WHENEVER

 
November 25, 2020                                   WHENEVER
2 Corinthians 3:15-18 “but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But 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 from the Lord, the Spirit.”
We sometime get the horse before the cart, and we sometime live according to our emotions. The one who has not come to know God as Lord and Savior, has no choice but to make decisions and live by his mind, will, and emotions. And that is the problem-because God is Spirit and He cannot be analyzed and grasped with the human mind only. For the one who is living according to his mind, the idea of God makes no sense and he or she cannot make sense of the things of God. Even as a believer, we can find ourselves living according to our own reasoning and logic, and we can actually find ourselves resisting or even rejecting the word of God because we do not ‘understand’ it or it may go against our ‘thinking.’ We like to understand before we act. It is a mystery, but we must first turn to the Lord BEFORE we understand. Thank God for our mind and our emotions, but be aware of the hazard of insisting that we act only when we understand or when it pleases us. It is a heart issue-not a mental issue; our mental thought processes and our responses flow out of our heart. As believers, we may sense the Holy Spirit leading us to do a certain thing, but we may ‘logically’ explain it away and not follow the Spirit’s leading.  HOWEVER, there is good news for us and we are blessed beyond measure when first and foremost our heart is turned to the Lord. When we obey the Lord whether we understand it or not or even like it or not, we are blessed AND we come to know Him in deeper ways. The ‘understanding’ will come after we do what He says. What we can glean from the above scriptures is that only as we turn to the Lord, our spiritual eyes are opened-the veil is removed. To turn to the Lord means that the things of the Lord or more important to us than the things we want; it means that from our heart we want to do the things that please Him. It is indeed a miracle, but when we turn to the Lord and as we behold Him and desire Him, we begin to be transformed into His image! Wow! We begin to think like Him, love like He loves, forgives as He does, have compassion just as He has compassion, and in every aspect of our lives we begin to reflect His character. The transformation does not happen overnight, and we may stumble at times, but it is a fact that as we behold Him, we are being transformed into His image.
Ephesians 1:1- “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, as an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” 
Romans 1:1-2 “I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Blessings,
Buddy