How should we worship God? #3 Spiritual Transformation

Spiritual Transformation

The two things have to go together. If we want transformed bodies – made like that of the Lord Jesus, being free from sin and death – then our minds must be transformed, and that process starts now! By understanding the Bible and by making it our lifelong guide and companion, we can change the way we think. It shows us how to have a relationship with God and Jesus and teaches us how to learn to live with them and relate to them in prayer.

Once that relationship is established we will begin to alter the way we behave. We will come to learn what pleases God, as we have been doing in this course, and then we will begin to want to do it. This change will not come overnight: it takes time to cultivate – to develop a new attitude and a different set of desires from those with which we were born. Changing the way we think and feel is something we should be doing together with other believers. Paul says that together believers form the body of Christ:

“We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another’’ (Romans 12:5).

We have taken it for granted so far in our studies that there was a Christian congregation in Rome to which Paul was writing. His letter was addressed to

“all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints” (1:7).

The word “saint” in Scripture means people who are “set apart” from the world and worldly ideas. They have chosen to serve God, and have made an agreement with Him through their involvement in the work of Christ. In Rome they were the people who believed what Paul believed and taught: it was their understanding and acceptance of the gospel that justified them in God’s sight and made them sharers of the one true faith.

It is the same today. Only those who believe the gospel as Paul taught it are members of the true church. As we have seen, there are many people who believe and teach wrong things about God’s purpose; they are not members of the true church, for their teachings are man-made and not God­given. It is vitally important to transform the mind by believing the truth as God has revealed it. Human reasoning is useless for that purpose. What matters first is to understand and then to do the will of God.

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Preceding

Worthy partakers of the body of Christ

From nothingness to a growing group of followers of Jeshua 2 To Please God

To Glorify God and His Son

To Glorify God and His Son #2 Governance and objectives of the ecclesia/charity

How should we worship God? #1 Appreciation for God

How should we worship God? #2 Spiritual Worship

Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #9 Prayer #7 Reason to pray

Next:

How should we worship God? #4 Christian Congregations

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Additional reading

1. Of the many books Only the Bible can transform
2. Preparedness to change
3. Character transformed by the influence of our fellowships
4. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
5. Looking for True Spirituality 5 Fruitage of the Spirit
6. Sacred Rhythms – Longing for a deep, fundamental change in your life with God
7. Broken, coming before God
8. New Covenant Possesses
9. Matthew 13:33 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Parable of the Fermented Whole
10. Glory of God appearing in our character
11. How is it that Christ pleased God so perfectly?
12. Christ entered our world to transform our lives
13. Nurturing a close relationship with God
14. Our relationship with God, Jesus and each other
15. Rebirth and belonging to a church
16. Which Christian sect is the only true Christian church?