August 26, 2011
-
God Wills
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Rom 12:1-3)
In Romans 12:1-3, God makes clear that there is an expectation that true believers of Christ give themselves up as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. The first living sacrifice is Jesus Christ, who died a bodily death and rose up again on the third day. Our spiritual act of worship is to live as Jesus did, giving up ourselves for God. The individualized culture teaches us to put ourselves first and to seek instant gratification - an observation of what sells reveals to us that the culture is self-focused. If we examine the advertising, we see that Burger King's motto is "Have it your way," see that McDonald's motto is "I'm living it," see that beer commercials appeal to sex, and other commercials appeal other idols. We see very little in the culture that glorifies and/or puts Jesus Christ first. Instead of telling us to put God first, the culture is clearly telling us to put ourselves first. This is contrary to the the Christian life - we are called to give our bodies as living sacrifices in the same way that Jesus Christ gave up Himself for us.
My wife and I are both living sacrifices. We listen to Jesus' guidance in our lives. When we serve Him with all our hearts, there are no arguments and disagreements (I am not saying that we do not argue or disagree with each other. What I am saying is that we agree with each other when God is leading us), even when what one of us needs to do is take a leap of faith to move forward with our lives. This is possible for us because we both seek Christ with everything that we know how and God reveals to us His direction for our lives. We both understand that when we do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewal of our mind, we are able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. When we both agree and know that God guides us in a certain direction, we both know that all is required at this point is obedience to Him and to what He is asking us to do. One example is our marriage. God told us to marry each other and we did - it was not a choice made upon our minds and our minds' imaginations.
This is the what God means when He wants us to be living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to Him. Remember that He tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please Him. Therefore, we please God with our faith in Him and in obeying what He tells us to do. One of the ways that we please God is by being living sacrifices.
Copyright 2011 by Christenstein
Comments (2)
wow. i missed todays sermon because of the aftermath of floods caused by hurricane irene, but... this surely is a great thing to read
i hope my boyfriend and i will be able to always agree when it comes to serving God, and to continue to use our lives as a living testimony.
@kuro_kokoro - Glad you feel encouraged. And, thanks for encouraging me in Christ. :)
Comments are closed.