Renewing The Mind
by Bill Goff
A big part in preparing and choosing an article or message is: choosing the subject. Sometimes it can be challenging. Not because there’s a shortage of things to talk about or areas to address, but because there is so much to talk about and so many areas to address. It’s difficult to know where to start, but fortunately we have the Scriptures. Our Creator covered all the bases, as He tells us in Philippians 4. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Phil. 4:6).
It’s a little procedure that you go through, and it works: It works as well as gravity. Once you do that, the problem is solved. It’s in God’s hands. You just have to observe from there and follow His lead. It’s also nice to have a spiritual brother to converse with, because iron sharpens iron. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20).
Recently, when conversing with someone about speaking topics, the first thing that came out of the person’s mouth was the same thing that was coming to my mind – a little three letter word, sin. Sin, how rampant it is in this society! I think one of the main things that we in the church are aware of is how God’s way – the way of give, the way of outgoing concern for others, the way of love – is far from the norm in this world, and quite the rarity. It’s not just today.
Two millennia ago, when Christ walked this earth, He spent most of His time teaching and correcting, and only a little time complementing. Not many back then had the right attitude or the right thinking, and it’s no secret why and why it’s still that way today. The god of this world, our adversary, has the same agenda that he had back in the Garden of Eden. His agenda is to turn mankind away from the Creator, away from learning and living God’s way – the way that could produce a utopia.
“Utopia” is any state, condition or place of ideal perfection. If you were to look for synonyms for that word, you would have to look for things pertaining to the Kingdom of God and to God’s ways – the ways that at the end of the course, we in God’s church should be on. It’s the way that should end with eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
The ways of this world do not lead to eternal life and the Kingdom of God. One can search for this utopia, but down here on planet Earth, while Satan’s is around, you will not find it – not even in Bora Bora. Utopia is not here yet, but it’s coming. This world that we are living in does not comprehend that in any way, shape or form. Even if you pick up a Bible dictionary and look up the phrase “Kingdom of God,” you find nothing about Christ
returning to rule the world. They think He’s already here working thru the worldly churches, trying hard to win the battle against Satan, as if there is some competition going on between the Almighty God and the Evil One, who is subject to the Almighty God’s will.
This world is so confused, so off track, that most do not realize that God’s Kingdom is coming to this troubled, sick world, and that it’s at the door. The labor pains are intensifying and the intervals are shortening. We know that the Scripture says that Satan deceives the whole world. The Deceiver has the world too preoccupied with other things to know about God and His plan. He likes to keep his subjects busy. His world has so much going on that one barely has time to think. It seems that the closer we get to the end, the faster the pace of life goes.
Brethren, we know that we have been called to come out of this world, to stop living its ways and to stop and to learn and live God’s way. We’ve been given an opportunity to see thru Satan’s deception and to escape his captivity of sin. We also must be busy, and we must make choices – the right choices. One doesn’t float into the Kingdom of God. One must learn to swim, and to swim in the right direction. We all know about riptides. If we allow the riptide to catch us, we must know what to do because many drown in that type of current.
In Matthew 11 there is an interesting verse. It has to do with the kind of person that you and I need to be. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12). The NIV reads: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” The meaning of that scripture may be confusing.
I’ve read at least three views in the commentaries. One of them says that Jesus may have been referring to a mass movement toward God, the movement that began with John’s
preaching. Another view is that He may have been reflecting the Jewish activist expectation that God’s Kingdom would come thru a violent overthrow of Rome. I don’t think so!
Christ told Peter to put away the sword. And there’s another possible meaning: He may have meant that entering God’s Kingdom takes courage, unwavering faith, determination and endurance. How’s our swim brethren? Christ said the violent take it by force. The Greek meaning of the word ‘violent’ is ‘energetic’, not missile launching or hand grenades. How much
energy are we applying towards the Kingdom of God? Where is the Kingdom of God on our priority list – near the bottom or near the top? Do we like the breaststroke or the doggie paddle? It doesn’t take much energy to tread water, and no energy to float.
But treading water gets you nowhere and floating, like drifting, always heads in the wrong direction. Now the backstroke takes some energy, but it arrives at the same destination as the floater, only a lot sooner.
Brethren, we have been called now. We have been called not just to come out of the evil ways of this world, the Babylon, the deception, but to prepare for our place in the soon coming kingdom of God as Kings to rule with Christ, and priests to teach. Do we believe that, or is that a backburner type of thing? Is it something we have heard about, but just doesn’t seem that relevant? Our adversary would like to keep the Kingdom of God off our mind.
The book of Acts is a book about us, God’s church. It’s about a group of busy people, transitional people, people confronted with change. Some are compliant, some are defiant, and many are in between. Some people are looking for maintenance free. That’s a popular term these days. Everybody wants something to be maintenance free, longlasting. Some people know that everything this world has to offer is only temporary. Some are content with where they are living. Some are looking for another place – that better country, that city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. But not everyone whom God has called to reside in that city recognizes the value.
A few weeks ago when watching the “Antiques road show” a popular show on television, the appraiser asked the owner of a rare item, “Where did you find this? How did you come to have this?” The owner answered something like this: “I was in the junk store” or “”I saw it in the garbage can. I had no idea. What is it worth?” Then their jaw drops when they discover the value of what they have. Not everyone whom God has called to reside in that city of His recognizes the value. Many have other interests, other priorities, and other concerns.
In Acts 7, Stephen was addressing members of the highest Jewish council of the first century, the Sanhedrin. They were supposed to be representatives of God. If you wanted to see men in robes and representatives of authority, this was the place. But Stephen could see right through their robes, right down to their unbelief. He was addressing them about the unbelief of ancient Israel, their forefathers. He began telling them how God called Abraham. In verse 3, he told them how God called Abraham to leave his kindred and come to a land that God would show
him.
He continued in that chapter to show how God began His nation, His people with Abraham. We know how the nation grew from Isaac and Jacob, and how they ended up in slavery in Egypt, and how with a mighty arm God brought them out of Egypt. In verse 38, Stephen called them “the church in the wilderness.” He used the word “ecclesia” for church. It’s the same word used to describe us today. It means “calledout
ones.”
Here they were, the called out ones. They were called out of the slavery of the Egyptians by the strong hand of God. They were free at last, and on their way to the Promised Land, to a utopia, but they had a problem – a huge problem. They would not obey. “To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust Him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt” (Acts 7:39).
In their hearts, they turned back to sin. They rejected God. By their disobedience, they broke the covenant and forfeited moving into that utopia. After being brought out of slavery by God’s mighty hand, in a short time, they were ready to return to it. There was something seriously wrong in their thinking. The Sanhedrin that Stephen was addressing, the ones who were supposed to be representatives of God, were also rejecting Him. They were not interested in a new city. They had no desire to move to a better place. Frankly, they were quite content where they were, so Stephen proceeded to rebuke them: “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye” (Acts 7:51).
How about us, brethren? Are we stiffnecked and uncircumcised in our hearts and in our ears? Do we resist God like that church in the wilderness, the ecclesia, that God brought out of Egypt with a strong Arm? Are we like the Sanhedrin, the ones who were supposed to be representatives of God, back in the First Century? Do we have those problems? It sounds like it was a pretty contagious thing going around. Are we immune because we have God’s Spirit, or are we susceptible?
Second Timothy, chapter 4, is a story about a priority lesson. It’s about our brother Demas who had a lot of love from the time he was first called. He was a native of Thessalonica and a companion of Paul for a while. He was one of the ecclesia, one of the calledout ones, but he had a problem, a huge problem. He allowed something to come between him and the Kingdom of God, and it was something that was very powerful.
I suppose it was like Kryptonite to Superman. “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica” (2 Tim. 4:10). Demas had allowed the world that Satan makes look so appealing, so glamorous, to be an obstacle between him and the Kingdom of God. You see, in his mind, he was not interested in any new city. He had no desire to move to a better place. Frankly, he was quite content right where he was, like a pig, returning to wallow in the mud. Have you ever observed that?
This past week, I needed to pick up some hay for our Donkeys, so I visited one of the local farms. It’s about a half hour drive away. When I arrived, as soon as I opened the door, something hit me in the face, like a brick wall, It was like, WHEW!! What’s THAT? I knew right away what it was. The
farmer had some sows with litters there, and that was the source of the awful smell. The average Joe would not be able to get out of his car without a gas mask. When I walked over and took a look inside, you could see those big sows lying there in the mud with all the baby pigs running around them. The sight fit the smell quite well, but guess what? They were quite content in all that squalor.
Demas was also quite content. Demas rejected God and His ways and he departed to Thessalonica. The word translated “departed” means “traversed;” “to turn to the right or to the left; to thwart, to prevent the accomplishment of due to an obsticle in the way.” Well, the obstacle was the world. Demas had love, but the wrong kind. The love he had was not the agape love, the kind of love that comes from God, the kind of love that has concern for the other guy, no matter who the other guy is. That’s agape love. He had a social or an immoral sense of love. It’s a shallow love, a love for oneself. It’s the kind of love that can be influenced by the things that Satan makes look so appealing, so marvelous. He may paint a good picture. It can look and feel good, but if you take the time to check out the whole picture, it’s just the opposite and it can be a huge barrier between God and us.
There’s a reason why Demas was overtaken by this kind of love and lacking the right kind of love. There’s a reason for it, and it’s very important for you and me to understand the reason. We are not immune, and the reason has everything to do with that scripture we read earlier. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
It has to do with energy that you and I need to be applying and where it needs to be directed. Demas was a companion of Paul for a while. He’s mentioned in a few places – Col. 4:14 and Philem. 2:4. But when Paul needed to send someone to Philippi, Demas didn’t qualify. The only one who did was Timothy. We are told the reason why. “For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ” (Phil.2:20-21).
Demas was not likeminded. The Greek means “of similar spirit;” similarly disposed in opinion or taste. “Similarly disposed” means to implement the mind, to prepare the mind, to make ready the mind. The human brain is sometimes compared to a computer. As sophisticated as computers are, brain experts tell us that our brains are more complex than a computer. It’s no wonder why. Man has been created in the image of God.
There’s some computer terminology that I learned a long time ago that hold true today with our computers, with our brains, with our thinking. I don’t know how familiar you are with computer terminology, but this term is “GIGO:” Garbage in, Garbage out. It is said that we are what we eat. We need to watch what we feed our minds. We’ve been told that from the getgo, but the choice is ours. Demas was of a different mind,
and UNDERSTAND SOMETHING: he was not in the minority; he was in the majority. He loved this present world, and now he was departed back to it.
The Bible is loaded with scriptures concerning the mind, the heart and the soul. Many times they are mixed together. Different writers connect those three together. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world.” (Rom. 12:12) It’s simple: it means, do not be like this world. That means we have to be different. “But be you transformed,” that means “changed, or to alter the nature of, to be converted.”
That’s what we need to be converted. But how? How does one become converted? We don’t have to go far to find the answer. It’s in the remainder of verse 2. It’s the energy part, and it’s going to take desire and action and want and will to achieve it. “But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and actable, and perfect, will of God.”
We need an overhaul. We need our thinking straightened out, untangled, where we’ve gotten our wires crossed. Or maybe where the Deceiver has gotten our wires crossed. The word “renew” here means “qualitatively new,” meaning “changed to quality.” We need to think like God. This world has the implements of Satan. If we want to be different in a better way, then we have to be implements of God. If we want to be implements of God, then we must get to know Him, talk to Him, listen to Him, and read His book.
Qualitative means, of or pertaining to quality. Quality is a word that we know in a physical sense. It’s something that we want when it comes to housing and cars, clothes and guitars. I don’t know of any scripture that says that there is anything wrong with that, if we are doing it right. But what about our minds, what about our thinking? Do we value what we have in there? Do we check or inspect what we put in there? Satan does, and he’s always very busy trying to mind the store for us – trying to keep us from thinking and using our minds. You can take a huge jet engine with its precision engineering and throw a tiny little nut inside of it and it will blow the engine to smithereens.
Satan attempts to do the same thing to our mind and he is good at it. He likes to use the letter “a” and throw it in where it doesn’t belong. For example, the word theism means belief In God. Satan comes along and inserts the letter “a” in front, and now we have atheism, the belief that there is no God.
How about “musing?” It means “to consider thoughtfully or at length; to ponder or to meditate.” How can we have a good relationship with our Creator if we don’t take the time to ponder and meditate on Him and His magnificence? Look at David, a man after God’s own heart, a man who spent countless hours pondering and musing on his God. Do you think that musing had anything to do with David being so close to God? So close that when he confronted a bear, he had no problem conquering it. Or, how about the time with the Lion? Again, he had no problem.
Or, how about the time with the uncircumcised Philistine, Goliath? There was the whole of Israel, and not one had the courage to face that so-called giant that was defiling them. David was a muser. He knew his God. He spent lots of time meditating and talking to Him. He had no fear. He had too much love in him to have fear. David told the uncircumcised Philistine, “Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear, and with a shield. But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou has defiled” (1 Sam. 17:45). He walked in the name of the Lord of Hosts. He was a true representative of God.
There was no unbelief in David’s picture. David was a muser. That musing brought him very close to God. He had no fear; he had no doubt. We know the story. David slew Goliath with one single stone, with one single shot. But, did you ever wonder why David chose five smooth stones out of the brook to confront Goliath, and why he did it the way he did? “And he took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherds bag which he had, even in a script; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:40).
Everything in the verse has much significance behind it, but not many can answer the question, because one would have to spend a good bit of time musing to be rewarded with that knowledge. But “Musing,” brethren, is what we don’t take enough time to do, because we let Satan, that Adversary of ours stick us with another letter “a” and cheat us out of that reward. You see, he doesn’t like us to be musing, because thinking about our God, our Creator, can cause us to become of the same mind as His.
So, instead of using our brains to muse, to ponder the important things of life, Satan manages to stick us with another little “a” and keep our minds “amused” with TV and movies and amusements parks and on and on. Instead of musing and keeping our minds on the right things, he keeps us amused to keep our minds on the wrong things.
Think about it. Is it really important to know who is playing first base on every football team in the NBA? Or who is receiving the Oscar awards? Does any of that glorify our Father in heaven? Don’t we have our own “awards ceremony” to be preparing for?
I had the privilege to be invited to an awards ceremony for the sixth graders in our town last week. There were 250 students and there were approximately 50 awards given. It was quite interesting. The principal has been around town for quite a while. He started the ceremony with a comment that he was hoping not only the parents would hear, but the sixth grade students as well. He said that the academic awards were not all that important, but what was important was the student’s attitude and what comes from the heart. How true that is!
He knows from being an educator, and seeing how this world is becoming more and more degraded, that we need better hearts and minds. He went on to present awards to about 50 students out of the 250 in the class. There were very happy faces on those 50 students, faces that showed excitement and happiness for a job well done. Those students receiving awards had exercised a lot of energy and effort. The scripture tells us that one reaps what he sows.
We are approaching our award ceremony, brethren, and God is no respecter of persons. With God, if there are 150 students in the class, there will be 150 awards. No one will be left out or unaccounted for. “For the sun of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward EVERY man according to his works” (Matt. 16:27).
We, brethren, have been called at this time to come out of this world, to separate ourselves from its ways and to learn and live God’s ways. This takes effort on our part. It takes feeding on the right kind of “food.” I’d like to go back to where we started in Philippians 4, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS.
Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil. 4:69) We need to be feeding on these things, brethren. Satan is always offering us a different diet, but the choice is ours. “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt 11:12). The violence here means energy, not missile launchers and not hand grenades. Those vilent were of a different mind. They were not interested in staying in this world. They were looking for another city, a city whose builder and maker is God. We need to be musing, not amusing, and set our mind on the things above, the things that are coming. We know what this world is wallowing in, sin, it’s rampant in this society. Now we have been called out of sin brethren, out of Egypt, out of the ways of this world, and given much help to do just that. “And to whom much is given,” the scripture says, “of him shall much be required” (Luke 12:48). It has been a long time since Christ left this Earth, when He went up from the Mount of Olives into those clouds. It’s been a long time. “After a long time the Lord of those servants cometh, and ckoneth with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, Thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained besides them five talents more. His Lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:19-21).