Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to ask you a little question.
How many times have you walked into your kitchen during the middle of the night, turned on the light switch, but nothing happened. The bulb was completely burned out. You stumbled over to the kitchen closet and managed to find a flashlight and a brand new light bulb, one that had never been used. Standing on the kitchen table, you removed the old bulb and replaced it with the new one. As soon as you turned the light switch back on, the light was immediately restored.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
In order for us to prove the perfect will of God, our mind must be renewed. Like an old light bulb, It too needs to be replaced with a completely new one.
Romans 12:2 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.
As a born again believer, we are not supposed to revert back to the way that we lived when we lived in the world, but become converted to the will of God. To conform means to be similar in form or nature, or to behave according to socially accepted conventions or standards. It’s having traits or characteristics in common, being alike, similar, or the same. We are supposed to distance ourselves from the way that the world lives, because we are called out of darkness to walk in the light.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
To walk in the light, we need to change the lightbulb. We must change the way that we think. In the past, our mind was focused on things of the flesh and the carnal nature, but now that old mindset needs to be replaced with a new mind, a Spiritual one.
Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
In order to go through a transformation from a sinner into a saint, the mind has to be renewed. Renew means to make something new again, or to restore it to freshness. It means to replace something that has broken. It also means to make new spiritually, to regenerate or to repair. Have you ever broken something before? Maybe you’ve gone to the mechanic because your car wasn’t running right and it needed to be fixed. Maybe one of your children broke something on their bicycle and it needed to be repaired. This is what it means when you renew something, to repair or to restore it to wholeness. We need a new Spiritual mind to completely overcome sin and to please God.
Romans 8:5-8 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
We must walk in a new born again mind because it’s clear throughout the new Testament, that doing the will of God is required to abide forever in heaven. This is why we pray…” thy will be done”.
1 John 2:15-17 – Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
A Christian is no better than anybody else in this world because all of us are sinners who have come short of the glory of God, its simply that we want to follow biblical guidelines so that we can someday live forever with the Lord Jesus Christ. We don’t want to live like we did anymore, but transform our lives into what God wants us to become.
1 Peter 4:3-5 For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
We have all followed the ways of the world at one time or another, but for Christians, it’s time to change.
Ephesians 2:2 – Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
I truly wish that all men would come to repentance and believe the truth of what Jesus has done for us all at the cross. He is the single and only access point to forgiveness with the heavenly Father. When we are baptized into His name, we can be forgiven for our past so that we can begin a transformation process into a servant of Christ. Sincere penitence and contrition is one of the first steps towards this transformation.
James 4:6-10 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
The new man has a new mind that is renewed through scriptural knowledge so we can abide in God’s perfect will as an obedient child.
Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Transformation can only truly happen through obedience.
1 Peter 1:14-15 – As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
God’s Word is capable of saving our souls, only if we submit to it, and allow it to transform our hearts and our minds to the will of God.
James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Eternity awaits each of us, but in order to get there we must change the way that we think. We must change certain false beliefs. We must change over from all of the worldly things that we have been educated in all of our lives while growing up in this place. We need to step into the waters of baptism and exchange that old mind for a new one because eternity hangs in the balance. In order to do the perfect will of God, we must transform, and that is going to require……
…… Changing the Lightbulb.
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody. ❤️
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