Our Reasonable Service

• Romans 12:1-2..."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."

.....Have you ever wondered about God's will for you? Most of us have from time to time, especially if you are dedicated to knowing the Lord and loving Him with "your whole heart, soul, mind and strength." Mark 12:30. But the question always comes down to this: what does that mean, exactly. This is what I have found to be true in my 35 years of walking with the Lord. A Sovereign God provided the way for man to return to a relationship with his Heavenly Father, after Adam and Eve broke the relationship in the Garden of Eden. How did they do this? By willful disobedience...thinking they knew better than God and we do the very same thing! We do our own thing, independent of what God would desire for us, usually not even consulting Him (prayer). We follow the ways of the world, conforming to the way "everyone else does it." God expects us to "serve." What does that mean?? It means to live for Him, what Jesus called"abiding" in Him, and allowing the Holy Spirit to teach us the Word, it's our spiritual act of worship. Reading John 13-17 is a really good exercise in renewing the mind, and understanding what it is to abide in Christ and not conform to the world around us. Right now, in 2009 that is critical because our world and country are changing and we need to be in tune with what God wants of us and what He is doing. Here  are a few additional things to contemplate:

• In light of all the spiritual benefits we enjoy solely as the fruit of God’s mercy, it logically follows that we owe God our highest form of service. Understood here is the idea of priestly, spiritual service such as was an integral part of Old Testament worship.
• Conformed...refers to assuming an outward expression that does not reflect what is inside, a kind of masquerade or act. (Here Paul is telling this group to stop what they have already begun.)
• This World = age, system of beliefs, values the spirit of the age. This sum of contemporary thinking and values forms the moral atmosphere of our world and is always dominated by Satan.
• Transformed = metamorphosis, a change in outward appearances that reflects our inner, redeemed natures daily. Like the Transfiguration.
• Renewing the Mind = that kind of transformation only happens as the Holy Spirit changes our thinking-being saturated and controlled by the Holy Spirit/Word of God-study and meditation of Scripture.
• Exhortation = the gift which enables a believer to effectively call others to obey and follow God’s truth.
• Negatively: Admonish and Correct
• Positively: Encourage, comfort and strengthen