of his language has become antiquated and many of his illustrations have become opaque. Thankfully, Kris Lundgaard has done us a service by bringing the best of Owen’s old work into modern times in The Devoted Mind. This is the third time Lungaard has done this with Owen’s books, with the others being The Enemy Within and The Glorious Christ (the first two of which have just been reprinted so the trio now has a consistent and contemporary cover design).
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When we look at the message of Jonah through the wider lens of redemptive history, his prophecy takes on a whole new and expanded meaning—God’s mercy extends to the ends of the earth–not just to Israel. Jonah’s actions must be interpreted in light of YHWH’s greater purpose.

Moral Tale or Historical Event?
A Well-Known Story
Most everyone knows the story of Jonah. Jonah was a reluctant Hebrew prophet who, while fleeing from his divine commission, was thrown overboard in the midst of a horrific storm by his terrified shipmates, only to be swallowed by a big fish (usually assumed to be a whale). Jonah then spent three days and nights in the fish’s belly, before being vomited up by the fish on a foreign shore. Once safely on land, Jonah fulfilled his evangelistic mission, went to Nineveh as commanded, and preached to the Ninevites who repented en masse. The story is simple enough it can be understood by a child, but profound enough that theologians and biblical scholars still debate its meaning.
Whenever considering any book of the Bible it is important to ask and answer several questions to make sure we interpret the book and its message correctly. Who was Jonah, when did he live, why did he write this book, and what is in it? How does this particular prophecy compare with the other Minor Prophets who lived and ministered about the same time? These questions are especially important with a book like Jonah, which many think to be an allegory or a moral fable, seeing the story as so implausible that it cannot possibly be speaking of historical events. How can someone be swallowed alive by a whale and live for three days? No, the critics say, this cannot be history, so it must be an allegory, a teaching parable, or a work of fiction, designed to teach us some important spiritual or moral truth.
When we interpret Jonah’s prophecy through this fictional lens, the reader’s focus usually falls upon Jonah himself, the prime example of a reluctant prophet who refuses to obey God’s will. By not obeying God, Jonah finds himself in the belly of a whale, until God relents and the whale then spits Jonah out safe and sound–if a bit shook up. The moral to the story is that should God call you to do something you do not want to do, learn the lesson of the story of Jonah. Obey the Lord and avoid the kind of calamity which comes upon those who, like Jonah, will not do what they know God wants them to do.
No Mere Morality Tale
But when we ask and then answer the “Who?” “When?” “Why?” and “What?” questions, it becomes clear that Jonah’s prophecy is not an allegory, nor does it offer such a trivial and moralistic message. This is not a “once upon a time in a land far away” kind of book. The prophecy opens with Jonah’s personal ancestry–revealing the name of his father enabling us to compare other biblical references to this family, thereby tying Jonah’s ministry directly to the reign of Jeroboam II, one of the last rulers of Israel (the Northern Kingdom).
Jonah’s prophecy comes in the form of a prophetic narrative (much like 1 and 2 Kings) with a song/Psalm included within the narrative (chapter 2). It is clearly set in a particular period of time–the final days of Israel (the Northern Kingdom). Yet unlike the books of the Kings, the Book of Jonah does not emphasize God’s prophet’s obedience to undertake a difficult prophetic call. On the contrary, the Book of Jonah focuses upon the prophet’s determined reluctance to fulfill his mission.[1] But what is that mission? That is the critical question not often properly considered.
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The power of God at work in his word is a power that God intended to be exercised by the faithful ministry of his word. Ministers are sinful people who need to be rebuked, corrected, and shaped by the word that they preach. But, in God’s economy, his plan was always to have sinful people preach it and minister it to others. We must never lose sight of the call to let the word do the work, but never assume that labouring in the word and with the word is a failure to let the word do the work. By God’s incredible grace and mercy, and by his unfathomable power, he wills to work in and through his word as we minister it. 

An Uneasy Relationship with the Scriptures
As we start to explore what it means to tremble at God’s word, I want to suggest that our relationship with the Scriptures as God’s word is more complex than most of us are willing to admit. On the one hand, we know that Scripture is powerful, it is the Word of God. The preacher’s job is to get out of the way so that God’s powerful word can work in the hearts of people. We quote Spurgeon’s famous, ‘Defend the Bible, I’d sooner defend a lion. Just let the truth free and it will defend itself.’ We exhort each other to ‘let the word do the work’ and we share those wonderful stories of people who were converted just by reading Scripture. On this view, we as preachers are in danger of muddying the power and beauty and wonder of Scripture by anything that we say and do. Applying the word of God can feel like an activity where we move beyond the Scriptures and are taking responsibility for people’s godliness into our hands rather than leaving it in the hands of the Holy Spirit. However, it is easy to parrot the ‘let the word for the work’ line and naively misunderstand the power and responsibility we have in ministry. After all, we choose the books of the Bible we teach and the chunks they are taught in. Additionally, years are invested in Bible college education developing exegetical skills. Why do we invest so much time and money if the preacher is doing nothing? A moment’s thoughtful reflection should reveal that there are complex ities in what we espouse and what we do. I think we have what I might call an ‘uneasy’ relationship with Scripture.
What does it mean to be faithful Bible teachers? How powerful is God’s word? And what part do we play in bringing that word to bear and ministering it in people’s lives?
God’s Powerful Word
What God’s Word does
A quick survey of the Scriptures reveals many ways that the power of God’s word is articulated. God’s word creates. God said let there be and there was. Ex Nihilo. Out of nothing. God did not fashion the world out of what already existed. He spoke, and things that were not, suddenly were. God is the creator, and we are the creatures. God is powerful enough, simply by a word, to create. The same word that creates also reveals. The God who spoke creation into being spoke to that creation. He made himself known. He explained himself to us, his world to us and he explained us to us (1 Cor 2:11; Rom 7:7). The word which creates and reveals must also be the word that judges. A holy and pure God cannot speak to fallen and sinful creatures without them experiencing the awfulness of sin and rebellion against God (Heb 4:12-13). It is with relief that the same word that creates, reveals, and judges, is also the word which raises the dead (John 11:43-44; 1 Pet 1:23). The Word which made something out of nothing is the same Word that brings life from the dead. God’s people are declared right, forgiven, cleansed, and made holy by the work of Christ brought to bear in our lives through the Word of God. And so, the word of God is powerful enough to relate us rightly to God and to each other, and to transform us to be like the one who was raised from the dead as our Lord and friend. We believe that the word of God is powerful, but how does it do all these things? How does it reveal, judge, relate us to God and transform us?
How God’s Word does What it does
God’s Relationship with His Word
When we talk about God and his word, we speak of a relationship that is utterly unique in our experience. God’s word is not like our word in at least two very significant ways. Firstly, his words always represent him truly. There is no gap between what he says and who he is. Secondly, God is always present when his word is spoken. This is a very big difference from us. When we speak, our words can be reported by others. They can come in a letter, an email or a text that can be read and interpreted apart from our presence. But whenever and wherever God’s word is read, God is there. He is there working for salvation or for judgement.
For both reasons, God’s word is full of his power and goodness. God’s word does what God does because it comes with all the power, authority and goodness of God who is at work in his world. We live in a world where goodness and authority are opposed. In fact, goodness is what is necessary to stand up to authority because, by and large, authority is viewed as evil. Authority restricts my autonomy, and my humanness. And so, what is good is what thwarts authority and allows autonomy to thrive. Of course, we know from the Scriptures, that God’s world works in exactly the opposite way. The acceptance of God’s authority is fundamental to goodness because God is fundamentally good. There is no alternate truth, no container of righteousness, no abstract definition of good that stands over and against God in order that we might judge God; no, biblically, good is what God is. He is the origin and definition of all that is good. We live in a world that wants to define goodness apart from God, and God will ultimately judge it. But this also means that when he speaks into our world, we ought to expect people to reject His goodness at every turn. This is always the way the world has been: Satan questioned God’s goodness and Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority.
The prophets spoke and were scorned. We live in the last days when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Tim 4:3-4). God’s goodness and authority are mutually entwined in his person. They are deeply related issues in all of Scripture, fundamental to our understanding of sin and the human condition. In our sin we have rejected God’s authority and in so doing rejected God’s goodness. Nevertheless, God’s word has the power to judge us, raise us, relate us to him and transform us because God is present with his word and his word never fails to reveal him perfectly – in all his goodness and power.
God Speaks Intelligible Words
They are not words that mean nothing until the Spirit changes their meaning in our hearing.
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