Transformation through Christ brings with it many revelations of truth. We no longer accept what the world says about life and death.
The world says, "He's dead - he's gone - it's over." That's not what we say. When we, as Christians, see someone we love go home to heaven, and we know that they had accepted Christ's blood over their lives as purification enabling them to enter God's presence, then we challenge the world's statement with a resounding, "It's not over - it's only just begun!" We got to make that statement yesterday as we celebrated Shorty's life here on earth, and more importantly,celebrated his entrance into eternal life with his Lord.
The world tells us many other things that as we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds we discover are very contrary to the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Paul wrote these words so many years ago, but his words "do not be conformed to this age", have applied to every age that the world has gone through ever since. Whatever age of the world people have found themselves in when hearing or reading these words, one thing all have had in common....we live in the age this side of heaven. We live in the age of this earthly world, and Paul instructs us to pull ourselves out of it.
We are, as Jesus told Nicodemus, to remember that we are not children of this world, but we have been born again into a life that is so very different, a life that is not designed for moments that click away, but for an eternity of purposefulness. We must allow the Holy Spirit to constantly renew our minds into thought processes that take us out of the temporal and into the eternal...that is the only way that we can start to see the Kingdom of God in clarity, and to understand with more certainty what the, and here that lovely phrase is again, "good, pleasing and perfect will of God " is for us.
This morning, let's ask the Holy Spirit to wash over us with a cleansing of our minds, a cleansing removing those thoughts of this age that argue with the truths of God's eternal ages. Let's pull ourselves out of this age and see the pictures of God's truths spoken to us over all the ages...the truths of creation, the truths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and especially this morning, the truth of the Christ child born in Bethlehem, bringing all of God's truth and grace to mankind forever.
The world says, "He's dead - he's gone - it's over." That's not what we say. When we, as Christians, see someone we love go home to heaven, and we know that they had accepted Christ's blood over their lives as purification enabling them to enter God's presence, then we challenge the world's statement with a resounding, "It's not over - it's only just begun!" We got to make that statement yesterday as we celebrated Shorty's life here on earth, and more importantly,celebrated his entrance into eternal life with his Lord.
The world tells us many other things that as we allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds we discover are very contrary to the good, pleasing and perfect will of God. Paul wrote these words so many years ago, but his words "do not be conformed to this age", have applied to every age that the world has gone through ever since. Whatever age of the world people have found themselves in when hearing or reading these words, one thing all have had in common....we live in the age this side of heaven. We live in the age of this earthly world, and Paul instructs us to pull ourselves out of it.
We are, as Jesus told Nicodemus, to remember that we are not children of this world, but we have been born again into a life that is so very different, a life that is not designed for moments that click away, but for an eternity of purposefulness. We must allow the Holy Spirit to constantly renew our minds into thought processes that take us out of the temporal and into the eternal...that is the only way that we can start to see the Kingdom of God in clarity, and to understand with more certainty what the, and here that lovely phrase is again, "good, pleasing and perfect will of God " is for us.
This morning, let's ask the Holy Spirit to wash over us with a cleansing of our minds, a cleansing removing those thoughts of this age that argue with the truths of God's eternal ages. Let's pull ourselves out of this age and see the pictures of God's truths spoken to us over all the ages...the truths of creation, the truths of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and especially this morning, the truth of the Christ child born in Bethlehem, bringing all of God's truth and grace to mankind forever. Hallelujah, how the angels sang!! Hallelujah, how it rang.
And the sky was bright with God’s holy light.
It was the birthday of the King!
And the sky was bright with God’s holy light.
It was the birthday of the King!
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