Monday January 9, 2017
“Christians, use your Minds”
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an
act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living
sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around
you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from
within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you
is good, meet all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity. –
Rendering of Romans 12:1-2 by J.B.
Phillips
I. Knowing is for Living
Our heading today has become like a bad word is some church circles…as if
using your mind was somehow “un-spiritual.” In our Tongan circle, you would
hear things like, “tuku e fie poto” (stop
being a know-it-all) or “’ave ho’o ki’i ‘ilo ko ena ‘o tuku ke toki ako’i ‘aki
ha’o ki’i leka ha ‘aho” (save your knowledge
for when you become a parent one day). Didn’t Jesus reaffirm that loving
God included our minds? (Matthew 22:37). Some people are so into loving God
with their hearts that they either forget the mind or completely ignore it. Everything
our hearts believe must pass through the mind. But not everything in the mind
gets to the heart. This may be where most of the “mindless” Christianity comes
from. The fear of “intellectualizing” the faith that the heart is left out.
According to the apostle Paul, we as Christians, need to use our minds
and give our bodies to the Lord ‘as an act of intelligent worship’. We need to
submit to God so that he may ‘re-mold our minds from within’. If there is
intelligent worship, then there is un-intelligent worship. Worship which is
uninformed by Scripture. The knowledge of God and the knowledge of his word are
central in intelligent, Christ centered worship. True worship, as we touched on
in our first day of this devotional, is by spirit and truth (John 4:24).
Have you ever listened to someone pray out loud where they ramble on and
on, saying many words but saying very little with regard to a personal
knowledge of God or his word? When we spend more time in God’s word, we are
enlightened by its truths which should in turn inform our witness, our prayer
life and the totality of our Christian life.
Challenge: Do not
disregard the mind, but feed it with God’s Word through personal study,
meditation, Scripture memory and sharing with others. Most of all be always in
prayer that God renews and re-molds your mind to His thinking and mind-set
rather than the world’s.
This Day in Christian History:
Jan 9, 1839 – conversion of the Bob Sheffey at
age 19. He dropped out of college to preach in the Virginia hills of America as
a Methodist circuit rider. He was known for his honest plain-spoken powerful
prayers. His unorthodox prayers and sermons brought many mountaineers to the
Kingdom and earned him the title, the “Peculiar Preacher”
Memory Verse: (Sun Jan 8)
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in
faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. – 2 Timothy 1:13
Ko e anga ē ‘o e ngaahi lea mo‘ui
na‘a ke fanongo ai meiate au, ‘i he tui mo e ‘ofa ‘oku ‘ia Kalaisi Sīsū. – 2 Timote 1:13
Puke ke ma‘u ‘a e sino ‘o e ngaahi lea haohaoa, ‘a ia na‘a ke fanongo ai ‘iate
au, ‘io he tui mo e ‘ofa ‘a ia ‘oku ‘ia Kalaisi Sisu (Paaki ‘a Uesi)
Bible Reading Plan: (52 weeks; 5 days a week)
Week 2 – Genesis 19-20;
Psalm 1; Mark 7
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