BE NOT CONFORMED!

Date: Wed Feb 18 16:43:51 2009

Title: BE NOT CONFORMED...

Post: Romans 12: 1-2 reads: ìI beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.î

Brothers and Sisters, we live in a day where presenting anything to God is often done with a hand out expecting something right back and where being conformed to the world system is the rule rather than the exception. How did we get so far from this clear commandment of God to us?

First, salvation as often presented entails no sacrifice. Rather, it is an invitation to those who are tired of what the world has to offer to ìtry Jesusî. A new flame, a new high. Just ask Jesus to take away your sins. Often times, the ramifications of what sin does are not even mentioned. It is sort of the price of admission. In days of yore, there was weeping and wailing when people came to grips with what their sin actually looked like to God. They were horrified and had a hard time believing that God could actually forgive them. Such was the disgust with their sin. When we have a clear picture of our ìfilthy ragsî, anything God asks for seems eminently reasonable. When we donít have that picture, or it is not in clear focus, then anything God expects seems unreasonable. Sanctification is not ìoptionalî my friends. Discipleship is not for the few. Committing to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is not something we will get around to ìsomedayî.

You see, when we really see Jesus, we will gladly give him anything. Our bodies? Sure. Our minds? Most definitely! Everything we have is chump change compared to the blood spilt from Emmanuelís veins. God takes what we have and as it is committed to him, it becomes holy and acceptable to him. That is why we need to maintain our sanctification by keeping anything and everything from polluting our bodies, our souls, or our spirits. We are Godís now. We are not our own. We have been bought with a price ñ the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us.

Next, we must be transformed. Transformation does not come by a good works ìto do" list. It does not come from ìbrownie pointsî. It comes from a wholesale change in our minds. Our minds have to be renewed. When as an architect I renew a building, the old wiring, the old plumbing, the rotten wood, the rusty metal, the inefficient floor plan have to go. To renew means to make the old like new. It is like God does ñ he recreates you. You are born again. In fact, I call these buildings I work on ìborn-again buildingsî. Some things may look similar ñ but the guts are changed and it will operate in an entirely different way. Born again people keep their hair color and the shape of their face, their height, and lot of other characteristics, but their countenance, their manner of thinking, the way they use humor, their ability to love and care, the way they treat God and their fellow man changes totally. Unless the mind is renewed, we will never be the people God chose us to be. God wants to erase your ìhard driveî and replace the carnal with the spiritual, the ordinary with the exemplary, and the dying with the living.

How do we renew our minds? We must let the Lord reprogram us with an entirely different operating system, He does that through teaching us through the Bible as we study it faithfully each day and as the Holy Spirit explains it to us and applies its truth to each situation we face. As we interact with God, our minds are changed. The old ways of approaching life, the old images we saw that we shouldnít have seen or imagined, fade away. Thoughts of God and images of righteousness take their place.

Without that renewal, we will be totally powerless to prove the will of God in our lives. His will is that we have the mind of Christ, and the only way we will get that mind is the same way Christ did ñ through total submission to the Father, through a love of the Word, through rejecting the overtures of Satan, and through doing only the things that the Father has asked us to do. So do not be CONFORMED, but TRANSFORMED. Your very life depends on it!