“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. 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.”
Romans 12:1-2 NLT
http://bible.com/116/rom.12.1-2.nlt
Last week we all or at least most of us sat around a table with friends and family, enjoying a good meal or meals. LoL. We sat back and watched football. Just thankful for all of the things we’ve been blessed with. Not a bad thing at all. So Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of you for that. I know I got my fill of food, family and football.
Despite the heightened encouragement to be thankful for all of our blessings this time of year it is also a time when those who don’t have and those think they have enough become depressed and even suicidal. It’s a shame, but it causes me to take cause to pause and see how this world has a hold on some. They think that not being able to buy gifts or the cost of gifts determines their value as people.
Our value is not determined by the things we purchase to put under a tree. Our value is determined by the One who died on a tree for ALL OF US. He sees the value in each and every person He created. Jesus Christ came, died and rose again because He has placed value in all of us. Not a value that can be bought with dollars and cents. Not a value that can be determined by what we bought in a store or how much money is in our bank account.
It is the pull of this world’s system that leads us to this type of incorrect thinking. The Bible tells us in Romans 12 not to be conformed to this world. That is not talking about women wearing pants or skirts down to their knees. It is not talking about men wearing suits to church. The world has a system that is contrary to the kingdom of God. We who are in Christ operated in the system of this world. We saw the change in ourselves when gave up this world’s system and operated in God’s system.
Jesus said in Matthew 6 to seek first the kingdom of God. He was telling the disciples this, because they were caught up in the system of this world. They were more concerned with how their natural things like money, food and shelter would be handled. Jesus told them that the Heavenly Father knows that we need these things. Focus on God and these things will be taken care of.
God is not ignorant. He knows what we have need of, so we have to make God our first priority. Don’t let this world get you caught up that you forget who your source is. God is our source. Money, houses, clothes and cars are resources. It is Christ who provides for us what we need to sustain our lives and to, most importantly, do God’s will.
That leads us to our Throwback Song of the Week. It is from a legend of CHH. For those of us who have really dug into the music are familiar. Those of us, like myself, who were coming up in the early days of CHH were definitely rocking with Cross Movement. The Ambassador and Cross Movement are gems of this Christian hip hop genre.
This song is from Ambassador’s 2000 debut solo project entitled “Christology: In Laymen’s Terms.” The track is entitled “Girl Named World.” An encouragement to us all to leave the system of this world for Christ. He portrays the world as an ex-girlfriend that has been left for a new and better thing in Christ.
The guys are back this week bring you the latest music and news in CHH on the Trackstarz radio show. Tune and hear DJ Jeremaya spin this track for the Throwback Song of the Day. Check it out and let us know what you think. Until next time…
Peace and blessings,
Damo
