The Renewing of our mind

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Judgment">Righteous Judgment</A></div> <div> <A HREF="id337.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The physical and spiritual blessings of ">The physical and spiritual blessings of submission</A></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" height=380 width="100%" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>THE RENEWING OF OUR MIND</B></I></div> <div>      </div> <bR> <div> “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”</div> <div>  <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" >                                                                                                                                                 1 Cor 15:49</FONT></div> <div>                         </div> <div>      We have listened for two and a half years from a politician who has elevated the slogan “Change” we can believe in” This recent governmental news of “Change” is on many Americans mind today, but this “change” is just a - temporary political change. </div> <div>      I want to address “Change,” the kind of  “Change”- you and I can believe in.  The Bible is very clear in regard <B>to change</B>, both  <B>physical change</B> and <B>spiritual change.</B></div> <div>      When the Apostle Paul was dealing with the order and method of the resurrections -changes, he made the positive statement, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot <U>inherit </U>the Kingdom of God; neither does corruption <U>inherit</U> incorruption” (1 Cor 15: 50).  The emphasis here is on the word "inherit." Many will become citizens in the placePlaceTypeKingdom of PlaceNameGod, but only a few - will inherit ruler ship. </div> <div>      In the 8th chapter of Romans, Paul pointed out - that all who obey God's word  are the children of God - and therefore “heirs of God.” “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom 8:17).</div> <div>      This is Christ' prayer request to His Father in John 17, just before His crucifixion, He was asking to allow His dedicated loyal followers to behold and share in His glory: “Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which You have given Me: for You loved Me before the foundation of the World” (John 17: 24). </div> <div>      Before any of us can one day be inherited for change with Jesus Christ, a mystery of change has to take place.  Immediately after Paul stated, “neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,” he went on to explain in detail the rest of <B>the millennial story.  </B>“Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep [that is, die],  but we shall all be <B>changed</B>, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the <B>last trump</B>: For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be <B>changed. </B>For this corruptible must put on in- corruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory” (I Cor. 15:51-54). </div> <div>      Twice Paul used the phrase, “we shall be changed.” Change is defined in the dictionary  -  as  implying 1). making a  radical  difference” 2). to under go  transformation 3). substitute one thing - for another 4). Foliage - changing color 5). put on different clothing. Paul's statements, although intended to be clarifying, would still be an enigma - a mystery if it were not for some additional means of acquiring knowledge.</div> <div>      God has not been unmindful of this need  to be a help in understanding things to come. <B>Example:</B>  Within the confines of a twenty-four hour day, most human beings are taking part of being in a state of death,-meaning there is no consciousness or comprehension, we experience suspended animation for a few hours, then we wake up - recharged - and ready for a another day of action! </div> <div>      All living adults know -- that they will die but the dead the scriptures states: “the dead know not any thing” (Eccl  9: 5).  For us who are yet alive a dreamless sleep demonstrates how there can be a  total  forgetfulness, with no knowledge of the passing of time. But it's a fact that, when one awakens,  information apart from himself tells him how long he has been sleeping. If it were-not for that there would be no immediate personal recognition of the extent - of the passing of time.  Therefore,  the Bible refers to the first death as just being asleep, - from which there will be an awakening in the day of a person's resurrection and change to a time of eternal life or eternal death.</div> <div>      To help us understand, let's turn our attention to the first book in the Bible, called beginnings. We have all heard Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong open many of his sermons with Genesis 2 that speaks of Adam and the two trees.  “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in placeCityEden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Gen 2:7).  And then in verses 16 and 17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shalt not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shalt surely die.”</div> <div>      This death is speaking of just being asleep, being unconscious until the  resurrection. One more thought from this chapter and this is from <B> verse  25 - </B>that records: <B>“And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” </B></div> <div> <B>     </B>We have all heard this story of Adam and Eve and the two trees many times. But there seems to be  evidence to bear out that, due to the disobedience that brought about the verdict of death for Adam and his posterity, <B>a change did occur- affecting their human body. </B>Recently we heard a sermon tape by Mr. Herbert Armstrong speaking about these  <B>two trees </B>and created <B>matter </B>that as he said - is constantly changing. What is this  ever changing created matter he was speaking about?  And who is responsible for creating it? <B> </B>“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. <B>All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. </B>In Him was life; and the life was the <B>light of men, </B>and <B>the light shines </B>in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not” (John 1:1-5). [See Eph 3:9  and Rev 4:11].  They both clearly say - “Jesus Christ created all things.”  Daniel expresses - God knows everything He [God] reveals the deep and secret things: He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him” (Dan 2:22).</div> <div>      Throughout life - it has been rightly observed there is much that we do not know, and even more   </div> <div> that we do not know that we do not know!  It seems there is no end to the discoveries man makes about the mysteries revealed in the heights of the universe and the depths of the oceans.  </div> <div>      While scientists address those realms of knowledge, the average person is consumed with his own lists  of  “don't knows” and wrong predictions.  There have been quite a few wrong predictions in history. To name a few in 1901 Wilbur Wright said that man would not fly for 50 years.  Henry Ford's  banker told him,   “The horse is here to stay, and the automobile is only a novelty and fad.”  The manager of the Grand Ole Opry  fired Elvis Presley and said, “you ain't goin' nowhere son.”  Just as the Wright brothers, Henry Ford, and Elvis were <B>not afraid </B>to go forward with their visions based upon a skeptic's opinion, God's called should never be afraid either. Listening to critics should only increase our study and our faith!  </div> <div>      With that back ground- setting the stage, lets with our vision look forward with some thoughts  on Gen 2: 25 that said, <B>“Adam and Eves were both naked, and were not ashamed.”</B> There was an article of special interest that was  published in the “Inventors about.com” in which a  reference was made about fluorescent lights -  lamps by the inventor Irving Langmuir.  Mr. Langmuir was a chemist who worked for General Electric Company. His accomplishments there was the introduction to  “hydrogen welding,” next using dry ice and iodide to seed certain clouds for production of rain or snow.  One day while he was working with electrified  ionized gases  he invented the fluorescent light.  </div> <div> He writes-“it was the way electrified fluid carried high velocity electrons, ions and impurities that reminded me of the way <B>Blood  plasma </B>carried red and white corpuscles and germs.  “So I named my experimental result  <B><U>plasma.</U></B>”     </div> <div>      Keep in mind what we were taught in school - while growing up, that electricity powers our world and our bodies.  Our bodies are a collection of positive and negative electrical matter.  </div> <div>      Plasma is one of four states of matter, it makes up 99% of all visible matter in the universe. According to the dictionary definition of “blood plasma,” it is the fluid part of blood, and “plasma” is a word used also  in regards to a variety of quartz. </div> <div>      Revelation 21 and 22, writes of the New Jerusalem having transparent crystalline - plasma quartz called  precious stones. </div> <div>           Jasper - emerald- beryl</div> <div>          Chalcedony - is green;</div> <div>          Sapphire - is blue;</div> <div>          Sardonyx - is  red and white;</div> <div>          Sardius  - is blood red; </div> <div>          Chrysolite - is yellow or gold;  </div> <div>          Topaz - is greenish - gold - or yellow; </div> <div>          Jacinth - is bluish purple; </div> <div>          Amethyst - is deep purple;</div> <div>          And Gold is also a plasma quartz. </div> <div>       All brilliant bright transparent crystalline colors that are faintly translucent allowing  light to partially pass through them. </div> <div>      Plasma is a gas in which at very high temperatures strip electrons from the atoms, making it [plasma]  a good electrical conductor and it causes a brilliant luminescence, come out of solids, liquids -  and ordinary gas.</div> <div>      “Space weather center” and “Jefferson Lab” records our <B>sun </B>is a great plasma fusion furnace as are all <B>stars</B> that give off light. Another internet site called  “Space log” writes, negatively charged dust particles in plasma can form crystal like structures this makes the topic of dusty plasmas of interest to a wide community of researchers.  </div> <div>      In  researching this subject the assertion was made in a old book called “The Hour Cometh,” that  a leading scientist said - “blood is crystallized light.”  This led to the reasonable conjecture that Adam and Eve, in their sinless state, were clothed in light as with a garment.  What would make us think that? When reading Genesis1 and 2:  verse 26 of Gen 1: catches our attention. “And God said, let Us make man in Our <B>image</B>, after Our <B>likeness</B>.”</div> <div>      In the New Brown Driver- Briggs-Gesenius -Hebrew-English Lexicon, Strong's number 1823 - </div> <div> gives the definition for <B>likeness</B> as: 1). external appearance; 2). something that appeared like; 3).one like the son of man; 4). resemblance;  5). son in likeness of father; 6).  man in likeness of God.</div> <div>      The Biblical account states in Gen. 2: 25, “they were naked and <B>were not ashamed.</B>” Apparently it seems, when they sinned, by disobeying God's instructions to <B>not</B> eat of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” they lost their garments of light, <U>God's likeness</U> He created them in. With that result -  they hid themselves when they heard the voice of the Lord as He walked in the garden.  “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, where are you?  And he said, I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.  And He said, who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the “tree,” whereof I commanded you that you should not eat?” (Gen 3:9-11).</div> <div>      What was the atomic change that took place in the sphere of this electrical matter to bring about this transformation? </div> <div>       If blood is "congealed” light, the conclusion is justified that, when the garments of light disappeared, its crystallization became blood in the bodies of Adam and Eve. </div> <div>      While we do not now possess the necessary knowledge to fully comprehend what was involved, we do know that, after they sinned, Adam and Eve became aware that they were naked.  “And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons [coverings]” (Gen. 3:7).  </div> <div>        Does the Bible bring to light other examples and miracles such as this? When Moses descended from placeMount Sinai, after having been in the presence of the Lord, his face shone with such brilliance that he had to put on a veil while he talked with the people. “And when Aaron and all the children of placecountry-regionIsrael saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come near him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him: and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of country-regionIsrael came near: and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in placeMount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face.  But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of placecountry-regionIsrael that which he was commanded. And the children of country-regionplaceIsrael saw the face of Moses that the skin of Moses' face shone: and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with Him” (Ex 34:30-34).</div> <div>      When Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration, the Bible tells us “His face "did shine as the sun” “And after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and brought  them up into an high mountain apart, and was <B>transfigured</B> before them: and His face did <B>shine </B>as the<B> sun</B>, and His raiment was <B>white as the light”</B> (Matt 17:1-2). The Apostle John speaks of the brightness of our Lord in Revelation 1:16, “His countenance was <B>as the sun shines in his strength." </B></div> <div>      At this point, we should start to see this created pattern of <B>likeness </B>from the beginning starting to emerge and our spiritual future of likeness ahead.  It is asserted that the sun, stars and nebulae of matter is plasma maintained by the intense heat of nuclear reactions in the stars.  Researchers say  it is now possible to make “plasma-torches- meaning “Colorful laboratory stars.” They can do this by  introducing different quantities of plasma matter into the torches  heat. Then they compare the spectrum of bright brilliant translucent array of colors we read about earlier, with those of natural stars, to find the proportions in the “recipe” for the stars in the universe.  </div> <div>      All of this opens up intriguing fields of investigation and introduces some very interesting speculations, for God's called to attaining eternal life, that is expressed in 1 Cor 15: and 1 Thess 4: <B>“we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye</B>.” </div> <div>      <U>A Question comes to mind? </U>  Will our change to spirit beings-  be "congealed" light?  Will we be clothed in garments of bright translucent white light? Will we shine as the sun?   Jesus Christ answer this last question first for us.  “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt 13:43).</div> <div>      Now let's look for answers to the other questions about wearing <B>garments of white light.  </B>In Revelation 3:5, reference is made on these subjects.  “He that overcomes, the same shall be <B>clothed in white raiment</B>; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” The Greek word translated “white” means: light, -  bright  - brilliant  -  white -  shining.      </div> <div>      We now know man has produced plasma matter that can cause a brilliant luminescence,  accompanied by great heat, but the gleaming brightness of the glorified body we read of will be a bright light without the accompanying destructive heat. </div> <div>      The words of the prophet Daniel come to mind when he was referring to the resurrection yet to come. He prophesied: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall I awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever lasting contempt” (Dan 12:2).  <B>Then he stated specifically, </B> `They that be wise shall <B>shine as the brightness </B>of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the  <B>stars </B>for ever and ever”(Dan. 12: 3). Daniel was referring to the exalted position that will be occupied by the wise and the righteous. But the degree of brightness and color in the garment or clothing, worn in the service of our Lord of lords and King of kings is also implied here. The angles puts a time table on this event, “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase” (Dan 12:4). </div> <div>      Another  question arises: will the variety in the colors and brightness of the light in which each will be clothed reveal the rank of the official position of the one so dressed?  Not sure what your thoughts are on these questions. But, It seems, there will be a variety of jobs and rewards granted that will bring about  differences of garment colors, and garment bright-nesses. </div> <div>      We read of diversities of gifts, differences of administrations, diversities of operations.  Also different jobs: different possessions, and responsibilities, etc. This will be according to one's faithfulness in his or her earthly obedience in their serving - God and His word. </div> <div>      It is for this reason we need to always keep in mind, that “Judgement begins at  the house of God”   (1 Pet 4:17).  Paul seems to confirm this job identification.  He defines a variation  in the magnitude of order by  using the example of God's tools in the heaven to help us put this in perspective. “There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead”(I Cor15:41-42). The Ferrar Fenton Bible renders this: “The sun has one splendor, and the moon another splendor, and another splendor for stars; for stars differs from stars  in brilliancy: And thus also in the resurrection of the dead.”</div> <div>      This is extremely thought-provoking in view of the fact - that those clothed in this manner are numbered in the great army attending the rider upon the white horse of Revelation 19: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many Crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called the Word of God.  And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses,  clothed in fine linen, white and clean” (Rev 19:11-14). </div> <div>      It goes without saying that degree and rank in that army will be distinguished as readily by the type of uniform worn as is true in any earthly army's today.  The radiant display, of God's army winding  its way to the earth, will be beyond description.</div> <div>      Hear the words of Paul translated by the Phillips Bible, “But to those whom He has made holy His coming will mean splendor unimaginable.  It will be a breath-taking wonder to all who believe” (2 Thess 1: 10). </div> <div> <B>A FEW VERSES TO THINK ABOUT:</B></div> <bR> <div>  “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come” (Job 14:14). </div> <bR> <div>  “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Who has ears to hear, let him hear”  (Matt 13:43). </div> <bR> <div>    “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof” (Rev 21:23). </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I>“</I></FONT><I>And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the placePlaceTypekingdom of PlaceNameGod; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be </I><I><B>changed</B></I><I>, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be </I><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Times New Roman" ><I><B>changed</B></I><I>” </I></FONT><I>(1 Cor 15:49-52). </I></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> James Russell</div> <div>  </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>