What brand are you? Companies who sell products want to know. They want you to be loyal consumers of their product. They will study you to find out, for instance, whether you are into sports, and what kind of sports, and what particular team you like. This will tell them how to target you so that you will buy their product. They want to know what your habits are. They are not interested in helping you to have good habits, they just you to continue in your habits so that they will sell more products to you. The more habits you have that fit into their product the more of their product you will consume. We are consumers. We are branded by what we consume. Consumption is what we do. There was a time that the word consumption was used to describe a wasting disease. We are either consuming or being consumed by something --or someone.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world," Paul says, "but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Rom. 12:2) My habits tell me and others what I am conformed to. The pattern of my life tells others what "brand" I am. The thing that consumes me is the thing that forms my mindset. I want to be consumed by something or rather some One that transforms my mind. That One is Christ, the living Word of God. As I develop the basic habit of reading and studying His Word, the Bible; as I spend time in prayer, listening to and talking to God I find that my mind is renewed. As I daily walk with God in obedience, I am transformed from merely a consumer of the world and its ways into one who is consumed in the fire of God.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Older I Get
It seems that the older I get the less I have to say. The older I get the more I know, that is, the more information I have in my head. I just don't know that saying it is going to do any good. It is not about what I may say to others, as much as it is about how I may be transformed by what I know. Has the knowledge I have gained really transformed my life somehow?
A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is being transformed by Him -- by His Holy Spirit. Am I allowing the Holy Spirit of Christ to transform me? This is not something I can necessarily control. All I can do is be obedient to what I hear the Spirit say. This is where transformation takes place, not in acquiring more head knowledge. I am a teacher, it is in my nature to teach -- to attempt to give knowledge to my students. I do not want to simply impart information to them -- I want to see them transform into what God has created them to be. This does not come by saying more things to them. It comes by me, the teacher, being transformed by the Spirit and living that transformed life before them.
Of course, as a teacher, I must say things... I just find that the older I get, the more I understand things, the less I need to say and the more I need to be. Do you find this in your own life?
A disciple of Jesus Christ is one who is being transformed by Him -- by His Holy Spirit. Am I allowing the Holy Spirit of Christ to transform me? This is not something I can necessarily control. All I can do is be obedient to what I hear the Spirit say. This is where transformation takes place, not in acquiring more head knowledge. I am a teacher, it is in my nature to teach -- to attempt to give knowledge to my students. I do not want to simply impart information to them -- I want to see them transform into what God has created them to be. This does not come by saying more things to them. It comes by me, the teacher, being transformed by the Spirit and living that transformed life before them.
Of course, as a teacher, I must say things... I just find that the older I get, the more I understand things, the less I need to say and the more I need to be. Do you find this in your own life?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)