Transformed Renewed

TRANSFORMED

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind

RENEWED

We are in need of a transformation. Every single one of us needs to be transformed. I can say this and for a lot of people (not all) but a lot will know what I mean when I say - like the movies/tv show/toys Transformers, we KNOW what it means to be a transformer. 

Those toys are one thing which transforms into another.  Unlike the transformer toys etc. which transform back and forth in and out of their transformed characters, when we are transformed it's supposed to be a PERMANENT transformation.

Our transformation takes place as our MINDS are RENEWED.  Again, unlike the toys are transformations are not something built into us. Some will never transform because they choose not to do so.

Our old minds are renewed.

To renew something is to take something that is old and make it like new.  We need to be made new.

Col_3:10  And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him

Eph_4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

2Co_5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Conforming or Transforming?

This world.

Conform to THIS world,  OR be TRANSFORMED.

Conform or transform.  Which do you choose?

Rom 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.

Rom 12:3  For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

Be NOT CONFORMED-

Exo 23:2  Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil

How many are doing just that? Following the world and its multitudes to do evil- and remember evil  encompasses all things that are not of God's truth.  You might not be out there worshipping Satan, but you could be worshipping Satan in disguise if you put your trust into those who are NOT of the truth.  How EASY it is to follow the multitude. Time and time again it's proven how people will follow the multitudes rather than stand out. People choose to CONFORM more readily than they do to be non-conformist.  And even a lot of 'so-call' non-conformist are only non-conformist in a GROUP of non-conformist- having FORMED to their own group, and very few would go outside that group of non-conformists.  CONFORM or be TRANSFORMED.

Joh 7:7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.

When we LIVE for our SAVIOR and are transformed by HIM, any hatred directed towards us because we've refused to conform to the world, is in reality hatred towards our Savior who has TESTIFIED that the world's works are EVIL!

If we CONFORM to the world we are conforming to EVIL.

Joh 14:30  Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

The prince of this world-- SATAN!  Is it any wonder we are NOT TO BE CONFORMED TO THIS WORLD?!

Joh 15:19  If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Truth!   We are CHOSEN OUT OF THE WORLD!  We are to be TRANSFORMED now!

Joh 17:14  I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Joh 17:16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

NOT of this world!

JESUS was NOT of this world!

Transformed, not conformed!

1Co 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

This world has NOTHING on God!

2Co 4:3  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

2Co 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

2Co 4:5  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

The god of THIS world BLINDS the minds of unbelievers!

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Eph 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:

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

In TIMES PAST- we walked according to THIS world.

CHRIST saves us! CHRIST IN US! TRANSFORMING US!

Eph 4:17  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

WALK NOT!

Eph 4:18  Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Eph 4:19  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Eph 4:20  But ye have not so learned Christ;

Eph 4:21  If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Eph 4:22  That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

PUT OFF!

Eph 4:23  And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

BE RENEWED!

Eph 4:24  And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

PUT ON!

Eph 4:25  Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

PUTTING AWAY!

Eph 4:26  Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Eph 4:27  Neither give place to the devil.

Eph 4:28  Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Eph 4:29  Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Eph 4:30  And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Eph 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Jas 4:4  Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

FRIENDSHIP of the world is ENMITY with GOD!

FRIEND to the world ENEMY of God!

1Pe 4:1  Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;

1Pe 4:2  That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.

1Jn 2:15  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.

1Jn 2:16  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.

1Jn 2:17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

LOVE NOT the world!

LOVE NOT the things in the world!

1Jn 4:4  Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

1Jn 4:5  They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

1Jn 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

More tomorrow on all of this by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST! Now and forever!!!

Amen!  

The law- ordained by angels

Act 7:53  Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.

Psa 68:17  The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

*

The law and angels.

The law was added because of transgressions- the ceremonial law. The ceremonies that pointed to forgiveness when one would break the moral law.  We know that sin is the transgression of the law. The moral laws were in existence before the world was created.  Adam and Eve couldn't have sinned without breaking the law- disobeying God, no longer putting God first, not having other Gods before Him, not taking His name in vain.  They disobeyed God and the unspoken moral law, the law that COULD be written on HEARTS.

2Co_3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart

Psa 40:8  I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Eze 36:25  Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Heb 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them

We were created with the law of God written on our hearts and when we transgressed that law in our hearts we were in need of salvation, to be saved from the sin we committed.

The law had to be written in stone as many years since sin began had hardened the hearts of the people so they no longer had that law written in their hearts.  With the moral law written on tablets of stone and set before them, their minds could witness those laws and comprehend their transgressions. They could recognize their need of a Savior. They could recognize that they could NOT save themselves!

Please Father in heaven, please help us to recognize our need and save us from ourselves and our sins! Create in us CLEAN hearts. Renew Your Spirit within us! Write Your laws on the tables of our HEART! Please LORD, please we would be YOURS saved by Grace!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

His ways past finding out.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

Dependent.

We are dependent.

We've all known people smarter than we are, if not personally then we know by the sheer fact there are amazing, mind blowing things that people create that we can't begin to comprehend.  We know for a fact these exceptionally smart people exist as a reality and we don't have too much trouble believing in them- they've had a hand in the very technology we are constantly using without truly comprehending.  We can believe they exist because of what exists around us.  Yet how can we NOT believe in the love of our CREATOR if He was the ONE who created us and all things that we take and create from. 

The wisdom and knowledge of God truly beyond our ability to know. We can't search out God's judgments.  God's ways are PAST finding out. We CANNOT know the mind of the Lord!

We try.  We believe we have to try but the truth is we must believe and this believe calls for a comprehension of the unknowing.  We can't know even what other human beings know, not fully, not if we lack the  necessary intelligence to match theirs.  If we believe we can't know what even other humans know, what keeps us from believing we cannot know God, that we have to know everything before we can believe.

You may say those humans have given us proof of their intelligence through the things we can touch and such (their inventions), but even the smartest human in the world did NOT create the elements they use to make their inventions.  They can come up with theories about how the elements came to be but they have NO PROOF beyond doubt, NONE.

God.

The proof of God is the miracle of our very existence.

We are dependent upon our Creator, our Savior.  Dependent for our life, our love, eternity.

All by HIS GRACE may we believe!

Father we believe! Help our unbelief!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, our LORD.

Christ in us is the law in us.

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

Submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God.

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.

Without Christ the law means NOTHING, nothing at all whatsoever.  The law is NULL and VOID, the law is MEANINGLESS without our Savior.

Our Savior PROVED the law.

Our Savior GAVE the law.

Our Savior is LOVE and His law is LOVE.

The law without Christ is NOTHING!

You can keep every single commandment perfectly from a legal standpoint, yet at the same time keep none of them perfectly from a spiritual standpoint.

Christ in us is the law in us. He kept the law perfectly for us!

Keeping the law by our own power is NEVER What God intended, never. Recognizing Him in every law, recognizing His righteousness in every law, this is truth. Recognizing our need of a Heavenly Father, recognizing our need of a Savior, this is truth!

Recognizing we need to forever submit to the righteousness of God is TRUTH.

Choosing to be saved, not choosing to save ourselves.

Some might think they are one and the same and in some respects they are, but if someone chooses to save themselves without choosing to be saved by another, by Jesus Christ, then they fail.  All their righteousness, all their commandment keeping will be in vain without our SAVIOR.

We need to be SAVED. 

By the grace and mercy of our Lord, may we be saved!

All in HIS LOVE, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS forever!

Amen.

Christ kept the law perfectly

Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

They kept the law.  They were adamant about keeping the law. They even made extensive additions to the laws, meant to keep that law more fully in the way they thought God wanted.  The truth was- they made additions to the law because they wanted more control over the people. The priests turned to pleasing themselves not God and God knew this.  The law of righteousness was the very law our Savior was able to keep which kept Him sinless.   Jesus attained the law of righteousness.

Jesus came and revealed the love in the law. Jesus revealed LOVE in its purest form.

We need Jesus because He is our righteousness.

We need Jesus to be our righteousness.

We need our Savior because when we try to follow the law of righteousness on our own we fail miserably. Selfishness gets in our way at every step. We have to seek to serve Christ, not self.

In all our ways we have to acknowledge CHRIST, so He can direct our paths.

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

This is TRUTH.

Do we acknowledge God in all our ways?

Do we trust HIM to be our righteousness?

We must, we really must. 

The law CAN be a stumblingstone for  ALL who attempt to keep the law without Christ.

Doing away with the law is IMPOSSIBLE.

To do away with the law is to say Christ was sinless because there was no law.  And if there were no law there would be no sin, so WHY would our Savior tell people to 'sin no more'?  If you couldn't sin, if it were impossible to sin, because there was no law to sin against, NO ONE would have to be told to sin no more because they couldn't sin. 

Do you understand, the law remains, there is no doing away with the law because it embodies LOVE.  And to do away with love is to do away with God.

The law of righteousness, the law of love--  keep LOVE in the law, seek love and you keep the law.

Please Father in Heaven, please keep us in YOU in YOUR love, in the Law of your LOVE.  All through Jesus Christ may we live in You and Christ's righteousness!

Amen.

A Stumblingstone

Rom 9:30  What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

Rom 9:31  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

Rom 9:32  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

Rom 9:33  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Works of the law- a stumblingstone.

Being given the law to follow with penalties for not following that law - it is easy to see how one might begin to believe that obeying that law is all that is needed and faith could take a back seat. 

Follow the pattern- get the end result you want.

Yet the lifeless results are not what is needed and Christ our Savior came to open the eyes of God's chosen people to this very truth!

God NEVER wanted lifeless, loveless obedience.

God's chosen walked by FAITH.

Heb 11:4  By faith Abel...

Heb 11:5  By faith Enoch …

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah...

Heb 11:8  By faith Abraham...

Heb 11:20  By faith Isaac …

Heb 11:22  By faith Joseph...

Heb 11:23  By faith Mose

Heb 11:31  By faith the harlot Rahab…

Heb 11:32  And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

Heb 11:33  Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

Heb 11:34  Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Heb 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

Heb 11:36  And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

Heb 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

Heb 11:38  (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

TRUTH!

The people of God had this knowledge of their forbearers, they had the books we now call the Old Testament.  They knew their forbearers walked by faith. Yet they hardened their hearts and stopped living by faith and started living by works.  God did NOT forsake them even then. God over and over heard their cries for repentance and forgave them their backsliding.  

Then… God sent His Son, His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ our LORD, our Savior.

Jesus came to strip away the lack of faith by revealing the love in God and His moral ten commandments.  Jesus came to reveal the LOVE in the obedience, the faith in obedience. Jesus did not come telling us to obey without faith as so many did. Jesus did not tell us to work for our salvation without believing. Jesus did not review the ten moral laws with us and tell us if we keep them we're saved.  Jesus DID tell us that it was good to keep the moral law but there was more needed.

Mat 19:20  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

Mat 19:21  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

Mat 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

Jesus was revealing the LOVE necessary to be saved, to have eternal life. 

Just obeying the laws was not going to help any one. But love and obedience resulting from love, that is truth!

There is a block of stumbling, a stone of stumbling, and that is the fine line drawn clearly- that so many choose to ignore. The line that reveals the love first and foremost, eclipses the law without the love.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR!

In His name…

AMEN.