Renewing Your Mind

By Pastor Jeff,

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  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.” Our brains are the most marvelous and maybe the least understood organ in the human body. It weighs approximately 3lbs. and consist of some 100 billion nerve cells that not only put together thoughts and highly coordinated physical actions but regulate our unconscious body processes such as digestion and breathing.  The cerebrum makes up 85% of the organs weight and though animals such as elephants, dolphins, and whales have larger brains, humans have the most developed cerebrum.

This is what we commonly think of when we talk about the mind but in the bible we find is referring to areas such as our thoughts and heart, Romans 8:5-7, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” But lets look at our scripture found in Romans chapter twelve and examine verse two. Paul tells us to be not conformed to this world and you don’t have to look very far to see that the church has over the years allowed itself to be conformed to this worlds thinking. We are very aware of churches accepting the worlds view on same sex marriage, but also accepting false teaching, man’s tradition, technology and so on, we even have so called leaders proclaiming the bible is full of errors and not to be trusted, trust Jesus they say, well you can’t take the Bible out of Jesus.

The bible is clear in James 1:5-8, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” Conforming and confusion will drive out faith, the word transformed means to change into another form or metamorphose, the Thayer definition,  is a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better. It is more than a change of mind but a complete reversal of thought and intent. 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

So how do we renew our mind? It’s not by watching more TV, more movies, reading more books, even though we do have many good ones out there, but it is from reading and studying the word of God (See 2Timothy 3:16-17). In everything we have to put Jesus first and foremost, Ephesians 4:22-24, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” We all need a transformation, a renovation of thought in our heart as well as our head. If Jesus is your everything, it is what you will desire above all other things.

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