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Monday, April 11, 2005
I remember my wedding day as if it were yesterday.
I had a good night's sleep the night before.
I watched Looney Toons and had a bowl of Lucky Charms.
My best man picked me up and we went to the church.
We had pictures made and laughed a lot with my groomsmen.
And I wasn't nervous about what I was about to do.
Sure, I was a little nervous about what my groomsmen had up their sleeves for a practical joke (which never occurred as they surprisingly played it straight), but I wasn't nervous about what was actually taking place that day.
Yes. I was younger.
No. I didn't fully understand what I was doing (but, really, no one does).
But to the degree that I got the point of the day...
...that I was giving my life to another person...
...for better or worse and all the other vows we exchanged...
...until death do us part...
...and making a life-long covenant before God Himself...
I wasn't nervous about it at all.
In fact, I was actually excited about it. I was marrying my best friend. She was (and is) the coolest girl I ever met and I couldn't fathom (and still can't) why she wanted to do enter into a covenant with me, of all people. At that time in my life it seemed...
...so natural.
So normal.
So logical.
And it's funny (not funny "ha ha" but funny "peculiar") that I had the exact opposite reaction with Christ in reading Romans 12: 1--2.
"I urge you therefore, bretheren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
Thus far in our semester study on "sanctification" (spiritual growth)--which has been broken up a bit by our spring semester's schedule--we've looked at how prayer is vital to our growth as well as how study of the Word is imperative as well (see the archives of this blog for more detail on these studies). Today, we'll begin two weeks on allowing the Holy Spirit to live through us, which is actually the reality of growing in Him. And Romans 12 gives us the first step in this process.
The first word is "I." This is the apostle Paul writing.
The next word is "urge." The Greek word used here lets us know that this isn't a harsh command one might expect from a military officer to a subordinate, but rather it's a loving command. Author J.P. McBeth calls the Greek word parakaleo "one of the tenderest expressions in all the Bible." So, Paul is giving us a loving command to do something.
"Therefore" is a word that connects what is to follow with what came before. I'm of the opinion that it denotes a shift in thought in the text. See, Romans can be broken down very simply: Chapters 1--3 talk about man's need for righteousness; Chapters 4--11 discuss how we obtain righteousness; and the rest of the letter discusses the practice of life once we obtain righteousness.
So, Paul is lovingly telling us ("you" & "bretheren"), that based on "the mercies of God"--everything he brought up in chapters 4--11, that we are to...
..."present our bodies"...the Israelites viewed the body as representative of the entire person. So the phrase tells us we are to give everything we are as...
...a "living & holy" sacrifice. The idea here is again flavored with Jewish imagery. Just like the priests would spend a great deal of time in preparation to present themselves without blemish so they could fulfill their role and serve God, we need to separate our lives from sin TO God. This kind of sacrifice was acceptable to God to make them fit for service.
And this service is considered as "worship." Sadly, in our culture, we've actually reduced worship to the singing of a few songs or tossing a few bucks in the offering plate...and don't get me wrong...both of those are good things and parts of worship, but presenting our lives to God is actually the preceeding step before the other types of worship can take place.
Now, we'll be spending three days on this text so I don't want to blow it all out right now, but one last thing you need to know about verse 1 is that it is written in the Greek "aorist" tense. This means that it is a "decisive act"...or a choice.
So, summing up verse 1: Paul is lovingly asking us to make a decisive, thoughtful and deliberate choice to give all of ourself to Him. This is worship.
For today, what thought come to your mind if you were truly going to give everything you areto Him? Is this scary? Comforting? Intimidating? What comes to your mind? Also, if you did this, what does this do to your view of "worship?"
Brent 6:47 AM
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