New Mind Ministry	And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, ~ Romans 12:2a
The Ministry of Steve & Carol Ryerson

 

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Renewing Your Mind Seminars

 

The Apostle Paul said that we should be about the business of renewing our minds. Our minds contain a vast number of habits and assumptions that are influenced by many things. Our lives as believers are influenced both by Scripture and culture. The sum of these influences would be called our worldview.

Sometimes culture is in conflict with Scripture. The New Testament believer needs to allow the Spirit of the LORD to guide him through that conflict. That process is the subject of the following sessions.

Sessions include:

Introduction ~ Romans 12:2 says we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Colossians 2:8, 9 say that we should beware that people don't spoil or cheat us out of the good things of God through worldly philosophies and deceitful practices. What do these things mean and how do they impact our daily lives?
Frequently we do well in understanding and applying concepts such as modesty in dress and avoiding some kinds of entertainment, yet we often do not function as well when it comes to understanding how our Lord Jesus wants us to think about the events of the world around us. What is God's view of politics...of economics...of psychology...and many other areas of man's thinking? Are we supposed to just write off those areas as "the ways of the world" and ignore them?
In this session we will explore these questions as foundational to our maturing in the Lord.

Creation ~ If God created us, then we are responsible to our Creator. We are responsible to find out Who He is, what His will is for us, and what pleases Him.
If we evolved by chance processes from lower forms of life, then either there is no God or He cares little about the details of our lives. We are not responsible to Him.
Most Bible-believers understand this much, but they do not see how far the implications of these opposing views of life go and how deeply they affect us. A major part of this session is a discussion of the connection between evolutionary thinking and the decay of our society's institutions such as the family.

"People are crazy nowadays!" ~ Remember that the Scripture says to "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit..." One of the things in today's world making that more difficult is that many people have discarded (or never learned) thinking based on right and wrong. Everything is in the gray area of "no absolutes". Everything is negotiable. Everything is in the category of "what's ok for you may not be ok for me." How did that happen? What problems are following from it?

"Counselors have been brought in to help." ~ Sadly, all of us have read or heard stories about mass killings and tragic deaths. Near the conclusion of the stories (especially if they involve a public school) the journalists will say that grief counselors have been brought in to help. Do you think that those counselors will pray with students and staff? Do you think they will encourage anyone to seek the Lord for answers to their questions? What will they say if a distraught person begins talking about his need for peace in his heart? Psychologists have become very powerful people in recent years, but their efforts to understand the heart and soul of man are made outside of, and in conflict with, the Scripture. What are the effects of that?

Whose Money Is It? ~ We normally expect Christians to tithe to the Lord from their income. We expect honesty and responsibility in money matters because those are Biblical concepts. Yet, have we ever wondered whether God has any reason to approve capitalism over socialism or vice versa? Does God approve private property? What about competition...is that Biblical?

What's In a Family? ~ Wow! Who would have thought just a few years ago that we would have to fret over that question? Yet, lawyers are in court now over that very question. Some states sanction "marriage" between people of the same gender, and some don't. When two men "married" to each other move from an approving state to a non-approving state, what happens if they want a divorce in their new state? What about child custody if one of them had children before? How would we use the Scripture to show God's plan for what a family is? How does that plan help us to understand what's going on in the world around us?

Dry Old History Books! ~ Did you recoil at dry dates and political stories about dead people when you were in school? Many people react that way because they don't see the connection between things that are important to them and what they see in a history textbook. Yet, if we don't understand where we've come from, we can't understand where we are and where we are going. Most people are curious about where they have come from personally, but they don't think much about God's working in history and how it affects everything we see around us.
When we feel God dealing with us about His Kingdom, the Bible can become alive for us because it connects with something important to us. History is His-story, i.e., the many stories of how God has worked in the events of individuals and nations. The disciples of the Lord were real people, living in real locations, with real problems all around them. What were all those circumstances? Those things mean something!

 

Music Ministry

 

Sis. Ryerson, an accomplished musician, is available to minister in music during the seminar. Allow God to lead you into His presence through both piano and vocal music.