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.
Romans 12:1-2
A study of human history will reveal that mankind has repeatedly tried to force God, His truth and His will to bend to human desires and morality. It has been said the God made man in His image, and man has returned this by trying to make God into his image. What a foolish mistake it is to try to demand that the Creator of the universe capitulate to the whims and twisted morality of any society or culture. God is the One who is keeping all things in existence, and He is the One who will bring all things to conclusion and final judgment. Yet even acknowledging this fact, many people will develop their own system of beliefs rather than pursue the only real rational response, which is to discover truth about God and comply/agree/cooperate with Him. We see this in some churches today, they don’t like what the Bible says about things, so they disregard that truth to proclaim their own morality and ideas. As the old saying goes “A person’s morality determines their theology.” How does anyone think this will be blessed by God and looked at favorably on judgment day? My friends, scripture reveals that what God is looking for from us is faith to trust in Him and His Word. Jesus Christ died to provide redemption for us all and our response to Him should be a surrender to His love and a desire to live to know and honor Him with love and gratitude. We do this by being “living sacrifices.” If we want to truly worship our Creator and Redeemer, we must surrender to Him and let Him decide what is best for us. Worship of God can never involve a demand to change truth to fit our own liking or desires! To be living sacrifices, we must learn how to stop being conformed by the world system that is employed by the devil himself to increase our flesh/selfish nature/pride. We must learn to be transformed by the renewing of our mind/thinking so we can prove/understand God’s will for us. We will not be able to do this if we are demanding God bend to our will, or if we refuse to acknowledge truth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6) If we know Him, love Him and want to serve Him, He must call the shots as He guides us with His Holy Spirit and His Word. Our transformation begins with our attitude toward God and our faith in Him over reliance on anything else. The troubles of the world we are facing now are not new, they are the old ways of the world, flesh and the devil having their way with people. The mayhem, racial hatred and anger pouring out in our culture has been around for a very long time! Our only real hope is a turning of our lives over to the One who has provided us a means of reconciliation with God first, and then one another as people; only then will we be able to fulfill the two greatest commandments which are to love God and to love people. (Matthew 22: 38-40) We must let Him renew our mind and transform our thinking before we can be used by God to provide healing, love and change to our very troubled world. If we resist God and His grace to help us in this, we have no one to blame for our own personal troubles but ourselves. The world will be changed one person at a time as each one gives God rule of their life. Have you done this? Have you surrendered to God’s love through Jesus Christ and accepted His gift of salvation/redemption/eternal life? If so, are you letting Him transform you by the renewal of your mind/thinking/choices? It is God’s plan, there is no other! Be transformed today and everyday to please and honor God and He will use you for His glory without a doubt.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Gary Houdek