Is it time to accept the wages of sin, or repent?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2 (NIV))

When you take a look around at the world, what do you see?

I realize that this is a very loaded question, for the world is a sinful, fallen place that just keeps getting further and further away from what God created it to be. People are doing whatever pleases themselves and the depravity of these actions is sad to the point of being sickening.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
(Romans 1:28 (NIV))

God sees the depravity. People have turned, and more are still turning away from God, and doing whatever their depraved minds can imagine. I believe that we are at the point in human history, in God’s timeline, where the Lord is saying if that is what you want, then you will get exactly what you desire. People want perversion. God allows their minds to lead them deeper and deeper into what they desire. People want rebellion. God allows people to rebel to the point where they have dug their own proverbial pit to fall into. People want sin over righteousness. God is allowing them to go down the path that they have chosen. He allows them to go down the path that they think is comfortable to them.

All the while, He is calling them to repent. He is calling them to return to Himself and to His righteousness.

Sadly, too many are completely comfortable in their sin. They enjoy their sin. They are to the point where they feel that they can kick back, relax and enjoy their depravity, but, . . .

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 (NIV))

Are you ready to accept your wages? Are you ready to accept the consequences of your sin?

The choice is yours.

Is it time to accept the wages of sin, or repent?

Copyright 1998 – 2022 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
https://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you long to conform to Jesus?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2 (NIV))

I don’t know about you, but I want to have nothing to do with the world as it is!

There is absolutely nothing in what is happening that is patterned after what God desires. It may be in His plans, but He does not desire to see any perish. He knows that evil will make one last stand against His plans. Even so, the Lord desires righteousness. He does not desire good being called evil and evil being called good. He does not desire sin to be tolerated, yet it is openly embraced. He does not desire to see the persecution of His church. He does not desire to see people who profess a faith in Jesus distort His teachings. He does not desire to hear His name profaned, yet that is where we are in history. It is true that things have been happening all throughout history, but there is an acceleration, there is a convergence of events like never before.

Do you feel it?

Do you understand that something is not status quo?

The whole world is seeing things like never before. Do you recognize these events?

Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
(Luke 21:11-12 (NIV))

If this is what conforming to the world looks like, I don’t want any part of it!

I only want Jesus!

I want to conform to Jesus. I want to mature in my faith to be like Jesus even if it means persecution.

“But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name.
(Luke 21:12 (NIV))

Now is the time to immerse yourself in His Word. Renew your mind so that it desires His righteousness and detests the evils of this world. Renew your mind so that you can recognize God’s will and run from the lies of the enemy.

Do you long to conform to Jesus?

Copyright 1998 – 2021 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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I will serve the Lord!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2 (NIV))

Do you think of yourself as a nonconformist?

Let that question sink in for a moment with respect to your attitude about the world and with respect to your faith in Jesus.

If you conform to the world, then you reject Jesus. If you conform to Jesus, then you reject the world. Personally, I choose Jesus! I do not desire to be like the world. I do not desire to trade God’s goodness for evil. I do not desire to trade God’s truth for lies. I do not desire to trade eternity with Jesus for eternal torment. I do not desire to trade God’s love for what the world calls love.

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.
(Joshua 24:15 (NIV))

I proudly declare that I am a nonconformist, for I do not desire to conform to the pattern of this world.

I will serve the Lord!

Copyright 1998 – 2020 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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How is your body and your mind?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:1-2 (NIV))

We like to think that we are the ones in charge, that we are the masters of our own destiny, but in all honesty, are we?

It is human nature to rebel against submission to others, for it sounds too much like slavery to us.

Think about those statements and then think about the fallen, sinful nature that we, as humanity, have inherited. We believed a lie from the father of lies, and now, if God says one thing, our deceived nature automatically tells us to believe the opposite. In order to break this trend, we must make a conscious effort to do so. We must decide to not follow the world, but follow God. We must decide to offer God all of ourselves. That means physically and spiritually. We must deliberately make a choice to go against the world for the world has become the domain of the enemy. The world is very good at calling good evil and evil good. In order to break out of this mindset, we must transform our minds. We must spend time in God’s Word. We must seek God in all things and break the bonds that hold us captive to the lies of the enemy.

We must be willing to sacrifice our natural selves and offer up ourselves to God in humility and sincerity. We must humble ourselves and admit that we are nothing without God. We must seek only what makes us righteous in the eyes of God. That means removing anything that tempts us in body or in mind.

How is your body and your mind?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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Do you conform or are you transformed?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2 (NIV))

Do you like to fit in? Do you like to conform? Do you like to go along with people so that you don’t make waves?

What happens when the things that you need to do to be able to fit in go against the things that you hold to be true and vital to your life? Do you find yourself abandoning your principles, your faith, so that you fit in? If so, what type of faith, what type of principles did you have that you could so easily abandon them?

As the Body of Christ, we must remember that humanity turned over authority in this world to Satan when Adam and Eve, and all of humanity, fell from grace in the Garden of Eden. Think about that for a moment and then honestly think about your answer to the following question.

Do you truly wish to conform to a world that has fallen to the enemy?

During World War II, after Germany invaded France, those who fought against the German enemy became known as the Resistance. They did not conform to what the enemy tried to tell them to do. They fought back! I believe that the Body of Christ could learn a lesson from the French Resistance. Instead of conforming to the world, we need to fight back against the enemy that has taken our world.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
(Ephesians 6:12 (NIV))

Ours is not a physical battle. It is a spiritual war! The enemy’s deceptions are everywhere. We must test everything against God’s Word. We must be like the Bereans.

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
(Acts 117:11 (NIV))

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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Have you died to your place of the skull?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).
(John 19:17 (NIV))

I just love the way that God works in symbolism!

As we celebrate Easter and the resurrection, we must remember that in order for Jesus to be resurrected, He first had to die. He had to go willingly to the place of the Skull to die to himself so that God’s plan could be fulfilled.

Isn’t it interesting how we, before we can embrace the resurrection, must also go to our own place of the skull. We must be willing to die to our reasoning and intellect and follow solely on faith. We must accept something that makes absolutely no worldly sense. We must die to our inability to believe in something without seeing it. We must die to our own place of the skull.

It is amazing how God will work in us and through us once we have willingly laid ourselves at the foot of the cross once we surrender our own place of the skull.

We are now ready to fully embrace the resurrection and the grace and mercy that it brings. This knowledge has not only transformed our minds, it is now ready to transform our lives. It can now travel the longest distance known to humanity – the eighteen inches from our mind to our heart – and truly have an impact on us.

Have you died to your place of the skull?

Have you fully embraced the resurrection?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Do you understand and obey?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds so they will understand them, and I will write them on their hearts so they will obey them. I will be their God, and they will be my people!
(Hebrews 8:10 (NLT))

I love the way the New Living Translation phrases this passage.

We are used to reading it translated something like the following.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people
(Hebrews 8:10 (NIV)

No matter how we are used to reading it, the meaning should not be lost on the reader. We are to think about God’s laws and reflect on their meaning. We are to strive to understand them with our intellect. We are to reflect upon what God is telling us with each passage that we read and not just simply read the words. There is more meaning in God’s Word than mere words. There is a reason that it is called the Living Word. If we study and reflect upon it, then God will use this reflection and study to teach us more about Himself. He will open up the same passage with more meaning as our maturity in Him increases. As our maturity increases through study, another aspect comes into play.

God’s Word makes the move from our minds to our hearts.

We begin to not only understand, we also begin to obey. We find ourselves longing to do the things that God wants. We find ourselves not only intellectually understanding. We find ourselves transformed by that understanding to the point where we actually apply it to our lives. We obey not out of fear, but out of a desire to seek righteousness.

Do you have a favorite translation that you read and study? For me, my favorite is the New International Version, but I find hidden gems of truth in every translation. Some translations, such as the New Living Translation, add wording that does not go against the intent or change the context, but it expands on the meaning and adds insight. I don’t know how many times that I have read Hebrews 8:10, and I know the intent of the words, but sometimes I need to be hit right between the eyes with what God is saying. I would venture to say that I am not alone in this. Sometimes we all need to be hit over the head with the proverbial 2×4 so that we recognize the truth behind what we profess to believe.

Do you understand and obey?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Are you ready for a transformation?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living^©

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.
(Romans 12:2 (NIV))

Do you conform to this world?

Think about this and what it truly means!

Do you do and say things in order to get what you want? Do you steal what is not yours so that you can have it? Do you think about lustful things? Do you want to be rich? Do you watch things that you shouldn’t see?

I could go on and on, but I believe that my point is one that you understand. The things of this fallen, sinful world are things that we, as the Body of Christ, should not seek after. We should seek after things that are righteous in the eyes of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
(Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV))

If you seek after something that is contrary to any or all of the fruits of the Spirit, then it should be avoided. Seek to be transformed into a person whose life reflects these characteristics.

Are you ready for a transformation?

Copyright 1998 – 2016 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Be on your guard against false teaching!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

“Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
(Matthew 16:6 (NIV))

The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the two different schools of thought about the interpretation of the scriptures. It is interesting that neither group had been able to interpret the scriptures the way that they should. They had introduced different teachings that had their origins from man and these teachings had spread through the temple and the nation like yeast through bread.

Jesus warned his disciples to watch out for these teachings and to not allow them to enter into their lives again. It is so easy to replace God’s Word with human interpretation of it. Humanity has been taking God’s Word and twisting it for their own reasons for as long as history has been recorded. The sad part is that we can all fall prey to this. Even those who proclaim to desire to know God’s Word are susceptible to twisting it for their own selfish desires. Take a long look at your life in faith. Has there ever been a person or group of people that you know who have twisted God’s Word? Now comes the hardest question of all. Have you been guilty of this yourself?

I hate to say this, but I would venture to say that all of us have done that at one point or another. We are sinful and selfish in nature. Even though we claim grace through the blood of Jesus, we are not instantly perfect. We are, however, instantly forgiven. We are being made perfect.

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
(2 Corinthians 3:18 (NIV))

Even as we are being transformed into His likeness, we can also stumble and fail because of false teaching. We must be on our guard and test what we hear and see against God’s Word. We must not allow anything to make us falter in our course. We must not fall for the false teachings of today’s Pharisees and Sadducees.

Copyright 1998 – 2014 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Will you be changed?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed– in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
(1 Corinthians 15:50-54 (NIV))

Too many people still think in the natural when it comes to heavenly matters. We will all stand before God as either redeemed believers in His Son, Jesus Christ, or as fallen sinners who are to be cast into the lake of fire with Satan.

If we are to be there as redeemed believers, then we must be transformed from our current natures. God cannot associate with sin, and since Adam and Eve let sin into the world, our physical bodies are corrupted by sin. We must be made new in a body that has not been corrupted by sin. All things will be transformed when we, as believers, stand before God as His redeemed. Those who are not transformed will be judged according to their sin in this world.

Moses was not allowed to see the face of God when he was on Mount Sinai because it would have meant instant death for him in his earthly body. If our earthly bodies cannot handle the glory of God, then those who are to spend eternity with God must be given a new body that will be pure and holy.

Will you be changed so that you can spend eternity with God, or will you face God in your earthly rags and die?

Copyright 1998 – 2012 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
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