2335AFC090123 – Wise Up and Change Up
Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often. Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.
Romans 12:1-2 – 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed* by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect. (or: what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God)
(GNT) 1 So then, my friends, because of God’s great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. 2 Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform* you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God — what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.
* μεταμορφόω – metamorphoó (met-am-or-fo’-o) from which we get the word “metamorphosis.” This signifies transformation, change, modification – the change of one type of thing to another type of thing as in a tadpole to a toad.
Jeremiah 20:7 c -9 –
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today I want to change things up a bit and instead of pulling something from all four Scripture readings, I want to put our main focus on our Key Verse from Romans 12. As often stated here, this is one of those passages I committed to memory, probably as a teenager, and – although I may not be able to recite it with 100% accuracy, I do use it often, especially in my Morning Offering. (↔ Click it) Years after I memorized it, I thought “renewal of your minds” was related to the Greek word metanoia, which usually translated as “repent(ance).” Here are some examples of that usage: Metanoia Verses – Matthew 4:17, Mark 2:17, Acts 2:38, Acts 19:4, and Acts 20:21. As we can see by the notes under the Key Verse, “renewal” in The Apostle Paul’s usage means a change from one thing (state-of-being) to another, different thing (state-of-enhanced-being). How in the World do we do that?
Well, obviously, this is not something that can be done in “The World,” because what The Apostle Paul is presenting here is an invitation – and a methodology – for making a form of spiritual (not physical, but metaphysical) transformation. We can be completely changed from a soul drenched in sin to a soul grounded in Love when we experience true repentance. What does he tell us to do to begin this process? He says “to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Another way of saying that is your reasonable service of worship. Metanoia is to move beyond where our hearts and minds are and into a new paradigm, a new way of thinking and feeling, and seeing everything in life. When we repent, we have a change of mind – not a renewing of mind as in our Key Verse for today. Another way to think of it is we quash, break, nullify, defeat, or conquer a temptation that is repeatedly before us; we break a bad habit; we realign our values-system so that it aligns more closely with God’s values. Fine, but how?
WE make an effort to sin less even though we know we can never be sinless. Repentance restores our relationship with God, and often it also restores our relationships with community, family, and friends. It gives back to us the “whatever or the whomever” we lost because of sin; it even gives us back to us. It’s not a matter of time – how long we are away, or of intensity – how greatly we’ve sinned. It is a matter of turning around and going back, repenting. Repentance might be thought of as the engine that causes the transformation to move from one state of being to another because it is our minds that are renewed. Once we make up our minds to live a moral life (which involves a great deal of sacrificing of the flesh – sin), then we are indeed transformed. This “engine” is built into us like the bio-physiology that is built into the life of a toad’s tadpole. Once it gets started, and under even marginally-favorable conditions, it goes on as God intends. Easy for a toad – hard for us. Why? Because the tadpole of a toad cannot choose to become the tadpole of a frog, much less a blue jay. It is only we earthlings who have a voice in determining what we become; that is the marvelous Gift of God called Free Will.
When we make a conscious decision followed by a conscientious effort to suppress the desires of our flesh, concupiscence, then we sacrifice what we think we want in order to 
receive what God knows we need: Him. No longer are we slaves to the flesh, but, in our renewal, we become slaves of the Spirit. Then Jesus himself tells us “I no longer call you slaves, but friends. (See John 15:15) We are transformed inwardly by a complete change of our minds. Because of the evil we bring into The World, our minds are inclined toward evil. Jesus is exceptionally clear about how Disciples are supposed to align themselves with him. We are to testify. We know from previous lessons that the words “witness” and “testify” are closely related to our English word martyr; from Greek μαρτυρέω (martureó) {mar-too-reh’-o}. All martyrs testify, but not all who testify are martyred in the sense of dying. We who testify are martyred in the sense of mortification, the “dying” of oneself for the betterment or acknowledgement of the other. God has provided for us this utterly amazing counter-inclination: Repentance – well, by now we must surely know that this means metanoia – a conversion in one’s life that arises from penitence (sincere and effective sorrow), and doing “a 180” so that whatever transgression(s) arose, we choose to delete that poor choice and replace it with a better choice. That’s the process of metamorphosing our minds. Cool, eh? It works like this.
That amazing feat of metanoia is grounded in our metamorphosis. Our sinful, concupiscent mind becomes a righteous, obedient mind which redirects and transforms our sinful wants in the flesh into our holy and humble service to Jesus. As St. Teresa of Avila said
“Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Whoever has God lacks nothing. God alone suffices.
“Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which He is to bless His people. Amen.” Whenever we accept that challenge – to be the real Church, the Body of Christ, the Servant of all – then we do become his hands and feet, we see as though through God’s eyes, and – through and in our confident F.A.I.T.H. – we continue to have the desire and the ability to experience metamorphosis. That experience prepares us for the JOY of metanoia. That J.O.Y. we attain leads us to TESTIFY (← Check it out!) (μαρτυρέω – martureó), and in some instances under the special Grace of God, to prophesy.
Prophecy is a gift of witnessing sometimes given even before birth (↔ Music Link) that 
just will not stay bottled up! A prophet is anyone who claims to speak God’s words or to teach in his name and is inspired by God to deliver God’s Word and Will to others and what s/he says is Truth. The Old Testament word for prophet is נָבִיא (nabiy’ ) {nah-bee’}. There are some disagreements among scholars about the origin of that word, but one that is well-accepted is that this noun comes from the verb noba` meaning to “bubble up,” “boil over”,” as in “to pour forth an abundance of words,” such as those who speak within divine inspiration. It is by and through the power and inspiration of God that a prophet speaks, and a prophet can’t help but speak when and what God commands any more than a boiling pot can stop bubbling. And that is the key. Those who have Divine Inspiration are True Prophets. The converse is that those whose “inspiration” is self-generated are the False Prophets. Belovéd, let’s stand in agreement with Moses that all may be gifted with prophecy! (See Numbers 11:29) How wonderful it would be if all of us could lay aside all our Worldly idols and speak the words God sends us which begin with, “Thus says the Lord.”
With this in mind, let us look at the closing phrase of today’s Key Verse from Jeremiah 20:9 –
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
Once one receives the authentic Gift of Divine Prophecy, once cannot hold back from exercising it at God’s command. Someone can speak, “Thus says the Lord God,” but if what follows comes from that person’s own heart and mind, then it is false prophecy and worthy of severe condemnation. False prophecy is like characterizing God as a liar. He doesn’t take that well at all. Several times we have shown that all the blessings of following Christ also come with persecution, suffering, and sometimes even death. Those who can still follow Jesus, carrying their own cross, making their own trip to Golgotha – they follow him and love him and serve him despite all of that because that is how they offer up their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. If we search with all our heart, where, when, and how will we find God so we can worship him? (↔ Music Link) What, then, is the form of this worship?
It is obedience to God as Trinity. It is to be just, and merciful, and obedient and to love God and neighbor equally. It is to be humble and lowly, last of and beneath all. Most likely I am “preaching to the choir” here, but sometimes it is the choir that needs to wise up and change up. That might require us to shut up and stop blathering about how good we are as God’s Little Christian, YADA-YADA-YADA. When we come to the daily, even hourly denial of our own flesh through almsgiving, fasting, and prayer, then we’re certainly “in the ball park.” It sounds complicated and unpleasant (which gives rise to the saying “Not all thorns have roses), but actually it’s not that hard to start the habit of our reasonable service of spiritual worship. That is a baby-step toward being Holy. Here’s what The Apostle Peter said about that:
1 Peter 1:13-16 – 13 Therefore prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed. 14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” (↔ Music Link) Does that sound like too much? That’s the point. It is too much … if you never get started, so start with something that is easy like prayer, or fasting, or almsgiving.
Fridays are for fasting. Can we take a pass on that Big Mac some Friday, or fast from that second beer while watching a Friday sports event? Can we buy a meal for a houseless person and sit with them as they enjoy it so that you can fellowship with them? Can we offer up prayers for the thousands on Maui who have lost everything and ask for God’s Peace and Provision? Can we pray a rosary with a family suffering the loss of a Belovéd relative? ʻŌmea, these are not hard things, but they are Good things. How can we learn to develop the Gift to search for and identify such opportunities? We’ll turn to The Apostle Paul again:
Philippians 4:8 – 8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is 
just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. This is the Christian equivalent of GI-GO only in this case, the G’s stand for Gospel, not garbage. We see hundreds of people walking around with wireless earbuds, Bluetooth phone thingies, headphones, even ear plugs as they are trying to shut out the noise around them by “controlling” the noise within them. Some listen to podcasts, some to hip-hop, some to rap, perhaps even a few listen to “classical music” (not the same as “classic rock”). Here is another (GNT) version: 8 In conclusion, my friends, fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honorable. None of those alternatives for control listed above fit the criteria of The Apostle Paul’s advice. I have one more suggestion before we wrap this up. It’s within the parameters set up by The Apostle Paul. It’s also in the APP for YOLO-F.
Now, ʻŌmea, whenever we feel prompted – most likely by the Holy Spirit – to be just, and merciful and obedient, to live righteously, and to walk humbly before our God, then we 
need to change up our programming and wise up in the things of God. What the World programs for us is foolishness, but whosoever follows The Way of God is wise. Here’s a clue from the book of Proverbs:
Proverbs 13:20 (GNT) – 20 Keep company with the wise and you will become wise. If you make friends with stupid people, you will be ruined. Pretty blunt, eh? Hold up your hand if you’ve been there, done that. When people laugh at us and call us fools for loving, trusting, and obeying God, then it is our testimony that measures the greatness of their fall. If we make a move to change, we need to make that change upwards-only. That is the wisest choice in a World that always seeks to bring us down like the Prince of the Air was brought down. We should all read Chapter 14 of the Book of Proverbs and decide which state of life we should pursue. If you enjoy exciting literature about historic and fantastic battles of Prophet versus evil, I urge you to read about Elijah in the 1st Book of Kings, chapters 17 – 19.
And now may the God of All Mercies be with you, both now and forever, in all that you think, do, or say.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
Scripture quotations marked (GNT) are from the Good News Translation in Today’s English Version- Second Edition Copyright © 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
