by Connie Rae

Created on: August 31, 2009   Last Updated: September 26, 2009

"Do not be conformed to this world - ... adapted to it external, superficial customs. But be transformed by the entire renewal of your mind ...its new ideals and its new attitude" Romans 12:2, (Amplified Bible). The rest of this verse gives us the reason - "so that you may prove for yourselves what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God ... "

The ideals and attitudes of this age are tempting. They promise immediate satisfaction. But they fail to give the rest of the story - immediate gratification of our wants often leads to long term consequences and trouble.

We can understand why those who do not know Christ as Savior and Lord seek happiness in any way they can. Life has many unanticipated twists and turns. We find ourselves constantly looking for new and different ways to feel some degree of satisfaction and contentment in a troubled world.

As Christians, we find the starting premise to be - we are born into this world flawed. The Bible tells us that Adam's sin has been passed on to every living human being. In Romans we are told that none of us is righteous. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Perhaps the most understandable definition of sin is, ignoring God and claiming myself to be the authority and determiner of my destiny, opening myself up to the mindset, ideals, and attitudes of the world around me.

From the moment of our birth, we are telling the world around us what we want. In the beginning, it is protective of life itself - the infant crying to be fed, to be comfortable, to be comforted. As life continues, we become more and more self centered and self seeking. In the process, we are receiving messages from the important people in our life. These messages tell us how "okay" we are, or how bad we are, what we should think, what we should believe, how we should treat others, whether we can trust, or not. Depending on the volume of those voices, and the environment that surrounds us, we develop a way of thinking - about ourselves, about the world around us, and about God.

At some point, we are faced with the Truth. God presents Himself to us. We are given the choice to acknowledge Who He is and to accept His Gift of life, through Jesus Christ. When we make the choice to give Christ entrance into our life, at that moment, God, Himself, begins the renewing of our mind.

When we invite Christ into our "not so tidy" life and mind, he has a lot of clean up work to do. We have been saved from the wages of

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