Time is flying by here . . . I have two months and three days to finish The Kingdom of the Occult, and believe me, I'm going to need every last one of them. Things are going well, but it's always hard coming into the home stretch. I only have about 15,000 words left to write, but it's been a very long haul. As much as I love working on it, I will be glad when my reading repertoire does not include titles like, Worshiping Isis and Everyday Witchcraft. I would truly appreciate your prayers.

Time for another great commentary by Walter Martin:


"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2

What does it mean to live in Christ so far as the world is concerned? We know as Christians that to live the Christian life is to allow the Spirit of God to workout His fruit and His gifts in our own lives. We know that we must put to death on a regular basis the things which pervert our witness, change our values, and which would lead us back into the old paths of sin. Every Christian knows that.

We are also told by Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, that we should seek the things which are above. In Romans he tells us not to be conformed to the world in which we find ourselves, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. So there is a spiritual change, a change of focus and a change of mind. The spiritual change is that I have died in Christ, been buried with him in baptism and raised with him in the newness of life. My focus now is on the things which are above, where Christ dwells at the right hand of God. This does not mean that you spend your time being so busy in spiritual pursuits that you forget the world in which you live. There are people who are homeless, cold and starving who must be cared for.

The change of mind comes when we recognize the fact that our lives have to undergo change. The question is not, “Are you born again?” The question is, “Are you transformed?” Do you think the things of God naturally or do you have to work at it? Does the fruit of the Holy Spirit grow out of your life naturally or are you striving—as a woman in labor—to produce fruit? That is not how fruit is produced. Fruit grows out of your life. It is produced naturally.

If you are bearing fruit, you are in God’s will; you are doing what He wants you to do. If you are bearing fruit in Christ, you have every right to ask what you will of Him and if you are in accordance with His will, He hears you.

If you are in the will of God you won’t be asking for outlandish things, you won’t be trying to get stuff for yourself, you won’t be on what I call the Gimmee Trip—in which you're always asking God to give you something. Instead, you can be asking God for more power to understand His Word, for more grace to reach out to the lives of other people, and for more opportunities to bear witness for Him. And you can be thanking and praising Him for all the benefits and blessings He has already given us.

We seek the things which are above for the purpose of caring about the things that are below. When we become dead to sin and alive to Christ, we should think the thoughts of God. To rise with Christ is to live in the newness of life in a transformation, and the power to do that is in the Holy Spirit and in the Word of God. The focus of our lives is resurrection and service; to walk with Him and to fulfill the righteousness of God, which is by faith, in our daily walk.