If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
Help us to believe, LORD. Lift our eyes from the things of earth to the things of heaven. Take our minds through the signs (and not around them) to the things signified.
No one has gone up to heaven
except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
Our minds won't do this without your help LORD. Only you come from heaven. Only you can lift our minds to heavenly things.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (see Colossians 3:2).
Without you, we don't understand what it means to be born again from above. Without you, there seems to be no reality to such a new birth. It is your Spirit that gives us the new birth. And it is your Spirit that opens our minds to understand it.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit (see Romans 8:5).
Without you we set our minds of the things of the flesh and live according to the flesh. Because without you what else can we do? But with you we can set this old way of life and thinking aside.
put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness (see Ephesians 4:22-24).
We do not renew ourselves but rather we let you renew us by your Spirit. Your word says, "be renewed"-- something we receive rather than something we do. Only this renewal allows us to put on the new self created in your own likeness Jesus. Only this Spirit can enable us to live according to the Spirit. Only he can create the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (see Ephesians 4:3) among us. It is beautiful when this actually happens. It is obviously supernatural.
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
Those who observe it wonder what these believers have that they don't. What is different about them? The renewal of their minds by your Spirit, Jesus, is what is different. Renew our minds as well. We're fixated and fascinated and ultimately frustrated by earthly things that do not satisfy. We struggle to make sense of our lives on that basis We try to renew ourselves using those methods. And it just doesn't work. Help us to leave our old selves at your feet, LORD, so that the whole world can experience the satisfaction and peace that only your supernatural love can bring.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the Apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
Lift our gaze so that we can be united in worship of you, your Father, and the Holy Spirit.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
Let earthly things become strangely dim..
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