Let the Revolution Begin!

THE REV. GARY L MOORE
GUEST COLUMNIST

We need a revolution. Oh I’m sure some of you will recall the time when I took your teen to a paintball event and now wonder if it really was a paramilitary training operation.

Yes the dictionary does define a revolution as an overthrow or renunciation of one government or ruler and the substitution of another by the governed. Well, I hate to disappoint some of you who are not happy with our present administration, but I am not encouraging an overthrow of our current political system.

There is another definition for revolution … a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something. It’s time for a revolution!

I am talking about a totally uncommon kind of revolution, a revolution of the mind. The apostle Paul wrote about it in the 12th chapter of Romans. The New Century version expresses it this way in Romans 12:2 - “Do not change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but be changed within by a new way of thinking …” That same scripture in the Message tells us, “Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out.” It’s time for a revolution!

Our environment, music we listen to, television we watch, movies we view, books we read and even the people we acquaint ourselves with should not be our motivation alone, nor provoke change in us. We the born-again redeemed children of God are meant to revolutionize the world! Our new purpose is to share our altered minds (transformed as a result of the Word & Spirit of God) with the world or at least our part of it.

There is a battle that goes on in our minds daily. Paul was aware of this when he wrote that chapter. In fact the 12th chapter of Romans deals with how we as Christians should act and the healthy choices we must make daily.

Here is the fundamental change in thinking, the paradigm of thought – We are not merely corporeal bodies with a divine essence, we are eternal living souls captured in earthly bodies. It is not about what we build in this earthly realm; but more importantly what we are building, what we are doing for the kingdom both now and for the hereafter.

The choices we make now will impact lives both now and into eternity.

If our forefathers had maintained their same way of thinking, if they had not embraced the thoughts, the very truths “… that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”; there would not be a United States of America today. The same principle applies in our spiritual life with God. We must change our way of thinking. We must accept the challenge to refresh our minds.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalms 139:23 “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:”

The first revolution that took place was not in the writing of the Declaration of Independence. It wasn’t even the war that eventually brought us freedom. The first revolution was in the minds of all those who signed and the many more who had a fundamental transformation in thinking. They chose to believe they could make a difference. Both individually and collectively, they chose to take a stand and it forever changed the world.

God help us this July 4th as we celebrate this nation’s Independence Day, that as followers of Christ we would implore the prayer of David. Let us live that scripture which Paul shared with the Roman church to have a transformed mind. Not conformed to a worldview, but renewed daily with a Godly outlook. Ready to declare in our own lives the true freedom found only in Christ.

It’s time for a revolution! Let the REVOLUTION BEGIN!!!

The Rev. Gary Moore is the Senior Pastor of sure HOPE Christian Assembly in Middletown, Ohio.
Visit us on the web @ www.surehope.org