Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
This is not flattering news; and some might just not like it: we are all the famous "Prodigal Son" of Jesus' parable in Luke 15. Some might grudgingly admit that much, but the blockbuster truth is this; his pigsty is our natural habitat.
A pigsty is not a nice place to live; and this sinful, rebellious world is not a nice "home" for any of us. The living Word, which has power within it, says, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2). That's the same as a "mind transplant." A wise writer summed up the matter by saying that anything, good as it may be, that causes us to "forget God" is the path of death.
The remedy: a "mind transplant." Pretty heavy surgery.
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). Yes, the word means "purpose," but that's what our word "mind" really means: "I have a mind to do this or that ..."
The Lord Jesus, working through the Holy Spirit is trying to give us that "transplant" if we will not resist and oppose Him. "Let this mind be in you ..." The entire ministry of eternal salvation is a let-it-happen work of the Lord who accomplished the salvation of the world when He died our second death on His cross; but the world (to date) has chosen not to let Him do it. So, there is "a great controversy" between Christ and Satan raging in every human heart.
Even when we think at last we have attained, there comes the call of the Holy Spirit, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ..." In Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan wisely wrote that at the very gate of the New Jerusalem there is a tunnel that goes down to hell. "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: September 29, 2007.
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