Promise for Today - Think Eternal

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Two verses in the Bible are written by the same author but seem to send opposite messages:

1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them” (NIV). That’s pretty clear!

But John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world...” (NIV). That looks like a big contradiction right there.

However, “the world” is used two ways in these verses. The first verse refers to the world’s value system, and the second refers to the world’s people. Followers of Jesus are to love people, no matter what choices they make. On the other hand, we are to hate the world’s value system, including things like status, selfishness, and sexual immorality. The problem is that we often get it reversed. We love the value system and hate the people. We do this all the time. Instead of being different, we’re often just as materialistic and hedonistic as the culture we live in. But that’s backwards from how God calls us to live.

For the rest of your life, you’ll face great pressure to conform to the culture. This was Israel’s biggest problem for thousands of years. They wanted to be like other nations. Yet God gave them all kinds of moral, civil, and ceremonial laws to make them different on purpose.

God has done the same for you and me. We don’t live under Old Testament Law, but God has told us exactly how we should live and how to get the wisdom and power to stand out in this world: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2 NLT).

One reason you may not know what God wants you to do in life is that you may be too assimilated to your culture. Often this happens without you realizing it. But you can’t think like the world and think like God thinks. You have to make a choice.

The problem with following culture is that it’s all temporary. You need to follow something eternal: God’s Word.

Fill your mind with God’s truth, and let it transform your life by helping you love people without loving the world’s value system.

Talk It Over

Write down several areas of your life (family, career, church involvement, etc.) and the top five values that drive you in each area. In what ways are those values based on what culture values? In what ways are they based on God’s Word?

Why do you think that temporary things often feel satisfying in the short-term?

In what ways are you loving people like God loves them?

- by Pastor Rick

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Prayer:

Father,

         Teach our hearts the rhythm of Your own - where patience flows like a quiet river, and kindness blooms without condition. Let us see each soul as You behold them: not by the shadow of their failings, but by the light You breathed into their being. If we are wronged, anchor us in forgiveness deeper than the wound; when we are weary, fill us with the strength that serves without counting the cost. Break the walls of our selfishness, till our love is not ours, but Yours - a love that seeks no return, that gives as the sun gives, that holds as the sky holds, that endures as eternity endures. Teach us to walk in Your love so completely that we extend it to everyone around us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Being Transformed

So, brothers and sisters, because of God’s mercies, I encourage you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. This is your appropriate priestly service. Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.

Romans 12:1-2 Common English Bible

When Transformers first came out (the toys, not the movies), my son was little and he thought they were the best thing ever! He wanted to be one. He was enthralled with the idea of becoming something totally different, large and powerful. Aren't we all at one time or another?

Most everyone wants to change something about themselves, but we can't just press a release button and unleash a large and powerful difference. However, God has been transforming life and lives since the very beginning. We don't have to be conformed to this world - we CAN be different! We CAN be transformed by the renewing of our minds (through the Word of God). And that, my friend, is HUGE and powerful!

Prayer:

Father,
           Only You can make a new creation from a lost soul in a dying world. We thank You for loving us enough to want to do so, and for making the eternal difference in our lives, so that we can help to make an eternal difference in the lives of those around us. Teach us, Father, Your perfect will, so that we will know what is good and pleasing and mature according to Your Word. Transform us, Father, in Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

From Now Until Easter - Transformed

From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I will post from Lent and Easter devotionals offered online. Today's post features excerpts written by Dr. Roger Barrier, retired senior teaching pastor from Casas Church in Tucson, Arizona. In addition to being an author and sought-after conference speaker, Roger has mentored or taught thousands of pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders worldwide.

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Dear Roger, 

               You have preached almost 50 Easter sermons. What Easter principle means the most to you?  Sincerely, Julie 

Dear Julie, 

                Jesus saw people, not as they were, but as what they might become. This is the essence of the resurrection story. 

Who the Disciples Were 

They were a disappointing disaster. For example, the last week of Jesus’ life was not a good one for Jesus’ disciples. We should not be surprised; they didn’t do all that well during the first three-and-a-half years, either.

Philip is panicking in the upper room and unsure over whom Jesus really was.

As Jesus was sharing the bread and the wine at the Last Supper, Luke tells us that the disciples began to fight over who was the greatest. That must have really hurt Him.

They fell asleep and left Him alone during the time of His agony in the Garden.

Peter denied Him.

Judas betrayed Him.

Thomas doubted.

At the cross, all the disciples deserted Him and fled.

Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem—instead, they all go back to the Sea of Galilee and return to their fishing business.

When He needed their support they constantly disappointed Him.

After preaching his most demanding discipleship sermon (John 6), the entire crowd rejected him and departed en masse, except the Twelve.

There’s no doubt this was the most depressing moment of His ministry...He asked His disciples, “You’re going away too, aren’t you?” Expecting the answer to be, “Yes, we’ve had enough.” This was the low point. From this moment on, everything was downhill straight to the cross.

I’d like for you to consider with me how Jesus must have felt when His closest friends misunderstood, criticized, denied, betrayed Him. and left Him all alone at the cross. If Jesus could transform them, He can transform anyone.

Think of how Jesus felt as He was arrested in the garden and Matthew records one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible: “And they all forsook Him and fled.” Talk about rejection, betrayal, disappointment, and hurt! I guess that we should not be so hard on the disciples; after all, by our sin, many of us have done the same.

What the Disciples Became

Most of the Disciples disappear from the Bible early in the first century. But history records what they did. Frankly, they carried Christianity all over the known world.

The disciples did not start out too well—but they ended strong. Such is the impact and care of the person of Jesus Christ. 

James was martyred in the streets of Jerusalem in 45 A.D.

Matthew gave up financial security to follow Jesus Christ. He was slain with a sword in Ethiopia.

Philip was born in a little city called Bethsaida, which means the house of the fisher or the house of the hunter. He went fishing and hunting for men. He was hanged in Phrygia.

Andrew took the gospel to Russia (He is the patron saint of Russia). He was crucified in Greece.

Bartholomew was skinned alive in Armenia, near the modern-day town of Derbend in the old Soviet Union.

Thomas, often criticized for his doubts, left no doubt as to his loyalty to the Savior. He carried the gospel to East India where he was run through with a lance.

Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows in Beirut, Lebanon.

Simon the Zealot, was a member of the Jewish nationalistic party, ready to die for his country against the hated Romans. Instead, he was crucified in modern-day Iran.

Peter got as far as Rome where he, too, was crucified—at his request, upside down. He did not consider himself worthy to die right-side up as did his Lord.

John died in his 90s, exiled on the Isle of Patmos after writing the Gospel of John, three epistles, and Revelation.

How the Disciples Became What Jesus Intended

What happened to Peter can happen with us.

In the presence of Jesus, Peter had great courage. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he drew his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest.

In the presence of Jesus, Peter did the miraculous. He cast out demons.

In the presence of Jesus, Peter said miraculous things. “You are the Christ, the son of the living God."

Then, sadly, in the presence of a little girl by the fire on Thursday night, frightened and scared, Peter denied three times that he even knew Jesus.

What happened? What made the difference? ...Peter was no longer in the presence of Jesus.

Astoundingly, in the opening pages of the book of Acts, Peter was once again filled with courage. Threatened with death if he kept on preaching, Peter refused to stop.

Astoundingly, Peter was again doing miraculous things. “Pick up your bed and walk.” The cripple got up and walked.

Astoundingly, Peter was again saying the miraculous. “I’ve come to tell about Jesus Christ-whom you crucified!”

He was doing the same miraculous things that he did when he was standing by Jesus.

What made the difference? At Pentecost, Peter was indwelt by the life and presence of the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of Christ.

If Jesus transformed the disciples, He can transform us.

Prayer:

Father,  
           First, we thank You for the resurrection which proved the validity of Christ. Second, we pray to see ourselves from Your perspective. We know that compared to the perfection of Christ, we all need transformation. Third, help us to follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit as we allow Him to live freely in us.  When we think of what the disciples were—then what they became in the hands of both Christ and the Holy Spirit, we are filled with hope and courage when we think of what we are—and imagine what we can become in the hands of both Christ and the Holy Spirit. Father, give us the wisdom to fully understand the resurrection power of Jesus Christ and Your strength to receive the transforming work of Christ in us. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen

Going Home +

For we know that when this tent we live in now is taken down—when we die and leave these bodies—we will have wonderful new bodies in heaven, homes that will be ours forevermore, made for us by God himself and not by human hands.

This is what God has prepared for us, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit.
2nd Corinthians 5:1,5 TLB

I like to visit, but I gotta tell you, I love to be home. I'd rather be home than anywhere. And that's just here in Texas... which in my humble opinion is as close to Heaven as it gets anywhere here on Earth.

However, thinking about Heaven as our eternal home... Wonderful new bodies - that'll be heavenly! (Pun intended.) Homes that will be ours forevermore - I'd like that, too. No more packing / moving / unpacking... Designed by God Himself. Not even Chip and Joanna can compare. This is not a Fixer Upper - it's brand new! Move over, Ty, the only Extreme Makeover that's happening is what the Holy Spirit is doing on the inside of us! Galatians 5:22-23, The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Prerequisites to Heaven.

It is a serious transformation - from the inside out - but it's all part of the process of getting to go home. Verses 6-8 of our Promise today read, So we are always confident, even though we know that as long as we live in these bodies we are not at home with the Lord. For we live by believing and not by seeing. Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.

The last few weeks have seen the passing of multiple friends' loved ones. These are not easy times. Thankfully, all died with the confidence of life eternal with Jesus; their death the preamble to going home.

Prayer:

Father,
             Comfort as only You can in times like these. Thank You for the hope and confidence of eternal life with You. Be our Strength and our Light in these dark times. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen