Obetz Church of The Nazarene

Pastor's Pen

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Pastor's Pen

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

From "Squeezed or Transformed," an article by James A. Harnish:

When it comes down to it, Paul is pretty well convinced that there are two options for our lives. One option is to be squeezed. We can allow our lives, our values, our attitudes, our convictions, and our relationships to be shaped and formed from the outside in by the forces of the world around us. The other option is to be transformed. Our lives can be remolded, reshaped, redesigned from the inside out by the wind and breath of the Spirit of God.

Harnish goes on to say: Paul hangs those options out in front of us. With great passion he calls for our response. Therefore: because you know the mercy and grace of God, because you've seen how God loves lost, disoriented, confused and broken people, because you know how God's love has been made real for us at the cross, therefore, for God's sake, for your own sake, don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold. Rather, let God remold your life from the inside out so that you may demonstrate in practice the good, acceptable, loving, life-giving will of God for you.

Paul is right and Harnish is right! If left unchecked the world will squeeze us into its mold, shaping our attitudes, values, convictions and relationships from the outside in.

We will be pressed into world-shaped materialism greedy for more and more, self-centered amorality with its lack of absolutes, and “squishy spirituality” described by Jonathan Yardley as a "blend of all the most self-absorbed aspects of pop psychology, New Age pseudo-mysticism . . . and half-baked religiosity.

It completely rejects anything remotely smacking of authority . . . It is self-indulgent rather than self-sacrificial, and it is utterly devoid of anything approximating intellectual rigor." He says the bottom line of most contemporary spirituality is "What's in it for me?"

Humanity’s greatest need and only hope is to be remade from the inside out! The redeeming blood of the Son of God, the resurrecting power of God, and the refreshing work of the Spirit of God are all necessary for re-creating fallen man and all are available to all who repent and believe.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” My prayer is for all of us to be all new in Christ from the inside out!

Pastor Jay