TRANSFORMERS
THE DELIBERATE DISCIPLINE

Scripture calls us to be transformed into Christ’s likeness. According to Romans 12 :2, this requires a decisive denial, “And do not be conformed to this world…” and a deliberate discipline, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

It has been said that nature abhors a vacuum. Something is going to fill the space between your ears. Something is going to fill the void in your heart. It isn’t enough to try to keep out the world’s garbage—you must welcome the truth that will transform your life.

There is THE POTENTIAL OF LIFE CHANGE to be “transformed.”

You know, they seem to be making kids brighter these days. At least, my grandchildren are particularly brilliant! My little six year old, Josie, the other day popped up and said, “Nana, I know a word that means change—metamorphosis.” Then she went on to explain the metamorphosis of an ugly old caterpillar wriggling across the ground, becoming a beautiful butterfly flitting through the air. That word comes from the Greek word used by Paul, “transformed.”

Another time it is used in the New Testament is the transfiguration of Jesus—it is the same word. You recall the story, don’t you? Jesus takes Peter, James and John onto a high mountain where what He was on the inside manifests itself on the outside—the hidden glory radiating from Him. Looking at Jesus during the days of His earthly pilgrimage was not to detect anything imposing or unusual about His appearance. He looked like the typical Jewish man of His era. There was no halo or anything of that nature. Jesus was 100% man—but, He was also 100% God! It is just that His deity was often hidden behind the veil of flesh. On the mountain of transfiguration, that changed, and for a brief shining moment, the veil was pulled back and His glory shone out.

There is the potential for Christ in you, to be seen from you—His life manifest in our flesh. A father was explaining to his little boy about what it meant to be a Christian. He mentioned that it means Jesus comes to live in you. The lad asked, “Isn’t Jesus bigger than me?” “Oh, yes,” his father replied. To which the youngster in wide-eyed wonder asked, “But, Daddy, if Jesus comes to live inside me, won’t He stick out?” He sure will! If Christ is in you, then He should be evident.

Further there is THE PROCESS FOR LIFE CHANGE in the “renewing of your mind.”

God has given us a fabulous computer called the mind. That is where life change takes place. Recently I experienced the crash of my hard drive on my laptop. All I could do to fix it was to run System Restore. When completed, I had to begin to download files and reload programs. We are born with a defective hard drive. At salvation, God does System Restore. But then we can allow the world’s malware and Satan’s viruses to infect our computer. What we need is the ant-virus software of Scripture and the firewall of prayer to guard our minds! As we read, meditate on and yield to God’s Word, our mind is renewed—like optimizing the performance and defragmenting your hard disk on the computer. Regular maintenance is required!

Whatever you program into that computer is what you are going to get out of it. You cannot continually look at the world’s movies, listen to the world’s music and love the world’s manner without being squeezed into the world’s mold. It is such a gradual process: like the way water in a riverbed wears away a rock, or the frog in a kettle. Have you heard that? Place a frog in a kettle of hot water and he’ll jump out. But let him be in cool water and gradually turn up the heat and he’ll sit there and cook!

Are you a Trekkie (a devotee of Star Trek for the uninitiated)? In the series, there is an alien race called the Borg. They all look the same, talk the same, serve the same goals—all part of the collective consciousness. Their stated intent is, “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.” Their objective is to assimilate every being into the Borg, to conform them to the Collective. That’s science fiction, but the reality is that this is what the world system is doing.

Resistance is demanded, however! It will not be futile! There are places a child of God shouldn’t go and things he shouldn’t look at or listen to. You say, “I have the right!” Do you? Again I remind you of the context, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans12:1). Then, weigh this, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20) We must instead take into the windows of the soul (our eyes and ears) the Word of God—that will renew us and transform us. This is a process too! It won’t happen overnight. It involves effort—discipline and devotion. It’s not about conforming to a set of rules, however; it’s about genuine transformation from the inside out. The third time this Greek word is used in describing this spiritual metamorphosis is in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “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.”

Is Jesus sticking out?