I Implore You

I Implore You

December 6, 2012

We read in Romans 12, verses 1-2:

“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.”

To urge someone to do something is to advise him strongly. The urging may involve a warning or caution against something, and/or it could include a rebuke or a correction, but most certainly it is not merely a suggestion or a good idea being passed along to the listener. In other places in scripture, these same or similar teachings were given as commands and/or as directives, and it was expected that the adherents would follow the directions given. So, we should take this teaching to heart and apply its truths to our daily lives.

If any of you has children, you have probably experienced the joy of the “Why?” stage of their lives. We have a son who stayed in that stage much longer than our other children, but he learned much in the process. The “Why?” is already answered for us here, though. It is with God’s mercy in view that we must realize how imperative it is that we give our entire lives to God as living offerings to him, holy and pleasing to God.

Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, not just so we could go to heaven one day when we die. He died so we would be free of slavery to sin while we are still on this earth, and so we would be united with Christ in death to sin and be made alive in Christ through faith in what Jesus did for us in dying for our sins. Our lives are no longer our own. We were bought with a price. Therefore, we should honor God with our whole beings!

This is our spiritual act of worship. I think sometimes we get the wrong idea of what worship is. We may be worshiping God when we are singing songs of praise to him in a worship service, but we may not. The kind of worship of God that he requires is the kind that willingly gives up a life of sin and lovingly and earnestly seeks to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads us. This is true worship, and everything else flows from that.

Be transformed! A butterfly goes through a process called metamorphosis when it changes from a caterpillar into a butterfly. This process involves a complete change of substance from one thing to another. This is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, i.e. for us to turn away from following the ways of this world, and our old patterns of sinful behavior - our caterpillars - and to allow the Holy Spirit of God to make us into new creatures - beautiful butterflies - in Christ Jesus.

If you have not yet made that decision to allow the Holy Spirit of God to make you into a new creature in Christ Jesus, I pray you will make that decision today.

Hello! My name is Sue Love. If you have any questions about anything I have shared with you today, you may reach me at www.originalworks.info. Thank you!

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