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Welcome
Let’s keep praying for new people to come to Bethel.
Worship
Word
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 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.
Rom. 12:1-3
Paul likes this word “urge” and uses it regarding something very important e.g. regarding prayer:
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
Rom. 15:30
Are we all involved in the struggle to see Bethel grow and flourish by praying fervently for it?
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.
1 Tim. 2:1
Paul isn’t saying these things because they are his ideas and that they are good religious things to do! No! He is constrained by the Spirit to write in these ways and it brings out the vital importance of what he is urging these believers to do and what was necessary then is even more so today. In other words this is the will of God for His church throughout the ages to be earnest in prayer; the state of churches today is directly linked to the prayers of God’s people! There is a clear correlation between church growth and prayer.
Such is part of having the mind of Christ. Jesus was always in constant communion with His Heavenly Father. I’ve always been impressed with the way the African Churches pray and it is no surprise that the African Churches are the fastest growing and largest churches in this nation.
We have seen in earlier studies in Romans, that people’s “thinking became futile” (Rom. 1:21) and this led to great immorality and other sins, so as the prodigal’s father gave the younger son over to his own futile choices, God gives such people who …
… did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind.
Rom. 1:28
Now the apostle urges those who are no longer “in Adam” but “in Christ”, those who are “alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11) to no longer …
… conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind
Rom. 12:2
This means that increasingly we must become ‘Kingdom of God’ thinkers; we must allow the thinking of ‘the new age to come’, to occupy our minds,
You must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking … be made new in the attitude of your minds; put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Eph. 4:17, 24
Amen.
Quote of the week
“Transformation by the renewal of the mind, then, involves the penetration of the coming age into the present evil age.”
Thomas R. Schreiner
Verse of the week
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Cor. 4:16
Let’s Pray
Loving Heavenly Father, thank You that we are new people in Christ Jesus. Help us, by the power of Your Spirit, to imitate Jesus and be pure in our thinking that we might test and approve what Your will is—Your good, pleasing and perfect will, and that we might do it, in Jesus Christ, Amen.