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