DIGGING BELOW THE SURFACE
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
When we begin to speak about the need to go deeper in our lives than what we see that is just on the surface it must be understood that any kind of digging within ourselves will be disruptive; it could in fact be very uncomfortable for us.
For a very long time now Christians have been dealing with lists of things that they can do in order to show a personal loyalty to Christ. What I fear however for the most part is that we are trying to convince one another that we are truthful in our efforts instead of coming to grips with in our own heart about our belief in Christ. In the book of Romans 12: Paul gives us a concept of what our personal responsibility should be. The real problem is not what we say or even how we relate to other people in public or in worship of God, but it is moving from a theological point of view where we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ into a practical application of what we say we believe. Paul starts out in Romans 12: by saying "therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."
What I am struck with in these words is the need for our personal and active response to how Christ and the Holy Spirit is changing our moment to moment lives. We are to give ourselves to Christ as living sacrifices. This includes obeying our government, loving our neighbors, and taking special care of those who are weak in the faith. To be as blunt as I can this means that our life is no longer ours to control or even to live, but each moment of each day that we draw breath what we do, say, think, and feel should be governed by our relationship with Jesus Christ. The second verse in Romans 12: tells us "do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, is good, pleasing and perfect will ". As much as most of us do not want to admit to it we do tend to conform to the patterns of the world around us. In most cases we tend to go along in order to get along in life. It is always easier for us to take the more comfortable or easier pathway, and that includes in trying to live our life for Christ. The thing that most of us do not understand is that we cannot be transformed, and we cannot renew our mind and heart unless we first completely lay aside our control of self. As much as anything else in our lives the need for God's spirit to be in complete control is key to even the beginning of our mind and heart becoming transformed so that we might be able to even test and approve what God's will is for our lives. As we begin to dig more deeply into self intent when it comes to our worship of God our human nature wants to automatically take the easiest pathway it can in that journey. At first I am sure that we run around looking for the easiest materials that we can use to build our Christian lives with. This means that it is human nature for us to use all of what other people see about us on the surface of our lives, the things that we show other people; the things that we feel we are best at in life. God however immediately asks the question "WHAT DO YOU REALLY HAVE WITHIN YOU"? Almost immediately we begin to scramble in our efforts to be a living sacrifice for the parts of us which we can most easily live without. At first it may not be difficult for us to find things that we know God wants to change within us which also include some of the things that we want to change in us as well. It is in those things that we find ourselves with a feeling of change and growth at first. Many of these things may be surface related pieces of our lives that can easily be seen by other people. It isn't that these things are not important in the beginnings of preparing to go deeper still in our relationship with God, but we need to realize that with each step we take God will always ask us to go deeper with him. I want to begin dealing with these pieces of our lives that we have been using to appease God's spirit with. It is very important that we begin to really see what God's intentions are for us to be transformed into new creatures. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
When we begin to speak about the need to go deeper in our lives than what we see that is just on the surface it must be understood that any kind of digging within ourselves will be disruptive; it could in fact be very uncomfortable for us.
For a very long time now Christians have been dealing with lists of things that they can do in order to show a personal loyalty to Christ. What I fear however for the most part is that we are trying to convince one another that we are truthful in our efforts instead of coming to grips with in our own heart about our belief in Christ. In the book of Romans 12: Paul gives us a concept of what our personal responsibility should be. The real problem is not what we say or even how we relate to other people in public or in worship of God, but it is moving from a theological point of view where we are convinced that Jesus is the Christ into a practical application of what we say we believe. Paul starts out in Romans 12: by saying "therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship."
What I am struck with in these words is the need for our personal and active response to how Christ and the Holy Spirit is changing our moment to moment lives. We are to give ourselves to Christ as living sacrifices. This includes obeying our government, loving our neighbors, and taking special care of those who are weak in the faith. To be as blunt as I can this means that our life is no longer ours to control or even to live, but each moment of each day that we draw breath what we do, say, think, and feel should be governed by our relationship with Jesus Christ. The second verse in Romans 12: tells us "do not conform any longer to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, is good, pleasing and perfect will ". As much as most of us do not want to admit to it we do tend to conform to the patterns of the world around us. In most cases we tend to go along in order to get along in life. It is always easier for us to take the more comfortable or easier pathway, and that includes in trying to live our life for Christ. The thing that most of us do not understand is that we cannot be transformed, and we cannot renew our mind and heart unless we first completely lay aside our control of self. As much as anything else in our lives the need for God's spirit to be in complete control is key to even the beginning of our mind and heart becoming transformed so that we might be able to even test and approve what God's will is for our lives. As we begin to dig more deeply into self intent when it comes to our worship of God our human nature wants to automatically take the easiest pathway it can in that journey. At first I am sure that we run around looking for the easiest materials that we can use to build our Christian lives with. This means that it is human nature for us to use all of what other people see about us on the surface of our lives, the things that we show other people; the things that we feel we are best at in life. God however immediately asks the question "WHAT DO YOU REALLY HAVE WITHIN YOU"? Almost immediately we begin to scramble in our efforts to be a living sacrifice for the parts of us which we can most easily live without. At first it may not be difficult for us to find things that we know God wants to change within us which also include some of the things that we want to change in us as well. It is in those things that we find ourselves with a feeling of change and growth at first. Many of these things may be surface related pieces of our lives that can easily be seen by other people. It isn't that these things are not important in the beginnings of preparing to go deeper still in our relationship with God, but we need to realize that with each step we take God will always ask us to go deeper with him. I want to begin dealing with these pieces of our lives that we have been using to appease God's spirit with. It is very important that we begin to really see what God's intentions are for us to be transformed into new creatures. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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