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Be Transformed

Key Verse: 12:2 "Do not conform any longer 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."

1) 2015 according to 2 Timothy 2:15 - "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth."

According to this verse, I looked forward to learning new things and seeing the life giving power of God's word working when I tried to handle it as the word of God. I wanted to understand something beyond the written words in the Bible even try to tackle some questions about the Bible that I don't know the answers too. I tried to handle the message preparation in a little more scholarly way, reading commentary and some other definitions more faithfully as I made a message. I tried to research according to the latest trends in Christian thought hoping to keep my Bible sharing lively and up to date. I tried to attend CBF, JBF and UBF message faithfully too, so I may learn on every level and take part in sharing the Bible to all generations. Personally it worked out for me to grow in faith rather well. I decided to trust God again in light of the distant star light question and I came to Jesus again trusting his direction and guidance for my family and I in all situations. I decided to trust Jesus' promise of eternal life regardless of how die and end up in his kingdom. One other strange thing happened to me in the summer when I started gathering daily bread with my family almost everyday. I never made it so long as a daily bread gatherer before. Thank god for giving me more words when I sought his words a little more deeply. Inwardly, 2 Timothy 2:15 was a fine direction for me and a good word of encouragement that gave life to my soul last year in many ways.

I feel a little disappointed when I look back however with regard to how this word worked in others lives around me. I expected my message to be exploding new life to the lost people and inspiring my coworkers new levels of fellowship with God that makes them blossom and grow like some kind of genetically modified super spiritual people. The opposite happened in most cases though. Our good sheep ran away and became too busy for god's words and the sheep on the fence remain very cultural Christians at best, and there were no conversions at all in our fellowship. Near the end of the year M.J.P rebuked me for not preparing a message well and told me to just study Dr. Lee's message and that's all. Around the same time, even my only Bible student suddenly said, "This Bible study is too boring" which made me think there is nothing happening in my Bible study and sharing the word of truth. My confidence as a word of truth handler has gone way down overall after meeting these disappointing results of my study and preparations. At the very end of the year, M.J gave a requirement that messengers must have at least one student attending worship service, which makes sense if we are to see some fruit for all our labor. However, I realized I will have to take some time off from sharing the message now, because I have not been able to inspire any Bible student faithfully. There are two fellows who I tried to study with on the side, but they are typically very busy with other things and only have time for worship service on a tight schedule. Personally, I found myself very busy too, applying for jobs and trying to find side jobs but failing to get a properly prosperous result there too. I expected that as I handled the word of truth correctly all the other struggles and issues would work out by some divine providence too. Instead, I found myself muddling through all kind of technology and programming that I don't know much about, and only very barely managing to contribute to one project or another. I said to my boss, I think I will be an everlasting intern when it comes to technology jobs and I accepted my fate in this realm. Thank God that I was able to at least keep my head above water and that we were able to keep the electricity on in our house, although it turned off one or two days. Keep praying for new and challenging opportunities in 2016 in all these areas, so that I may continue to grow as a witness of Jesus resurrection who has faith to share his gospel with life giving, vibrant grace, rather than boring bible study and mumbo jumbo messages that only sound good to my ears. (If I get to share the message any more.)

2)  Hope for 2016 according to Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer 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."

Thank God for the book of Romans and for landing this message in my slot at the last message of the year. It surely could not be a coincidence. I tried again to study and learn and share some inspiring word of truth and prayed to find direction for my life in the passage. It is a good word to pray about, to transform my life from a self-seeking sort to a life-giving type that may go forward in the direction I aimed for in 2015. One thing I realized is that transforming takes work and it begins with renew my mind. It's a challenging thing, since I don't like to workout, work hard, or even work for that matter. I really just want God to zap me a new mind like a plastic surgeon can give somebody a new face. I will listen to Paul's advice though and work on renewing my mind so my life will transform to the life that does God's will and approves of his directions and decisions in every case. I will work on letting go of my own ideas, so that the word of truth in the Bible may do it's life giving thing through me unhindered by my human effort or dead religious traditions.

As I started looking at the small practical things Paul shares as transforming goals in the rest of Romans 12 and some in the next chapters, I was thinking it's not all that hard to transform if I try one by one, little by little. Some of the things are already changing in me since I have been aiming toward God's kingdom for several years. Pray for me to transform in to Romans 12 kind of guy this year, so the good pleasing and perfect will of God can be my will and way of life for the rest of my life. Pray for inspiration and insight in my renewed mind that can effectively encourage believers around me. Pray for transforming my Bible sharing from inward absorption of concepts and trusting God to outward overflowing of saving grace and life giving words that lead people to Jesus so he may bring them to the kingdom of God.

One word: Be transformed into a Romans 12 kind of guy in 2016