#betransformed

"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."  Romans 12v2

 Over the past weeks I've been following Paul's story through the books of Acts and now Romans. Romans 12 has always been a favorite and over the past week I've spent my daily devotion time reading and re-reading this chapter. 

3 weeks ago God put it on my heart that things weren't right. Something was off. It was revealed to me that my priorities were off. I was spending a lot of time worshiping things that weren't worthy of my worship. Through some prayer I noticed God was challenging me to re-evaluate how I was spending my time. I realized that I was wasting a lot of time reading stuff online. None of it was bad in and of itself but it was still distracting me from where my attention was supposed to be. I decided that, amongst other things, I would give up Facebook for two weeks. The fact that I'm writing this blog post to you is proof that one CAN survive without being notified that someone has had spaghetti for supper or that someone else is #eatinganoreo. I want to share with you some other things that I learned over those two weeks, how it ties into Romans 12v2 and what life is like now. In the passage above Paul tells us 3 things:

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world."

How do you know if you are conforming to the patterns of this world? Do you fit in? Do people look at you funny because of the things you do/don't do? I'm not talking about being a hipster. I'm talking about do your thoughts, actions and words identify your allegiance to the world or to Christ? 

During my two weeks I realized that my actions were becoming more worldy. I was becoming attracted to the "shiny things". These seemingly innocent things were stealing my time and attention from what was important. 

"Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

How do we change the direction of our actions? By having our minds renewed. The way that we think and view things will affect our actions. If I want to love God with all my heart, soul and mind then I need to believe that He is worth it. A few things to realize about having your mind transformed: 

1) You can't do it on your own. Without giving it over to Christ you will never renew your mind. Your efforts are how you got to where you are in the first place. 

2) You've probably got too much noise in your life to hear God. I knew that Facebook isn't the biggest problem I deal with daily but I also realized that it was a noise that was keeping me from hearing God. By eliminating the noise it was unbelievable how clearly I could hear God. For some it might not happen very quickly. Perhaps you need to relearn what His voice sounds like. Once you silence the white noise in your life and you hear Him you will be on your way to transforming your mind.

3) It doesn't happen overnight. I would love to say that after two weeks life is perfect. It's not. But what has happened is that the desires of my heart have started to change. God is working to complete His work in me and is taking me on a journey. Throughout the two weeks I started to find my priorities and seek God more. The more I sought God the more I found myself wanting to seek Him. Now that I'm allowed back on Facebook I find myself not wanting to go there. It doesn't satisfy. While there are still temptations to waste time I am moving in a God-ward direction and and learning more and more every day.

"Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is."
During the first few days of my Facebook Fast I experienced an unbelievable amount of clarity in my life. It was as if the fog had lifted and I could see what God was doing. When we silence the noise of our life we open up the lines of communication for God to speak His will into our lives. If you feel like God isn't speaking to you, before you blame Him, look at what might be tying up your line.

I am not cured of all my problems. I still daily have to surrender my life and my mind over to Christ and ask Him to renew it for me. I know that there will be more times in my life when I find myself conforming to the world's patterns and I will need Him to help me break the mold. I also know that He is willing and He is constantly pursuing me and will never give up on me.

I struggled to write this post. I almost didn't. Pride didn't want me to show weakness. Pride didn't want me to admit that I have Facebook problems. Why did I write it? Because I know that some of you out there are dealing with things that you are embarrassed to deal with. James 4v10 says, "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."

tl;dr: conform, transform!

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What are areas of your life you find yourself conforming to the patterns of the world?

Where have you experienced renewing of your mind? 
Have you tried a Media Fast yet? If yes, how'd it go? If not, what's stopping you?

Leave a comment or a question below! 
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What I'm Listening To

God on the Bus

Well, we are just a few weeks out of summer and life is so crazy and busy! I started school the same week that all of you did, and I was working in my grade 3/4 class. Busy, Busy, Busy! Among all this busyness, I have had to make a conscience effort to spend that personal time with God. Not because I feel like I have too, but because I want too! This summer, like many of you, I saw God work in some really sweet ways. I was in the safe environment of camp all summer, so I was bound to see God work. With moving to the city, I knew God would be working, but I was scared that I would not recognize how he was. For me, I knew that I would have to make a conscience effort to recognize and pick out the ways that I saw God working daily. With that being said, I want to share a little story with you.

On my first day of work, I was driving home and my car began to make weird noises, and I knew it was not safe to drive. I’m no car expert, but those noises were not natural! So I drove my car home and then it was done. It was only the beginning of the week, but I had a long, tiring, stressful day at work, and to say the least, I was not to pumped that my car was not working. Not only did this mean that I would have to find a different way of transportation, but it meant that I would be dishing out quite a bit of money to get it fixed. And on top of that, I had just paid my tuition for the year, so that does not leave too much money in one’s bank account. Being overwhelmed, I made my plan of action. I would be getting up at 6:30 to catch my bus to be at work for 8. (I’m not much of a morning person). The first day I took the bus, it was meh, whatever, a bus ride. However, the next day, I was waiting for my second bus and as I got on, I do my regular routine of showing my transfer ticket and proceeding to find a spot. The Winnipeg Transit has a new system where it is all electronic, so the bus driver thought I looked like the kind of person who wanted to know the tricks to making things more efficient. This bus driver begins to tell me the best way to do things, and we begin to talk. We talk for the rest of my ride which is about 10 minutes on her bus, and I go to school. I was so encouraged by her friendliness so early in the morning, as sometimes there are not very friendly bus drivers. I looked forward to the next day, where I purposely waited for her bus to come on by so we could chat some more. This time it was more of a deep talk discussing divorce rates and how it is affecting our communities.  So far, I have only been on her bus twice, but I can totally see God working in the situation. Have we had any God talks yet? No. But, I know that as I continue to take that bus now, once a week until November, God is going to be doing some pretty sweet things and I am so excited to see what he has in store for this new friendship that has begun!

With that being said, I want to encourage all of you to be intentional and look for those ways to serve and build relationships with others and to recognize how God is working in your life. Our God is a big God! Let’s give him all the Glory!  

One verse that has really stood out to me is Psalm 25:4 & 5, it says “Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.” - This verse reminds me to continue to trust God and put my hope in Him all day long. God is going to lead me to people who he wants me to encounter and to love. 

Let Christ be first in your thoughts in the morning, and last in your thoughts at night.

Forgetful Me

After LDP ended this summer I had the opportunity to go to a 4 day, Power and Love school in Madison, Wisconsin. It was amazing, I saw God, once again, move in amazing ways but I was most impacted by some of the people there who I could tell really knew the Lord. Like I mean really really knew Him well. I could tell because they spoke out what the Holy Spirit had to say, because they loved EVERY person they met without condition or hesitation. It inspired me so much, and I desired to live this out more and more too - to be completely and totally surrendered to the Lords work. It was amazing and incredible what the Lord did as I started stepping out of my comfort zone in ways I never had. Then, as I started university two weeks ago I wanted Christ to rock my University, for people to experience Him undeniably. Every day I was looking for how I could do the Lords work there. As I tried and tried to do this I found that I became stressed out because I knew that I had not done things each day where I knew I could have. I was stoked to do Jesus’ work but I just ended up stressed and worn out.


The other day as I came to the Lord in prayer, Jesus rocked my little world with the truth and reminder that He is pursuing me. It was SO freeing!!! With this reminder, I found out that lies had crept into my mind. Lies that I hand’t realized I was believing: After seeing radical christians live life, I thought that if I didn't live in the same way that they did, God wouldn't love me, because i wasn’t living in all the fullness of life that he had for me. I had forgotten that I am UNCONDITIONALLY loved and pursued by Jesus, and that was making me stressed. After all the times I was trying so a hard to DO God’s will and stressed that I wouldn’t do enough or do it well enough, I came home, and in the secret place, He reminded me of His love.

It’s amazing how often I, and I believe all of us, need those reminders that we are loved. You are loved SOOOOOO incredibly much and we can see it by the price that Jesus paid for us. “His appearance was marred more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14) - basically His face was destroyed more than any persons ever was because of all the beatings -that is the price He paid for YOU!!!

The reminder that we don’t have to earn His love is amazing! You are already loved! The Father said to Jesus “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased” before He even started his final three year ministry (Matt 3:17). Jesus said to the criminal who was hanging with Him “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Surely the criminal hand’t earned that love nor could he earn it - he was about to die! Jesus loved, loves, and will love you, because you are you. Not because of the things you have or haven’t done but because you are His!!!!!! Rest in the peace that you do not have to earn God’s love. Pause, and think of that!!!! He already loves you!

When you seek Him you WILL find Him because He is perusing you with passion. Listen to Him with this question: ‘What do you love about me God?’ You are gonna be blown away! NEVER do we have to live in stress or anxiety, Why? Because Jesus loves His girl, His bride, the church!
It’s so easy to forget that we are loved. It’s so easy to fall back into the thinking that the better we live the more God will love us. That’s what i did. When we know how God sees us we will also know how he sees the people around us, and then it’s so natural to live like Jesus did.


(Also, do yourself a favor and read Psalm 139 again, it’s amazing!!!!)

You guys are all gems!
-Seth

Nothing To Lose

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.” -Jesus 

(Mark 8:35)

Do I live differently because I'm a Christian?

This is the question I've been wrestling with lately. Ya, my life does look different because I know Christ. I don't get drunk, I watch my tongue, I go to church, pray, read my bible, I strive to love people, etc. But do I really live as if I have nothing to lose?

I say I believe that God's opinion of me is the only one that matters.

I say I believe that Christ died for my sins and that through Him I have been adopted into God's family.  

I say that I believe that “in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”(Rom 8:28) 

I say I believe that God is all powerful and completely in control of this world. 

And the truth is, I do believe these things. But sometimes... I forget.

In those real life, everyday storms I sometimes let myself forget these truths. In those moments of stress about what people think of me, anxiety over the obstacles I know I'll face the next day, fear of sharing my faith, or guilt about a temptation I've given in to, I don't always live like I am a chosen child of God.

I think that the reason we sometimes live as if Christ is not our sufficient Saviour is because we let our hearts forget. 

We let our hearts forget how much God loves us (John 3:16), and what Christ did for us on the cross. We forget who God is, and we forget His promises for us. 

We forget that He has chosen us and adopted us, and has a plan for each of us. 

We forget that we can't do things by our own effort, because they always fail (John 15:5). And it's only by God's strength, by letting Christ work in and through us by the Holy Spirit, that we can live as if we have nothing to lose.

This is the life we're called to. Living in complete abandonment to our great God. 

We're called to stop worrying about what people think of us, or what we can and can't do by our own effort. 

We're called to stop striving to be better, but instead rest in what Christ has already done on the cross. 

We're called to give up our selfish 'me-centred' lives and instead live everyday for the glory of God.

Let's not forget whose we are. Let's not forget who God is.

Let's remind our hearts daily of the truths that we say we believe. Because only then will we live like we really believe them. 

What truth do you have to remind yourself of today? Let us know in the comments below.

Remember to Remember

He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’  tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’  For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.  He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”  (Joshua 4v21-24)

 During our prep month in June I challenged the rest of the LDP Leadership Team to start taking note of things that God was doing. Throughout the summer as I would see God moving and working I would simply jot it down on my phone. While I forgot to write them all down I was able to compile a fairly extensive list. To list them all here would take too much time and you'd find yourself waking up in a few hours after a nice little meddachschlop.

Image courtesy of nuttakit / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

While this list of things may not mean a ton to everyone that would see it it helped to serve as a reminder to me that I serve a living and active God. A God that cares about what's going on in my life. A God that is doing stuff in, through and sometimes in spite of me. Just like the story of Joshua I had something to continually remind me that God was moving. Too often we think that God isn't doing anything. It's not because He isn't it's because we're too busy focusing on ourselves to notice.

As you guys head back to school I want to challenge you with this: Take some time over the next week and reflect back on your summer. Make a list of things that God did. Put this list beside your bed or somewhere where you'll have easy access to it. Throughout your school year continue to add things to this list. Whether it's answers to prayers, desires put on your heart or miracles/blessings of other sorts write them down! During the "dry times" in your life let this list serve as a reminder to you of the great works of our great God. In those times repeat the words of Habakkuk:

Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known; (Habakkuk 3v2)

tl;dr

- God is alive and active; take note of what He's doing.

- Remember: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU! Take your eyes off of yourself and see what God is doing.

What I'm listening to: Speak Now Jesus - Tim Neufeld

- CW