Sunday, October 13,
2013, 6:00 a.m. – the Lord Jesus woke me with the song “Draw Me Close to You” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, your words
to my heart. I read Romans 12.
I Urge You
Therefore,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies
as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper
worship. Do not conform 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. 12:1-2 NIV
Paul (strongly and insistently) advised the believers in
Jesus Christ in this matter before us here. Because of what God did for us in
sending his Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, so we could go
free from slavery to sin; and so we could be free to walk in Christ’s
righteousness in the Spirit of God within us, we are to offer our bodies as
living sacrifices to God. This means that we forgo our rights to live like we
please; and we surrender our lives, wills, bodies, minds, emotions, i.e.
everything we are, to the control and power of the working of the Spirit of God
living his life in and out through us. We let go of our fleshly desires, and we
yield to Christ’s righteousness within us. Jesus said that if we want to come
after him, we must deny (disallow) ourselves, take up our cross daily (die
daily to sin and self) and follow (obey) him (Lu. 9). Yet, we do not do this in
our own flesh, but only in the power and working of the Spirit of God within
us, as we cooperate fully with that work.
Only as we yield control of our lives to God; to Jesus
Christ; to the Holy Spirit, can we live holy lives pleasing to God. We will
never be good enough in our own flesh or of our own merit. Our good deeds will
never outweigh our bad. We also cannot just do good things for God thinking he
will be pleased with us. When Jesus Christ died for our sin, he bought us with
a price so that we would no longer be our own, but his. Coming to faith in Jesus
Christ means that we die with him to what once bound us and enslaved us, i.e.
we yield our lives to the cross of Christ, being crucified with Christ so that
we (the “I” in us) no longer lives, but Christ lives in us. I know we know the
word of God teaches this, and I know that intellectually, at least, we believe
this, but how many of us actually believe this in our heart of hearts and have
literally surrendered all to Christ so that he is truly the boss of our lives;
and so daily we surrender, yield control, and allow his Spirit to live his life
through us instead of us deciding what we are going to do and then squeezing in
a few minutes each day, even if we do that, for a time of devotions with
God/Christ Jesus?
Jesus doesn’t want part-time, occasional or periodic
followers, i.e. he is not content with taking a back seat to anyone or to
anything. He wants us surrendered to him 24-7. He wants our all on the altar of
sacrifice laid, allowing the Spirit of God to have control of our hearts,
minds, actions, schedules, plans, careers, futures, dreams, words, et al. He is
not content with our leftovers. His desire is that we die to ourselves, i.e.
that we allow the Spirit of God to empty us of us and to fill us with himself.
He said if we love our mother or father more than him, we are not worthy of
him. He said if we do not take up our cross and follow him, we are not worthy
of him. This does mean we do these things to earn favor or grace. We cannot! Yet,
to truly believe in Jesus Christ means that he should be number one in our
lives and that he is boss, and that he is in control, and that we are
surrendered and yielded to his Lordship, and we allow him to do his work and
his will in our hearts. Oh, how I wish that the church taught this and that
believers truly got this, yet, for the most part it is not taught and it is not
modeled to us by those in leadership over us.
True Worship
Paul said, in the Spirit within him, that when we offer our
bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, that this is our
true and proper worship of him. Wow! Oh, how the church today in America has
promoted, I believe, a wrong or at least an unbalanced idea of what true
worship is. “Worship” services often times are nothing more than just big stage
productions where we put only our best people on stage who will draw in large
crowds of people. So many of the songs, too, are just “happy, happy” songs
which make us feel good about God, but is true worship really taking place?
Maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t. Truly music is a big part of praise of our
Lord and of worship of him. Yet, it is possible to sing the songs and even lift
our hands in the air and never truly be worshiping him at all.
When we truly worship God we show him honor, respect, adoration,
reverence, and devotion; affection, fondness and passion; we follow him in
obedience; and we are committed, dedicated, loyal, faithful (showing fidelity),
steadfast, and continuous, et al. All of this, though, is done only in the
power of the Spirit of God within us as we yield control over to Him, i.e. as
we lay it all down on the altar. This is true worship of God. We can sing all
the praise songs we want and lift our hands high to heaven, but if we are not
yielded to him; if we have not ever truly come to the cross and allowed the
Spirit of God to work in us death to sin so we can be made alive in Christ, and
if we are still holding on to our old lives and are only parceling out what we
choose to give to God, then that is not true worship. God is not pleased with
what we choose to give to him out of our lives while we hold on to the rest. What
pleases him is when we surrender it all, and our lives truly are his
unreservedly.
Not Conformed
He said we are not to be conformed to the pattern of this
world. To be conformed to something means we follow, obey, and adapt to it; fit
in; and agree, harmonize and coordinate our lives or lifestyles to it. Wow! So
much of today’s institutional church here in America does just that in their “worship”
services and in their programs and meetings. So much is done to try to attract
the world through worldly means and methods, using marketing schemes and
gimmicks to try to get people into our churches, following the patterns of this
world. So many professing Christians today live just like the world lives;
thinks like the world; and copies what the world does. We were called to come
out and be separate, yet today if you do that, you are considered “not normal;
crazy.” We are not supposed to become like the world to win the world to Jesus.
We are supposed to be like Jesus and share his gospel, and allow the Spirit of
God to transform hearts and minds to be like Jesus, not like the world. God is
calling out to his church to forsake her idols, her spiritual adultery, and her
worldliness and to return to him as her only Lord and husband.
Transformed
Instead of conforming our lives and lifestyles to the
design, shape, form or model of the sinful world, we are to be transformed in
the renewing of our minds. To be transformed means to be renovated, changed, and/or
altered completely; to be converted from one form to another. It is a lot like
metamorphosis, i.e. a complete change of substance or form, such as the change
that takes place when a caterpillar is changed into a butterfly. We died to
sin, how can we live in it any longer? We are to be dead to sin and alive to
God in Christ Jesus. We are to walk in the Spirit so we no longer gratify the
desires of our flesh. Jesus Christ did not die so that we would just clean up
our lives a little, attend church services, do good deeds, get involved in
church ministry, go to Bible studies, and do mission work projects, etc., and
yet live how we want the rest of the time. He didn’t die just so we would spend
5 or 10 minutes a day in devotions with him while we spend hours upon hours on
TV, games, videos, movies, etc., often times taking into our minds pure garbage
and/or filth. He died to transform us from “caterpillars” to “butterflies.” So,
let him transform you today.
Draw Me Close To You
/ Donnie McClurkin
Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend
You are my desire
And no one else will do
'Cause nothing else can take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find a way
Bring me back to You…
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