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The Coat-Tail Effect

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 2
Meditation: Ephesians 2:8-10

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Shift Your Focus… These are perhaps three of the most revolutionary verses in the entire Bible, dramatically revealing how our salvation really came about. Basically, Paul is telling us that we are saved totally by the love, grace, mercy, will and power of God. We had very little to do with it—except to simply, humbly and gratefully receive this marvelous gift. And even then, God helped us with that. This is the coat-tail effect: God did all the work, now we get a free ride on his efforts.

So what does this mean for me? Plenty! Among the countless numbers of ramifications, one of the most enjoyable is that I can sit back and simply rest in this wonderful gift of salvation provided in Christ Jesus.

Let me spell out 4 things in from these verses using the word REST that you can try as a response of worship for your salvation:

Reflect: First of all, this week, reflect on God’s grace. Verse 8 says “it is by grace you are saved…” Verses 4-5 say, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead…” You did nothing to save yourself and make you acceptable to God. You were dead! Do you know what a dead person can do to be un-dead. Nothing—except lay there and be dead! It was all up to God—so just spend some time thinking about that…and it will lead to this…

Express: Express your gratitude to God for the gift of salvation. Express prayer of thanksgiving every day up to and including Thanksgiving Day specifically for the gift of eternal life he has given you. Do you realize how marvelous this gift is? Verse 8 goes on to say that every aspect of your salvation “is the gift of God.” Even the faith to believe was God’s gift, according to the grammar of that verse. God has even provided you the ability to believe—how awesome it that!

Stop: Stop working for what you already have—approval! Verse 10 says “you are God’s workmanship…” God does not accept or approve of you based on your efforts—he does so based on Christ’s work. You were “created in Christ Jesus.” You are his masterpiece! So whenever you feel the need to perform for your worth—quit! You’re already worthy. Just take delight in God and what he’s done for you through Jesus. Delighting in God is a very spiritual matter—and it’s appropriate! So stop working for approval and enjoy God this week!

Trade: Trade your ‘to do’ list for God’s. Verse 10 says you were created, “to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.” Once you’re freed from the need to work for approval and acceptance, you can do the works that arise out of grace—those are the “good works prepared in advance for you to do.” What are those good works? I don’t know, but as Augustine once said, “just love God and do as you please,” and I have a feeling you’ll be just fine!

A flea was riding on an elephant’s ear when they came to an old wooden bridge. And as they crossed the bridge wobbled badly and almost collapsed. When they got the other side the flea said to the elephant, “Boy, we shook that bridge, didn’t we!”

Friend, you’ve crossed over the bridge of faith ridding on someone else’s efforts. So quit trying to add to it—it’s already done. Quit trying to get there—you’re already there. Just rest and enjoy the ride. Enjoy who you are in Christ based on what he’s done for you on the cross.

“Delighting in God is the work of our lives. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” ~John Piper

Prayer… Father, I am your workmanship. I am your masterpiece. How marvelous the thought! Enable me to live up to that and honor your design in everything I think, say and do.

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Introducing The New, Redeemed You

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Ephesians 1
Meditation: Ephesians 1:3

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

Shift Your Focus… What amazing spiritual wealth we possess! Paul says that since we have come to know Christ, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing that heaven has to offer—right now! Not someday; not when we get to heaven (and there’ll be plenty more there); but right here and now.

What are those blessings? Paul enumerates them here in the first chapter of Ephesians:

  • I am a saint
  • I am in Christ
  • I am faithful
  • I have every spiritual blessing
  • I have been chosen by God
  • I am holy and without blame
  • I have been adopted by God
  • I am accepted by God
  • I am been redeemed and forgiven
  • I abound in God’s grace
  • I have knowledge of God’s will
  • I have an eternal inheritance
  • I have been sealed with the Holy Spirit
  • I am guaranteed my eternal inheritance

Do you see yourself that way? Do you see yourself as a saint or as a sinner? Do you see yourself as holy and blameless or unclean and guilty? Do you see yourself as God’s chosen, adopted and accepted child or as a spiritual outsider? Do you see yourself as faithful or are you uncertain about your spiritual standing? Are you experiencing all of those spiritual blessings in your life right now or settling for so much less?

I think most of us, in truth, settle for so much less than what God has already made available to us in Christ. C. S. Lewis said it this way:

“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Fortunately, we can change the way we think and how we perceive ourselves and begin to act according to our new identity. How? By learning to see ourselves as God sees us.

According to these verses in chapter one, this list of 14—what I’d call spiritual birthmarks—is how God identifies you, and how you must begin to see yourself.

I want to give you an assignment. Copy the list of 14 to a 3×5 card and tape it to your mirror, your dashboard or computer screen and read it aloud to yourself, at least once a day, for 21 days.

When you look into a mirror, you see yourself as you see you. When you look into your mirror and see yourself along with these 14 identifying characteristics, you will see yourself as God sees you. And I think you will like what you begin to see—God certainly does.

But you say, “I don’t really feel like any of those!” So what! Who said it was based on how you feel? You say, “But I don’t deserve any of those things!” You’re absolutely right! You don’t deserve a one of them. All those wonderful things GOD declares to be true of you are the result of GOD’S doing, not yours. You are a saint by HIS will. HE chose, adopted and accepted you. It was because of HIS good pleasure and purpose and by HIS power. It was HIS calling, inheritance, love. HE predestined, redeemed and forgave you.

If you were to take a sneak peak at chapter 2, you would see that all this was done by HIS grace, because you are HIS workmanship. In chapter 3, you will find it is GOD who is able to do more than you ask or imagine according to HIS power working in you.

Do you see the pattern? All of these spiritual blessings are up to God, not you.

So the question now is, will you begin to believe what God has declared to be true of you?

I hope you will, because if you will, it will change your life for the better!

“If we could see ourselves as God does, we would be tempted to fall down and worship ourselves.”

Prayer… Thank you. God, for the spiritual blessings that are now mine in Jesus Christ.  These are my new spiritual birthmarks. You identify me by them, and when you look at me, they are what you see.  Now, Lord, give me the vision to see myself as you see me.

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Unsung Heroes

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 16
Meditation: Romans 16:1

“I commend to you Phoebe…she has been helpful to many, and especially to me.”

Shift Your Focus… So who was Phoebe?  We don’t really know, except that she was a deacon in the church in Cenchrea—which brings up a whole different matter about women deacons.  I won’t go there for now, but, hey, the Bible sure does…

Anyway, we don’t know much about Phoebe, or the other people Paul names as he closes out the book of Romans.  Now at this point, I want to do something normally guaranteed to lose your interest at this point—I want to list those names for you. But before I do, promise me that you’ll read through this entire list.  You probably won’t be able to pronounce them names correctly, but that’s okay. I can’t either.  I just read them really fast and with a lot of gusto, so when people hear me they think I must be an expert in ancient languages.  Try it—you’ll impress your friends.

So here they are: There’s Priscilla Aquila, Penetus, Mary, Andronicus, Junia, Ampliatus, Urbanus, Stachys, Apelles, the household of Aristobulus, the household of Narcissus, Tryphena, Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus and his mother, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and his fellow Christians, Philologus, Julia, Nereus and his sister, Olympia and her Christian friends, Timothy, Lucias, Jason, Sosipater, Tertius, Gaius, Erastus, and last but not least, Quartus.

Whew!  My spell-checker is smoking.  I don’t think it will ever be the same again.

So what’s up with these names?  Simply this:  Paul, the great Apostle, the guy who deservedly gets his name in lights almost every Lord’s Day in churches around the world, knew very well that he couldn’t have done it without the help of his friends.  If Paul were accepting an Oscar, he would be up there for minutes listing off all the people he’d like to thank—these names and many others he mentions in some of his other writings.

This great theologian who was largely responsible for the evangelization of the western world didn’t do it all by himself.  He needed a little help from his friends in every city where he preached the gospel and/or planted a church.  Though you will likely never hear a sermon or attend a Bible study where these names are given any mention, Paul gives them their props in the eternal Word of God.

My point is, it takes a team to do the work of the Kingdom. For sure, there are leading characters on the Kingdom team, but it’s still a team, mostly of unnamed, unsung heroes who are typically forgotten—except by God.  God never forgets.  He appreciates the contributions of each and every one—even the lesser lights.  And he has stored up indescribable recognition and reward for them in the Kingdom to come.  And Paul’s mention of them here in the last chapter in Romans is a subtle reminder to us of their contribution to his efforts and of their value to God.

Maybe you are one of those unnamed, unsung heroes who goes unnoticed by everyone else.  But your faithfulness is noticed by God.  Perhaps you are a Phoebe to a Paul or a Patrobas to a Peter or a Junius to a John, and you wonder if you really matter.  My response to you is, “Yes, you matter.  We wouldn’t be effective in building God’s Kingdom without you!  It takes a team—and no matter how you feel, you are an integral part of that team!”

But more important than my acknowledgement is God’s.  He has written your name in a book too—one that’s even better than Romans.  It’s the Book of Life. And God himself will celebrate your name all eternity long.  How’s that for recognition.

So just be faithful doing what you’re doing.  Your day is coming!

“God has not called us to do great things, but to do small things with great love.” ~Mother Teresa

Prayer… Lord, I thank you for all of the unsung heroes who have quietly but faithfully built your Kingdom throughout my life.  People like Emma Miller and Gertrude Martin and Mr. Ewing…  They are now gone, and have mostly been forgotten on this planet, but they are not forgotten by you.  They have joined the unending list of others long gone but not forgotten by you.  They are the spiritual fathers and mothers of others who now serve in your eternal kingdom quietly but faithfully.  Father, bless each one.  Wrap your arms around them and remind them again that you noticed.  And say “thank you” for me.

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Get Missional

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 15
Meditation: Romans 15:20-21

“My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.  I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.’”

Shift Your Focus… Are you a missions-minded Christian?

I thought I was. I grew up in the church where the occasional missionary would come, and if we were lucky, show slides of his work in Africa, or some other far off place that I’d only heard about in geography lessons at school. Then I grew up and became a pastor, and again, the occasional missionary would come and tell the church of what God was doing somewhere far away, and I would feel good that we were a missions church. I would even give occasionally to support the church’s missions effort around the world. I thought I was a missions-minded Christian.

But that began to change. Periodically, I was sent oversees for short-term missions projects by the various churches I served, and my heart begin to get reshaped by what I saw God doing among people who had never heard the name of Jesus before. The signs, wonders and miracles in the missions context (Paul talks about that in this missions context in Romans 15:19) blew my mind. I had never seen such things in the U.S, and experiencing it abroad, I longed to see the supernatural back home in my church, too. God was shaking and reshaping my heart for missions.

Then a few years ago, God completely dislocated my heart, and gave me a passion for missions, for reaching people who’d never heard the Gospel of Christ. I have a notion now that I have become a missions-minded Christian.

It all happened when I reluctantly got involved in a church-planting project in a remote, unreached region in Africa. I was reluctant because I knew that my involvement would require a lot of my own personal resources, and to be successful, would require significant resources from my church. Figuring our resource pie was stretched, and limited, I secretly feared that the finances we dedicated to this project would flow away from other worthy projects; that we would simply be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Then, as I was stressing over this likely outcome, something wonderful happened. God spoke to me. Not in an audible voice or through writing on the wall or some other sensational sort of way (wouldn’t that be cool!). He simply and clearly spoke to me through an undeniable and unmistakable inner impression in my spirit. Addressing my stressing, he simply said, “Ray, if you will take care of the things I care about, then I will take care of the things you care about. I care about a lost world. I care about people who have never heard my name. And I want you to care about them too!”

That was good enough for me. I jumped into this project up to my eye-balls, and true to his word, God turned on a miraculous flow of resources, not only for the church planting project, but for those other projects I had been so concerned about as well. Best of all, our obedience keyed a revival in this region of Africa that was beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. In a region where only a few believers attended a handful of churches before this missions effort, 10 years later nearly thousands of churches have been planted and hundreds of thousands of believers have been added to those churches. And the revival is showing no signs of slowing.

What God has done in Africa through the obedience of that church changed my heart forever, and has given me a growing, if not consuming passion for missions. I still have a passion for my local church (that’s missions, too), but I have an added ambition now: To keep God’s people focused on reaching people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ.

That was Paul’s ambition, according to Romans 15:20. That is God’s ambition, according to Romans 15:21. I hope that you will open your heart and let God make it your ambition as well. I hope that you will travel with me down the path to becoming a missions-minded Christian. If you will, I will make you the same promise God made me:

“If you will take care of the things God cares about—a lost world, God will take care of the things you care about—your world.”

What a deal! That’s an offer you can’t refuse.

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” ~Henry Martyn

Prayer… God, you so love the world that you went on a missions trip to it, giving your very best to save it by giving your Son to die for it. Love was the root of your mission, and sacrifice was its fruit. I am the beneficiary of such extravagant love and costly sacrifice.  In truth, I am a product of missions.  Today, make me a loving and sacrificial extension of your mission to reach a lost world.

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What Truly Matters

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 14
Meditation: Romans 14:17

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or what we drink, but of living a life of goodness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Shift Your Focus… So much of what Christians get uptight about, particularly as it relates to how others are living out their faith, really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of how the Kingdom of God is to be fleshed out.  It just doesn’t matter if some believers drink wine or play cards or put a dollar down on the lottery, or go to movies or dance socially, or you name it.  It doesn’t matter if some Christians run around, jump up and down and wave flags when they worship, or go to church on Friday night rather than Sunday morning, or give their offerings online rather than in the plate, or whatever, whatever…

That’s what Paul is really teaching here in Romans 14. Certain of the Roman Christians in Paul’s day were getting uptight with other believers, because they weren’t living out their faith the way these Roman church members were.  In that day, the issue had to do with certain foods that some believers felt was inappropriate to eat.  The big deal about meat was that before it had been purchased, it had likely been sacrificed to an idol prior to its arrival at the market. That was a concern to the non-meat eating believers, because they believed that to now eat that meat was to give tacit worship to idols.

Another issue had to do with what day they believed was the correct day to gather for worship.  Some thought that Saturday, the Sabbath, was the correct day, while others preferred Sunday worship service.  And as people chose sides over these issues, hard feelings and disharmony was the result in the church.

So Paul says, “look gang, what foods you eat or don’t eat and what day you choose to worship just doesn’t matter in the bigger picture of what the Kingdom of God is all about.  You are free to do what you want so long as your bottom line motivation in life is to bring honor to the Lord.”  Notice these words,

“For we don’t live for ourselves of die for ourselves.  If we live, it is to honor the Lord.  And if we die, it is to honor the Lord.  So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  (Romans 14:7-8)

That is a great rule of life to live by.  If your motive is to bring honor to the Lord, then nothing else really matters.  Do what you want, eat what you want, drink what you want, worship when you want and in the way you want—as long as your sole purpose is to glorify the Lord.  That’s why Paul went on to remind these believers, “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of meat or drink, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Now Paul gives a couple of caveats to this principle.  One, if you cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble by deliberately doing certain things that offend their conscience, then you’ve missed the point.  You are not glorifying God.  You are unnecessarily creating disharmony, and harmony in the family of God is a big deal, a very big deal, to the Lord.  And two, if you take advantage of this liberty in Christ to do something that your own conscience tells you not to do, then you have crossed over into sin.  So be careful in the exercise of your Christian freedom.

Here is what really matters in our Christian faith:  Just do everything to honor God, and you will be okay.

“To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.”  ~St. Augustine

Prayer… Lord, thank you for the amazing freedom you have given me to enjoy life.  Since you have blessed me with such a gift—the gift of Christian liberty—I want to dedicate it back to you in the form of a life lived to glorify you, even in the minute details. I want that to be the rule of my life—to glorify you in all things.  May that be the one and only thing that matters.

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Just Love, Then Do What You Want

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 13
Meditation: Romans 13:9-10

“These—and other such commands—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”

Shift Your Focus… God’s requirements for us are pretty simple really—just love everybody like we would want to be loved.  That means we would love them when they deserved it, and even when they didn’t.  We would love them when we felt like it, and even when we didn’t.  We would love them not just in word, but we would love them in action.  We would love them like they needed to be loved, like God loves them, like the creatures of a Creator who created them inherently worthy of love.

If we would just do what God created us to do—love—I have a feeling that 99% of the issues we wrestle with, the relationships we struggle over, and the trouble we find ourselves in would be taken care of.  Love—that’s the cure for what ails you!

So where and how are we supposed to live out this life of love?  Paul gives us three relational arenas in Romans 13.  The first area has to do with our relationship to the government—what you might call the civil arena (verses 1-7).

Here Paul says God expects us to respect our government and its leaders—something that we often find hard to do.  We are to observe the laws they establish; view them as God-ordained instruments for order; submit to them not only as an act of civic duty, but as that which is necessary for a clear conscience; pay our taxes; and give them honor and respect.  In fact, over in II Timothy 2:2-3, Paul takes it a step further and says that we are even to pray for our governmental leaders,

“Pray for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.  This is good and pleases God our savior…”

When I think of some of the government administrations and leaders that I’ve endured during my lifetime, what Paul is asking seems like a tall order.  But keep in mind that Paul wrote to the Roman believers about respecting and obeying government under some pretty awful leaders like Emperor Nero and his evil, profane, murderous ilk.  If Paul could see these Roman Emperors as God’s instruments in his life, then I will have no excuse when I stand before God some day for my attitude toward my leaders.

The second area has to do with our relationship with our neighbors—what you might call the social arena (verses 8-10).  Here Paul simply calls for loving actions toward those with whom we are in some kind of daily interaction—the people we live by, work with and sit next to in the pews at church.  We should do nothing that would provoke anything other than a loving response from them back toward us.

The third has to do with our relationship to God—what you might call the salvation arena (verses 11-14).  Here Paul reminds us that one of the leading motives, if not the only motive, for living a life of love in all the arenas of our life is for the simple reason that Jesus is coming back soon, and we will then have to give an account for how we have behaved in relation to our government and its leaders, our neighbors and our God.  Because of the soon return of Jesus and the revealing of our full and final salvation, we must be continually alert to living in purity and holiness.  In short, we are to “clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 14), which is Paul’s way of saying that we ought to live each moment as if it might be the last one before we find ourselves standing before Christ.  Love would demand no less in light of what he did to secure our salvation!

Love!  Do that and you’ll be just fine—in this life and in the one to come.  Just love God with all your heart, and when you do, you cannot help but love everybody else.  Do that and you’ll fulfill all God’s requirements.

One month before his death at age 65, C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter addressed to a child, “If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so.”

That’s great advice!

So here’s a thought for you:  If you knew Jesus would come back 24 hours from now, and knowing that love is the ultimate requirement of God’s law, who and how would you love?

Why not love like that anyway—you never know, this might be your last opportunity!

“Love, and do what you want.” ~Augustine

Prayer… Father, thank you for loving me, even when I didn’t deserve it and in spite of the fact that I didn’t love you.  But your love won me over!  Now I ask that you would help me to love everybody else like you loved me.  Make me aware of attitudes that do not reflect your love, and alert to opportunities to express your love in tangible ways to people that cross my path.  Help me today to fulfill your requirements to love!

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Commanded To Think

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 12
Meditation: Romans 12:2

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God change you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

Shift Your Focus… We have a calling as Christians to right thinking. Right thinking is the key to everything—to godly living, to significance and satisfaction, to relational wholeness, to the abundant life, to spiritual growth, to joy—everything!

Paul writes that we are to let God change us by changing the way we think.  In Philippians 4:8, he describes the kind of thinking that will lead to the changed life:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

When Paul says to “think about such things”, he intentionally chose the Greek term logizomai, which means to compute, to calculate—to think deliberately, proactively and strategically.  It speaks of an exercise in mental reflection that affects one’s conduct.

Now herein lies an important truth about the human mind:  What we do—our behavior—and what is done to us—our circumstances—do not produce what we think.  Rather, what we think produces our behavior in any given set of circumstances.

Psychiatrist William Glasser, the father of reality therapy, discovered in his study of how the brain works that man isn’t controlled by external factors, but by internal desires. Furthermore, our desires are predetermined by our thinking.  So he concludes that the mind is the command center determining conduct. Therefore the critical issue for man is how he thinks.

Glasser had only discovered what the Bible had already said long ago—that we are the product of our thinking. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks within himself, so he is.” That’s why Proverbs 4:23 also says, “Above all else, guard your heart (the heart in Hebrew thought was the center of thinking) for it is the wellspring of life.”

If you want to improve your experience of life, deliberately and strategically change your thinking.  So when Paul says, “think about,” he doesn’t mean to leave it up to whatever pops into your brain.  He’s saying to intentionally and rigidly allow only certain things into your mind.  He is referring to the spiritual discipline of setting godly virtues and Biblical values as the gatekeeper of your mind.

He’s not suggesting silly mind-games, positive thinking, mere optimism or some type of self-hypnosis, he’s calling us to think deeply, rationally and habitually about the things of God.  He is calling us to think first, think early, think often, think deeply, think always.  Think first, act second, feel third! Then your feelings will be managed by your thinking and your actions will be sound.

God created us with a mind, and he commands us to think.  Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together.” And the primary path for our reasoning is God’s Word. When God gave us his revelation, he didn’t give us a movie…or a series of music videos…not even a book on tape with background organ music.  He gave us the written Word…which by nature calls us and causes us to think.

In his book, “Your Mind Matters, John Stott wrote, “Sin has more dangerous effects on our feeling than our thinking, because our opinions are more easily checked and regulated by revealed truth than are experiences.”  Right thinking is the key to Godly character.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones pointed out that our worry and anxiety is “a failure to think” that God is close and in control, and that he cares about us.  Most people assume worry comes from thinking too much.  But in reality we get anxious for not thinking enough in the right direction.  Right thinking is thinking rightly about God’s purposes, promises, and plans. Right thinking is thinking reasonably about God’s revealed truth. Right thinking is the key to Spirit-controlled emotions.

A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Right thinking is the key to your experience of God.

Thinking rightly is the catalyst for a great life.  So watch your input; it becomes thought. Watch your thoughts; they become attitudes. Watch your attitudes; they become actions.  Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Now go think rightly.  It’s the key to everything!

“Let the mind of the Master become the master of your mind.”

Prayer… Father, today I will choose to think about you.  I will think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy.  I will think rightly.  I will let the mind of the Master be the master of my mind.  Now I pray that you will transform my character by changing the way I think, and make me an offering that is holy, pleasing and acceptable to you.