The Book that Changed My Life—Manly Dominion

My third instalment of “The Book that changed my life” is from Johnson Jilowa Malipenga (49). He is a sales manager at Dana Holdings and a member of Emmasdale Baptist Church. Johnson holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Zambia and is currently working on his research and dissertation for the Master of Arts degree at the same university. He is married to the wife of his youth, Agness, and fathers their four daughters and one son whose ages stretch from 5 to 19. He majors in pioneer church-planting work, is an accomplished lay preacher and Bible Teacher. He also loves reading, the countryside, game viewing and hunting, farming, and jogging. Let us hear about the book that changed his life…

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In May of 2006, I had an opportunity to attend an international Christian conference in South Africa. The name of the conference is The Shepherds Conference, hosted by the Grace Community Churches in South Africa. While there I had a privilege of lodging at the home of a Zambian minister of the gospel and pastor of Lynwood Baptist Church—Ronald Mumba Kalifungwa. On a Saturday morning after the conference, Ronald Kalifungwa invited me to accompany him to one of their church meetings and that morning it was a men’s breakfast. The meeting was meant to be an occasion for men in the church to have sometime of fellowship around a breakfast meal. It happened that they were going through a book entitled Manly Dominion by Mark Chanski, an American Reformed Baptist pastor. Before flying back home to Zambia, he took time to take me round some Christian bookstores in Pretoria. One such bookstore was the Augustine Book Room where I bought Mark Chanski’s book Manly Dominion without hesitation.

The book is largely based on Genesis1:27-28. The author raises a clarion call on men to biblical image-bearing convictions in all matters of life. He calls men to subdue in all areas of God given responsibilities to the glory of God and for the benefit of society. The book is a timely reminder to us to live in accordance with the scriptural commission our Almighty Maker gave us in the beginning of time.

The book strengthened and confirmed my biblical convictions. It helped remove cobwebs and solidified my doctrinal moorings. The author helped straighten up my Christian worldview by seeing everything in the light of what the Bible had to say (Sola Scriptura, Sola Tota). It helped me firm up on the need for bold actions, bold convictions, and bold endeavours, by retraining my mind in biblical manhood.