discipled living

God’s Power to Re-create and Empower Us Anew!

God tells us explicitly in Romans 12:2 that there is a demand upon the church that in many ways we have ignored and failed to acknowledge. It is in our failure we have missed one of the greatest blessings that God holds in reserve for us. The King James Translation of this passage is more emphatic than the New Living Translation as it translates the passage like this: Romans 12:1&2

“I Beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not 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.”

It is God’s command that we must not assume the shape and contour of the world. The admonition is against using the world’s standards of behavior and success to guide our behavior and quest for success as His Church. The Standards are worlds apart in the grand scheme of things. The truth is that the world’s standards of behavior and success always end in competitive edge seeking, and leaving dead bodies in your wake.

When you examine our culture and the mores that guide its behavior and models of achievement we must conclude that for the church to emulate such behavior and models it must all but abandon the truth of God’s word. And by abandoning it we also forfeit the provision of God for His church because we are outside of His purpose.

This is the same for individual disciples; we cannot accept the world’s standards of success as the models for building a discipled life. When we pursue success in the same manner that the world describes success we abdicate the authority that Jesus Christ gave to us at the time of His ascension.

The Challenge

We almost always choose the world’s standards as the most acceptable standard for moving our families forward, and staking a claim in prosperity or rearing our children or preparing for marriage and living a married life or choosing our friends. We do this in explicit defiance of the imperative of God to not be conformed to this world. Is there any wonder that the world laughs at the church on the whole, yet actually fears a church that stands upon the truth of the Word of God without fear of reprisal?

Make a list of things that the church and individual disciples follow the world’s standards rather than The Bible, God’s Word.

I often tell my children, “There is only one way to do everything.” As difficult as that may seem to everyone when I say that, I remain convicted that there is only one way to do everything that we have before us to do. Proverbs tells us,

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.” 3:5&6

There is always a price to pay for failing to trust in the Lord for our answers and leaning on our own understanding. It may be lost time, lost relationship; lost opportunity or some other loss that neither you nor I can afford to suffer.

The Solution:

God tells us clearly that there is an alternative to the patterns of the World that we have so diligently follow. Transformation is the only hope for us as we “strive” to draw closer to God through Christ Jesus. God will transform each of us as we yield to the transforming power of God’s Word. God’s way cannot fail or disappoint, because His way is the only way that produces the quality of life that we each so desire to have and to enjoy. Transformation is God’s work that occurs in the heart/mind of each believer who desires and pursues the Power of God for living.