Romans 12:1-2
1I 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.
2And 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.
This is something that I've been struggling with a lot lately and it's a thought that I've had that seems to be crippling to every soul on earth. Just to give some background here, without getting too much into it, about a year and a half ago, I had zeal and passion, so much that I had to leave a church that didn't know how to deal with someone of such zeal. I was reading my Bible and taking things literally as they ought to be taken, but somewhere along the way, subtly, that passion and zeal just seemed to disappear somewhere. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm still passionate, but it just seems as if my fire is dwindling. And what do I have to thank for it, I think I've drawn the line this verse at the top of the note. It's just that somewhere along the way, we build a system and the system runs fine and everyone just plays their part. Especially in church. It seems like in this system, everyone you come in contact with has nails and wood in their pocket just waiting to crucify someone who doesn't go with the flow and someone that stands on a rock and shouts, "NO! This is what the Bible says, this is all wrong!" I mean think back to the days when you first became a believer or imagine a new believer. Man in a new believer, there's passion, they go home every night and read their Bible and they start changing their lives. Then they start telling their friends who look at him like he's crazy. I mean this guy is going hard for God. Then what happens? He goes to church and learns a lot, but he falls victim to this "system" Then he reads things in his Bible and he compares to the system that he's been introduced too and he sees things that contradict. And at first he says something, and everyone around him says, "Be quiet, that's not how we do things." and then he begins to fall in line and do no more than play his part in this masquerade we call church. We always say don't conform to the world, but we make our own world and we conform to our own system and it's just as crippling, and what's worse is that most people in the church call this normal. Whatever happen to the zeal in us? Why does a new believer seem like he's more on fire for God than someone who's known God for years? Did the value of salvation diminish? Or how about the value of purity, or the value of our walk with God? Are all things rusted? Has their values gone down? I don't think that that's what God had in mind. God is a treasure that's more valuable tomorrow than He is today, or at least that's the way it should be with us right? Has God's way lost value in our lives? What's happened to us? The worst thing that's ever happened to a Christian is that he's become complacent. Is there not a battle to be won? Are there not still souls going to Hell everyday? Is there no longer pain and sorrow in the world? So what right do we have to be complacent? We're doing such a disservice to society by just trying to get along with each other. It's this very mentality that put Jesus on the cross guys. Leonard Ravenhill says that revival terries, because we've decided that we could live without it. And you know what, it's true. How much does it hurt when you walk by a sinner, when you walk by someone in pain, when you walk by someone in need, how much does it hurt? Does it burn a whole in your heart or is it just a little prick? Whatever happened to our ability to read the Bible and say it says this, so I'm going to stand firm on it no matter what, no matter what it cost. Guys, you realize that any price we pay here on earth for righteousness, God will repay us in full plus interest once we get to Heaven? So so what if we're not liked among men for standing up for righteousness, has that ever been the goal of our lives? What's more is that we want a revolution without change in our own lives, we think that if it's not a revolution, it's not worth getting up. But don't we know if we seek a revolution without focusing on the little things in our walks, then we'll prove ourselves to be hypocrites, because it's out of these things we show God and everyone else we're real about this, and out of that comes revolution. O God I desire to have more passion and zeal tomorrow than I have today. Because what complacency leads to is compromise, and compromise leads to sin, and sin leads to death. Gosh, if I were only half the man that I should be. God, please give us strength to against the norms and proclaim loudly, "This is not the way that it ought to be!" Another thing that Leonard said that was so true is this, "Because if you're going to get mature in God, everyone around you will snare at you and say, aw you're trying to be more holy than the rest of us eh." I have personally experienced this in my life, but now I fear that I've become one who is on the wrong side of this quote, one who condemns those who are maturing in God and questioning things. It all gets back to that I think everyone has a fear to be the first one to stand up for righteousness, because they don't know how many will stand with them. But friends, have you not known, God will stand beside you when you stand up to His creation? I mean if we were to be honest with ourselves, I bet we all can think of someone in our lives who we haven't been as truthful with gospel as we should have been. People who we fear to even bring the gospel too. We fear peoples opinions to even be honest with people about our short comings, because in this system we created such up straight people that we can't talk about our weaknesses. I mean heaven forbid someone actually comes to our church for help with our problems. Heaven forbid we be outspoken, or heaven forbid we do something for the cause of Christ. You know what guys I'm going to tell you, I need much prayer, I've been struggling with everyone of the ten commandments in my life and that's real. We were not made to conform to a pattern other than that of Christ. But it seems that everyone including myself has a fear of James 5:16 which says, "16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." We'd all like to ignore this verse. Everyone seems to have a shield up, so we ignore this verse. And we ignore so many other verses, because we in our conformity and our need to be liked don't know how to deal with them. But it's in this verse and others we find healings and solutions to our problems. And friends, when we gave our lives to Jesus we laid our old life down, why do we shield ourselves? Need I remind you all that we should be the most humble of all, because we've done nothing, but be the cause of Christ's death? We're nothing, so why do we hold on to the pride that puts a shield up around all this? It's like we play the game, "O, I have to be the big mature Christian, so I can't show any weakness" But it's in our weaknesses that Christ is strongest in us, have we not learned that yet? How about from now on, instead of conforming to the way of the church or the world we conform to Christ and see where that gets us? One compromise will always lead to a bigger one, so let's stand firm on God's word. Did you notice that when Jesus started his ministry He didn't just tell people how things should be, He commanded people. It's a demand that we can't take lightly. Let's stop playing and be real. Just once when someone ask me how I'm doing, or I do the same to someone else, I wanna get/give a real answer. Remember guys, it's not our job to be liked or to be looked well upon men, but it is our goal to do the will of our Father which is in Heaven and to have Him look well upon us. I'm telling you, if you get His approval, that's all you'll ever need. I don't know about you all, but I'm sick of playing a role in a system called church, I want to be outspoken and firm on God's word and I want to be able to reveal my faults freely so that I might gain power over them. And as always, never cease to praise God, sing to Him aloud whenever you can, because in these times you grow boldness and strength. Strength and power over sin comes when we sing and proclaim the goodness of God wherever we go.
1I 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.
2And 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.
This is something that I've been struggling with a lot lately and it's a thought that I've had that seems to be crippling to every soul on earth. Just to give some background here, without getting too much into it, about a year and a half ago, I had zeal and passion, so much that I had to leave a church that didn't know how to deal with someone of such zeal. I was reading my Bible and taking things literally as they ought to be taken, but somewhere along the way, subtly, that passion and zeal just seemed to disappear somewhere. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm still passionate, but it just seems as if my fire is dwindling. And what do I have to thank for it, I think I've drawn the line this verse at the top of the note. It's just that somewhere along the way, we build a system and the system runs fine and everyone just plays their part. Especially in church. It seems like in this system, everyone you come in contact with has nails and wood in their pocket just waiting to crucify someone who doesn't go with the flow and someone that stands on a rock and shouts, "NO! This is what the Bible says, this is all wrong!" I mean think back to the days when you first became a believer or imagine a new believer. Man in a new believer, there's passion, they go home every night and read their Bible and they start changing their lives. Then they start telling their friends who look at him like he's crazy. I mean this guy is going hard for God. Then what happens? He goes to church and learns a lot, but he falls victim to this "system" Then he reads things in his Bible and he compares to the system that he's been introduced too and he sees things that contradict. And at first he says something, and everyone around him says, "Be quiet, that's not how we do things." and then he begins to fall in line and do no more than play his part in this masquerade we call church. We always say don't conform to the world, but we make our own world and we conform to our own system and it's just as crippling, and what's worse is that most people in the church call this normal. Whatever happen to the zeal in us? Why does a new believer seem like he's more on fire for God than someone who's known God for years? Did the value of salvation diminish? Or how about the value of purity, or the value of our walk with God? Are all things rusted? Has their values gone down? I don't think that that's what God had in mind. God is a treasure that's more valuable tomorrow than He is today, or at least that's the way it should be with us right? Has God's way lost value in our lives? What's happened to us? The worst thing that's ever happened to a Christian is that he's become complacent. Is there not a battle to be won? Are there not still souls going to Hell everyday? Is there no longer pain and sorrow in the world? So what right do we have to be complacent? We're doing such a disservice to society by just trying to get along with each other. It's this very mentality that put Jesus on the cross guys. Leonard Ravenhill says that revival terries, because we've decided that we could live without it. And you know what, it's true. How much does it hurt when you walk by a sinner, when you walk by someone in pain, when you walk by someone in need, how much does it hurt? Does it burn a whole in your heart or is it just a little prick? Whatever happened to our ability to read the Bible and say it says this, so I'm going to stand firm on it no matter what, no matter what it cost. Guys, you realize that any price we pay here on earth for righteousness, God will repay us in full plus interest once we get to Heaven? So so what if we're not liked among men for standing up for righteousness, has that ever been the goal of our lives? What's more is that we want a revolution without change in our own lives, we think that if it's not a revolution, it's not worth getting up. But don't we know if we seek a revolution without focusing on the little things in our walks, then we'll prove ourselves to be hypocrites, because it's out of these things we show God and everyone else we're real about this, and out of that comes revolution. O God I desire to have more passion and zeal tomorrow than I have today. Because what complacency leads to is compromise, and compromise leads to sin, and sin leads to death. Gosh, if I were only half the man that I should be. God, please give us strength to against the norms and proclaim loudly, "This is not the way that it ought to be!" Another thing that Leonard said that was so true is this, "Because if you're going to get mature in God, everyone around you will snare at you and say, aw you're trying to be more holy than the rest of us eh." I have personally experienced this in my life, but now I fear that I've become one who is on the wrong side of this quote, one who condemns those who are maturing in God and questioning things. It all gets back to that I think everyone has a fear to be the first one to stand up for righteousness, because they don't know how many will stand with them. But friends, have you not known, God will stand beside you when you stand up to His creation? I mean if we were to be honest with ourselves, I bet we all can think of someone in our lives who we haven't been as truthful with gospel as we should have been. People who we fear to even bring the gospel too. We fear peoples opinions to even be honest with people about our short comings, because in this system we created such up straight people that we can't talk about our weaknesses. I mean heaven forbid someone actually comes to our church for help with our problems. Heaven forbid we be outspoken, or heaven forbid we do something for the cause of Christ. You know what guys I'm going to tell you, I need much prayer, I've been struggling with everyone of the ten commandments in my life and that's real. We were not made to conform to a pattern other than that of Christ. But it seems that everyone including myself has a fear of James 5:16 which says, "16Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." We'd all like to ignore this verse. Everyone seems to have a shield up, so we ignore this verse. And we ignore so many other verses, because we in our conformity and our need to be liked don't know how to deal with them. But it's in this verse and others we find healings and solutions to our problems. And friends, when we gave our lives to Jesus we laid our old life down, why do we shield ourselves? Need I remind you all that we should be the most humble of all, because we've done nothing, but be the cause of Christ's death? We're nothing, so why do we hold on to the pride that puts a shield up around all this? It's like we play the game, "O, I have to be the big mature Christian, so I can't show any weakness" But it's in our weaknesses that Christ is strongest in us, have we not learned that yet? How about from now on, instead of conforming to the way of the church or the world we conform to Christ and see where that gets us? One compromise will always lead to a bigger one, so let's stand firm on God's word. Did you notice that when Jesus started his ministry He didn't just tell people how things should be, He commanded people. It's a demand that we can't take lightly. Let's stop playing and be real. Just once when someone ask me how I'm doing, or I do the same to someone else, I wanna get/give a real answer. Remember guys, it's not our job to be liked or to be looked well upon men, but it is our goal to do the will of our Father which is in Heaven and to have Him look well upon us. I'm telling you, if you get His approval, that's all you'll ever need. I don't know about you all, but I'm sick of playing a role in a system called church, I want to be outspoken and firm on God's word and I want to be able to reveal my faults freely so that I might gain power over them. And as always, never cease to praise God, sing to Him aloud whenever you can, because in these times you grow boldness and strength. Strength and power over sin comes when we sing and proclaim the goodness of God wherever we go.
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