Because of the richness of the American culture, the demands it makes on us for material survival and prosperity, we often are quite content to let the clergy perform their spiritual work while we attend and pay the bills.

The day for this arrangement is over. Every believer who intends to be part of Jesus Christ must find his or her role and begin to function. Obviously this change in role expectation is not going to take place overnight.

It is with the full operation of the members of the Body of Christ in mind that Paul wrote the above words.

The passage tells us the first steps to take toward finding and operating the in role the Holy Spirit has equipped us for and expects us to perform.

To correctly orient ourselves to our ministry we must decide once and for all that our body will be a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is merely the reasonable act of worship that every Christian must render to God.

We simply must set ourselves aside for God's purposes. If we do not we will be viewed as a servant who has buried his talent. Our end will be residence in the outer darkness.

We are no longer a part of the world system, the world spirit. We must make certain we are not conformed to the ways of the world. What this means to the individual believer must be worked out between him or her and Jesus. So many Christian believers of today are worldly! They do not look or act like Christians. They have been taught that God is not concerned about our outward appearance, how we look or act.

But He is!

We are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. The battle today is for the mind and for truth. Satan cannot harm us when we belong to God unless he can deceive our mind such that we walk out from under God's protection.

Our mind is renewed as we take the ten steps we are elaborating, such as setting aside a place and time for prayer each day; meditating in the Scriptures continually; placing everything on the altar of God; and so forth.

We are being transformed in personality as our mind is being renewed, and this is why Satan is so anxious to fill our minds with his ways, particularly the minds of the young people.

Some time ago the motion picture "The Titanic" was popular. As pastor of the church, I warned the congregation that this picture was just another worldly influence and it was to be avoided.

There were people who did not understand my concern because The Titanic did not portray the violence and lust of many other films. And it did have historical interest!

I saw immediately that Satan's plan was to present a picture that was not as bad as some and had historical interest. Then the Christian parents would agree to allow their young people to view it.

To be continued.