E27 - Renewing the Mind
11/08/21 • 10 min
Paul tells Christians in Romans 12:2 not to be like the world, which means its beliefs and practices. He also warns in 2Cor 11:14 - 'And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.' Satan who likes for people to think he doesn't exist or that his influence isn't too big in this world - one way being through humor - "I'm looking at you Loki!" Do you know what I mean?
Full show notes at hopesharbor.net
Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #27
Title: Renewing the Mind
Date: November 8, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Key verse(s): Renewing the Mind – Key verse: Romans 12:2 – ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’
Intro: Why do you think Paul warns Christians, ‘do not be conformed to this world?’ First, he means the world's belief systems, practices, and customs when they oppose GOD and His Word.
Second, the world’s systems belong to a malevolent being, Satan.
And by the way, one of the ways Satan operates is to minimize his presence and influence in the world. He does this by using humor. When many people picture Satan or the Devil, what image comes to mind? Yes, a man with a red suit, small horns, and pointy tail, and a pitchfork.
But he is a highly intelligent being with much experience at deceiving and destroying people. However, I don’t want to get off on a tangent here.
It’s better to focus on renewing our minds according to GOD’s design and using the Bible as our guide.
Devotion focus: Our mind’s focus determines renewal or not
What we allow our mind to focus on determines our outlook on life, shapes our decisions, affects our reactions.
If I focus only on negative thoughts (think national/world news – politics, etc.) it wouldn’t take me long to slide into depression.
But if I focus my mind on positive, healthy thoughts such as GOD’s sovereign power over all creation, including controlling the destiny of nations; if I think about GOD’s love which He declares in Romans 8:38&39:
Romans 8:38 – ‘For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Romans 8:39 - ‘nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ then I’m less likely to fall prey to destructive thoughts.
My experience with renewing my mind has involved counseling in the past. I learned through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to replace negative, toxic thoughts and self-hatred with positive truth about my position before GOD.
And then, understanding my position led me to understand better my identity within GOD.
I’m going to cover just a few verses to help with the process of renewing your own mind, if this is something you want to do. They have to do with something Jesus said in John 15:9; what He prayed in John 17, and Paul wrote about in Colossians 3:3.
John 15:9 - "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
John 17:9 - "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
John 17:16 - They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 17:20 - "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
Colossians 3:3 – ‘For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’
If you and I could only believe these verses alone, we could face most anything in life that
Show notes at HopesHarbor.net
Paul tells Christians in Romans 12:2 not to be like the world, which means its beliefs and practices. He also warns in 2Cor 11:14 - 'And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.' Satan who likes for people to think he doesn't exist or that his influence isn't too big in this world - one way being through humor - "I'm looking at you Loki!" Do you know what I mean?
Full show notes at hopesharbor.net
Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #27
Title: Renewing the Mind
Date: November 8, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Key verse(s): Renewing the Mind – Key verse: Romans 12:2 – ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.’
Intro: Why do you think Paul warns Christians, ‘do not be conformed to this world?’ First, he means the world's belief systems, practices, and customs when they oppose GOD and His Word.
Second, the world’s systems belong to a malevolent being, Satan.
And by the way, one of the ways Satan operates is to minimize his presence and influence in the world. He does this by using humor. When many people picture Satan or the Devil, what image comes to mind? Yes, a man with a red suit, small horns, and pointy tail, and a pitchfork.
But he is a highly intelligent being with much experience at deceiving and destroying people. However, I don’t want to get off on a tangent here.
It’s better to focus on renewing our minds according to GOD’s design and using the Bible as our guide.
Devotion focus: Our mind’s focus determines renewal or not
What we allow our mind to focus on determines our outlook on life, shapes our decisions, affects our reactions.
If I focus only on negative thoughts (think national/world news – politics, etc.) it wouldn’t take me long to slide into depression.
But if I focus my mind on positive, healthy thoughts such as GOD’s sovereign power over all creation, including controlling the destiny of nations; if I think about GOD’s love which He declares in Romans 8:38&39:
Romans 8:38 – ‘For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
Romans 8:39 - ‘nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ then I’m less likely to fall prey to destructive thoughts.
My experience with renewing my mind has involved counseling in the past. I learned through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to replace negative, toxic thoughts and self-hatred with positive truth about my position before GOD.
And then, understanding my position led me to understand better my identity within GOD.
I’m going to cover just a few verses to help with the process of renewing your own mind, if this is something you want to do. They have to do with something Jesus said in John 15:9; what He prayed in John 17, and Paul wrote about in Colossians 3:3.
John 15:9 - "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.”
John 17:9 - "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
John 17:16 - They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 17:20 - "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word;
Colossians 3:3 – ‘For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’
If you and I could only believe these verses alone, we could face most anything in life that
Show notes at HopesHarbor.net
Previous Episode
E26 - Helmet of Salvation - Then What?
I want to delve into the part our mind plays when it comes to faith; how Satan’s fiery darts are lies and accusations which can easily destroy us if not opposed by GOD’s grace. And there is nothing sadder than seeing or hearing about someone who has turned away from GOD, His Word, salvation in Christ - all for some temporary pleasure with this life but no hope of eternal reward!
Not that we can lose our salvation. But that some turn away before gaining a new spiritual birth. And others turn away from all GOD offers because of some painful loss they did not expect and were not ready for. But GOD gives us a way to get ready.
Full show notes at hopesharbor.net
Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #26
Title: Helmet of Salvation – Then What?
Date: November 25, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Key verse(s): Eph 6:17 – ‘And take the helmet of salvation...’
Intro: In the previous two episodes faith was the focus and how faith is more than mere belief but evidenced by our actions. Application was also brought out.
In this episode, I want to delve into the part our mind plays when it comes to faith; how our mind is the target for Satan’s fiery darts which are his lies and accusations. And how we can protect our minds and therefore keep our faith intact.
There is nothing so sad concerning the Christian walk than to see or hear someone who has forsaken their faith, turned away from GOD and His Word, and returned to the world’s way of living.
The Bible in 2 Peter 2:22describes this: ‘But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: "A DOG RETURNS TO HIS OWN VOMIT," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire."
Would you agree that anyone who really understood the need to stand firm in faith would ever go back to the old ways of living? Well, it happens too often and my prayer for you and me is we learn something here today that will help us stand strong in our faith.
Devotion focus: Putting on the armor of GOD to protect our minds –
How does salvation protect our minds? Before exploring the answer let me provide a view from Satan’s vantage point.
A Christian is one who experienced a new birth upon placing faith in Jesus’s Atonement when He died on the Cross. The Holy Spirit now resides within the Christian’s spirit and with that Christian’s consent influences the mind and heart for good. When we are ‘born again’ we become the workmanship of Jesus who sets out to change our mindset from the destructive ways of the world’s systems to His mindset of holiness.
With our minds, we determine whether to follow the teachings of GOD set forth in the Bible or not. Our choices as Christians determine our eternal rewards, not for eternal life, that’s already settled, but how we will live in eternity.
This being the case it stands to reason Satan will attack us in our minds. The methods he uses are varied, Paul said in Ephesians 6:11 – ‘Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.’
Wiles means ‘method, trickery.’
In the past, as recorded in the Bible, Satan used trickery, lies, and deception against GOD’s people and even against the Son of GOD. When Satan came against Jesus just before He began His public ministry, Jesus used GOD’S Word to resist Satan.
Now, Satan tried his wiles by using verses from the Bible, taken out of context. He tried to deceive Jesus into complying with his satanic effort to thwart Jesus’s mission to rescue sinners from hell.
Did you notice Satan went after Jesus’s mind? He will do the same to us.
This brings us back to the question of how does salvation protect our minds?
Well, first, when we understand and
Show notes at HopesHarbor.net
Next Episode
E28 - The Bible - GOD's Eternal Word
"MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD! "
The Bible is full of verses that speak about the importance and power of GOD's words. Some examples are found throughout both Old Testament books like Genesis 1:1 or Leviticus 26; as well New Testament Scriptures such as Jesus quotes regarding Satan when tempted by him as recorded in Matthew 4:3-10, which was a key reason why I chose this passage. Not only does it show how powerful Scripture can be against sin and Satan, but also the great comfort there is if we choose to believe and use GOD's Word in faith.
Complete show notes at hopesharbor.net
Hope’s Harbor Gritty Bible Devotions
Episode #28
Title: The Bible – GOD’s Eternal Word
Date: November 15, 2021
Contact: [email protected]
Key verse(s): Luke 4:4- ‘But Jesus answered him, saying, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE, BUT BY EVERY WORD OF GOD.' "
There are 47 verses in the New King James Version of the Bible containing the phrase ‘Word of GOD.’ This made it somewhat difficult to choose one for the key verse. I chose Luke 4:4 because it is what Jesus said to rebuke Satan when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness at the beginning of His ministry.
Intro: I want to start off by telling you I was a skeptic at one time about all I’m going to present in this episode. I believed in a god, but not the GOD of the Bible. I didn’t trust the Bible and didn’t like church.
For one thing, when growing up I was taken to church, a lot. But as I got older I noticed that what people claimed and proclaimed did not match with how they lived. The only Christians who lived what they believed were my grandparents on my mother’s side and later on her sister and her husband.
When I turned of age to leave home I left religion too.
A few years later I became friends with a neighbor who was a faithful Christian and he would talk to me about the state of my soul. Some nights we stood out in the street, me arguing against his beliefs and him trying to convince me the Bible was true and that GOD was giving me a chance to change my life.
Eventually, I accepted what he told me and prayed, asking GOD to forgive and save me from my sins.
I tried reading the Bible but couldn’t make much sense of it. And so I remained indifferent to GOD’s claim on my life. Mostly because I didn’t fully understand all that happened when I prayed the ‘sinner’s prayer.’ This went on for a few years.
And as it happens often with GOD in answer to prayers, those of my grandparents because they knew I was drifting, a crisis occurred in my life and I began to look for help from GOD.
I was in trouble and in deep distress. I cried out to GOD begging His help.
Oddly enough GOD’s help came in the form of a deep hunger for... can you guess? His Word. I began reading the Bible and couldn’t get enough. I started at Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation.
The teachings of the Bible, containing the very words of the Son of GOD, rescued me from not only that crisis but saved me from living a life of eternal loss. Not loss of salvation, but the loss of all we gain in eternity when we live for GOD in this life.
What was my greatest discovery from reading the Bible so much? It’s right here in the next sentence:
In John 1:1Jesus is called the Word: ‘In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’
Word in this verse is the Greek word logos. Now a word is an expression of the mind. We can infer Jesus is the expression of the mind of GOD.
GOD is theos, meaning supreme Deity.
Theos is mentioned 1343 times in the New Testament alone. In the Old Testament GOD, Elohiym in the Hebrew
Show notes at HopesHarbor.net
Hope's Harbor Podcast - Gritty Bible Devotions - E27 - Renewing the Mind
Transcript
Renewing the Mind
Key verse is Romans 12:2 - "And, do not be conformed this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of GOD."
In the key verse, why do you think Paul warns Christians, "Do not be conformed to this world."? Well, first, he means the world's belief systems, practices, and customs when they oppose God and His Word. And second, it's because the world systems b
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