Romans 12:1-2 English Standard Version

1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The mind is a bodily part. In this sacrifice Paul is not asking us to commit mental suicide. This is a transformation, forming a new way of looking at the data. He is asking us, without being specific in how it is done, to look at the data from God’s point of view.

The testing of our faith will produce results that are within the will of God or going against His will. We will learn by making mistakes. The issue more than anything in this sacrificial effort is to keep looking at things differently than the way we have in our past that didn’t work.

We often overlook Paul’s encouragement “by the mercies of God”. He doesn’t punish us for wrong thinking, He exposes erroneous thinking by allowing the Holy Spirit to speak truth to us rather than slapping us around for wrong thinking.

As we speak these truths sent to us by God we should remember this message of grace. We did not get it right the first time we tried. That is why we need to return to the Word to hear by faith what God is trying to reveal.

It is not that easy to read His Word with a blank slate, as if we had never heard it taught before. His Word does not change but as we are transformed, from grace to grace, we will discover that God’s will comes into focus as what is good, or acceptable, or even perfect.

Good was fine when we were babes, acceptable was fine when we were children and perfect is discovered in maturity. His will did not change, we do. A baby has limited abilities and God does not expect the same thing from them as He does those who have matured.

One important aspect of revisiting the scriptures is not to believe you got everything out of the Word just because you have read it before.

1 Corinthians 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.

What God calls us to do will change as we change. His will is personal and applicable to a moment and will change as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Don’t get stuck in the rut created by repetitive thinking. Listen in case He has new instructions.

Ezra 4:7

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.

This post isn’t going where you think.

In October of 2008 I suffered a stroke. The doctors called it a miracle stroke because none of them had ever seen anything like it before. No paralysis, no cognitive effect, no physical signs beyond that of blind spots in my vision. Not blindness, little areas in my field of vision were missing.

The stroke hit two places in my brain in the exact same area, the left and right translation centers that are responsible for translating optical signals into signals that the rest of my brain could use to analyze according to their cognitive responsibilities. 

When two co-workers visited me in the hospital the next day I noticed their mouths were missing. It was at that moment I realized how much I relied on reading lips to help me overcome some hearing loss from the war.

So how does this relate to my purpose of bringing the gospel message to a lost and dying world?

When a person who is blind from birth has their sight restored, the brain upon receiving the translation through that portion of their brain responsible for sending a signal to the cognitive areas of the brain that are seeing something they have no point of reference to understand. They cannot make sense of it. An apple is shaped like an orange but the brain cannot tell the difference between the two and cannot distinguish it as food because they have the shape of a ball which is not food.

Being spiritually blind for all your life is the same thing. Our brains don’t know what to make of it.

Thank God He dwells with us to help us understand. There is nothing better than to have the Author and Perfecter of our Faith living with us. Hebrews 12:2

Job 19:25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

While this is true, that He will stand on earth to rule and reign during the Millennial Kingdom, until then we have His abiding presence.

Knowing that fully takes time to adjust our brains to a new way of thinking. The Holy Spirit will translate for us.