Phasing into a Christian Lifestyle.

Romans 12:2
2 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.

Every time I return home from a mission trip I find it so difficult not to fall "to the pattern of this world." After all, it is all around us...all the time. Now that I look at it though, it's not so unreasonable to be a failure sometimes because on these mission trips we're blocking out the world, leaving everything behind, as we help other communities around the nation and around the world. On the contrary, the reality smacks us in the face when we have all our distractions and "reasons" to do as the world does when we come home.

Ever since that Friday nearly two weeks ago we've been free. Free is defined as "not physically restrained, obstructed or fixed; unimpeded. Able or permitted to take a specific action." We were free to venture back into the world. Just like any freedom, that comes with a risk though and it could very well intervene with a working or even strong relationship with Christ.

I often ask myself why can't I just take everything I learned on this mission trip, bottle it up, and pull it out as soon as I get home? The only solution that I've found successful is to stay active in the Word. You can't be passive and expect to continue to grow when you come back. Therefore, stay active in your relationship with Christ (it's never too late to start now!) and keep loving those all around you. That's how we can live up to what we're being asked to do today.

I pray that you don't even have to go on a mission trip to learn that serving God is important. Go to him BEFORE anything else. Lord, show everyone how much you love them so that they can be FREE to love others, just as you have shown us.

This is a perfect song to end my discussions about my mission trip to Alabama. It is called "I Will Go" by Starfield. I remind you don't need to go very far to go "to the world, the lost, to the poor and hungry."



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.