Transformation

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Romans 12:1-2 says, “ 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.”

     Sometimes it is just so easy to go with the flow.  There was a high school tradition in the state of Indiana and it involved the color of corduroy jeans that was worn only by the senior class.  It was a cream color and only the seniors were allowed to wear them.  I could hardly wait until I was a senior so I could get my pair of Senior Cords.  My cousin, in another school, decided to wear them as a sophomore and his mother got a call saying that her son needed a pair of pants as his was flying from the flagpole.

     The world system likes to try to set the standards for everyone.  Sometimes they are good but most of the time they are not Biblical and would lead us in a direction that is contrary to God’s Word.  The above passage gives us three things that we should be doing as believers and the first one is to present our bodies to God on the altar as living sacrifices.  We are not to bargain with God, but simply to submit to Him.  As one professor once said, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they want to crawl off the altar.”  Instead, our attitude should be, “Here I am Lord.  Use me as you need today.”  We need to be willing to do so.  The second thing we are to do is to not be conformed to the plan of the world.  That means that you choose God’s way over the world’s way every time.  You are able to distinguish between the world system and God’s Word which means that you know what God’s Word says on the matters of life.  The third thing is for every believer to be transformed.  This is a very unique word and is basically used only three times in the New Testament.  It is the metamorphosis as a worm is changed into a butterfly.  The word is used in the “transfiguration” of Christ and in Second Corinthians 3:18 where we are “changed.”  That change takes place when we let God’s Word into our hearts and into our minds.  We can have various ways of getting God’s Word into our hearts and one of them is through the memorization of it.  We are never too young or too old to memorize Scripture.  A steady input of the Bible is necessary if you are to be transformed and God’s Word will do just that to each and everyone of us.  Praise God today for His Word which will meet every need in our lives.