{"id":3190,"date":"2023-11-24T08:19:29","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T13:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3190"},"modified":"2023-11-24T08:19:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T13:19:29","slug":"the-spirit-transforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/11\/24\/the-spirit-transforms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Spirit Transforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>

During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus.<\/em>

What do you get when five teenagers are granted super powers and brightly colored spandex suits?

What American children got in 1993 was the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers<\/em>, a live action TV series based on pre-existing Japanese characters.\u00a0 The earliest episodes, in fact, featured awkward dialogue dubbed into English.

Critics quickly dismissed the silly plots, cheesy special effects, and poorly choreographed martial arts battles.

But three decades and $6 billion in merchandise sales later, Hollywood definitely takes the Power Rangers seriously.

Through an extraordinary bit of brand extension \u2013 \u201cHey, if one showcase for the characters works, how about a few more?\u201d \u2013 the Power Rangers have now appeared in 22 different TV series, not to mention three feature films (all theatrical releases) and a new TV special just this year.\u00a0

Multiple casts of young actors have taken their turns playing the five main characters, ordinary teens who turn into powerful warriors wielding special powers, special weapons, and special assault machines that always manage to save our planet.

How exactly do they accomplish this transformation?

They morph.

\u201cIt\u2019s morphin time!\u201d even became a popular 90s slogan, one heard ad nauseum<\/em> by parents of young kids.

\u201cMorph\u201d has since become a mainstream verb in American culture.\u00a0 Its roots are from the Greek word morphoo<\/em>, which denotes a fundamental change in someone\u2019s character or identity.\u00a0 Since the New Testament was written in Greek, it\u2019s not a surprise that there are a few \u201cmorphin\u201d texts in Scripture.\u00a0

One of them is Romans 12:2, where the apostle Paul urges his readers to experience a metamorph<\/u>osis <\/em>\u2013 that is, a personal transformation not unlike a caterpillar\u2019s morphing into a butterfly.

At some heartfelt level we all want to morph.\u00a0

For instance, as millions of us make our way through the holidays and look toward the beginning of a new year, we resolve to morph our bodies, attitudes, or behaviors.\u00a0 We dive into self-help books, join support groups, take up new hobbies, change our diets, buy new cars, or optimistically browse new dating sites.\u00a0

The Bible makes it clear, however, that finding a new partner or losing a few pounds is not morphing.\u00a0 Authentic transformation happens from the inside-out, not by means of external adjustments.

Once again, it\u2019s evident that the Holy Spirit is right in the middle of what God is trying to accomplish.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

Paul writes, \u201cAnd we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord\u2019s glory, are being transformed<\/em> [the Greek here is metamorphoumetha<\/em>] into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit\u201d (2 Corinthians 3:18).\u00a0

To put that a little more simply, something happens to us when we fix our hearts on God \u2013 when we choose to pay attention to the Lord through focused activities like prayer, worship, the study of Scripture, and serving the poor.\u00a0 As we continue to receive and believe his gifts of grace and forgiveness, we gradually morph into people who not only do what God wants, but actually want<\/em> to do what God wants.\u00a0

It doesn\u2019t happen in a flash.\u00a0 We become more and more like Christ by degrees \u2013 from one degree of glory to another.

And as Paul puts it, this transformation happens \u201cfrom the Lord, who is the Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 God does an inside job on our \u201cinsides\u201d by means of his inside-dwelling Spirit.\u00a0

Such transformation is the longing of every human heart.\u00a0 And it\u2019s available to everyone, not just to a chosen few.

Which means you can always know what time it is.

It\u2019s morphin time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here During the month of November, we\u2019re taking a look at 21 essential activities of the Holy Spirit, who represents God\u2019s presence in and through every follower of Jesus. What do you get when five teenagers are granted super powers and brightly colored spandex suits? What American children got in 1993 was… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3191,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[352,236],"class_list":["post-3190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-holy-spirit","tag-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3192,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3190\/revisions\/3192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}