The Renewal

Renew - Give fresh life or strength to.  Romans 12:2 - And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that  which is good and acceptable and perfect.  

The Renewal is a necessary must for those who call the name of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  The definition in the first sentence says a lot about what actually needs to happen in the lives of believers today.  A renewal is not an impossible event, but it will be a very difficult event in the lives of individual believers, as well as, the church as a whole.  Why?  Because we have become comfortable.  Comfortable with sin, comfortable with not serving, comfortable with no power, comfortable with God.  The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom as scripture says in Proverbs 9:10, and I am not seeing much fear of God these days.  Why?  Pride!!  We have become self sufficient and the sufficiency from God no longer appeals to us because we believe we can handle all things on our own.  Dumb!  We have no strength or power in our lives apart from God and powerless lives that are moving in their own direction are dangerous lives out of control.  

It's like pointing a cart with no brakes down a steep hill and hoping no one will get hurt.  Gravity will push that cart out of control and crash it when it gets to the bottom.  We are on that cart spiritually right now and to expect anything different than a crash is unrealistic and wrong.  You may wonder, "Where does that put me?"  Right where you need to be.  At the top of the hill with the power and wisdom to make a decision to walk away from the steep hill and go the other way.  The Bible calls it repentance.  The steep hill is a reality that lies before you, but you have the power to turn away from the adventure of riding down the hill and walk the other direction on level ground.  It is the smart move and it is the best move.  It may not have the adventure of the steep hill, but the adventure of the other direction is made by us and not the gravity pushing on us.  On top of the hill you have those who are saying "Go ahead and go down.  What can it hurt?"  There will always be those people who try to guilt you into doing what they want and not what God wants.  You cannot listen to them or to that voice that tries to control you at the top of the hill.  Proverbs 14:12  says "There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death."   Appearances can be deceiving and in a fallen world the evil one always paints a pretty picture when it comes to sin.  Renewal will have to come from hearts that are totally turned back to God and like David wrote in Psalm 51:10 Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a pure heart, Oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  The transformation from worldly to Godly comes from a heart that is renewed and the commitment is fresh once again.  Then we will have the ability to prove and know God's will for our life and He will set us back on a course of purpose and meaning again.  Here are some visible steps to follow through with the renewal.

1.  A burden for change

2.  A commitment to change from a pure heart

3.  A fresh outlook on your faith and an openness to the Holy Spirit

4.  A strong follow through to the transformation process at all costs

5.  True transformation

Today is the day for renewal and transformation.  This transformation will mean you need to leave old ways behind and embrace the totally new direction Christ has planned for your life and follow it completely.  Don't accept the status quo for your life's direction anymore.  Don't "settle" when it comes to making the change complete.  Be willing to allow God to do a new thing in  your life and give Him complete control in making the changes necessary to make it happen.  Renewal is real and transformation is the result.  Do it today!

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

The Search is On!

Psalm 139:23-24  "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way."  
Quite a tough thing to ask God to seek our heart, or seek the core of who we are.  The heart is where our intentions, our real desires come from.  To open ourselves up to God in this manner is huge for true, total disclosure.  There are always things we hold to ourselves when it comes to "opening up"  because we don't feel like others could handle our "truth bombs", so we keep those to ourselves.  Full disclosure is always partial disclosure when it comes to sharing our heart.  The Psalmist in these passages skipped the usual "game playing" when stating this prayer to the Lord.  To keep intall in context we must look at the beginning of the chapter.  In verses 1-3 David, the writer says, 
"O Lord, You have searched me and known me.  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar.  You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.  So the "search is on" from the beginning by a man who was  known as "a man after God's own heart."  This was part of that man's process in getting to know the heart of God, and that process included a purging of any evil thoughts or intentions in his own heart.  We think and look at the outside of a person, but remember, God looks at the heart.  In fact, keep this in mind, when David says in verse 13 "You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb"   This is a man who wants no restrictions in his relationship with the Lord, so he basically "bares his soul."  He knew this is the God who did not look at his outward appearance, but looked at his heart when choosing him to be king.  David apparently wanted that same upfront relationship with the God who looked at the purity of his heart at one point in his life and he knew that there was hope when that happened again.  So David turns to the God who knit his heart together and opens himself up for rebuke or whatever so he could be right before the Lord again.  He came back to his maker and his sustainer and asked Him to evaluate (search) his heart and see if it was right or wrong.  He may have played games before, but this time it was a very deep desire that revealed his heart was truly searching.  Searching pure truth from the God who made him.  Please allow me to quote from the movie A Few Good Men.  "You don't want the truth.  You can't handle the truth!"  For me this might be the case.  Would your prayer be "God search me and show me my true self. " Not my perception, but the real me."  In our search, would it be more than we can handle to actually see ourselves for who we are?  How freeing that would be to get the truth out in the open.

I think a lot of our problems as disciples is we don't really want to know the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  We want a watered-down version of it so we can swallow it.  Without the watering down we might be overwhelmed by our evil self and wrong motives for what we do.  Too sobering for self drunk disciples who live a lie at our core.  In reality we cannot escape the truth of ourselves though, because God made us as well.  And our inner heart is totally open to him, and the avoidance of the truth is revealed when we truly come to God in humility with a contrite heart.  Contrite - (def) feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt.  In order to avoid feelings like guilt, we put up a fake front to try and convince ourselves, and everyone else that everything is fine. Just fine.  100% of the time I ask a person how they are doing they will say "Doing great, doing fine."  Is that true?  God knows and he is wanting to show us ourselves if we will just allow Him to search our hearts and reveal his conclusion to us.  

So what will it be?  Brutal honesty received from the God who made us and formed our heart and forgave our sins and gave us His Word? Or will it be the status quo form of truth that allows us to play the game of life on our own terms.  If you are willing.  He is willing.  For me and my life.  The search is on!  Lord show me who I am in You and make me a vessel that can be used for Your glory!  By the way, I do mean that from a pure heart.

The Pilgrimage continues,

David Warren

I SEE the Harvest

Luke 10:1-24 This scripture highlights the appointing of more disciples to get them involved in the ministry Jesus has established.n verse 17 the disciples report back with much enthusiasm and joy, saying "Even the demons are subject to us in Your name. Jesus then told them He was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Great victory. Here are some of the points of clarity that we will be using to mirror our outreach in accordance with the sending out Jesus did at that time.

1. They went in pairs. Accountability is seen here at it's best as these disciples went out in pairs causing them to support each other and rejoice with each other. Our Life Groups exist to develop disciples that will serve together and keep each other accountable. The community of the Life Group will enhance the desire to keep our outreach in the forefront and it will keep us serving even through the tough times.

2. They were very conscious of the time and effort. The disciples went from house to house and if they we're rejected then didn't let that distract them from their purpose of sharing the message of salvation. They didn't let the no responses slow them down and keep them from going to the next house.

3. If they were accepted in a home they developed that person's faith and spent quality time growing them into disciples.

4. These experiences opened their eyes to see the heart of Jesus' ministry purpose. In verse 23 Jesus says "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see." In other words, their eyes were opened to the importance of their commitment to the kingdom work established by Jesus. They would never be the same because they could truly say, "I see!"

Can you see the harvest? Perhaps if we will get established in these simple elements of Jesus' teachings we would begin to see the harvest again.....as Jesus sees it. The New Testament church was established from this very simple plan and it caused them to see the harvest so much that disciples of that time were willing to give their lives for the gospel. What would be the effect of each of us joining hands with another believer and following Jesus word to go out? I believe we would do what Jesus said in verse 23, "blessed are the eyes which see the things you see." Our eyes would suddenly be opened to a new realm of understanding about sharing the gospel message. Are you doing enough in sharing the gospel to even see what the effect is or are you just talking about it. Jesus compelled the disciples to go and they went. There is a chance you won't see the harvest like Jesus sees it until you go like those early disciples went ...... in pairs. Maybe you have read this scripture before and it didn't hit you in this way, but today it is brand new to you. Let it take you where God wants you to be. Maybe it is something new to you.... and better. Read the story of Andrei Sakharov and see the effect of reading and rereading the truths of God. Maybe then you will SEE and be energized.

Elena Bonner, wife of Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, says that as he wrote his memoirs she typed, edited, and nursed the work, doing everything she could to make sure it survived seizure by the government. Sakharov worked on his memoirs in Gorky, rewriting sections because they kept vanishing. Then one day he met Elena at the train station and with trembling lips told her, "They stole it." She says he looked like a man who had just learned of the death of a close friend. But after a few days, Sakharov returned to his work. According to his wife, each time he rewrote his memoirs there was something new--something better.

Jesus continually takes His word and applies it to our lives in new and fresh ways.  Those fresh and new ways can be applied to today as those they were just written today if our minds and hearts are open to His Truth.  Read it again and perhaps you will SEE.  Then the scripture in Hebrews 12:2 will make much more sense.   "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith..."

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Cynic, Mimic, or Meme?

Cynic (def) - a person who believes that people are motivated purely by self-interest rather than acting for honorable or unselfish reasons.  

Mimic (def) - Imitate someones actions or words in order to entertain or ridicule.

Meme - an element of a culture of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non genetic means, especial imitation.Which are you?  Most people would say, "I don't want to be either one!"  The truth is these three characteristics are similar in nature but very different in action.  A person becomes a cynic usually over a period of time where they have one disappointment after another and those disappointments stem from trusted people letting them down.  Maybe they even feel like God has let them down.  So they become cynical and mistrust people's motives in what they do and how they do it.  Years ago a few very famous preachers went through some tough moral times as they were exposed for not being who they said they were and the effect at the time was very bad.  It took borderline cynics and pushed them over the edge.  Sadly enough, it affected many of the community of disciples in the church and we have been dealing with the impact of those situations ever sense.  I was serving in a church in Missouri and one of our ministers had a habit of saying he would do something and then get the peoples hopes up and get them motivated and then he would call it off.  I remember feeling the disappointment and then seeing the disappointment in our members eyes as their hopes were once again dashed.  In Romans 5:5 Paul wrote "And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."  Hope in the Lord doesn't disappoint, but our hope in our fellow believers has begun to wane a bit, and the trust that a believer will do what they say is lessening more every time a person doesn't follow through with a commitment they make "to the Lord."  As believers in Jesus Christ, we are "people of hope."  Hope is not only our middle name, but our foundation for living.  That's why scripture says we have "living hope."  I Peter 1:3 says "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."  We have a hope of eternal glory in heaven and hope of an abundant life here on this earth.  There is no room for cynicism in a believer's life.  Cynicism only dampens the effect of the message of our salvation in our life and causes us great depression and doubt in living out our faith as we serve the Lord.  We are people who trust God and should trust each other, even when those we respect fail in front of us.  We reverse the mistakes of a few men of God by focusing our attention on God alone and letting the freshness of the Holy Spirit keep our minds and hearts revived and renewed on a daily basis.  

In the next few weeks I am leading our church to redefine their faith and redefine what our church should be like and push the "reset' button on discipleship.  Many mistakes have been made in the past by people who didn't pray and ask for God's perspective on what we should do to reach our world for Christ.  We have allowed massive, worldly, relativism to rule our thoughts and direction and have "lost our way" in the process.  It's time to come back to our roots that are planted deep in the soil of God's grace and mercy.  To take the Holy Spirit at His Word and daily be filled with His power and start to take back territory that should have never been given up.  It is no wonder millennials are searching for the real truth when it is right in front of them and ready to be lived and loved.  I don't believe in generational Christianity because I believe it is weak and easily manipulated.  Manipulated to cater to our wants and desires and not centered in on the core truth of God's Word.   In other words, whether you be a child, youth, college student, young, middle, or senior aged person, the Bible is still the same and cannot be changed.  So quit trying!!  You will lose that argument every time.  We have cultivated things like organic faith, ego faith, Las Vegas faith, and many others.  We need to get back to our core faith and God will take care of the other details from there.

Oh yeah, mimic.  A mimic is the result of all this other cynicism taking root in a person's life   The mimic will make fun of all this "Christian" stuff in their heart and sometimes vocalize their disdain for the sake of entertainment.  The good thing about a mimic is they show us just how much we are running in circles, but usually with no answers of how to change it.  Our modern day version of that is called a Meme  The Meme takes those things that a mimic has established as a truth and they pass it on to others, all the time, heightening the problem by not using the pure source of the truth.  There is another type of person who can reverse the negative things that are passed on by mimics.  This person is called a disciple, or a person who walks with God.  Let me illustrate below.

Cynic........Mimic..........Meme..........no hope

Cynic......true disciple......Meme......great hope.

Which path are you on?  Time to get in on the true path of victory living and get out of the way of those who are trying to make an impact for the Kingdom.  In other words, change or scoot over so real ministry can be done.  It's all a matter of perspective.

The Pilgrimage continues..

David Warren

The Fifth Element

Hebrew 6:1 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God. 

The movie, The Fifth Element, is a syfy adventure tale that weaves you through the fight of good vs. evil.  In the story a local cab driver in a much more modern world (flying cabs) has a girl fall into his cab.  This girl is the missing link to a powerful weapon for good.  Evil is approaching the world and the more violent people act to stop evil, the bigger it gets.  The conventional weapons of fighting seem to only irritate evil and makes it approach the planet even faster.  Many years earlier some priests had preserved an element that would make all the other elements work together to fight evil, should it come.  Well, here it is and it is time to release this "fifth element" to fight the approaching evil.  The evil that is coming has enlisted some killers to destroy the needed fifth element and they think they have done it.  But there was just enough of the essence of the element left for scientists to rebuild it and it takes on the form of a woman.  Back to the cab driver.  The cab driver is a former special forces fighter and his expertise helps keep the element (girl) alive until she can gather the other elements together to unite them to stop evil with the power of good.  A priest named Cornelius has been waiting for years to see the fifth element work for good, but when it comes down to it he doesn't even know how the element is supposed to work. His knowledge of the elements function is elementary at best and that knowledge is inadequate for the huge task at hand.  The task being "saving the world!"

All of the characters involved get in on the adventure and all try to make the stones work wth the fifth element, but to no avail.  Finally, the priests apprentice accidentally blows on one of the elements and it opens, ready to respond to the other elements.  One by one they  activate all of the other elements and now they are primed and ready to go, but now the "fifth element" (girl) is not responding to the need to stop the evil from destroying the world and time is running out.  In reality all she needed was a reason to be activated and in the movie the reason was love.  Of course, this is just a movie.   But the parallels to scripture are quite interesting.  In Hebrews 6:1 the author challenges believers to get beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and move into spiritual "Big Macs" and beyond.  It is evidenced in this scripture that there is a need to not only know about Christ, but know the inner workings of Christ's teachings.  Why?  First of all, they are the essence of pure truth.  Secondly, the teachings about Christ help us know how to live our lives and how to access the power of God.  Think about.  How can we handle evil without the pure truth of the Word?  We can't!!  True Christian maturity has a learning curve, but the holder of the curve, the Holy Spirit, shows us exactly what we need to do to follow Christ and grow in the grace so freely given to us.  The sad part is when it comes to activating our faith to do something with God's help, we can't figure out what to do.  Just like the priest Cornelius, we can go our whole life knowing about Christ and His great power, but when it comes to using it and activating it, we cannot seem to figure it out.  The Wisdom of God from His Word will give us everything we need to activate that power and thus see God's hand move in a mighty way to not only defeat evil, but energize us for good works.   Ok.  You may say.  Who is our fifth element?  Of course, it is the Holy Spirit!  In Ephesians 5:18 Paul writes, "Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead be filled with the Spirit."  The word debauchery means (def) excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures.  We need to be filled with the Spirit of God, not alcoholic spirits.  One leads to debauchery, the other leads to Christ.  I know I have gone far too long not tapping into this power from God that will defeat evil in my life and empower me to do great and mighty things for Jesus.  The power is real, but not found in elementary Christianity.  It is activated when we take a deeper walk with God through His Word and allow the scriptures to come alive in our spirit.  Peter realized this power and the effect of it in Acts 4:8 when he spoke to the elders of the church and challenged them to change their ways.  They were questioning by what power the disciples were seeing these great miracles happen.  Peter said it was the power of God and that the very one they rejected, Jesus, was the one who had empowered them to do these great things.  Perhaps we need to stand firm in the power of God and challenge the "norms" of church life to account for the lack of true commitment to God's Word and God's commission and start praying for God to move in an extraordinary way despite the apathy in our leaders.   Maybe the evil is closer than we think and we need to find our fifth element, the Holy Spirit, and allow Him to move in our midst and believe God for a great awakening.  Perhaps we should move away from elementary teachings about faith and salvation, and move into deeper waters where God can use our faith to move mountains.  Perhaps we need to pray for the element we are missing right now, the Holy Spirit, to shake  up our world and our churches and flow freely in revival and renewal in our land before it is too late.  We have found that bickering and fighting in churches only makes the evil stronger, but true love will meet evil at the door and reject it and God will once again be seen in the lives of His people.  I hope this scripture is an encouragement and not an indictment to you.   1 Corinthians 2:14  "The person with the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."  Time to quit holding God back and set Him free through the Holy Spirit and pray He will come alive in our lives.  He is the element we are missing.

The Pilgrimage continues.....

David Warren

Rock or Roll

Matthew 7:24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

I grew up in a time when Rock and Roll Music became a way of life.  We would mimic the looks, the swagger, and the mystique of rock groups.  We thought in our minds that stuff would last forever.  But it didn't.  Rock Groups got old like everyone does and the desire to keep on the edge of life was soon replaced with tired, old, canned songs to keep the money coming in.  It all got old and passe.  Why?  That's what all temporal things do. They have their time and then they are gone, non existent.  Almost like they never were. They roll on by to obscurity like everything else.  Or, almost everything else.  There is one thing that stays fresh and current and lasting.  It defies all reason.  It is the Word of God and the wisdom that comes from it.  The Word of God has stood the test of time because it is not held by time.  The Word of God has been proven right again and again because it is alive.  The Word of God never disappoints as the foundational reasoning of truth for every situation because it is a ROCK and it doesn't ROLL.  It holds firm in shifting times and holds true when all truth has become relative.  The Word of God is our Rock and we must rely on it or roll away like all the other temporal things in this world.  

So... are you gonna Rock or are you gonna Roll.  I choose ROCK!  Why?  Because the basic truth, the foundational truth of the Word of God is the essence of who I am and I have no direction without it.  When I think I have come up with something that is really smart and foundational I realize it is only temporal and will not last.  But when I immerse myself in the Word of God and put it's purity into motion, it has an eternal effect on my life.  Rock and Roll originated in the 1950's and was played first by Cleveland-based DJ Alan Freed and start popularizing the term "Rock and Roll" at that point.  It found it's roots from Rhythm and Blues music and then morphed into what we call Rock Music today.  It is a style of music and that style has morphed into many different forms of music.   Rock music has changed over the years and the change has taken it very far away from it's roots.

The Word of God has remained constant throughout history, and even though liberal philosophies have tried to water it down, it still holds on strong as the foundation for all knowledge and true wisdom.  The Word of God will continue to hold true and it will flourish if we as believers put these words into practice and live what we read.  The Word of God is our ROCK and it will not roll away because it is under the authority of God, the creator of all things.  

So if the question is ever brought up ROCK or ROLL.  I choose the rock and know that He will show me the way that is everlasting and will hold even in the storms of life.  He is my ROCK and he will not roll away but will remain the constant for eternal truth and direction.  Let the Word of God come live in your life today and all who meet you will want to know how you got so smart.  You will be able to say, "I'm not smart.  I just follow the rock. He is my foundation."

The Pilgrimage continues...

David Warren

Drunk on Ourselves

Romans 12:3 - Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.  It seems to me we have become a huge entitlement society that thrives off the thought of ourselves and our worth.  We have responded so madly to the thought of low self esteem with the opposite response of conceit.  Most of the time the conceit is unjustified, but present anyway.  I guess you could say we are drunk on ourselves.  In other words, we no longer think with sober judgment on who we are and what we deserve and think we deserve it all because we are "all that."  In the above scripture the Apostle Paul is following up two very famous verses with a "dose of reality" for all who would listen.  Paul basically says "don't get drunk on yourself", think soberly about who you are and don't think more highly about yourself than you should."  The earlier verses are as follows  Romans 12:1-2  Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God-this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform 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.

It is an incredible act of worship to offer yourself as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God. Paul calls that true worship. Then Paul follows that statement with a sober reminder to never conform to the world, but be transformed by having a different mind than the world. In other words, our thinking has to be different.  Point in case - Participation trophies for those who haven't won anything!  Also Face book=narcissism!  Narcissism (def)  is the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one's own attributes.  (the opposite of what Paul is talking about in verse 3.)  The next time I see someone swing their finger around and say,"I'm all that" I may have to do something or say something.  This self bragging has gotten way out of hand.  We have become intoxicated on ourselves and our ego is the whiskey of choice.  Someone's  mommie or daddy didn't brag on them enough when they were growing up and they are getting it now!

Paul says to think soberly about ourselves and don't let conceit become a part of your life and earlier he shows how to make that happen.  Offer your bodies to God's service and be transformed into the person Jesus wants you to be.  All of this has changed the way we perceive service to the Lord.  In many ways, if you want to get someone to serve the Lord, then elevate them or promise them elevation if they will serve.  That only enables the conceit of the spiritual alcoholic and feeds their alcoholism and need for "stardom."  If they cannot see a way to be a star they probably won't commit to be a servant if asked.  In their mind they will think "Hey, I'm not getting credit for doing this?  Then I'm out!"  If you have bought into the lie about serving and only believe in doing the "high profile" stuff, then you need to rethink what you are drinking.  When speaking to the Samaritan woman in John 4:14  Jesus said, "but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst."  When you deprive yourself of your conceit whiskey and think more soberly you will find that not only does the living water taste better, but it comes with humble pie also. Micah 6:8-9 -  says "He has shown you O man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  If that scripture doesn't help you then read this one. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  The devil is in the details and those details are all about puffing ourselves up, but God has a different plan for promotion and it is all about promoting Him and Him alone.

When getting drunk, don't get drunk on self gratifying wine of self, but be filled with the Spirit and then our lives will make the impact intended.  It's all about God and it will always be all about God.

The Pilgrimage continues....

David Warren