Season 1 Episode 23 - In this episode, I share a personal story about how our house was flooded and the resulting long period of renovation. I then draw some parallels between the renovation of our house to renovation of our minds and hearts, and offer Paul's perspective on this important topic.
"Reflect on This" is the podcast version of short email devotionals I send to my family and friends, where I am sharing the things I am learning about the ways and nature of God, through applying my study of the Scriptures to the world around me.
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Music credit:
Be Thou My Vision Interlude, by Sarah Bereza
Sarah.Bereza@gmail.com
It was June of 1999. Our family was living at that time in a two-story house that had all of the bedrooms upstairs, near a creek that flowed through our city. One night, we had a torrential rain storm. We awakened in the middle of the night to hear, not only the rain pounding on our roof, but people actually shouting in our backyard! As I turned on the flood lights and looked out the window into our back yard to see what was going on, I was shocked to observe a sea of water and our neighbors frantically hoisting their children up into our treehouse! Later, we learned that we had 6 inches of rain in a two hour period, and the creek overflowed its banks. Our house was one of over 200 homes in our part of the city that had flood damage. We had water that was chest deep in our yard and our garage, and about 18 inches deep inside our house. I got a ladder, and helped to get our neighbors down from the treehouse and into our house. By daybreak, the water had subsided, and the flood was over, but the restoration of our home was only just beginning.
I wish it could have been a project that we did in a few days, or even a few weeks. Instead, it took many, many months of daily effort. We had to move out of our house and into an apartment, for the duration of the renovation.
In a sense, today's passage is about renovation -- renovation of our minds and our hearts. Here is today’s passage:
(Rom 12:1-2 NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. {2} Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed [Greek, related to our word metamorphosis] by the renewing [Greek, renovation] of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Like a house renovation, this process cannot be completed in a short period of time. And our own efforts alone are not enough to complete the task -- it takes the enabling power of God to really change our minds (our thought patterns) and our hearts (our motives and our desires). In today's passage, Paul exhorts us to not conform to the pattern of this world, but instead to submit to God and allow Him to transform us -- to literally perform a metamorphosis on us. Just as a caterpillar changes into a butterfly through metamorphosis, we become something quite different from our unregenerated flesh, as God "morphs" us daily into the image of His Son. The Holy Spirit begins a renovation project on our mind, daily working to change our thought patterns into biblical thought patterns.
For our house renovation project, we had to rip out the old, damaged building materials before we could put in the new materials. The same is true for our hearts and minds. How do we do that? By meditating on Bible verses -- putting in the new stuff -- which will push out the old stuff (our thoughts and desires that are contrary to God’s ways). And, like a house renovation, the project of our mind and heart renovation does not get completed unless it is worked on daily. This is our motivation to spend time daily with God.
The Scriptures speak a LOT to this concept of renewal and regeneration of our minds and hearts:
(Ezekiel 36:26 NIV) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 NASB) Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
(Titus 3:5 NASB) He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
(Psalm 51:10 NASB) Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Today, I encourage you to “Reflect on This.”