| Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer 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." Paul said that a person who has offered his life to God has to not offer his body, but also offer his thoughts and mind. "This world" refers to the authority of darkness behind the world. A theologian has translated this passage into "don't let the world shape you into its form, but let God re-shape your thoughts and mind." This world doesn't want to see us living a life offered to God, but it wants to shape us into its form. In fact, this is exactly what devil Satan is doing today. We are now inundated with news and media everyday and stuffed values and morals of the world. We are merely products of the trend of this world, because we would go wherever is popular at the time. I've seen a move before the depicted a middle-age couple. One day they suddenly found most of the friends around them divorced, so they started asking: "Why are we still married? Why are rest of them divorced? Should we get divorced too?" Then they started going down the route of getting divorced. In our time, we are envious of those went from rags to riches overnight, but few of us envy the life of Saint Francis, who was extremely rich before but he gave everything to the poor and offered himself to the Lord to serve orphans and widows. Our values are often affected by the world, thus we cannot offer ourselves to the Lord. There was an American missionary who preached the gospel in Eastern Europe. When he came back from a country in Eastern Europe that was against the gospel and saw what was happening in the American society, he said in grief: "To Americans, heroes are the athletes and entertainers, but in Eastern Europe heroes are those dare to offer their life for their faith and sacrifice their life for the Lord." Who are your heroes? Many believers cannot life for God because they allow the trend of the world to decided how they should live and carry out their faith. Paul said here that we ought not to let world share us into its form, but to renew our mind. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to live inside us and to place God's will in our heart. Offering our life to the Lord is not just a one-time commitment, but we need to continuously "be transformed by the renewing of your mind" each and every day. Pray with Pastor Tong Liu 
Lord, please forgive us because we've lived under the authority of the world for a long time without realizing it. May the Holy Spirit come and renew our heart so that we won't conform to the pattern of this world, but to be renewed and changed by the Holy Spirit everyday. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen! |
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