{"id":86,"date":"2018-07-31T18:27:32","date_gmt":"2018-07-31T18:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/?p=86"},"modified":"2021-07-17T18:28:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T18:28:17","slug":"change-is-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/change-is-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Change is Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>To walk with God you must have a willingness to change.\u00a0 This change is not optional, but it is required if we are to express the image of God.\u00a0 If you think that you are already perfect, you are sadly mistaken.\u00a0 The Apostle Paul said it this way: \u201cNot as though I had already attained,(living out perfectly the life which comes from being raised from the dead), either we are already perfect: But I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus\u201d(Phil. 3:12).\u00a0 We Christians are born again, not by corruptible seed, but by the incorruptible Word of God (1 John 3:9).\u00a0 But it takes continuous transformational change for the inward reality to be expressed in our outward life.\u00a0 In other words, we should always be changing from a state of who we are, to what God wants us to be.\u00a0 Jesus is the consummation of perfection.\u00a0 \u201cBut 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 \u201c(2 Cor. 3:18).\u00a0 As you give yourself to the glorious aspect found in the Word of God, the Holy Spirit will change you into what you see and treasure (that which looks like Jesus).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We are not sinners.\u00a0 That was our old nature.\u00a0 We have a mandate from God to be holy, for God is holy (1 Pet. 1:16).\u00a0 Also, we are to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).\u00a0 As we look at these sentences in reverse, we see that the source of our holiness and perfection is the Lord.\u00a0 In fellowship, we have to allow Him to change us into that Image.\u00a0 That means that we have to let go of anything in our lives that does not reflect the image of Christ.\u00a0 This is not done all at once.\u00a0 It is a process.\u00a0 It is called spiritual growth.\u00a0 The first step is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, and to receive His Spirit.\u00a0 Then you have to obey the voice of the Lord as Hes speaks to you from His Word, and directly to your heart.\u00a0 God will begin to renew your mind (Rom. 12:1,2), and wash away all that displeases Him (Eph. 5:26).\u00a0 This process will cause you to humble yourself.\u00a0 It will also cause you to embrace repentance.\u00a0 Again, that is when God shows you that the thing that you are holding on to is not His will.\u00a0 It takes repentance to change your mind, and accept God\u2019s way.\u00a0 Instead of condemnation, repentance reveals the love nature of God.\u00a0 God is faithful to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When we change, we bring glory to God.\u00a0 The One who made the vessel will receive the honor.\u00a0 As people see you, they will see Jesus.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it is all about: that whether by word or deed, others would see Jesus in our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To walk with God you must have a willingness to change.\u00a0 This change is not optional, but it is required if we are to express&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aroundtheloopdesigns.com\/cbm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}