Today is Sunday, May 18, 2014. Heres a Scripture to ponder this week. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2 NIV) The Message paraphrases this verse as follows: Dont become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. Youll be changed from the inside out. The Apostle Paul is saying that we are not to automatically mimic the mindset and actions of the world around us. I am told that the Greek word for the world means basically the prevailing culture that is alienated or separated from obedience to Gods will. So the old-fashioned term, worldly, doesnt really mean what many church leaders used to emphasize, which was basically a list of fashion dos and donts. (Real Christians dont wear cool clothes, or dye their hair, or wear an earring or, God forbid, have a tattoo.) No, it means conforming or patterning our way of looking at life to mirror the dominant world-system which has no thought of obeying Gods will. Paul says instead of conforming to the world-systems mindset, we should be transformed (which comes from the same Greek word as metamorphosis) by the renewing of our minds. Which brings me to my main point this morning. The Apostle Paul says the transformation occurs through the renewing of the mind. One of the Bible commentators defines renewing as renovation. In other words, be transformed by the renovation of your thinking. Renovation is sometimes a slow, gradual process. It doesnt happen instantly. We renovated our garage last summer and turned it into a den. The normal rhythms of every-day life were upset as the changes were slowly taking place. Some things had to be torn down and discarded in order to make room for the new. When it was all completed we had a beautiful new room. For the past several years my city of Florence, South Carolina, has been undergoing a slow, methodical renovation in the downtown area. When I first moved here what used to be the old shopping areas and the main commercial part of town was slowly and steadily being neglected and falling into disuse and was just a shell of a by-gone era. However, a quiet transformation is now taking place. I think it started with the construction of a beautiful, spacious library on Dargan Street. Its as if it belongs in a much larger city. Since then, Francis Marion University decided to build its Performing Arts Center down the street from the library. Ive been to two concerts there, and the auditorium is stunning in its beauty and acoustical quality. There is also now first-class downtown hotel with its own restaurant, as well as a brand new museum, and several other new restaurants. Theres a coffee shop where people gather regularly for evenings of storytelling and live music. Monthly outdoor concerts are held uptown during the warmer months, and the Farmers Market brings great, fresh fruit and vegetables to sell once a week. I pass through this area every day on my way to work, and it is truly remarkable how things are changing, ever so slowly as the old downtown gets a face lift. Even the old Kress five-and-dime store where my mother worked in the 1930s is getting spruced up. Why am I mentioning the renewal of downtown Florence? Because in the same way, Paul says we are to be transformed through the renewal, the renovation of our minds. Let me say something to be clear. Forgiveness is instant. Regeneration is instant. However, the transformation of the way we think and approach everyday life doesnt happen all at once. The longer we walk with Christ and learn about Him and His Word, the more our eyes are opened to wrong views that were patterned after the world-system and prevailing culture. And little by little, as we submit to the changes that need to be made, our minds are renovated and our actions follow suit. So, over a period of time, I should become more like Jesus. I should become less racist, less harsh, more loving, more bold and stubborn in the areas that need to remain unmoveable, and more flexible and pliable in the areas that need to change. Someone said about Michelangelos sculpture of David that he started with a large chunk of marble and just slowly chipped away everything that didnt look like David. Thats the essence of this journey. If we allow God to do what He desires to do, He is going to slowly chip away everything that doesnt look like Jesus mindset. It wont be totally completed until we get to the other side, but the renovation continues. I wrote a song in the early seventies that captures this thought. The second verse went like this: Ive found out that its so much more than opening just one, single door. One door just leads to another and the journey begins. From glory to glory, were moving, my friends. So, heres to the journey.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 14:45:47 +0000