"Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind"

[Meg]

I wrote this in 2009


Religion is very swift to get us bogged down in a legalistic pulling back and forth of "good behavior" vs "bad behavior" that is often absolutely crushing -- especially when we get caught in a "bad behavior".

When I first began exploring Scripture, something I noticed early on was that the New Testament was offering a choice to see things differently. The epistles offered a way of living and responding to people and circumstances that I had only seen partly, back when life in America was simpler, and which, these days, is becoming more and more rare. Everything taught in the Bible points towards treating each other with dignity and respect. So our relationships are no longer bound to the restrictions of what pleases me, but rather what makes living in peace with each other possible.

John 1:1-4
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.
4 In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.


I have pondered these words for years. As I departed further and further from the way of life I had always practiced, I realized more and more deeply that the ways Jesus Christ was teaching were making not only my own life make more sense, but having a positive influence on people around me.

Titus 3:3
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.


Ephesians 4:17
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

I have been given an option to try something other than bitterness and revenge as a way of coping from the challenges that confront me. By making it clear that my sins could be left behind, through Jesus forgiveness and my own willingness to stop doing such things, it became possible to see my whole life in a much more positive way. People had always confronted me with negativity. Jesus was teaching me something very different. He was showing me that there was a way to depart from the framework of negativity that had always been the standard; to learn the difference between what was built to last, and what was just passing by. It can get rather tricky, because some statements may be true, so it is important to sort out the application of truth in the context of the situation, and pray into that until it makes sense.


Galatians 5:15
If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

We fight over things that shouldn’t matter, all the while killing the things that do. Christians proudly proclaim themselves “pro-life” all the while denying the very gifts of the adults they deal with on a day-to-day basis. Isn’t that what is happening when instead of cooperating together, everyone seems to want to “out do” each other, or shout the other person down, simply because we don’t understand the other person’s point of view? Or worse yet, as soon as we see that someone got something, in comes that horrible little voice that says that you didn’t get “anything”, causing us to forget or devalue what we did too get! The tragedy is that the unbelieving world is watching the way the church carries on in this manner, and either laughing themselves helpless in sheer contempt or fading away from any possible hope in Jesus Christ in sheer despair.

Accusation is a Spiritually fatal plague that does much to destroy first the individual from within, then, by extension, our relationships as well. It is accusation that causes divorce, family disputes, church splits, to name a few. Accusation is probably the number one cause of depression. I think it starts from within, then works outwardly towards others. All it takes is to fall short of what we might have hoped for or expected of ourselves, and we fall rapidly into self-accusation, considering ourselves a failure.

One of the more amazing things I have found in Jesus Christ is that His opinion of success and failure is very different from my own. Let's take an example from Scripture:

Mark 12:41-44
41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.
43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on."

The poor widow very likely apologized to God every step of the way from her home to the Temple for the inadequacy of her offering. She was very likely afraid that God might be disappointed at how unimpressive her tiny little coins were among so much gold and silver that got there first.

How often do we accuse ourselves of falling short of the glories of success in some way or another? I once found out that rich women spend more per month on skin care that I spend on my house payment! That right there is what self-accusation does to a person, and this is an example of what I meant when I said while a statement may be true, it is important to consider the value. Unfortunately the world rewards beauty, so all that expense on skin care can definitely seem necessary. However, one reason so many Americans are losing their houses is that they felt pressured to spend more money than they were actually able to afford, trying to defeat the accusations! So they find themselves bankrupt, and looking great as they fall into genuine disaster, all the while trying to avoid being accused of not being beautiful enough!

When Jesus calls you, He was not looking for someone else, and settling for you instead. He was looking for you. No one sees us the way Jesus does. He has the most amazing way of being able to tell what our best gifts and talents are; He often sees things in us that we ourselves would never have guessed were there. He also sees our hurts and sadnesses in a way that is totally unique to Him.

Romans 8:1-2
1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

John 12:47
“…For I did not come to judge the world, but to save it.”

Jesus isn’t into blame, but sometimes He will explain where and why something went wrong. He can and does also simply heal us from the inside, or correct our harmful emotions. His goal is always to heal; since passing blame doesn’t do any good, He doesn’t do that. This is where forgiveness ties in; blame and unforgiveness are the same thing. So in order to join hands with Jesus and cooperate with Him, we must be able to find a way to forgive; forgive ourselves, and forgive those who hurt us. This isn’t something we are able to do easily, so prayer is very important, and so is the Holy Spirit, Who specializes in making the impossible possible.

While it certainly can be difficult to forgive someone else, it is even more difficult to forgive yourself. Thanks to the seemingly endless criticism that comes at us from the media and from other people, we tend to see ourselves in a constant state of not-good-enough. Women can never be thin enough, men can never be successful enough, so we are being constantly battered with negative messages. No wonder we do the same sort of thing to each other! Well, I’ve got news for you, most of those negative messages are lies. That’s right, lies.

What is success, really? What is of value, really? Some people speak of what you can and cannot “take with you” when you die, but we should also consider what is really of value while we are here living. Take money, for example. Money is only useful if you have somewhere to spend it. You can have a stuffed wallet, but if you’re stuck in a traffic jam, 5 miles from the nearest gas station, that money doesn’t mean much, but the person whose willing to take you to the gas station suddenly means everything! Now what about relationships; someone who is good to look at can be very nice, but someone you can really trust will matter so much more when you need them most.

So trust would be the most valuable thing we can develop. First, we must be able to trust ourselves. Jesus obviously saw something in you that He can trust, so a good thing to do would be to ask Him what He saw. I once asked in prayer, “Who do You think I am?” at a point when I got sick of everybody else telling me who they seemed to think I am. The answers to that question are still unfolding, and that part of my journey is really special. That’s one of the really cool things about Jesus Christ, is His opinion of who you really are. He can pick out gifts and talents in you that you might not have even guessed were there.

So try to develop yourself to be someone you can trust, Jesus can trust, and everyone else can trust. If you are tempted to do something wrong, its always safe to just not do it and see what happens. Cars have brakes for a good reason, and so do we. Its OK to take a chance on giving thanks for the good things about yourself, and try to build on those things. Its also OK to try to be satisfied with what you do have, even if its maybe not as much as you’d like to have, until things have a chance to change. Try to be as stable as possible with what you have safe; sometimes we get caught thinking what we do have isn’t good enough, so we throw that away before we have something better to replace it. Try to be careful to hang onto what you do have until you are sure you have something better to replace it.

BUT this NEVER works with people. One nasty trick the devil pulls on us is to put down someone we love “You can do better…” is the deadly little thought. That was one of the most grievous lessons I have ever had to learn; people cannot be replaced. If you have a special friend, please understand that there is only one of that person. You almost certainly will not find someone else who has most of what’s special about that one person, but with all that and more! Believe me, I’ve tried that, and it doesn’t work that way!

Hi Mark, you're so very right when you say "many people are overwhelmed with too much information...Pastors nowadays tend to think transformation happens through information but the next week we forget sometimes the very next day"

I can see that you've had it happen to you too. They try so hard to keep church "interesting" that they go from topic to topic way too fast. I was praying this morning about all the religious confusion, and the Holy Spirit said that there is too much information in the Bible for most people to keep up with, so they take one small part to build on.

It just breaks my heart the way people shut each other as well as themselves down. You are again absolutely right when you say "we compliment one another with different gifts and insight." Oh yes, absolutely! Thats why its so important to allow one another to speak, to explore, to ask questions. I search as deeply as I do, because #1, I honestly didn't believe that Christianity expressed the truth about God in the first place, and #2, this Faith is absolutely not something I would have chosen or ever wanted to. For most of my adult life I viewed Christianity with real disgust. I am going through a phase right now where Christianity as a "religion" is just a real turn-off. But at the same time, the things I have struggled with for the first 5 years are coming sharply into focus, because these very things have strengthened my faith to the point where I am actually able to withstand the current challenges.

You're from San Diego, so it should be particularly clear to you when I say I'm an old hippie. LOL, I used to hang in Ocean Beach in the late 70's! Nuff said??? The idea of exclusive revelation and widespread damnation doesn't sit well with me, but all I can say is that Jesus Christ is real, or there is absolutely no way I would be in this! For these reasons, I think it critical that people make a real effort to get beyond the legalism and theological nitpicking and try to understand life from God's point of view. There must be something deeper than "do this, don't do that" in the name of religion.

You are certainly onto something by slowing down and reaching deep. Its times like this that I soooo wish that other people would post their thoughts and testimonies, even if the personal process is incomplete. I used to think, and many people do think that Jesus Christ is the most obvious "Person" in the world, but I have never searched so hard for What seemed so obvious.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I so deeply hope everything you are struggling with works out OK!

In Christ, Meg

[Elijah's Mantle]

awesome post Meg
a lot of truth contained in this one

[Eco]

Very much liked. Was a very good read.

[Meg]

Thank you Elijah and Eco. When I wrote that, I was just past my five year anniversary as a Christian. One thing that surprises me now is how much more I have matured in the Holy Spirit since then... I am very thankful though for the record of my thoughts and impressions from that point and time. I have heard about many Christians who show very slow growth or no growth at all, and that really concerns me. It seems that many people who repent out of sin don't know that there can or should be changes in the way they handle life struggles, and that makes me wonder what the church is teaching. I know some ministries do teach growth in the Holy Spirit, yet often the ones who do are denounced by very vocal critics who often do little more than complain about what others are teaching, but never offering instruction or encouragement. Meanwhile, in my own experience, and Matt would say the same, I suspect, there is a great need for growing Christians to be reassured that basic experiences like accusing thoughts, for example, are normal, and can + should be defeated by the Word of God.

When I first came online, and ongoing to this day, I meet people asking the same sorts of questions and dealing with the same sorts of struggles I did, at the same points in their walk with the Lord. At first, I was deeply shocked at the fact that someone would pose a question in the first forum I belonged to (it was called Christian Life, ran by Charisma Magazine, and no, I didn't know better at the time), and I would leave that question unanswered for 2 or 3 days hoping someone more experienced or "qualified" than I would answer. No one else would, even though there were several members taking credit for being pastors, so finally I would answer because I had already weathered similar trials and knew what to expect. For this reason, my early writing came off flippant and disrespectful; I couldn't believe that I was some kind of "expert", when there were so many people who had been Christians for much longer than I had been who couldn't or wouldn't respond to serious questions! This is still very much a problem with the institutional church at large, leaving the field wide open for jokers like H. Camping to sound like they "know something", when they are making up whatever raises the most money and garners the most attention, rather than telling the truth about the Christian experience. This is why I have been known to rant against the church at large, and probably has a lot to do with the utter collapse of the last 3 or 4 generations of young people who were raised in households professing Christianity.

After having worked with the local church scene for five years, then worked online since August 2008 (a little over 2 1/2 years now), I have come to the irrefutable conclusion that there is absolutely NO substitute for reading the Bible for yourself. Furthermore, I stand immovably on the assertion that we are in severe danger if we fall for the deception that God left something out of His Word that we need to know if we are to handle the difficulties of this life. Christianity isn't easy, and it isn't simple. The Bible isn't a one-off read that we understand easily, but nor does it harbor hidden messages that require numerology, astronomy/astrology, or any other arcane "secret knowledge" to understand. What it does take to understand the Word is to apply the wisdom of God's Holy Word to the way we live our lives, especially when that application comes hard. It is only when we set out to live the Word, that the Living Word comes alive, and the Holy Spirit ignites in our hearts and minds, and we experience the very same Lord God the Bible speaks of. I didn't say that lightly, but I did say that very honestly. I stand a living testimony that God changes lives; He certainly changed my own life, heart and mind very dramatically over these last over seven years!

In Christ, through thick and thin, Meg

[Elijah's Mantle]

I have come to the irrefutable conclusion that there is absolutely NO substitute for reading the Bible for yourself.

very very true meg
I stayed messed up when I first began and when I began to read the book for myself I began to get tremendous understanding gosh Ive even laid out of church on Sunday lately to finish what I was studying and reading for myself your 1oo percent right there is no substitute .

I know folks that have been attending church for going on four years that can't articulate in words or put in a sentence the role of the Holy Spirit

I told them after they really read the book, instead of just carrying it back and forth that I would be most glad to study with them . It blew my mind meg the lame excuse's Ive heard why they did not ever read the book for themselves .

[livin_in_the_Son]

: It blew my mind meg the lame excuse's Ive heard why they did not ever read the book for themselves .

EM...I've heard a doozy from a family member. Something along the lines of it not being necessary because the pastor's job was to read the Word and pass along the 'important stuff'. Just my own reading (not even active study) gave me so much more info that it awakened my thirst for more. I think that a lot of people are intimidated by the shear size of the book, and if combined with no love to read makes it an obstacle most won't try to overcome. I personall know a very godly woman who only reads the bible because she doesn't have a passion for reading.

Awesome post Meg...it spoke to my heart in a profound way....thank you and Praise God.

[Elijah's Mantle]

I can believe it livin-in-the-son, its true that many do rely on everything else except them selves .
Its sad that so many people are intimidated by the book It was never supposed to be as such
and no one is insignificant to the Lord. I just wish people would read the book for themselves and if not they could always get it by audio and listen Its shocking to me that people wont avail themselves to simply read the book . They miss out on a lot a lot info

[livin_in_the_Son]

EM....I've actually considered getting my son an audio version. He's got a learning disability and while he has a true love of Christ, reading defeats him. He loves listening to it though. You've just jump-started my desire to go ahead and get it. I have a feeling that it could have a profound effect on others as well.

[Elijah's Mantle]

It would be a awesome gift

I listen to mine almost every night

I got one for my Father right before he passed and he loved it
he did however notice something special with Psalms
I did not think much on it until 2 weeks ago and I began to dream dreams
like what he told me he was experiencing
faith comes by what ? (((hearing)))
try it and see
Ive woke up , knowing exact passages to read and found that as weird as it sounds
Im possibly learning even in my sleep
the ear in the brain syndrome is a neat thing to experience
listen to Psalms every night for awhile see if you wake up with exact scriptures you go and read

[Elijah's Mantle]

come to think on it
from listening to Psalms
I read the entire book of kings and Ezekiel and Zachariah
figured out the line of kings who reigned
and understood a parable

get the audio Bible , its worth every cent

[Meg]

EM...I've heard a doozy from a family member. Something along the lines of it not being necessary because the pastor's job was to read the Word and pass along the 'important stuff'. Just my own reading (not even active study) gave me so much more info that it awakened my thirst for more. I think that a lot of people are intimidated by the shear size of the book, and if combined with no love to read makes it an obstacle most won't try to overcome. I personall know a very godly woman who only reads the bible because she doesn't have a passion for reading.

Awesome post Meg...it spoke to my heart in a profound way....thank you and Praise God.

This truth highlighted in red is a message imparted by pastors and the kind of people who push themselves into the visible positions of assumed authority in churches everywhere. Those arrogant people pat others on the head so-to-speak, and tell them they're too dumb to "get it", and let the "smart"people do the hard work. I've seen that more than once. Regular people never get a chance to ask their own questions, and they often just give up. This is the tragic failure of the institutional church at large.

On the other hand, a well run forum such as this one gives anyone who would but ask an open chance to ask questions and get superb answers from a variety of angles, Those of us who have made ourselves available have had the privilege of serving our Lord to the best of our abilities, working within the confines of His Word, giving thanks when we see others delight in the relief of finally understanding issues which have troubled them deeply.

The confusion, arguing and doctrinal dissension has GOT to stop somewhere! If we expect to have a yes answer to Jesus Christs grievous question "When the Son Of Man returns will He find faith on Earth?", we MUST understand for ourselves what truth really is and why, if we are to hope to explain to unbelievers. As it stands, the church at large is in such a shameful state of rebellion and dissent, that untrained atheists are able to mock us all freely, and look justified doing so.

Jesus Christ deserves better.

[Robert]

This truth highlighted in red is a message imparted by pastors and the kind of people who push themselves into the visible positions of assumed authority in churches everywhere. Those arrogant people pat others on the head so-to-speak, and tell them they're too dumb to "get it", and let the "smart"people do the hard work. I've seen that more than once. Regular people never get a chance to ask their own questions, and they often just give up. This is the tragic failure of the institutional church at large.

On the other hand, a well run forum such as this one gives anyone who would but ask an open chance to ask questions and get superb answers from a variety of angles, Those of us who have made ourselves available have had the privilege of serving our Lord to the best of our abilities, working within the confines of His Word, giving thanks when we see others delight in the relief of finally understanding issues which have troubled them deeply.

The confusion, arguing and doctrinal dissension has GOT to stop somewhere! If we expect to have a yes answer to Jesus Christs grievous question "When the Son Of Man returns will He find faith on Earth?", we MUST understand for ourselves what truth really is and why, if we are to hope to explain to unbelievers. As it stands, the church at large is in such a shameful state of rebellion and dissent, that untrained atheists are able to mock us all freely, and look justified doing so.

Jesus Christ deserves better.

Sad but true.

[peacebringer]

ah meg, really miss these kinds of posts... guess have to come here to find them... :P

[peacebringer]

Hmm, just made aware that can be taken other than meant. Known Meg for some time and I really do miss her posts over at elsewhere and now have to come here to be blessed by it.

[Meg]

Hey Peacebringer, I do apologize, and yes, I've known PB for years, been a member there much longer than here. Sorry for not making it over, with my new husband getting settled in and bringing his Dad down from one nursing home to another, I haven't had time for this forum either. I'll be over when I can.

Peace to all.

[peacebringer]

hey meg things are quiet over there right now. Everything has a time and season. I woulda sent you a PM but still need now 4 posts to be able to pm...

[Meg]

hey meg things are quiet over there right now. Everything has a time and season. I woulda sent you a PM but still need now 4 posts to be able to pm...

That explains a lot! I hope the Mods understand now... I'm busy again today, but I'll try to stop by over there tomorrow.