Changed from the inside out.

    “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”  Romans 12:1 (KJV)

 

Take your everyday, ordinary life—

your sleeping, eating, going-to-work,

and walking-around life—and place it

before God as an offering.

Embracing what God does for you is

the best thing you can do for Him.

Don't become so well-adjusted to

your culture that you fit into it

without even thinking. Instead,

fix your attention on God.

You'll be changed from the inside out.

Readily recognize what He wants from you,

and quickly respond to the good He sends you.

God - unlike the culture of this world,

which is always dragging us down to its level

of immaturity - God brings out the best in us, and

develops well-formed maturity in all who love Him.

 

    “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. ² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

    Not the acquiring of wisdom but the practical proof of having it.         “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!  And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.”  2 Cor 5:17-18 (NLT)

    Keep pressing on!

    “I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.¹³ No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Phil 3:12-14 (NLT)

    Hold on to the progress we have already made: There must be no slipping or reversal; as believers, our conduct must be consistent with our spiritual understanding.  Pattern your lives after mine: Paul's serious pursuit of Christ and the life to which God had called him (3:7-14; 4:9; 1 Cor 4:6,16-17; 11:1; 2 Thes 3:7-9).

    “I am a sinner but God loves me anyhow.  I am a hypocrite but God loves me anyhow.  I believe, help my unbelief.  But I am trying to cooperate with God as He leads me through life.”

    “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”  Romans 8:28-29

    “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Cor 3:17-18

    “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”  1 Cor 6:11

    “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

    “God has made Christians holy by the work of his Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:11; 2 Thes 2:13), and they are therefore called to live as his own holy people (1 Cor 1:2). God has given them everything they need to live a holy life in this world (2 Pet 1:3-4). As a result, their way of life is to be distinctly different from that of the unholy world around them. Every part of their life is to reflect the transforming work of the Holy Spirit (Rom 12:2). —NLT Study Bible

    The Church is a LIGHTHOUSE radiating God’s wonderful LIGHT! 

    “For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

    “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 2 Cor 13:14