Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Renew

What insights did God bring to you through your word study on the word, "renew?"

6 comments:

Charlene said...

The word study has been amazing!!! I've always enjoyed learning the Latin and Greek roots but the 1828 dictionary is so thorough and rich. Wow...I hope my children will see the absorb the significance of the word study. My boys aren't keen on always "looking up" in the dictionary. I'm hoping this might be different. For me though, it's been so refreshing to see biblical definitions and a an assumption of the God of the Bible -wow.

Charlene said...

Hey guys, I'm sorry I posted the last comment on the wrong question...that should have been on Word Study. However, the word renew was so refreshing. The idea of going back to the original state or to revive what once was gives such hope. Our education once was a biblically based one and it's exciting to think that this point in time we can renew and go back and re-establish our roots. We can begin again! Praise God for this exciting new approach to learning and loving God's Word through all subjects and developing a biblical worldview - the one thing that has gone from our generation. The stats are everywhere. Like Isaiah says, "those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength".

Michelle Heidemann said...

I thought I'd share my personal definition and principles gleaned from the word, 'renew'.

Renew--to restore after decay, destruction or depravation. It indicates that there is something in us that has been destroyed and is in need of restoration. According to Romans 12:2, it is something that is in continual need as I grow and learn in Christ.

Principles:
1. There is something in me which needs to be renewed.
2. Only God can do this work in me.
3. He will work in me for my renewal as I offer my consent to his work.
4. I must trust in God in order for him to renew me.
5. We must be renewed in order to stand in His presence.
6. It takes perseverence to be renewed since the outer person is being destroyed (really 2 principles in one).
7. Renewal happens in the 'spirit of my mind'. (Eph 4:22-24)
8. When God renews us, he brings us into His image.
9. My mind must be renewed.

Verses:
Ps. 51:10
Is 40:30
Lam 5:21
2 Cor 4:16-17
Eph 4:22-24
Col 3:9-10
Rom 12:2
Ps 85:6
Hab 3:2

Michelle Heidemann said...

I agree that the practice of word studies gives us a whole new understanding of the things God wants to teach us. In the case of the word 'renew' I found that I had not thought much about the fact that there is a seed already planted in us that is ready and waiting to be revived. I hadn't thought much about that fact (although I knew that those things which are to be removed are depraved) that the areas God wishes to renew in us are areas that come from 'decayed, destroyed, or depraved' ideas. It's interesting that when God has you gaze on things you know already, or even those things you don't know, He gives a brand new perspective (and this is not the first time I've done this word study).

yhwh6640 said...

Renew: To quicken a person's spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit in new birth.
2. To change the thoughts of the mind to conform to those of God rather than those of man influenced by the world.
3. To be filled with physical, mental, and spiritual strength from God otherwise drained.
4. To regain moral and spiritual uprightness after having sinned habitually or grossly.
5. To transform miraculously from something degenerate to something pure and good by God alone.
6. To make fresh, youthful, useful, energetic, strong, righteous, again or for the first time after having been worn out, decayed, useless, tired out, weak, or sinful.

God alone has the power to renew my youthfulness, energy, strength, mind, spirit, usefulness, and righteousness. I must therefore, turn to Him in prayer and His word to obtain these. When I neglect to do so the process of decay of these begins immediately. He desires to renew me in every aspect of my life. Indeed, He commands me to be continually renewed by Him. Renewal is a passive action by which God performs the renewing while I simply make my body, mind, soul, and spirit available to Him through a willingness to surrender my self to His will. May God renew me to conform me to His thoughts, emotions, and desires.

I wrote my in prose preaching to myself. This is not exactly listing Biblical Principles. I don't know if this is really covering the 5th step in the Word Study process or not. I'd appreciate critical comments on any of this, anyone.

Danika said...

I love what you all have had to say. I have been chewing on this one word for over a week! As I did my word studies and then looked in my topical chain reference, I discovered that the Renewal process is the job of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is He who supplies the power, the grace, the inspiration, the strength, the knowledge. Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing and regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior." Our part is simply to submit ourselves to the process.
1. We must be born-again. That is the first step in the process.
2. Next is submitting to the "endument of power from on high" (Luke 24:49). Acts 1:8 says, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me..."

This endument of power is the extension of the renewing process, because it IS a process. Psalm 51:12-13 says, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee."

Education and renewal are "handmaids." In order to educate and teach, "to lead from a distance to a nearer place," we must first be the student and endure the same process. Only then will we be able to teach. We cannot be witnesses until we have been endued with power from the Holy Spirit, for we cannot testify of the things we do not know.

I felt Philippians 3:7-17 in the Amplified Bible to be the best explanation of what I am trying to express. Renewal is absolute surrender to the Spirit of God to have His way in our lives, to conform us in the image of Christ. We CANNOT do this in our flesh, we CANNOT create the circumstances on our own. We MUST submit to God, and He will do what is necessary, for He "knows the plans He has for us" (Jeremiah 29:11). Our surrender will be a loud voice to our children as they see us submit, and then they themselves will follow in our steps, as advised in Ph 3:16-17.

We must desire Christ above all else, and order our lives around that pursuit. As we do this, the things of the world will fall away from us, and our hearts will be enlarged with HIM. ahh, To Know Him, To Know Him, To Know Him. (John 17:3) This is what it is all about; intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, and praise God, He sent us His Holy Spirit to teach us the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:11-16).

Ph 3:13, "I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward."