Make Up Your Mind

The root word for resolution is to resolve; to determine a set course of action.  A new year is quickly approaching.  Have you made up your mind to set a course of action? Have you made a decision to find a solution to some unresolved question in your life?   Have you decided to rectify a difficult situation? Are you determined to make right a bad relationship?  Before making up your mind, make sure it has already been renewed.

 

Romans 12:1-2New King James Version (NKJV)

Living Sacrifices to God

12 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. ² 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.

 

The Apostle Paul lays out his doctrinal teaching in Romans chapters 1-11.  He delineates the mercies that God has bestowed on each of us.  Chapter 12 begins with, therefore, make up your mind.  After considering what God has done on your behalf, resolve to give yourself totally to Him.  Allow the Holy Spirit to transform you from the inside out.  Doctrine must eventually translate into a changed life.  Your mind needs to be renewed, replenished, revived and refreshed.  We can all enter 2015 with our minds made up by the power of the Spirit to do what God expects which is the least we can do.   Seriously, it’s time to make up your mind.

The Christmas Gift

Matthew 1:21

²¹ And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

The Christmas cards have arrived.  The tree is sparkling and brilliant.  The presents are wrapped and stowed beneath the tree.  One particular card struck put this season in perspective for me. 

Remember, the most precious gift was not wrapped in decorative paper, but in swaddling clothes!

How wonderful is that!  The Savior of the world, our Redeemer appeared to us in pieced together, used linen. Not gold cellophane or satin foil-lined paper but lowly rags.  The best gift we could ever receive came to us as a simple offering.  Before opening gifts this Christmas morning, take time to thank God for the Gift He sent over 2000 years ago.  Glorify God, because the greatest gift has already been open.

 

 

It Didn't Look Right

 

I was putting away eggs a few days ago.  This one did not feel right and upon further inspection, it didn’t look right either.  I have never seen an egg shell with ridges and a rough texture.  At first, it looked like a golf ball, out of place.  This could not be an egg, at least not one I would want to eat.  It may be an egg on the inside but the outside was highly questionable.  It just didn’t look right.

Ephesians 4:17-24

The New Man

¹⁷ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of^[a] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

²⁰ But you have not so learned Christ, ²¹ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, ²⁴ and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

In our former unregenerate lives, we had an outer covering that did not look right.  At salvation, the Holy Spirit came to dwell with us and changed us on the inside.  Our conduct should change so that our outer selves reflect who we are on the inside.  The world ought to be able to recognize us by our outer covering.  Let’s not let the world touch and look at us and not be able to recognize us as Christian.  They cannot know our hearts but they can examine our lives. 

You know what happened to the egg that did not look or feel like an egg.  I threw it out. Because it just didn’t look right.  Let that not happen to you.

 

Tears in Heaven

Tears are flowing all around me.  Death has come to my friends and family.  Hearts are heavy and hope is fading.  How much are we expected to bare?  Does God know and comprehend the pain?  Does He care?

Psalm 56:8

⁸ You number my wanderings;
Put my tears into Your bottle
Are they not in Your book?

God numbers our tears.  Not a drop is wasted.  He records them in His book.  Each tear is significant to Him.  Every life, every death has meaning.  We can be comforted in knowing God takes notice of our suffering and will show compassion and concern towards us.  He never leaves or forsakes us.  Those precious bottled up tears will soon turn to joy.  We can be strong knowing our tears are in God's hand.