We are not "good", but we are made "right" with God and that is accomplished through the righteousness of God, not our own righteousness. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth. Our life, which is a life of worship, must be lived in the Spirit and not in the flesh. We are lifeless without the Spirit of God and we only receive that Spirit by being born-again in the Spirit, and the kingdom of God is the promise. We are new and Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:22 Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.
Paul begged those in the church in Rome to live a life of worship that was a changed life. Romans 12:1 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.
When we repent and turn to Jesus for salvation a "spiritual" event takes place and then the human reasoning of religion tries to pollute the process by injecting human reasoning or humanism into the mix and it poisons the process. We want to think we have a "change" but then we try to figure out the process and inject our human reasoning ahead of what the Word of God says and we get "no change." Then the struggle deepens because we have the conviction of the Holy Spirit trying to deepen us in our very spiritual walk, but the human in our reasoning causes doubt and confusion and we try to fill this void with more knowledge, human knowledge and we begin to be very religious and very worthless to the cause of Christ. You will actually be a negative influence on the mission of Jesus and could possibly lead many down the wrong path if they are following that kind of thinking. All because of "religion." Jesus said this in Matthew 6:33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. The only righteous living we can do is what is enabled by God's righteousness. Not our own!!!
Change means Change! The only change that will suffice is the change we will experience when we realize that the change has been a deep, spiritual change. We then live our life led by the Spirit of God and we deepen that walk through a deeper "relationship" with our Savior, Jesus. In Romans, 1 Paul tells of how the train falls off the track when that train tries to think about a very spiritual matter with human reasoning and everything goes "south" quickly and the end result is a very evil world and much of the evil is seen in the "so-called" believers lives. Those lives have immersed themselves in a very humanistic way of looking at life and the "faith" is tainted. The intent of the Good News of Jesus was meant to give us real life, new life, not fake life. That real life is meant to be so contagious and so full of the Spirit of God that it draws all people to it and that Good News will save! Paul wrote this in Romans 1:17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.
Time to change how you look at your faith and let the Holy Spirit lead you into a pure relationship with Jesus which is a growing faith that gives you the power to live your life. No Jesus, No change. Know Jesus, Know change.
The Pilgrimage Continues
David Warren
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