Instantly Transformed

Here are random thoughts on a passage of scripture (2 Corinthians 5:17) that will probably turn into a communion thought some day. I'm not sure why, but I feel compelled to post them just as they are. Usually, I would clean up my random thoughts and glue them together into a coherent thought...but, here you go: the raw, unrefined thoughts of Randy...read at your own risk.

We are new creation...

God Creates - instantly exists (the creation of the world), not a process

We build, manufacture, craft (a process) - but we do not create things out of nothing; except ideas. Ideas, though, are instantly created.

Sanctified vs. Being Sanctified... Is there a contradiction?

God works inside out. Think about it like this.

• Heat a stick of butter in a pan. The surface of the butter melts, bring the next layer of butter to touch the pan until it melts. The transformation of solid to liquid is outside working in.
• Heat a stick of butter up in the microwave. The center melts and the outside caves in on itself. The transformation of solid to liquid is inside working out.

God is microwave in that he changes you on the inside instantly, then the inside works to change the outside.

We are made up of three parts: Soul, mind, body. The Soul (which is the essence of who we are and the only part of us that is eternal) is instantly transformed (sanctified). It then exerts its influence to bring the other two parts into harmony with it (being sanctified).

All things

The Christian is not simply given a ticket to heaven

Not just a new set of religious rituals

Rather, every area of his life is targeted for renewal as the result of his participation in the new life

Like food is ingested and becomes part of our body, so as we partake the body, the life, of Christ, drink his blood, his life-force, so his life and his life force becomes part of our new life.

Religion, therefore, is not a separate sphere of our life, but a divine principle by which the entire man is to pervaded, refined and made complete. The relationship with Christ takes hold of the Christian in his undivided totality...in the very center of his being. It carries light into thinking. It relays holiness into his will. It transports heaven into his heart.

So, we come together to this sacred consecration of that new birth...the glorious liberation of the Child of God over his whole inward and outward life.

No form of existence can withstand the renovating power of God's Spirit. There is no rational element that may not be sanctified; no sphere of natural life that may not be glorified.