Being Transformed

Because we have been reborn through sharing in the death and resurrection of Christ and have entered into his kingdom and his body (the Church) our lives have been turned upside down so that we now rightly stand on our heads with our feet grounded on the reliable and inherently good foundation of heaven. This means that our person is not only transformed but our very world is transformed (though not the earth itself).

It is for this reason that we can no longer live the lives we once lived before encountering Christ and his transformative Spirit. Truly, the Father leads us into his jealous and loving arms. Just as Yahweh has been the God of Abraham and always sought to make his people holy and unique in the world they occupy in a way that proves they belong only to the heaven kingdom so he continues to seek a people who have been conformed to the likeness of his son Jesus Christ in the way they live out their earthly lives, as strangers in a foreign land.

Yahweh now gathers His people into His family which is often call the Church. When we are baptized we enter into that family, adopted as a son or daughter by the Father through Christ and thus we begin to renew our mind. We are overhauled internally and this overhaul has external evidences. Being rooted in the Church changes the daily life of every saint.

As a member of the Church, the Christian receives a new calendar to live by which begins with the Advent season every November. The holy days of the kingdom replace the holidays of their former allegiances and cultures, even though there are still times when the two may find themselves celebrating the same blessings. Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost make for the greatest days of celebration for the believer.

The Church member now embraces a new approach to all relationships. The approach is love. The Christian loves family, friends, strangers/foreigners, prisoners, and enemies. In this new life the believer views all people as children of Creator God who are made in His image and treats them as brothers and sisters, even if they be wayward, for we have accepted another great change in life due to our baptism and that is new family.

In Christ, Christians recognize the truest meaning of family and loyalty. Those who do the will of the Father are the highest form of family, replacing the old ties of blood with ties of faithfulness to Yahweh. Old ties are not lost but have been superseded by the purest form of family which is found in the Creator of all things.

There are so many things that change when we put on the new self and discard the old self. The new man, being anchored in Christ and glued to the Body of Christ has found a new way to be defined. His/Her definition is created by the story of Yahweh which is found primarily in the holy scriptures which He breathed into being through faithful servants across the span of time. After Christ, all is changed. If we have not changed in our minds, hearts, and deeds then we have been foolish and believed in a false or incomplete transformation.

Therefore, let us cling to the Gospel of Christ and being transformed through the power of His Spirit by the renewing of our mind so that we will indeed know the will of our Father and that we may become faithful members of His body, knowing how to be defined and how to live as new men and women as we occupy a foreign world as strangers belonging only to a heavenly kingdom.