nov 29

Romans 12:1-2
1 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.
2 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.

You’re in school, in the middle of a brutal math test. You know you've already missed three questions-and you're only on question 4! You look around the room, desperate for a morsel of hope, a little help. Then your eyes settle on the test paper of the kid who sits next to you. Working furiously, you erase your answers and copy the answers of Eugene Farklemeier, a student who's railing every class. Or imagine this: You have no idea what to wear for homecoming, so you decide to go to the store. On the way to the door, you spy a magazine. "Ah!" you cry. You rip off the cover, take it to the mall, and buy an outfit similar to the one worn by the movie star on the cover-the movie star who topped the year's "worst dressed" list. Or perhaps it happens like this: You're planning to try out for the school basketball team, and you notice that one of the kids in your gym class has managed to miss every shot he's taken. You approach him after gym class one day and explain, "I'm going to go out for basketball. Will you teach me how to shoot?" Why would you try to copy test answers from a failing student? Why would you imitate the fashion choices of someone who was voted "worst dressed"? Why would you take basketball lessons from someone who couldn't shoot a basket with a camera? That would be ridiculous, right? Right. But it's no less ridiculous for Christians to try to copy what the world does. A lot of people in the world excuse sinful behavior by saying, "The way I figure, right and wrong are just relative, you know? What's right for you may not be right for me." Christians hear that, and before long they're copying the behavior and explaining away their own wrong choices. You may watch movies or television shows you know are not pleasing to God, but you tell yourself, Hey, I'm not the only one. Or you may reason that everybody is drinking or dipping, using or abusing, so there's nothing wrong with your doing it. But why would you want to copy what everybody is doing? Why copy something that doesn't work? If you want what the world wants and do what the world does, you'll end up like the world: sinful, miserable, and messed up. But if you let God transform you into a new person-one who by the power of his Spirit copies God instead of the world-you'll not only please God, you'll take your life to a whole new level of fulfillment and enjoyment.

REFLECT: What warning does Romans 12:1-2 give? What can you do to heed the warning?

PRAY: "God, I don't want to copy this sinful world; I want to be transformed into a new person. Please change the way I think, especially in the area of..."

Humans tend to adapt to every situation in order to blend in with others.
We feel as if we will be the odd one out. No one wants that. We try to be neutral and stick to what society thinks is best.
What if it wasn't the best in god's perspective?
Many people fall into temptation and many people do it so frequently, we all can just assume that doing this is normal. Trends, "cool" activities, intrests change as time goes. People then also do change along with the big crowd.
God doesn't want Christians to be like this. No matter what happens, always stay faithful and do not change your connections just because everything else arround you has changed. Stay that same true follower of Christ. Do not be ashamed doing what is right.

I need to get some more sleep these days.....good night everyone!
~Audrey~

I personally love this message, even though it might be somewhat "mainstream" among the Christian community. But it is mainstream for a reason and it is that it is important to remember our purpose on Earth as Christians. Personally, I have lots of worldly wants and sometimes I might even use the excuse that everyone else has it to justify me getting it, but just as God told us not to invest in worldly wealth, he also tells us not to conform the the patterns of this world. So I will be continually working on not just avoiding small things like worldly wants, but following Gods way instead of the worlds even when faced with bigger decisions.

It IS rather difficult to not conform. "Because everyone's doing it".
In my perspective, it only takes one person to start a destructive cycle of torment.
As we are interpersonal, we are easily influenced by one another. Especially those that we look up to.
But we'd have to know where to draw the line. When to follow and when to turn away, knowing that their actions are unjust.
Jesus was so different than the others.
Nobody would dare to speak to a gentile when you were a Jew.
Jesus chilled with the sick and the lame, did he not?

I absolutely love this passage
When I think sacrifice, the first thing that pops up into my head is, giving something to the extent that it makes us uncomfortable or hurts us to do so.
This passage clearly highlights "Living" sacrifice because sacrifice back then was referred to giving up something that was "dead".
However, this passage tells us to be a sacrifice, while we are alive. This is the worship that is pleasing to God.
This directly correlates to not giving into satisfactions that the world has to offer up to us.
This however is obviously an extremely hard guideline to implement to our daily lives because as humans, our priorities are to ourselves.
Why should we give to the point it makes us under go through some sort of stress?
It's just something that we will never be ok with, however, we know that it is what is right in terms of pleasing God.

Great passage

I really like the idea of not following the ideals of this world. It really reminds of how there's really other things out there other than Earth, like New Israel. Along with how God is really set apart from the group that we consistently put ourselves in.

I think the reading really puts us on the ball for knowing what to prioritize in our values. I'm guessing prioritizing the small things in our lives is a big step towards becoming Christian and following Christs' footsteps. I think when the verse refers to a "new person" in the bible, it always refers to the role God has planned for us in his Kingdom. I like to keep the image of having a goal"list" of traits that God has really planned for me, and how I can actually contribute my entire life for his purpose.

The thought really puts me on the ball for seeing how my grandmother really showed me how to serve God for the rest of your life

first thing that came into mind when reading this was what Dan told us one day during practice to be living sacrifices. i remember at that time i didnt really understand what he was saying but as i look back on it, i now understand that to be a living sacrifice to God means that you are sacrificing something that is treasured very much to you to him. it is easier said than done. we always are so preoccupied with other things or hobbies that we very much like and spend a lot of time on, that we tend to push God back into the back of our minds. to be a living sacrifice, disregard that thing that you would be doing or use it to glorify his name. sacrifice to him as he has sacrificed his one and only son on the cross for us. we can only do so much to repay him our debts.

2 "Don’t copy the behaviour 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."

Don't fall for all the corruption and greed in the world. Follow only God's words and commands and don't get sidetracked by anything. Also, don't be ashamed to do any of this! To the world you might be seen as some crazy, religious freak, but to God's eyes you're being faithful and obedient.

We all can do minor things to worship God... but giving ourselves up to God is truly the best way to worship to worhship Him.
Although it may be difficult for all of us right now because we think that everything else is important, but when hard times come for us, we will know that God is the perfect escape into freedom and eternal life. Alwayys have that in mind because it is truly a blessing to know that God is alwayhs theres for us no matter how many times we betray him and forget about him.
He is the light and the best way to worhsip him is through our own bodies, give yourselves up and you will truly be blessed!