Volume 1 	            Lawrence, Kansas    		November 1961	  	     Number 11

Several years ago I stood, with a few people, as a potter placed on his wheel a mound of clay. As the wheel turned, he shaped with his hands a vessel of his desire. He talked to us as he worked and explained the ease with which he made the vessel broad and flat; tall and narrow; straight sides and curved; plain and flared. It was amazing and interesting to see the flexibility of the clay in the hands of a craftsman. Placing another mound of clay on the wheel, he turned to one of the group and said, "You try it." As the inexperienced hands worked, we watched with amusement and despair, for the vessel would take shape, anal then suddenly with a light mistaken movement of the hands it was ruined.

As I looked about the potter's shop, my mind was drawn to the words of the song, "Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way! Thou art the potter; I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still." How often we sing the song, but how often are we truly yielded and still?

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and perfect, will of God"—Romans 12:1-2. The will of God, is the plan or scheme of redemption. God would have us to accept his Son Jesus as our savior and conform our lives to his teaching.

Paul asks that we prove this will of God to be good, acceptable and perfect. Undoubtedly we believe it. We so state with our mouths. How do we prove it, not only to one another, but also to the world? "Be not conformed to this world: but be transformed." This is the proof. The transformation of the worldly to the spiritual J. D. Phillips renders it "moulded" and "remoulded." This very aptly conveys the thought. With the account of the potter and his wheel in mind, we should be able to get the picture of Romans 12:2. We are not to be moulded to the image, desires and standards of this world.

What is the mould of this world? Money, pleasure, security. The world is so concerned with transitory values that there is little or no time for the forming of spiritual values. Many churches and religious leaders of today, have so modernized the understanding of the Bible, that it is only fit for literary and historical reading. When the religious leaders deny that God is a being, or that Jesus was only a physical man and not the literal Son of God; that there is no hell and probably no heaven, we see why people are not moved to change and alter their lives. Spirituality and devotion to the goal of heaven must be exemplified in the lives of spiritual leaders, whether "clergy" or "laymen." So often the lives of so-called spiritual leaders beggar the description of the New Testament transformed life. "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts (desires) in your ignorance"—I Peter 1:14. The Greek word for "fashioning" is the same as the one translated "conformed", Romans 12:2. "As obedient children" our lives are not to be after the sins of the flesh. We are not to have in our lives those things described by Paul as the works of the flesh—Galatians 5:19-21. Moral purity is to be a part of the moulding process. We should be moulded a "vessel unto honor"—Romans 9:21.

Paul's conclusion in Romans 12:2 is that by the transforming of our lives we are able to prove the validity of God's will. How do we accomplish this transformation? By the renewing of our mind. The mind of man is the source of his power and strength. "Out of the abundance of the heart (mind) the mouth speaketh"—Matthew 12:34. "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man"—Matthew 15:18. I quote these passages to amplify that we must renew the mind, to be like the requirements of God. The apostle Paul, Romans 6:4, describes this as "newness of life."

The process of transformation, by the renewing of our minds, must begin with our faith in God.—Hebrews 11:6. Repentance, a changing of our will, is an absolute necessity. This renewing through repentance is the action of the Holy Spirit through the word of truth.—II Timothy 3:16-17; Titus 3:5. Again the apostle Paul shows the culmination is coming forth from death into newness of life through immersion—Romans 6:4. A baby is indeed a new life, but the moulding of that child into the adult being that will prove the goodness and righteousness of its parents requires a lengthy time and process. It is true also with all that came forth in the spiritual "newness of life." They must spend years in moulding adapting themselves to the righteousness of God, that they "may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect, will of God." Let the world see in the lives of all disciples the will of God. Mould yourself to His will.