Loving Change
Romans 12:2
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will."
Does everything have to change?
Puppies have to turn into dogs. Our children have to grow up. Season change. My favorite color used to be blue. It is no longer, as you can tell by all the purple. Everything changes. The earth changes. People change. Situations change.
My favorite thing to play with growing up was play-doh. I had a tote of this stuff that I would play with for hours in the kitchen. Rolling pins, forks, spoons... any utensil that Grandma could beat me with because I used it on play-doh I did.
The thing with play-doh is that it changes. It is meant to be transformed, renewed, changed and the worst thing that could happen to it was when you forgot to put the lid back on it. Cause what do you do with hard play-doh? You throw it away. It is pointless, useless, and it cannot serve it's purpose anymore once it cannot change.
So why doesn't this [church/worship] change?
Does this change, worship; the way we praise God, the way we celebrate God?
Are we reflecting our love of God in our change?
I think naturally things should change. It is a natural order.
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
We can break that down:
Pattern as a noun- a repeating decorative design. Pattern as a verb- decorate with a reoccurring design.
Transform means to change in form, appearance, character, shape, color, etc. Synonyms for transform are change, alter, or transfigure.
Renew: to make new again or make new again with enthusiasm.
So Romans 12:2 is saying:
Do not conform to the repetitiveness of this world, but be changed by the making new of our mind.
Pauls' writing to the Romans was aimed toward the Jews and some Gentiles, people who were set in their belief before Christ. He was trying to tell them that it does not matter that you know God, but that you are being transformed/changed/altered by God's love.
Jesus was teaching a new way of thinking. Trying to change our way of thinking. Rituals, habits, patterns, and repetitiveness was not the point of serving God. It was not the point of loving God.
It was learning to change for God. Loving God. Finding a new way of thinking.
Jesus Christ does not change! Changing and being transformed does not mean that Jesus is changing.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8
Play-doh is like Jesus- it does not change. You cannot break it down, melt it or change what it is made up of. Jesus does not change, but because we love Him we want to change.
How I worship God does not change who He is!
How you worship God does not change Him or what He means to me.
As we grow it is natural that worship and loving God changes. You are growing. You are learning new things. When I fell in love with my husband I changed. Love changes people. Love moves mountains. When I had my son, I changed out of love for my son. He daily changes me in my love for him. The same as I should be daily changing in my love for Jesus Christ; in how we approach Him, how we love Him, and how we worship Him.
35% believe that church is not relevant. (Statistic Link)
They believe that it is stagnant and that He is irrelevant, because times change.
Do we represent that God changes?
When we gather together as believers do we show that God changes us?
God changes us as individuals, and God changes us as believers. We have to represent that to people.
We have to show them that God's love transforms, purposely makes us a better person, and that he is not stagnant or dead or irrelevant. Times may change, but situations repeat themselves. Bellbottoms came back, I mean come on. What was applicable then is applicable today and that is God and His love and the transformation and renewing of ourselves in His love.
Loving God means we choose to accept change. Not always running headstrong into change. I fight change tooth and nail sometimes, but we accept God by accepting change. We accept love from God by accepting change. And we transfer that and we transform that by transferring that to others and by transforming that to show others.
Change is really hard. Opening your heart to love somebody and change for them is really hard.
I first expected following Christ, as all Christians do, that we have the instant change of an awesome life and we do, but we look for it in the materialistic expectations of our life.
The new transformation He gives us is in our heart.
Are we relating that to worship, relating that to people? Are we showing them that we need to change out there {outside of church} but we're going to come in here {church} and do the same things every Sunday? Or are we changing in here, but doing the same things our there? It's a two way road.
I just ask that as much as we despise change sometimes we have to ask God for it, and we do.
We always ask for better things in our lives, but you cannot ask if you are not willing to follow.
There is no point in asking for the change of a better life if you are not going to put your foot to the ground.
God is change, but God is not change. For God never changes, but God is always changing us.
Transform means to change in form, appearance, character, shape, color, etc. Synonyms for transform are change, alter, or transfigure.
Renew: to make new again or make new again with enthusiasm.
So Romans 12:2 is saying:
Do not conform to the repetitiveness of this world, but be changed by the making new of our mind.
Pauls' writing to the Romans was aimed toward the Jews and some Gentiles, people who were set in their belief before Christ. He was trying to tell them that it does not matter that you know God, but that you are being transformed/changed/altered by God's love.
Jesus was teaching a new way of thinking. Trying to change our way of thinking. Rituals, habits, patterns, and repetitiveness was not the point of serving God. It was not the point of loving God.
It was learning to change for God. Loving God. Finding a new way of thinking.
Jesus Christ does not change! Changing and being transformed does not mean that Jesus is changing.
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8
Play-doh is like Jesus- it does not change. You cannot break it down, melt it or change what it is made up of. Jesus does not change, but because we love Him we want to change.
How I worship God does not change who He is!
How you worship God does not change Him or what He means to me.
As we grow it is natural that worship and loving God changes. You are growing. You are learning new things. When I fell in love with my husband I changed. Love changes people. Love moves mountains. When I had my son, I changed out of love for my son. He daily changes me in my love for him. The same as I should be daily changing in my love for Jesus Christ; in how we approach Him, how we love Him, and how we worship Him.
35% believe that church is not relevant. (Statistic Link)
They believe that it is stagnant and that He is irrelevant, because times change.
Do we represent that God changes?
When we gather together as believers do we show that God changes us?
God changes us as individuals, and God changes us as believers. We have to represent that to people.
We have to show them that God's love transforms, purposely makes us a better person, and that he is not stagnant or dead or irrelevant. Times may change, but situations repeat themselves. Bellbottoms came back, I mean come on. What was applicable then is applicable today and that is God and His love and the transformation and renewing of ourselves in His love.
Loving God means we choose to accept change. Not always running headstrong into change. I fight change tooth and nail sometimes, but we accept God by accepting change. We accept love from God by accepting change. And we transfer that and we transform that by transferring that to others and by transforming that to show others.
Change is really hard. Opening your heart to love somebody and change for them is really hard.
I first expected following Christ, as all Christians do, that we have the instant change of an awesome life and we do, but we look for it in the materialistic expectations of our life.
The new transformation He gives us is in our heart.
Are we relating that to worship, relating that to people? Are we showing them that we need to change out there {outside of church} but we're going to come in here {church} and do the same things every Sunday? Or are we changing in here, but doing the same things our there? It's a two way road.
I just ask that as much as we despise change sometimes we have to ask God for it, and we do.
We always ask for better things in our lives, but you cannot ask if you are not willing to follow.
There is no point in asking for the change of a better life if you are not going to put your foot to the ground.
God is change, but God is not change. For God never changes, but God is always changing us.
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