[Conforming]

"Do not be conformed to this world
...BUT be transformed by the renewing of your mind"

My Uncle Tim and my mom always told me growing up: "if you are going to 'put off' you MUST 'put on' or it won't last - you'll fall right back into old habits and companions." So if the put off is conforming to this world (it's characteristics, activities, humor, language, goals, values, etc) we must instead fill that time, that energy, with renewing our mind... renewing our mind by the Word of God... the Words of God that lead us, instruct us, change us and conform us to the image we should so desire - the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. Spending time in His Word, with His children, for the furtherance of His kingdom.

So, want to see where you're being conformed?... people say to look at where you spend your time & money - I agree! - but I'm visual so let's try this... look at your receipts and your pictures. Where are you spending your money? Who are you with in your pictures? Where are they being taken? What is in your hands? What do the other pictures look like that were taken at that time... what were the people you are with doing? We should always have pictures of fun times (definition of "fun" for another time)... i have pictures of traveling with friends to NY, Boston, a cruise, Chicago and many more. But the people i'm surrounded by and activities we participated in that day are not something i'm afraid to share. I'd show my mom, my grandparents, my pastor... with pride. Yet, there have been other times in my life this was not the case. Where I was in those pictures, with the type of people I was with, and the activities and actions they were showing... it is sad. I was conforming to the world... I was no different. I was becoming numb to this... blind to this. It took a hard look, and hard steps of change to instead - renew my mind to the TRUTH - and look different enough to actually show those people Jesus... not a mirror of themselves.

So now, i look carefully at my pictures and my receipts. Because chances are... when I have pictures of myself at the Desiring God conference, Frontline, the DC Beautification Project with sisters in Christ... I'm looking like the sojourner, the pilgrim that I am. When there are just pictures of bars, parties, and trips with people so desperately in need of Jesus, yet we look just like them, we are being conformed to the wrong people - and looking more like tourists then pilgrims.

I despise this music artist - i won't even mention his name, but i love this line:
"I'm starting with the man in the mirror,

I'm asking him to change his ways"

Do NOT be conformed to this world, do NOT begin to look like it
INSTEAD
be conformed to Jesus by renewing your mind by His Word.