Conform or Transform Your Choice

1. 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.  2.  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.

Read this scripture this morning and I want share a few thoughts I am learning.

The Definition of Conform reads 

(of a person) behave according to socially acceptable conventions or standards.

"the pressure to conform"

synonyms:

follow convention, be conventional, fit in, adapt, adjust, follow the crowd;

A lot of times we apply this to just our community and culture, but we are can be conformed to so many other things; families, friends, jobs.  All come together to form our opinions about who we choose to walk in life.  We try to fit in or conform to “our” worlds.  We do this because it becomes our norm, even though deep down inside we know we are different, and we know we are made for something greater.

In this scripture we are challenged to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  We have to purposely change the way we think and react to life’s situations.  Reading about and paying close attention and believing how God see’s situations will change how we think about things.  Soon you will see you can’t conform to the things that you have conformed to before.  It is a process and requires us to take some deep accounts of the things we are conformed to.  Some of these things are not even considered “bad” things either, but it if conforming to it leads you from God will for your life then we have to recognize it as being something that is not good for ourselves.

It is time to become a “living sacrifice” and the walking proof of God’s goodness and what can happen when we follow His perfect will for our lives!

Stay encouraged and purposefully and remember to do everything in LOVE!

Shelton

J’Agape – Jesus & Unconditional Love

For more Great Blogs, Videos, Podcast, and more visit www.jagape.com

What Happened to J'agape?

Hey everyone,

For years now, we have been walking in the vision and plan God gave us called J’agape!  It has been a wonderful yet challenging walk which has allowed us to connect with some awesome people all looking to affect the world with their Love and gifting’s in a positive manner.  J’agape has been a platform for showcasing these gifts to a “world” that in a lot of cases doesn’t even knows exists.  J’agape has brought awareness of purposeful organizations battling with things such as domestic abuse, homelessness, poverty, aids and many other community challenges.  We partner with like-minded business and organizations who put God’s agenda before all else.  Through our out of the box events, and award winning online radio show “TheReuP” we have effectively created a platform, that reaches far beyond just the churches 4 walls.  For the last two months however J’agape was placed into a “holding pattern” season. 

     After having one of our most impactful events to date “Men vs. Women”, I the visionary of J’agape and my family were hit with one of our biggest life test to-date.  I will not go into detail about the circumstances of everything but understand that this season tested everything in us.  It caused me to at times question if what God had even shared with me about J’agape would even come to past.  It put an unexpected stress on me, my family, business associates and friends.  Well as my co-host LaSonya always says diamonds are born from pressure, hence the name of her award winning radio segment “Diamond Power”.   Although the entire situation was uncomfortable and inconvenient it caused everyone close to the situation to pray more, trust more, ultimately building a stronger relationship with God.  It even allowed new kingdom connections to be made, that I believe will ultimately allow J’agape to step into its next phase of “kingdom growth”.  This processed birth new testimonies, new ideas, new associations, new favor, and most of all another revelation of who God is. 

     I am writing today to tell anyone reading this, that no matter what you are going through or dealing with, seek God’s face through it all.  Instead of going with the urge to run away and hide, seek Him and trust him all the more, and watch what he does.  Recognize that God is still in control and that He has a “good “plan for everything that we go through (good, bad or indifferent).  Embrace the process and allow yourself to gain a new revelation of who God is, what he wants you to do and how he wants you to do it.  If you are never sick, how can you see him as your healer, or as Bishop TD Jakes stated in his sermon yesterday “How can you have resurrection without crucifixion.”    

     Finally I want to announce that J’agape is still here – and we are expecting great things as we walk into the next season God has planned for us.  We know that without a doubt God will do amazing things in us and through us.  We are here to challenge you to trust God with all your heart, stay encouraged, and love one another unconditionally.  The Body of Christ has a lot to do and to make it happen we have to be Spirit Led and United.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers! 

Shelton

J’Agape – “Jesus and Unconditional Love”

www.jagape.com

"Church - Can't We all Just Get Along" - Part II Church Division

I had to take a break from some of my daily duties and share a little revelation with you that I received from Mark Chapter 9 this morning.  At the end of the chapter God says something that has been on my heart for a while now.  You may have heard me on my radio show and previous blogs, talk about church division and how I believe it weakens us, distracts us and hinders us from spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hear a number of things people suggest as reasons for church ineffectiveness, such as bad doctrine, or should I say what the individual believes to be bad doctrine.  I hear things like the church is weak because we preach too much about grace, we have this so called “prosperity gospel” we are not teaching enough about the consequences, what we wear and should not wear and so on.  I normally see these come from whatever background or religion you were raised in or currently study.  Growing up, I had the experience of being a part of a number of different religions (Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, COGIC just to name a few).  They all read the same bible, but based off what religion you were in, the focus is normally on one aspect of the bible more than the other.  Isn’t the WHOLE Bible true?  Is one part greater than the other?  Every time I read my bible I get something new from it; even when I go back and read a scripture I may have read hundreds of times before.  This leads me to this morning’s reading of Mark 9. 

A quick synopsis Jesus in the beginning of the chapter said he wanted to spend some time with his disciples – Shares with them again what would happen to him on the cross (they still didn’t understand or get the hint) – Then as they go along their way the disciples  begin to discuss who was greater amongst them – From there Jesus tries to address that with them in a number of different ways – John questions Jesus about the man that was already casting out demons in His name – Then using what I believe to be an analogy of a little children, explains what would happen if we make them stumble(I will elaborate on this point in future blog) – Finally we get to verse 50 where he says something that sticks out to me like a sore thumb.  He starts talking about “salt” and we must be like it.  We must have its qualities and live in peace with each other.  WOW - live in peace with each other.  Keep in mind he is talking to the disciples – if you are saved that is supposed to be you and me.   Now there are a lot of things in this chapter as the old saints would say “that will preach”.   So as you read it - let it, however I had to go study more about salt and how its qualities relate in bible.  Here is something I discovered on top of some of the things I shared in a previous blog (Flava Flav).  When God speaks of salt in scriptures it normally speaks to a covenant of peace.  In verse 50 he actually tells us this.  Now keep in mind a few verses up the disciples were just talking about who was greater.  I can imagine John feeling like he loved Jesus more because he hugged Jesus a lot and was more loving, while Peter thinks he loves Jesus more because he will cut an ear of for Jesus if need be (It is funny how as people we feel that everyone expresses things the way we do, and should if they don’t).  They were so consumed with trying to figure out who was greater, they couldn’t even focus on the main thing, which was Jesus, who had just told them that He would be betrayed, die, and be resurrected in three days.   No matter what the disciples did or how they did it, or what their strength or weakness was – did it even compare to what Jesus was about to do for us all.  They were missing the point all together and at that time preoccupied with competition and disunity.  I see this same spirit in “the church body” – this spirit of competition (my doctrine is better than yours) and disunity.  Church, are we missing the point?!   Are we more consumed with proving that our doctrine is more correct than the next that we forget to share Jesus?  Isn’t the point to let the world know what Jesus did for them on the cross over 2000 years ago.  If my brother or sister is proclaiming this and encouraging people to believe it, that is what makes them my brother or sister, regardless if they believe in everything I do, or if I believe in everything they do.  Imagine if we really started acting a one body under one head, capitalizing on each other’s strengths.   We have ONE HEAD CHURCH – that is JESUS!

More to come about this subject –

Morning Manna

J’agape ~ Jesus’s Unconditional Love

For more blogs and challenging and encouraging media visit www.jagape.com