Romans 12:2

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. - Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Let God: He will do it. In fact, I am incapable of doing it. While I have surrendered this fact many time before, the problem I keep having is that I think I can do the changing.

Transform you: not whittle away a little bit. Completely change me.

By changing the way you think: not the way I act (that will come), but by changing the way I think. I have wrestled with this enough to know that my thinking must be changed. My toxic self-talk, my contempt for others, my abject selfishness...all this must change. But I can't do it...God must.

Lord, help me with this!

Potter and Clay

This image is what comes to mind for most people when they think of the Potter and the clay metaphor from Jeremiah 18: 1-11.

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.  At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’

But that's not how I read it today. Today I heard (and understood for the first time) that the clay belongs to the potter. If things get messed up, he can smash what he's doing and start again. We would never fault the potter for doing that. He did that at the flood. He does that sometimes with nations or people, and we want to say he's allowing evil or that he doesn't care.

In any event, I don't even know what I want to say about that. Just that I think I understood the passage better today. And I still want him to shape me. But maybe sometimes he does that by starting over...and that's the BEST thing for me if he's doing it.

Ephesians 2: 4-5

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." - Ephesians 2:4-5

(Just a quick share tonight.)

God is Perfect, I am Not (Guest Blogger: Captain Obvious)

The bible study I'm working through right now is having us work through the idea of what it means that God is perfect.

"...God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." - 1 John 1:5

"...his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he." - Deuteronomy 32:4

The realization that hit me as I thought about is is that I cannot even fathom what that means. I am a flawed creature, shadow and light. I have good moments, but I also have bad ones...hidden ones. Like any human being, I can recount to you the evil thoughts that I've entertained; things that nobody even knows about. Not to mention all the bad things about me that are apparent from the outside: my gluttony, my penchant for procrastination, my biting sarcasm/criticism.

What might it look like to be a perfect being? What would God's thought life be like? (I know, higher than mine.) What the study got me thinking was that maybe I need to spend more time contemplating this. If I truly understood God to be perfect (HOLY), would my behavior change? Would my fear of the LORD increase? Would I try harder to not drag His name in the mud by association with mine?

God, help me to understand your holiness and respond appropriately. Thank you for all the good things you've given me to experience.

Stop picking at it!

I have a wound. I'm not sure what it is, really. It's on the back of my head, in my hair. It might be a pimple. It might be an ingrown hair follicle. It might be (and this is probably psycho-somatic from watching too many Dr. Pimple Popper videos) a cyst. I don't really know.

What I DO know is that I find it irresistible to pick at. Not for any sense of satisfaction, unfortunately, but just impossible for me to leave alone. And I know that makes it worse. And I know I look horrible picking at my head in meetings, and getting blood on my fingers (and in my hair). My wife tells me to stop it. My colleagues tell me to stop it. I desperately want to stop. BUT I CAN'T.

And I have no idea why I chose to share this gross story as the lead-in for my surprise deep reading of the day.

Why We Don’t Need to Try So Hard to Be Better https://t.co/RnUtxWyaAw #Success via @tinybuddha pic.twitter.com/yzWa3Nw9kg

— Brett Blair (@CoachBrettBlair) May 2, 2016

I follow life coach Brett Blair on Twitter, and he's one of those guys who posts 10-15 links a day, and they're usually pretty good, but a bit much to take. For some reason I clicked on this tweet above, and it took me to a site called Little Buddha. Now, I'm enlightened enough to know that I can find truth from multiple sources. Some of my Christian friends might be confused by me sharing this post as my #ScriptureSunday post. And I'll admit, it's a stretch. But...my former pastor (and friend) Matt Hammett said it all the time: "All truth is God's truth." And I'm sure he quoted his source for that thought (R.C. Sproul, Aquinas, Augustine...God?). In any event, while I'm offput by a little Buddha, I found the truth in the post to be SO. SPOT. ON. Stuff that I'm going to have to re-read and chew on! Here's the link:

Why We Don’t Need to Try So Hard to Be Better - By Meredith Walters

Here are the main points:

1. The insight, answers, and wisdom we need are always within us and emerge in their own time.

2. When we miss a lesson, we’ll get new opportunities to learn it until we get it.

3. Our pain won’t let us stay off course for long.

All this striving and comparing is the mud that gums up the works of my self-healing process. That’s why it sometimes takes so long to work: I get in the way.

But if I can impose on your time (I mean, you came all the way here...keep going!)...click the link. Read the whole article. Then give yourself a break. RELAX.

I sin. Do you?

1 John 1:8 - "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

The obvious application is in the recognition of our own sin. The idea that God knows anyway, and I'm better off if I simply acknowledge my sin so that I'm in the same place as God so he can work with me more easily.

But what's resonating for me with this verse right now is the idea of transparency and vulnerability. And thinking about it in the workplace environment from the point of view that we all mess up. ALL OF US. And people that can admit this are attractive to me. People that cannot admit their mistakes really get under my skin.

Just own up to it. It has often been said that Americans are a forgiving people (think Bill Clinton). If you just admit that you screwed up, we can all work on a resolution together! But if you dig in your heels and refuse to acknowledge you've made a mistake, you're just making the situation worse. Now...if you do this ALL THE TIME? You're building an army of people who can't trust you.

Now...as I'm typing this, I think it's obvious that I'm thinking about one person in particular. And I am. But I'm also feeling convicted that this must be me, too (even though I claim transparency as one of my personal strengths). But there's the old adage, "If you spot it, you've got it." I wonder what it is about this behavior irritating me so much...what does it reveal about me? I'll have to chew on that for a bit...

Romans 7:18

"For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out."

This is the current memory verse for the Bible study group I'm a part of on Monday nights. Some days, it's easy to agree with this verse without reservation. Other times, I get into a little self-debate about the "nothing good dwells in me" part. [I'll remind the reader that I have NO training in exposition or anything like it. These are untrained thoughts.] I feel like Paul is writing this with the understanding that he means in me apart from God. When submitted to God, I don't think this is true any longer. But submission to God, as I am acutely aware, is not an automatic state even after conversion.

Warren Wiersbe BE Bible series commentary:

The legalist says, “Obey the law and you will do good and live a good life.” But the law only reveals and arouses sin, showing how sinful it is! It is impossible for me to obey the law because I have a sinful nature that rebels against the law. Even if I think I have done good, I know that evil is present. The law is good, but by nature, I am bad! So the legalist is wrong: The law cannot enable us to do good.

#ScriptureSunday Micah 6:8

So, after today...I'll generally be choosing a verse that spoke to me in my quiet time at some point during the week. But for my first #ScriptureSunday, I want to share one of my favorites.

In general, I'll try to avoid typing a sermon...I'll try to limit it to some quick thoughts and leave it at that. And even today, I'm going to TRY to not go too long.

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,

   and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
   and to walk humbly with your God.

My main thought is this: that's impossible. At least, in myself, that is not possible. I don't do what is right (nor act justly). I don't love mercy (I mean, I love it when applied toward me, but not so much for others). And I don't walk humbly. And not with God, either. Of course, I have my good moments. I'm not beating myself up here, just acknowledging that these words don't sound like good news to me.

But I don't think we're supposed to try to do all these things in our own power. I've been on this spinning orb long enough to know myself. And I'm still getting to know God, but what I have learned is that He knows I cannot live up to His standard. That's exactly why he sent His son. That's why Jesus died for us. Not so that I can now earn my salvation (as I believe I was taught), but precisely because we are not good enough.

So I have to admit that the genesis of this post is rooted in a little bit of contempt for my Christianese-speaking brethren who quote this verse like it's their motto for how they live, or something. And I'll grant you that this admission probably reveals some work I need to do on myself. But when I read Micah 6:8, I'm reminded of an old Out of the Grey song (they were my jam in my early Christianity) called "The Weight of the Words." I'm not sure I'm going to be putting it back in my playlist (it's a bit dated), but I'm going to pop this here for you...maybe the lyrics will mean something to you:

The Weight of the Words - Out of the Grey

Thanks be to God for his great gift.