During the month of May, Pastor Kelly and I will craft our preaching around the new ReThink Church challenge of “Be. Go. Do.” I get to kick this off on May 5th with a sermon that will focus on Romans 12:1-2. Part of that passage speaks of not being conformed to this world but instead to “be transformed by the renewing of your minds…,” all with the intent… of being better able to discern the will of God in our lives.
This particular passage is not new to me but in my attempt to read it with fresh eyes I couldn’t help but pause at the words “renewing of your minds.” I stopped there because so much of our faith speaks to, and I believe, resides in our hearts. Colossians 3:15 asks us to “let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” In Hebrews 10:16 God speaks of putting his laws not in our minds but in our hearts. Finally, Jesus comforts us in John 14:1 by inviting us to “not let your hearts be troubled…”
Certainly knowing God in our hearts is essential to our faith, but isn’t the real challenge moving that faith from our hearts to our heads? Isn’t it from our minds that, when feeling the call of Christ on our hearts, we hear words like “Yeah, but…” It’s our minds that always want to stop and examine the cost of our call. Now I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing…unless it keeps us from ever risking ourselves for God.
But isn’t it interesting that whenever we do throw caution to the wind and step out in faith to do something new and different (and maybe even a little scary) we almost always come away feeling better about ourselves, both in our hearts and in our minds? So I wonder where and how we as a congregation might…”Be. Go. Do.” Let’s find out together!
Blessings,
Pastor Andy