I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service. And not be conformed
to this world: but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
For I say, through the grace given unto me,
to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than
he ought to think; but to think soberly,
accordingly as God hath dealt to every
man the measure of faith.
Romans 12:1-3
The words of Paul in the opening verses are opposite of what the world teaches, preaches, and practices. The world believes in the empowerment of man or woman and this men and women of this world are seeking and that cultural belief has found its way into the Church. It seems as though a person must find "himself", or, "herself," and to do this men and women are searching for a truth that cannot be found outside of the truth of God. Do you want to be empowered? Good! Seek God! Seek the truth that God has given for your benefit! Socrates stated: "know thyself!" He was not entirely wrong we must know ourselves. What is it that we must know? What knowledge is it that we must obtain? Is it our past, our heritage, or degree, or lack of a degree, our successes or our failures? Will any of these thing really lead us to really know ourselves? NO! All they do is teach us that have been good at times, or bad at times, or are what we are do to our heritage, or our success, or our failures. They do not teach us what we really are: Sinners in need of salvation. Most men and women do not know their true state or avoid knowing, maybe due to ignorance, or just unwillingness to change to the better, to get to know their real self. Men and women refuse to know their true state and oblivious to the things that they have chosen to replace God in their lives.
The Bible teaches us that we are make changes in our lives if we are to be acceptable to God. The Bible teaches us that God should be the supreme object of our affections and to remove anything that would distract from the place in our lives that He rightly deserves. If we do not do this then we will become disloyal to God. Men and women who refuse this truth are only setting up for themselves a throne by which to rule their lives, or even to rule the lives of others and to reign over life as though they actually have that power. In actuality: they have become estranged from God and His right to rule over our lives. Devotion, true devotion is diverted into a form of devotion that we have determined is good, or holy. This is spiritual treason! Not allowing ourselves to be conformed to God, to His mercies, His commandments is to be conformed to this world and this will lead a person into sins, such as immorality, or thievery, or greed, a lust leading to overt sins, even sins not seen by others. Our energy is for ourselves and not for God and by this we cannot receive from God blessings, or benefits. In fact we cannot be a child of God unless we repent and conform to His will. Anything else is abomination to God.
The world today does not view life through a spiritual grid, this is rare. We can see that many are lazy, thoughtless, wasting their lives in trivial and meaningless ways. To often people evaluate life in terms of temporal values and do not consider the terms of consequences or to consider eternity; they consider is themselves and whether or not they feel good about themselves. Authentic Christians can see this and have the responsibility to help to alleviate this illness of the world. We must not avoid confrontation, hoping that another will come along and do what we should be doing. We are to minister, not preach, minister, aid them to spiritual health.
This all begins at home with our spouses, our children and we are not to treat them as temporal. Authentic Christians will set aside time to teach their children, their wives what is the correct path they are to take in this life. This means even speaking about who they will marry, or what career they will choose, to aid them in their decision making process. We must help them to take into account eternal issues. We must carefully examine of what we do in these cases as it will reveal what is the most of importance in our thinking, in our lives.
My son, attend to my words: incline
thine ear to my sayings. Let them
not depart from thine eyes; keep them
in the midst of thine heart, for they
are life unto those that find them, and
health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart
with all diligence; for out of it are the
issues of life.
Proverbs 4:20-23
Hear the words of the LORD
Richard L. Crumb
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