Spiritual Food for Women

Part 3- Transforming and Renewing Our Minds and Lives

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are Romans 12:1-2. 

1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

In my last post, I looked at the first part of Romans 12:2 where we are told not to conform to the world. If we are Christians, we are to be conformed to God’s purpose for our lives, not the world. Let’s continue on from last week’s post and finish up Romans 12:2. 

Before I dive into the rest of Romans 12:2, I want to remind everyone that this letter is written to the members of the Lord’s church in Rome. (Romans 1:7) These are people who have already obeyed the gospel and become Christians. They have repented, confessed, and been baptized for the remission of their sins and been added by God to the church of Christ. (Acts 2:47)
The first thing that we are told in Romans 12:2 is “do not be conformed to this world”. We cannot present our bodies as a “living sacrifice” as Romans 12:1 tells us to, unless we do this. Instead of conforming to the world, the verse says we are to “be transformed”. So this means we have to change, or go through a metamorphosis like a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. The word transformation means a dramatic or radical change. And this is not a one time thing. When it says “be transformed” it means continually “be transformed”……stay “transformed” because remember, Paul is talking to Christians who had already begun their transformation when they obeyed the gospel. But I need to continually transform daily after I obey the gospel. And that takes effort on my part every single day to stay transformed into the image of Christ. I fall short so often in this, but I will never stop trying until my last breath.

Before I go further into the verse, I would like to go a little deeper into the transformation process for those who need to hear this information. So the question is…..how did these Christians to whom Paul is talking in Romans “transform” to begin with? How do we? Well, first we have to repent. (Matthew 4:17, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) When we repent of sin we are deciding at that point that we want to transform or change. We are not just saying we are sorry only to turn around and go back to the sin we were in. We actually want to go through a metamorphosis and leave our life of sin forever. Then we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) We are confessing the name of who we want to transform into the likeness of which is Jesus Christ, our Savior. We are telling everyone that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, we are buried with Christ in baptism. (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12) When we are baptized, we bury our “caterpillar”, our old and sinful self and we leave the world behind. We come into contact with Christ’s blood through baptism and our sins are washed away. (Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16)  Baptism is how we “call on the name of the Lord”. (Acts 22:16) Ananias told Paul in the verse I just referenced to “arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” After baptism, we don’t belong to the world anymore. We belong to Christ. We cannot belong to both the world and Christ. We come up out of the waters of baptism and we are a beautiful butterfly so to speak, a new creature in Christ who is walking in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17)  Is there magic in the water? No, the water is not magic. It is the obedient act of baptism that puts us in Christ and at that point, our transformation has begun, not before. We are not saved until we come up out of the water a new creature. Christ commanded his disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” How do we become a disciple of Christ? We are baptized into Him.  I am reminded of the account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5:1-19. Was it the muddy water of the Jordan River that cured Naaman of his leprosy? No, it was the obedient act of washing in the river seven times that caused Naaman’s transformation from being sick to being well. In the same way, the obedient act of baptism begins our transformation. It is obedience, not the water!! Naaman would not have been saved from his leprosy had he not obeyed and we will not be saved from sin if we don’t obey. Baptism saves us from our sins (Mark 16:16) and God adds us to His church after we are baptized. (Acts 2:47) 

So……….are we through when we come up out of the water? Are we completely transformed when we are first baptized? No, we are new babes in Christ. If we were finished after baptism, we would not need Paul’s message in Romans 12:1-2. We have to grow into maturity and we continue to grow every day that we are physically alive. And as I said before, it is different for everyone. Sometimes we let our old “caterpillar” show through and we have to get ourselves back on track. It is tough out there in the world with all those temptations that Satan throws at us. We are bombarded every day. So…..how do I get back on track and cover that caterpillar that is trying to show through? Because, I definitely cannot look and act like the world and still transform myself into the image of Christ. So how do I continue to transform after I’m baptized into Christ? How do I stay a beautiful butterfly? How do I keep my old sinful self, or as our comparison is, our “caterpillar” from coming back?  The next part of the verse tells us that we are transformed “by the renewing of your mind”. But what does that mean? It means that we renew our minds with God’s word. The more we renew our minds with God’s word, the more we will transform into the image of Christ. If we don’t renew our minds with God’s word after we are baptized, then we won’t continue to transform. We won’t grow. We will look more like the world than Christ, and our beautiful butterfly will eventually be gone. We will belong to the world again, because we have not let Christ continue to transform us through His word. If we want the blessing of being in heaven with God and His Son someday and have that crown of life, we must be faithful until death. (Revelation 2:10) To truly be faithful, we must transform and renew with God’s word. We must seek first the kingdom of God which means we must seek first His church and things pertaining to it. (Matthew 6:33) His church consists of His people. We are to put God and our brothers and sisters in Christ first in our lives.

If I have the right mindset and attitude, worship and Bible study attendance will help me to grow and stay transformed into the image of Christ. My attendance also helps my brothers and sisters in Christ to grow and stay transformed which goes back to Matthew 6:33, seeking God’s kingdom, aka, the church, aka, my brothers and sisters in Christ first. Do we see the connection? It is encouraging to others if I am there at every service. And vice versa, it is encouraging to me to see others at every service. Hebrews 10:23-25 says very plainly, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Regardless of what the world tells us, assembling for worship is a command. But what about Sunday night service? What about Bible study on Sunday morning and Wednesday night? In the Lord’s church, we normally have two worship services on Sunday. We also assemble for Bible study on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. Hebrews 10:25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. It does not specify whether it is assembling for worship or Bible study. The way that I take this verse is that if our congregation is assembling, we should be there if at all possible. We should want to be there. It will be uplifting to us and to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes we have circumstances out of our control that keep us from coming and I’m in no way talking about those types of things. Evidently, according to Hebrews 10:25, there were Christians who were “forsaking the assembly” back at that time just like we sometimes do today. It must have been a problem because the Hebrew writer felt it necessary to tell the Christians back during the time this was written and, in turn, tell Christians today not to be people who forsake the assembly. I know that I have fallen short in this area at times in the past, but I am striving very hard to do better. I don’t want to ever let the words come out of my mouth again or have this thought enter my mind again…….. “I don’t have to go on Sunday night or Wednesday night because I went Sunday morning”. I am not punching a clock. I am ashamed to say that I have had that attitude in the past. Let’s ask ourselves, would we miss anything happening on any other night of the week? My kids were heavily into basketball and sometimes we would have basketball games a couple of nights a week. Then, Wednesday night bible study rolls around and we are all a little tired. I had to ask myself a question. Would I miss my kid’s game just because I’m a little tired? Do I want to teach my kids that we can make it to everything else during the week except Bible study and worship? No matter what our congregation is assembling for, whether it’s worship, Bible study, gospel meeting, vacation bible school, or anything else that we have the opportunity to attend, let’s all make the effort to be there and support each other and support the wonderful work being done by our bible class teachers and our preachers. Not to mention, with our attendance and focus while we are there, we are letting our Creator know that He is number one in our lives and we want to know more about Him. I know that I can’t earn my way into heaven with attendance at Bible study and worship. Jesus has made the way for us to get there. I know that with all my heart. But, because of what God has done for me through Jesus, I want to be there. I can’t tell you all how bad I have fallen short in this in my life at different times. I never missed anything that my children were ever involved in. I was there if at all possible, because I loved them so much. I should feel this way about the church that Christ died for. I love God and His kingdom here on earth so much that I don’t want to miss anything if at all possible. I have grown to love Wednesday night Bible study. In a busy work week, it keeps me grounded in what is truly important and “renews my mind” so that I can make it through the rest of the week. It is great to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ who are “of the same mind” in the middle of my work week. (Philippians 2:2)

However, even if we are going to worship and Bible study every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, our growth can still be stunted if we are not living out our faith daily, doing our own personal Bible study, and praying to God each day. I know from personal experience that you can be at services every time the doors are open, yet be disconnected from God and feel lost. I was simply going through the motions and that is just as bad as not being there at all. I wasn’t studying on my own. My prayer life needed major help. Until I started making time for Him every day, I struggled to stay on track spiritually. And we all struggle some days, simply because we are human and life can be overwhelming. But what better way to deal with being overwhelmed with life than to pray to God and ask Him to help us, tell Him everything going on that is overwhelming us, and then open God’s word and let Him soothe our souls? And Christians, even though we lead busy lives, let’s not lose sight of our purpose on this earth which is to bear fruit for God, to help teach others how to be saved. And how can I fulfill my purpose to teach others if I don’t study myself? It’s not easy some days. Some days we have more time than other days. It is about putting forth effort and putting Bible study and prayer as a top priority each day. We can do it my friends!! It is soooo worth it!!

Ok…..on to the last part of the verse, “ that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” This means that through renewing our minds with God’s word, we will learn what is good and acceptable to God. We learn that God’s will for our lives is perfect simply because He is God. We may not always understand God’s will but this is where trust comes in. We just have to trust Him. Romans 8:28 assures us with these words, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” May we never forget that his ways and thoughts are higher than our ways and thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9) How would we ever know what is good and acceptable to God without renewing our minds with His word? How would we know his perfect will for our lives without studying His word? Obviously, we can’t know every detail of God’s will for our lives. It wouldn’t be good for us if we knew everything that was going to happen to us. God knows what we need to know and He has given us all we need in His word. Some things are just not meant for us to know right now. However, we can know God’s ultimate will for us and that is a home in heaven with Him and His Son. We just have to sincerely dive into God’s word and follow His plan to get there. 

Transformation does not happen overnight and it is different for every person, because we all have different life experiences, different upbringings, different things that tempt us, etc. God never promised us that it would be easy. In fact, Jesus told us in Matthew 10:22 that we would be hated by all (meaning the world) for His name’s sake, but He also assured us that if we endure to the end we will be saved. What a comforting statement from our Savior!! So we run the race with endurance and never give up. (Hebrews 12:1) God never gives up on us as long as we are enduring in the faith and when we do fall, and we all do, He is there with open arms to take us back if we only take that first step towards Him. We gain more and more endurance the more we give of ourselves to Him through forming good habits of worship and Bible study attendance, daily Bible study, and daily prayer. Transformation is a process that we all continually work on. I am a work in progress. And I have a long way to go. We all do actually. I have been a teacher for thirty years. As an educator, I have always set the bar high for my students, because I want them to have something to strive for, and I want them to know that I believe they can accomplish anything they want in this life. I want them to have the confidence to try and reach that bar. Setting the bar low does not challenge anyone. My students will not grow with low expectations. I did the same with my own children. I set the bar high because I wanted them to know that I loved them and I believed they could achieve anything. Well God does this same thing with all of us. His expectations of us are high. Is it even logical that He wouldn’t set a high bar for His children? He’s God, our heavenly Father. He knows what each of us need individually to make us better people if we will truly trust Him and let His word guide every aspect of our lives. He knows that without a high bar to strive for, we would not be the kind of people He wants in heaven with Him. We can never reach that bar, but God expects us to strive for it. The world makes it out like God has set the bar low, or that there isn’t even a bar at all, and that we don’t really have to put forth any effort and it is really sad. That is how Satan has twisted people’s minds through false teaching. I pray every day for more people to see the truth and for doors to open so that I can help others. Friends, I know I have spent lots of time on Romans 12:1-2, but I found so much inspiration from diving into just those two verses. Just think about how much inspiration we can get from the entire Bible!! It is a book of endless inspiration. I pray that we all continue to transform and renew daily through God’s word and strive to reach the bar that God has set for us………which is to be like our savior, Jesus Christ. 

Have a blessed week ahead and thank you for reading my blog!!

Copyright 2023, all rights reserved.

Part 2- We Can Not Conform to This World

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are Romans 12:1-2. 

1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

In my last post, I had planned to break down Romans 12:1-2, but the depth that I found in verse one alone prompted me to turn last week’s post into two parts, possibly three. I would like to pick up where I left off and dive into Romans 12:2.
After telling us in verse one that we, as Christians, are to present our bodies as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, verse two expounds on this and tells us how to accomplish this. Where do we start? After we are baptized into Christ, we have to pull away from worldliness, as it says in verse two, “do not be conformed to this world”. 1 John 2:15-16 ties in with this idea very well, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world–the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life–is not of the Father but is of the world.” Obviously, if you love the world, you will most likely conform to the world. This statement to not conform to the world may seem plain and simple on the surface, but it is difficult to do and something we all have to continuously guard against. It takes spiritual maturity and training of the brain to do this and everyone’s maturity timeline is different depending on their individual circumstances and life experiences. Just as we don’t all physically mature at the same rate, we don’t all spiritually mature at the same rate. There isn’t a magic number or age when we just all of the sudden become spiritually mature. Some of us, like myself, are late bloomers. But let’s not ever forget that we are to never stop growing and maturing spiritually for as long as we live. And obviously, if we are faithful in worship and Bible study attendance, in daily Bible study, and in prayer, we will get closer to spiritual maturity than someone who is not doing these things faithfully. Being in God’s word on a daily basis is going to help us mature and then, in turn, help us to conform to God’s purpose for our lives instead of what the world thinks our purpose should be, which is living for the moment and living for self. But wherever we are in our spiritual journey, let’s always remember this, that God loves us and wants to perform a good work in us and complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6) 

Let’s compare our dedication to God’s word with the dedication that the sports of basketball and tennis require. These are my two absolute favorite sports. Let’s start with basketball. I grew up playing basketball. I practiced every day. Because of this, I matured as a player. I got better every year that I played. It took dedication and training on my part to become a solid, intelligent player. It was the sport of my youth and I still love it up to this day. I also coached basketball for many years and I took the time to study the game more in depth so that I could teach the kids on my team (and my own two children) the fundamentals of the sport and help them grow as players. I bought books to read about coaching and researched offensive and defensive sets to see what would work best for my teams. I sought out new drills to keep my practices fresh and new for the kids. I put a lot of time into coaching and I wouldn’t take back a minute of it. It was so much fun watching the kids grow and develop and improve. It took dedication and training on my part, as a coach, to help my team develop and succeed. Tennis is my new sport that I play in my “older” age. I absolutely love it. I played a little in my younger days, but I didn’t really have any dedication to the sport or training in it back then. My best friend and I try to play as much as our busy lives will let us, usually a couple of times a week. I also watch videos to learn more about how to be a better tennis player. It’s good exercise and it makes me feel great to be involved in a sport again as a player, and I have improved a great deal since I started playing a few months ago. I have dedicated myself to training and improving in the sport. So, if dedication and training help us mature in things such as sports, then think about what dedication and training in God’s word will do for our spiritual maturity. Let that sink in, because I sure am!! I am stepping on my own toes here!! We are told so many times in the Bible to meditate on God’s word. Joshua 1:8 says “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Meditation means to think deeply or carefully about something. The Psalmist says it this way in chapter 119, verses 15 and 16, “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate (think profoundly and at length) Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.” How do we not forget God’s word? Study and meditate!! Studying (2 Tim. 2:15) is a commandment for a reason. God knows that being in His word and applying His word to our lives will help keep us out of the world and out of trouble!! 
Something else that helps us to “not be conformed to this world” is to surround ourselves with people who will help us in our spiritual walk. Proverbs 13:20 says, “He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will be destroyed.” We have to watch who we are spending our time with. 1 Corinthians 15:33 reminds us, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.” We want to have people in our lives who want to help us get to heaven and who encourage us in our talents for the Lord. We don’t want to spend our time with people who feed on our weaknesses. They only want to be around us when we are at our rock bottom weakest and they don’t want us to try and better ourselves spiritually. So let’s all be careful and on guard. Satan can get to us through people who we think are our friends. Let’s remember what Proverbs 12:26 tells us, “The righteous should choose his friends carefully, for the way of the wicked leads them astray.” Whether they are members of the Lord’s church or not, the friends we choose to spend time with should be a positive influence in our lives. I have wonderful friends that are members of the Lord’s church and wonderful friends that are not. And they are all such a blessing to my life and I hope that I am a blessing to them as well. Actually, I have two sisters in Christ who encouraged me to do something more with my writing. I have always loved to write and journal, but never had the confidence to put my writing out there for everyone to read. I wrote things for my husband and children to encourage them, but no one else. I let these two precious sisters in Christ read some things I had written and now I am writing for anyone who wants to read it. Through these two sisters in Christ and the encouraging feedback they gave me, I have grown spiritually through this blog and my hope is that, with God’s increase, others will be encouraged by it. Honestly, it’s the beauty of God’s word that is behind it all. It is all because of Him!! I wouldn’t have anything to write about if I wasn’t writing about God’s word!! The more that I am in it, the more beauty I find!! Psalms 119:105 says that, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” That is so comforting to me. I picture the paths in my brain just lighting up when I am reading and studying God’s word. To sum this part of the verse up, if we discipline ourselves to be in God’s word daily and be in prayer daily, and we surround ourselves with good people who are positive influences, we will be less likely to conform to the world. We won’t want to!! 

 So…….if I am a Christian, I am not going to conform to the world’s standards of how to be saved, how to live, how to worship, how to be a good wife, how to raise my kids, and the list goes on and on. God’s word and God’s word only will be my standard.

Again, I have found so much inspiration in these verses. I decided to break the post I had written about Romans 12:2 into two posts because it was extra long. Thanks to everyone for reading my blog! I hope everyone has a blessed coming week!! 

Romans 12:2 Part 3 –

Transforming and Renewing Our Minds and Lives coming next week!!

Copyright 2023, all rights reserved.

Part 1- We are Living Sacrifices

Two of my favorite verses in the Bible are Romans 12:1-2. 

1. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 
2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

Wow, such a wealth of spiritual guidance packed into these two verses. These two verses actually sum up the Christian life and how we are to live it. Let’s dive into these treasures from God’s word and break down verse one to start with.

First of all, in verse one Paul, the apostle,  says “I beseech you therefore, brethren”. Beseech is a powerful word in itself. It means to beg and plead!! It means to ask someone to do something with urgency!! So Paul is begging and pleading in verse one. Who is Paul pleading with? He is pleading with his brothers and sisters in Christ, hence the term “brethren”. Paul is writing to Christians, people who are members of the Lord’s church in Rome, who have repented of their sins and been baptized for the remission of their sins. (Romans 1:7) (Repentance and Baptism-Acts 2:38) 

Up until this point in Romans, Paul has been focusing more on what God has done for his people, but in Romans 12, he begins to move into discussing what God expects of his people. Most of the world believes that God doesn’t really expect anything from his people, but if we believe His word to be true, we can’t escape the fact that God has expectations of us and He sets the bar high. Honestly, the bar that God set is Jesus Christ. How He lived when He was on this earth is our bar that we are always striving to reach. And let’s always remember that Jesus knows how we feel as Hebrews 4:15 tells us, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin”.  Of course, we can never reach that bar of living a sinless life, and that is why Jesus sacrificed His life for us. Paul tells us to “present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God”. How can we read this verse and still think that we can just live however we want to live? Christ was the ultimate sacrifice as He shed His blood for us on the cross, but in this verse I am called to be a “living sacrifice”. That means I am to live my life or as it says sacrifice my life for Christ. Paul says in Philippians 1:21 that, “to live is Christ, to die is gain”. I think we can all agree that Paul’s life was a “living sacrifice” to God. Earlier in the book of Romans in chapter 6, verses 12 and 13, he uses some of this same type of language by saying, “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” I have to give up some things after I become a Christian if I want to be “holy, acceptable unto God” like the verse says. 1 Peter 1:15-16 says it this way, “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’”. I have to live a holy and sacrificial life that is pleasing to God for the world to see. When people see the word holy, they tend to shy away from it. The word holy simply means dedicated to God or sacred. We are sacred if we are in Christ. Are we supposed to act “holier than thou” because we belong to Christ? Absolutely not! Not if we want to be Christ-like. We should never look down on others or be puffed up because of who we are. We do not want to be like the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. We will never fulfill our commission to bring others to Christ if we act in this way. We must love the lost and never forget that we were once lost. I am an imperfect sinner, no different from anyone, and I mean anyone else in this world. God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11) and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23) The only difference is that I belong to Christ. I am in Christ. I have given my life over to Him including all my imperfections, and there are many! We are not spiritually dead in our sins anymore after we are baptized. We are spiritually alive in Christ!! This is what sets us apart. 

On a personal note, I am so grateful that I was born into a family with parents who raised me to know the truth. So many are not this fortunate. Did I fall away? Yes I did. I have made a wealth of mistakes. More than once, I have had to come crawling back and ask God and my brothers and sisters in Christ to forgive me and pray for me. When I was younger, I know I didn’t truly appreciate my upbringing the way that I should have and I took it for granted. Everyone doesn’t have parents and grandparents who always try to put God first and who set a good example for them. We all mature spiritually in our own time, and we have such a patient and loving Father. I am so thankful for God’s patience with me. I need it daily. I am definitely a work in progress.

Why should we offer our lives as a living sacrifice that is pleasing to God? “By the mercies of God” is the reason Paul gives for exhorting us to live a sacrificial life that is pleasing to God. God has been so merciful to us and shown so much love for us by sending His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. I think Titus 3:4-6 explains God’s mercy so beautifully, “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior”. So it’s not anything we have done to deserve it. We will never deserve it. But God loves us anyway and has shown abundant mercy to us through His Son. God made the way for us to be saved through His plan, not man’s ideas. Without following God’s plan, we are dead spiritually and lost for eternity. 

So is it even a question that we should live for Him?  Absolutely, we should! As the verse says, it is our “reasonable service”. It is only logical that a creation will submit and obey its creator simply because He created us. But He did not only create us. He didn’t just leave us here to die in our sins and be lost. He created a way for us to be saved. Why would we want to listen to anything the world says is acceptable? What other way is there to really live? God created everything and everyone. He created the Bible through inspired writers so we could know His will for our lives. Contrary to what the world thinks, God only created one way to be saved. It is through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4:4-6 is clear as it says, “There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” How many times does Paul say the word “one” in those verses? God decided how we are to be saved and live for Him, not the world. AND God dictated what behaviors and actions He considers to be sin, not the world. So….it is a reasonable request that I live this kind of life and be this “living sacrifice” that my Creator has asked me to be. Is it easy? No, it is not an easy thing to do. And I fall short on a daily basis, however, God expects me to keep trying. The Bible is clear on that. God sees every effort I put forth and He sees every time I slack. I leave you with two verses that I think will encourage all of us to stay the course in our Christian lives and be the “living sacrifices” that God wants us to be. Hebrews 12:1-2 sums it up so beautifully, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Our life is a race. 1 Corinthians 9:24 says we all need to run our race “in such a way as to get the prize”.  That prize is to be in heaven with God and His Son. What other prize is worth more than that?

When I started writing about these two verses, I realized that I needed to make this a post into two parts because there was so much I wanted to say after I got started. But that is how the Bible is, isn’t it? I love how deep I can go with one verse. This post is about Romans 12:1. I will continue with Romans 12:2 next week!! Thanks so much to everyone who is supporting my blog and please share it with your friends!!

Every time I sit down to write, it is always because I have been convicted in some way and my heart has been pricked or my toes have been stepped on by something I have read in the scriptures or heard in a sermon or Bible class. I was asking myself a question today. Actually two questions. 

First, is Jesus truly my first love?

Second, how do I keep all things new in my life spiritually?

Revelation 2 talks about a church who had left its first love. The church is made up of people,  right? So therefore the people had left their first love…..Jesus. They were doing everything right from the outside looking in, but it had become a checklist that they were following. They were playing church just like kids play house or play school. They were going through the motions of worship but their hearts were not in it. We can’t ever forget that Jesus knows our hearts and minds. He knows if we don’t really want to be there. He knows if we are doing things for him just out of our duty and not true desire and zeal for His purpose. We cannot fool God no matter how many good works we do. Our love for Him, our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ and our love for the lost has to be our reason for everything we do. 

It’s easy to say that Jesus is our first love, but does our life show that he actually is number one? Do we listen to God/Christ by reading his word each day? Do we talk to Him in prayer every day throughout our day? Do we think of Him before we make big decisions? Do we uplift and build up our spiritual family by being at worship services and Bible study services?  Do we make our plans around our congregation’s church services, Bible study services, gospel meeting, VBS, etc. as best we can? Are we living out our faith in our everyday life? When a door opens with an opportunity to help someone understand the gospel, do we take that opportunity or are we afraid to stand up for the One we say is our first love? Do we see people outside of Christ the way Jesus sees them, as someone who is spiritually sick and in need of the Great Physician? All these are questions that I thought of under the heading, “is Jesus truly my first love?”. It hit me this morning. I would stand up for my husband and my children and give my life for them. What about Christ? Is he more important to me than those closest to me? My thought was, “he better be ” because He is the reason I have my precious husband and my precious children (all 4 of them). He has blessed my life and been so patient with me at times when I wasn’t giving Him a second thought, I’m ashamed to say. Sometimes we get caught up in life and we get numb in our spiritual lives. I know I have many times. Life is hard and busy and disappointing (and tragic) sometimes. But Jesus knows our struggles and He knows everything we go through because He went through the same things as a human walking on this earth. The only difference is He was without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) He is our ultimate example that we strive to follow. 

Now, second question, how do we keep things new in our spiritual lives? We make all things new when we are baptized, but how do we keep our heart new and humble. Paul said in Philippians 4:11-12 that he learned to be content in all things and in all situations that life threw his way. He trained himself to be content with wherever he was, including prison, and whatever he was going through, including being stoned and left for dead. The point is, we have the greatest gift right now because we are in Christ’s kingdom on earth and the most glorious reward coming later if we are in Christ and being found faithful to Him when we pass away or when He returns, whichever happens first. In Revelation 2:10 Jesus makes this promise, “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”  He’s our Savior. He gave up everything for us. Let that sink in. Our Creator gave up everything for us. He came down from His glorious home in heaven with his father, was born in a stable, walked on earth, became a lowly servant, was beaten beyond recognition and then died the most shameful and painful death imaginable….. for us! (Philippians 2:6-8) So yes, we can be content if we truly have Him as our first love…..for real. We won’t be worried so much about material things in this life if Christ is our first love. 

What about our focus? This has always been a tough one for me personally. It has taken me a long time to truly realize what my true purpose is on this earth…..what my main focus should be. Our life is so full of all kinds of things that don’t really matter in the end. Sometimes God/Christ gets lost in there among everything else. Just like in Matthew 13:22, the parable of the sower, the thorns which represent the cares of this world and materialism can choke out the gospel and blur our focus and we become of no use in God’s kingdom, the church. Our focus has to be sharp or Christ will be completely gone from our mind if we are not careful. We all get sidetracked sometimes. We have to try very hard to keep our focus on Jesus. Everything else in life will fall into place if our focus is Jesus, His word, and His church. This doesn’t mean we can’t have things, do fun things, strive for things we want, but we can’t let those things rule our hearts and become idols. So focusing on Jesus….is another thing that helps keep all things new. How do we stay focused? 2 Timothy 2:15 says we are to study. It’s a commandment. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the “word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The Bible is powerful and will have an effect on us if we let it. Staying in God’s word daily as much as we can, even if it is just a few minutes, helps us keep our focus and stay grounded in the truth. 

Last is effort. We won’t be content and we won’t be focused without effort. If Jesus is truly our first love, then we will put forth effort in things that truly matter. It takes effort to study the Bible and to slow down enough to pray. It takes effort to get up every Sunday for Bible study and worship. It takes effort to make it to mid-week Bible study after working all day. Effort to be involved with our youth and help with youth activities such as VBS and other things. Effort to make food for someone who is sick or lost a loved one. Effort to send a card or call someone who is sick or bereaved. And the list goes on and on of ways we can show others Christ living in us. I’m guilty. I don’t put forth effort like I should. I’m not saying we can earn our way to heaven. Grace is what gets us there. (Ephesians 2:8-9) However, grace does not mean that we don’t have to do anything. We have to put forth effort. James 2:14-26 explains in detail that “Faith without works is dead”. Obviously, we can’t do everything, but we can try to do as much as we can. We can be content, stay focused on Jesus, and put forth our best effort toward His purpose. If we do these things, we will stay spiritually new. When we fall short, God is always ready to take us back and lift us up through His word. Let’s always remember “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” We are the called if we have repented of our sins, confessed Jesus’ name before others, been baptized for the remission of our sins, and are living faithful to Him.

(Repentance and baptism, Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16) (Confessing Jesus’ name, Matthew 10:32)

Deuteronomy 5:29

“Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and keep all of My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!

The more I open my Bible, the more treasures I find and the more I learn how much God loves me and all of us. This verse nearly jumped off the page for me when I read it recently. We are studying Deuteronomy in our Wednesday night Bible class. I had never taken notice of this verse before even though I have read the Bible through and been to church all my life. I had never considered the depth found in this verse until now and I just wanted to dive into it and see where it would take me.

To start with, the thought of my God, my Father, and my Creator agonizing over my bad decisions throughout my life brings me to tears. The thought of my Father in heaven above wanting so intensely for little ole me to get it together for my own good and the good of my family literally brings me to my knees.

First, let’s consider how God starts this verse….”Oh”. That small two letter expression reveals so much about our Father in heaven. He has a deep yearning for all of us to be saved. He desires so much to have a relationship with me, with all of us. When we use that word here on earth, it usually has strong feelings connected to it in one way or another. It’s either a happy “Oh” or a sad “Oh”, maybe even an angry or surprised “Oh”. In this verse, we see our God deeply anguished over His children not following Him, even after all He had done for them. Is this not also how he feels about us when we don’t follow Him and put Him first in our lives? We know this feeling. We feel this way when our own children disobey us. We agonize over it as parents. God agonizes over us also. We know that we can parallel this verse with our lives today because we know that God never changes. His feelings never change. In Malachi 3:6 God says, “I am the Lord; I change not.” You can’t get any more straightforward than that. In James 1:17, God is called “the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. God will always be the same. We can depend on Him to never change His mind about what He expects from us, His creation. Jesus Christ is also mentioned as unchanging in Hebrews 13:8, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and  forever.” Since God and Jesus are one, this concept of an unchanging God is confirmed even more. Most of the world today thinks that the Bible is an outdated book and doesn’t apply to our generation and future generations. For those who think that, I present to them from God’s word, Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” If anyone needs a New Testament example of this concept, here is Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” So we have Holy Scriptures that tell us that God the Father has not changed and will not change, God the Son has not changed and will not change, and God the Holy Spirit, which today is the Bible, His written word, has not changed and will not change. I felt it necessary to clarify that fact before continuing to look at Deut. 5:29. God’s feelings then are God’s feelings today.So, to make my first point from this verse…..God has strong feelings of love for us just like He did for the children of Israel because He hasn’t changed and He won’t ever change.

The next part of the verse after “Oh” says, “that they had such a heart in them”. This part shows us that God can see our true feelings and knows us better than we know ourselves. The word heart here simply means our whole being, our mind, and our entire lifestyle. And not only does this mean our outward lifestyle that we show the world, but our inward self that no one else sees. Let’s never forget that our “very hairs are all numbered”. (Matt. 10:30) He knows us! He has always known us! Psalms 139:1 says, “O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.” And to add to that, He has known us from conception and even before that. Listen to Psalms 139:16 of NKJV, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” He literally knew us before we were even conceived in our mother’s womb. So, point number two is that God knows our innermost thoughts and He has always known us. We cannot hide anything from Him.

The next part of the verse says, “that they would fear me”. This type of fear is two-fold. First, it should be a respect and a reverence and even an awe for who God is and all He has done for us. We are taught from a young age to respect our parents because of all they do for us in our lives. We are taught to respect elderly people because of their life’s accomplishments and experiences. If we are living our lives as faithful Christians, then this is the type of fear we have for God. The other type of fear is simply to be scared of what is going to happen to us, such as being scared of heights or storms. Honestly, if we aren’t in Christ or even if we are in Christ but aren’t living faithful, we should have this kind of fear of God. He can decide it is over here on this earth any time He chooses, and at that time there will be nothing we can do to make things right with Him. I’m so thankful that God has been patient and continues to be patient up to this moment in time, and I take comfort in 2 Peter 3:8-9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In this verse, God wanted His children to have both kinds of fear, respect for Him and fear of His judgment as well. So for point three, God wants us to fear Him as in to have respect and reverence for Him. To do this we have to be obedient to Him. If we do this, we should not have a reason to have a terrified kind of fear on judgment day.

The next part of the verse says, “and always keep all of my commandments”. I see  two key words in this part, “always” and “all”. We can’t just follow Him when it is convenient for us. It has to be all the time, convenient or not. And we can’t cherry pick what we want to obey and leave out what we don’t want to obey. We don’t make the Bible fit into our lives. We make our lives fit the Bible if that even makes sense grammatically. I think you get my meaning. If we look at Matthew 22:37-39, we see Jesus’ words after being asked what the greatest commandment in the law is. He pretty much summarized all the commandments into these verses. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” If we are truly doing these two things, then we will always be at bible study and worship services. We will be at our gospel meeting. We will be involved in VBS to help our children learn the word. We will be there for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will “do good unto all men, especially unto those of the household of faith”. (Gal. 6:10) We will be in the word and in prayer daily. We will live out our faith every day. Are we going to fail? Yes we will. But Jesus is there to lift us up just like He lifted Peter out of those crashing waves. We need only turn to Him. When talking about following God’s word, I also need to add that we can’t add to it or take away from it. Let’s just do all that He says to do, no more and no less. This must be important because the last verses of the entire Bible stress this. Revelation 22:18-20 stresses what will happen if we add to or take away from God’s word. Why take a chance? Let’s just do what the word says. So point number four, we are to do all that God has told us to do in His word whether it’s convenient or not. We are to center our lives on His word.

The next part of the verse really touches me. It says “that it might be well with them”. God wants things to be well with us. He desperately wants us to be saved and be in heaven with Him someday………all of us on this earth! He also wants us to have the best and most healthy life that we possibly can while we are here on this earth. Ok, let’s put it this way. Why do we have rules when we drive? They keep us safe right? Why do we give our kids boundaries and rules? Because we don’t want them to get hurt. We want to protect them. God only wants to protect us from ourselves. Jeremiah 10:23 says plainly, “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” We can’t do this life on our own without God!  When we try to, we fail miserably. We also have Proverbs 3:5-6(NKJV) that tells us to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.” This is the key to life. We get off-track sometimes but luckily God always helps us get back on track if we turn to Him. So point five, God knows what is best for his children and he wants the best for His children and that is a home in heaven with Him.

Speaking of children brings me to the last part of the verse, “and with their children forever!”. God wants future generations to be taught His word. If we fail to teach our children, then the future of the church is lost. Our children and grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and baby cousins are the church of tomorrow. God knows our children,  grandchildren, all of our physical family members and all of our future descendants. We want them all to be saved and in heaven with us and it all depends on our generation right now. Don’t let anything get in the way of or take precedence over God and His church. Jesus died for His church the world over……for all who have put on Christ in baptism. His blood flows backwards and forwards to past generations before Christianity and to future generations who will put on Christ in baptism someday. AND…… let’s not forget the exclamation point at the end of Deut. 5:29! It shows strong feelings! God was at His wits end often with the children of Israel and I know He has felt the same way about me sometimes and still does at times I’m sure. I’ve taken a lot of His patience over the years. Thank goodness He is overflowing with love and patience. I’m putting my name in this verse. You can do the same. God has probably said this about all of us.

Oh, that Greta had such a heart in her that she would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with her and with her children forever!