August 4th ‘92 I swore into the United States Air Force; Aug 5th my world changed. On Aug 5th 92 I found myself in San Antonio, Texas at Lackland Air Force base sweating like crazy. Some dude with a cool hat was yelling in my face about breathing wrong. The dreaded Air Force Boot Camp had begun. OK, it’s not as dreadful as the rest of the services, but it was hard enough. Oh the memories! Boot camp was just that: boot camp. I am proud I made it through it, but I never want to repeat it. It was within that fun filled 6 weeks that I found out how great my aim was; OK, I was not even close to a decent shot. I also found out what I looked like at 140lbs; it was not a pretty site. Now I make 200lbs look good--real good. Here is one memory from B.C. that has always stuck with me.
One morning our T.I. (training instructor) had us out on the tarmac practicing our marching. We had a tough time getting the commands/cadence down. Who knew a right turn could be so hard? This day he was getting pretty frustrated with us so he stopped us mid march, told us all (about 40 of us) to bend over and grab our ankles. He then instructed us to slowly rise back up and when we were fully upright yell, “POP!” He said the “POP” was demonstrating us pulling our heads out of our--I’ll keep it redeemed even though he didn’t--butts. The POP worked; the rest of the day we marched just fine. I don’t know about you but every once in awhile I need a POP moment.
I think in the Christian world one of the most popular scriptures to preach from is Romans 12:2. Romans 12:2 is a “POP” kind of scripture. Back when I was a youth pastor/leader I preached from Romans 12:2 a lot. It’s just so easy to preach from with youth. It’s a script that tells us not to bend to the world, not to give in to peer-pressure. Before we go on I better show Romans 12:2 for our reference point.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.
I said this was a pop kind of script so lets put in some pops.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind [POP, that’s your head becoming unstuck]. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good [POP], pleasing [BANG] and perfect will [CLEAR AIR].
The end of Romans chapter 1 demonstrates what a un-conformed [head up the butt] mind thinks like. But the problem is if we focus in on how we’re not to think then we end up thinking just like that, a butt. Paul wrote of this in Romans 7:7-21 “I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.” If we, instead, focus in on what we are conformed to then we prove the pattern of God’s will: the good, pleasing and perfect pattern. Ok, great, but what is that pattern, what is that good, pleasing and perfect will? This is where we ministers, or maybe just me, usually start filling in the blank on how a redeemed minded person thinks. If we want to know how a redeemed mind thinks then we just need to keep on reading Romans 12. Check out what the very next verse says: “Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” Is that not the total opposite of how an unredeemed mind thinks? A sinfully minded person thinks of himself as more highly than he should. “Give me what’s mine.” I’m guilty as charged on that one. Thank God for His mercy so that I don’t actually get what’s owed to me. Check out Romans 12:14: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” I can bless those who supposedly persecute me but I don’t know about not cursing them, or even using a few curse words to describe them. Is that a little too real?
The rest of Romans 12 gives more goodies on how a renewed mind thinks. As a matter of fact, the renewed theme carries on through chapter 13, 14, and onto 15. Sometime in the near future read through Romans 12-15 to check out the Godly pattern. That’s starting to look like a pretty good study to do after I’m done with this healings series. Happy reading y’all and go ahead and yell out a few “POP’s” every once in awhile. I know I still need to at times.
Stay blessed y’all; it’s your choice.
jimmy
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