by David Brenneman
"There's no way that you can keep from being conformed to the world unless you are being transformed by the renewing of your mind." Ray Stedman.
I know not whom this person is other than he was quoted by Dr. David Jeremiah in his devotional book that I am going through. However the point is spot on.
You both influence others and are being influenced by others every single day. What you allow yourself to be influenced by is mostly in your hands and by your decisions that you make.
You choose to go this place or that place or to stay where you are. Within these decisions you make or follow a train of thought. While you are awake you have a hand in the direction of your life by your words, thoughts and actions. Sometimes circumstances are beyond our control. However, Biblically speaking, nothing is beyond the control of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a very singular rarity that a mind isn't either being influenced by the world or isn't being renewed day by day in the Lord.
Medical reasons are among those.
Part of the woes of many Believer's are in their not taking their walk with Jesus seriously. They don't realize that you can't grow spiritual muscles by only praying over food, when they remember to, and going to Church one or twice a week.
No athlete would ever be considered an athlete if they talked to their coach only under certain conditions and only attempted to work out for a few hours on a single day of the week.
That's what many have done to their walk with Jesus.
They strive not to take every thought captive in any sense of the word.
They look not at the value of spending time daily in the Word of God and in prayers that go beyond that of food and shelter.
These people are some of the best that Satan's not needing to even mess with because they think they're doing ok as a Christian.
But then again...we need to understand what the will of God for us is. 'What would Jesus do?' was a very much over used catch phrase several decades ago.
Yet in these things about living lives daily, Jesus DID say something about it in the book of Revelation.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ” Revelation 3:14-22.
Jesus isn't anything less than the Creator, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The Savior of the world. Yet many professing Christians relegate Him to the lowly status of a butler, a bodyguard, someone to call 911 to when the desires of their hearts get them in trouble.
In Romans 12:1,2 we read: "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
Further we read "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4.
"Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds." Matthew 16:24-27.
When we come to Christ we don't just get saved from the wrath to come. We don't just go to Heaven rather than Hell. We are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We are adopted into the family of God. We are Ambassadors for Christ in this world. We are to grow in respect to the salvation we have in Christ Jesus. We are to take any and every avenue that works for us to grow in Christ and to learn however we can from the Spirit of God who will teach us all things.
It has been a hard thing to watch organizations and people coming after Alistair Begg, some even calling for him to repent of his advice to a Grandmother. Attempting to silence him until he does. That's where an earlier post got its title of modern day Pharisees. People claiming to be Christians who have certain lost their way and whom are not living in the light of Jesus Christ nor do they know His Word.
I have written about and posted a picture of the materials that I go through each evening. I choose the renewing of the mind route in Christ. I have had to discover how I learn. I had to teach myself how to study because I couldn't find anyone to teach me how to. For me. I heavily use the search function of an Bible app to fill in the gaps of parts of verses that I remember or call to mind. Sometimes it's Google. Decades ago I cried out to God in my frustration over not being able to memorize the Scriptures like others do. His answer said that He did give me Google lol.
I had to decide what was going to feed my mind or leach my mind. All of us must choose what we are going to do with regards to the rest of our lives in Christ.
My Dear Reader if you call yourself a Christian...live out your life in Christ to the fullest measure.
You must choose who you too will serve. As the Scriptures say as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Philippians 4:8-9 says "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."
You choose but your choice has consequences. You will stand before Jesus one day to give an account of your life before Him.
What will your life show?
You will either show conformity to the world or transformation in Christ Jesus.
All NASB 1995 and NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) Lockman Foundation.
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