Living Sacrifices

This Sunday, February 7, we will be celebrating Communion. Pastor Glenn has asked us to reflect on Romans 12:1 and 2 to prepare for this event. Here is the NIV version.

"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."

I find that reviewing other translations of passages can be helpful. Here is the New Living Translation version.

"And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

Finally, here is the version from The Message.

"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

I like how The Message refers to our "everyday, ordinary life" as what we need to place before God as an offering. It's not just our "church" work, our prayer time, the time we spend with our loved ones - those are fairly easy to give over to God. But it's also all the mundane and routine things I do everyday. Making my lunch in the morning before work, standing in line at the grocery store, sitting through yet another meeting at the office, shopping for a new vehicle. How do I make those times an offering to God?

Think about it the next time you find yourself doing something routine or mundane.

"OK God, this moment is for You."

Jac