Hi friends, sorry for the late post. I was in Syracuse today with my covenant group - the 3 other pastors that sent out the Radical Call to Christianity together. We meet the first Thursday of every month for prayer and fellowship. Today we discussed and planned an Ignition Conference for this spring to take our Call to Radical Christianity the next step along the way. Please pray for us that we will follow Christ and that this will not be about us, but about the Kingdom.
In chapter 12 Paul begins to wrap up his presentation to the saints in Rome. Here he calls them (and us of course) to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God which he calls our "spiritual worship". I have been thinking about that all day. I like that Paul ties together the way we offer our bodies to God - our gifts and our work - as a spiritual sacrifice. I don't often see the body spirit connection in Paul's writing.
The next sentence is a powerful one as well. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and perfect." Wow. That not only will preach, that would change my life and the life of the whole church! I am afraid that I am far too often conformed to the world around me and far too seldom transformed by the renewing of my mind! But you know what? I really want to be transformed. I want to want what God wants. I want to please God in the way I eat, and play, and work, and live, and laugh, and love! I want to belong completely to God and live a holy life that is good and acceptable and perfect (mature).
A friend pointed out the other morning that the end of the chapter - verses 9 - 21 could be entitled "Live like a Christian". The directions are not spectacular or far fetched. Hate what is evil... hold on to what is good... live in harmony... never avenge yourself etcetera. Nothing that awe inspiring to read. But when I think about it, when ever anybody does live within these simple mandates the resulting life IS spectacular! Paul calls us to live like we belong to Christ. I pray that God will strengthen us all by God's grace that we might do just that!
About Me
- Pastor Bill
- I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ, a happy husband, father and grandfather!
9 comments:
Another great chapter in Romans. So many highlights, so many wonderful things about our lives.
Bill, I don't want to be sucked into the worldly things either. I want to have my heart, soul, and mind focused on God. We all have this intuition, because we are all "one body in Christ (v5)." How incredible. We can all work together on this. I gave up Soda for lent. That is a little hard for me, because I like it. Sara gave up Cake and Cookies, and that's hard, because she likes it. However, she told me she didn't think that was enough. So, we decided to go with the idea of fasting for about 20 hours each week. This was suggested at the UM Congress on Evangelism that we went to Jan '06, and we tried it for a while, and then got too busy with our lives to allow it to work. Tonight's the first night, so I'll let you know how it goes. The hope is that it will help us remember to keep our focus on God, and remember all that he gives to us. Praying when we have hunger pangs, instead of just eating (I love eating). I feel like this will help us get closer to Romans 12:1.
The words to live by in 9-21 are so wonderful. Where else can you give your enemy a drink and have it put coals on his head? Paul has given us a simple list of things to remember when we have struggles in our lives (but it's so hard to follow sometimes!). I like how it talks about brotherly love too. My friend did a discussion of 1 Corinthians 13 this morning at Young Life Bible study, and she asked us why we only talk about this verse at weddings? When we love someone, our friends, our parents, our family, our teachers, etc., we should love them in the 1 Corinthians 13 way also. That's Christian Love, and I think that's what Paul wants us to do also.
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful World."
I'm praying for your RC2C Bill.
God Bless!
In Him,
Marshall Bailey
whoa somehow that got up there twice, sorry everyone!
Marsh
Don't worry, MB, that post was worth reading twice :)
This chapter is one of my favorites in the bible.
After all the legal arguments Paul has made, this chapter pretty much just punches you in the stomach.
After reading the blogs, I am more in tune with the use of "therefore" in the bible, and I expected this chapter to start that way.
After proving his point in earlier chapters, Paul simply charges us with a way of conducting our lives.
Impossible to miss the transition and the charges he makes.
What an amazing, gifted man.
God bless.
what a precious writing. I pray that everyone would read this chapter over and over. What a better world we would live in. I try to live my life by this chapter. It is almost like a prayer as you read it. This chapter motivates me to always attempt to be a better person.
Hi Friends,
It is exciting to mine the treasures of the Bible, and more exciting to do it with friends!
Bill
Lots of people's favorites in this one: 12:2 is Jim's favorite, I think (or used to be.) I think this whole chapter is the Bishop's favorite, right? And the "heaping coals" verse always reminds me of grandma, b/c I think she often quoted it. It sounds like a grandma verse, doesn't it? ;) I think that's the heart of the bible - it's not that loving God and loving neighbor is so complicated to understand. It's just that we don't do it. So we need to hear it over and over until we learn to live it.
Hi Beth,
I think you're right that its a favorite of grandma's. I didn't know it was a favorite chapter of the Bishops or Jims. I think that is one of the frustrating parts of the text for me, it is not hard to understand but it is hard to do. Chapter 13 speaks of putting on the armor of light and then putting on Christ. Maybe a sermon there - "Dress for Success!"
Bill
Romans 12:2 has always, always been my favorite verse since I was maybe 11 or 12 years old. Originally, because it was shouted out at the beginning of a Christian rock song called "When You're A Rebel," later, maybe for some other good reasons too.
Hey Jim,
Thanks for reading along and commenting - I can only imagine hearing that verse shouted into the concert frenzy. Neat. Maybe I'll make it a signature of mine to scream that as I begin sermons...
Love Bill
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