Romans 12 (November 9)

Jacobs favorite chapter

Really good, its about giving yourself as a living sacrifice... take some time and really dig deep with this one

awesome start to my week
had a good day
other than the fact that my civics teacher wont even let me have my phone out or else he'll take it away....
i never thought i would say this, but i miss careers. LOL
i threw out my cover letter template :S crappp
+ im applying to sport checkkkkk yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
job hunt this weekend, decided to start there, GOD HELP ME GET THIS JOB

1Therefore, 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[a] act of worship. 2Do 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 love love love this chapter
this was probably the first chapter introduced to me on the subject of worship!
worship as we all know, isnt just about the music. music is just a small part of worship. because worship is BIGGER than we could ever imagine! we narrow it down to "worship=praise" "worship is a lifestyle" "worship is doing what God wants us to do" but can we REALLY cover worship in a mere sentence? is it something we can just contain as one specific thing?
here, it tells you another part of worship. the spiritual act. we need to offer ourselves to God as pleasing sacrifices.i love how it says "dont conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind" we all lived like any other person in this world at one time. even for those of us (me included) where we've been going to church since we were in diapers. We never really TRANSFORMED spiritually until we met God personally. We change and we are more aware of God's presence and then we start realizing all of the small rules and orders from God. "then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will" Have we been able to realize what His will is? its traced throughout the whole bible.... dig deep, search, reflect, study, we need to know for we all have a purpose, and we need to fufill God's will.

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

HAHA i like this verse.
it talks about what kind of sacrifice to give to God and it's the living kind. When we offer ourselves up to God, he deserves the best. That's the true way to worship him. hmm it's better to give God a live sheep then a sheep that's already dead right? God likes the thought and effort that's put into our way of worship. When we worship, he wants our everything, he wants us to worship with our full hearts. God notices the way we wworship and he'll bless us for our GREAT worship. So I really hope that worship especially at our retreat will be amazing!

Oh gosh, Was at H mart since 12 in the morning
till 7 aclock and only got paid 10 bucks... LOL
jst woke up from a quick slumber... HAHA

1Therefore, 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[a] act of worship

The first verse already has a STRONG message... and also, jacob pointed that out too, We have to give god everything that
we have, Our bodies. That doesnt mean we should like cut off our limbs and sacrifice it to god, means that we have to do
everything that we can WITH our bodies to thank him. Like what we as a praise team's doing... Using our talent's, our body
to worship god...

5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

This verse also caught my eyes, it tells me that we as everybody in the world is one. If one person sins,
we all as human's sin... For example, let's say we're playing for the congregation and one person like ME or
KEVIN screw up. That doesnt mean that it's me or kevin's fault but the whole praise team's mistake... RIGHT
GUYS??? haha... So if one person sin's it's the same as us sinning, we shouldn't think of our selves as a
individual but a team... We should gather up everything that we have and give thanks to god...

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.

HAHA, jst reading it explains everything... HAHA

19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[d]says the Lord.

This verse tells you wat do do when you're pissed at someone...
LOL dunt do anything back to them because revenge is something
that god will do... If someone hurts you for no good reason, jst forgive
them, God will do the work... This reminds me of another very good quote,
"Forgiving is the Sweetest Revenge." That doesn't mean u shouldn't forgive
people because it's revenge. It means you SHOULD forgive, even tho they
might not come to you to apologize... Forgive without apology. God will do the
work... Also, this is what i think, haha lets say, someone does something bad to
you, if you forgive them, they will feel horrible cuz of guilt, haha. isn't that tru??
you're making them suffer without ACTUALLY making them suffer... MAN, this is
rele WEIRD!!

20On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."[e] 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Btw, this verse emplies to what I just said... HAHA Forgive without apology.
By forgiving, you're making them suffer. HAHA

Classic. Great chapter!

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others"
I thought of praise team as soon as I read this verse. I love this verse because the analogy of the body is so powerful.. because we al know how important each part of the body is, and how they all have different functions.. did you know that not having a toe can screw over like.. your body balance or something and you'll have trouble walking? a little TOE! in the same way every signle one of us are here for a reason - God brought us to this praise team, and he has a different purpose! And not just in terms of instruments, because that's too obvious.. haha but in terms of spirit, in terms of our character, our faith, our passion for praise, etc.
That's why when just one person's missing, it makes a huge difference! So if we really are indeed one body, then we should work harder to act like one. To be unified and be a better a community.. that when one person's struggling that all of us can share in it and help that person out.. and when one person's rejoicing that everyone else can share in that too.. I hope that as a praise team we may be able to move as ONE body, and that every action of this body may be for the glory of God.

PS I'm really praise team deprived.. I LOVE YOU ALL! cant wait for friday already!

hooookaaaaay
Grace, working at sportschek sucks but a jobs a job... and money is money! (i would know :p)
"1 And so, dear brothers and sisters,[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you."
Like Sayah said yesterday, Because of Gods grace, we IN TURN offer out lives to him...

"2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world"
I think the hardest thing to do is not to be swept up by our sinful surroundings. Even the little things are sinful, and we always forget about them. Its hard to be out of the ordinary, to be counter cultural.
I forget who says this but he or she said being christian is being counter cultural.

oh man this whole chapter is full of great messages...

" 3 Because of the privilege and authority[c] God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.[d] 4 Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
We GET to play for God. We GET to be in the place to influence the lives of others... So know that as praise members, you are in very important factors of worship. With that said, be HUMBLE. I love that line, "dont think you are better than you really are" because its sooo blunt. Like i said after praise yesterday, be humble when being spoken to by either jacob, allan, cathy, or myself. We dont look out for mistakes to make you feel bad, we do it to make you better.

"2 Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying."
hmmmm

This chapter reminds me of proverbs. It just goes on and on about amazing life lessons.
Great chapter, Amazing book!

-Isaac

I love Romans. They're such nice people.

Great devos guys! My mom is killing me right now, but i have done them and i will do it again cause it's my favourite chapter!
So apologizing for not posting earlier!

Sorry guys just had a bunch of school crap to do. Essay just destroyed me

wow , amazing chapter

I learned just recently that if you are missing you small toe, you can't even walk, such a small body part let's you walk. The body mentioned today, relates to us. Like Jacob, said everyone has a role, and no matter how big or small if may seem, they must work in conjunction to function. lol darn Cathy beat me to it with the small toe, anyways, we know when one of us is missing. We know that a crucial component is missing. We feed and grow off each other. I like to think we are all gears, if one small (kevin) gear lol is missing the rest stops to move.

Never pay back evil with more evil

Hardest thing to do, becasue we are programmed to think of inflicting evil to those who have hurt us. It's just how we are wired. Defeat evil with kindness, don't add fuel to the fire.

k that is all

c ya guys

ALLAN YOU STOLE MY TOE EXAMPLE! hahhaha THIEFFF