Romans 12::1,2 (Voice): Brothers and sisters, in light of all I have shared with you about God’s mercies, I urge you to offer your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, a sacred offering that brings Him pleasure; this is your reasonable, essential worship. 2 Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.
Can you imagine that God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, is pleading with us, urging us and begging us to do something? How important this must be! God is urging the Christian to do this critical, vital thing. The Greek word for “urge” means “to call aloud to one’s side.” Do we hear God’s call? How will we respond? How will we live? This is serious! This is a weighty matter and we must live according to this truth that is being given to us! This is God’s truth! Will we obey? Will we align ourselves with the will of God? What is God urging, pleading and begging us to do? He is begging us to offer our bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God as a sacred offering that brings Him pleasure. God is not just asking you, He is commanding you that you give Him ALL of yourself. Each day as we grow our main occupation is to give more and more of ourselves away to Him. This is living sanctified. It’s a matter of the heart. I want Him to have every chamber of my heart. I want Him to have freedom to abide in every place, nook and cranny of my heart that I may be His and He may be mine in everything: that my heart might totally belong to Him.
OFFER YOUR BODIES AS A LIVING AND HOLY SACRIFICE
The word “offer” is in the aorist tense, which calls for a once and for all presentation denoting a deliberate action involving the thought of finality. Quit limping between two opinions. If the world is God, then serve the world. If God is God, then serve God! This is not a rededication over and over again and over again. Do it once and for all! Once and for all stop messing around with your body! Our activity in life not only reflects upon us, but reflects upon God. So if you are living for or by the world-cease doing it! If you are giving your body to the things of the world, to the lusts and cravings of the flesh-Stop It! Return to him! Give Him yourself. You belong to Him. Your body belongs to Him. Present your body to Him. If God has your heart He has your body. There is no separation. If he does not have your body he does not have your heart. Love the Lord your God with every fiber of your being. Nothing is held back. Nothing is taken back. You don’t choose what you give him. You give Him everything. God is a jealous God and He wants all of you to all of Him. If we hold back anything, it is an idol, and it has become more important to you than God and that is dangerous ground to tread upon in your Christian walk. It’s not your life anymore! It’s not your body anymore. It’s not your eyes, your lips, your ears, your feet, or your hands, they all belong to Him and everything is to be governed by Him. You take every aspect of your life and conform it to the will of God. Offer yourself to Him as a living sacrifice. Have you counted the cost? Offer your lives to Him in their entirety. Cultivate that attitude. This is a radical way to live: to give your life away to Him.
In Light of All I Shared with You About God’s Mercies. I Urge You:
The motivation to live like this and give God our body as a living sacrifice is the mercies of God explained in previous chapters of Romans revealed in the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is God taking a mass of rotten humanity and turning it into a child of God. When you learn what God has done for you in Christ Jesus, the more the love will be drawn out of your heart. This will flame our hearts for God when we see His goodness, His character and His grace in making us righteous, sanctified, justified, and reconciled and giving us His peace. He has filled us with the fullness of Christ, giving us the gift of eternal life, the gift of holy spirit, rescuing us from the power of darkness, seating us in the heavenlies in Christ, bringing us from death to life and making us lovely and acceptable in his sight. This is the Mercies of God because the wages of sin is death and we deserved death. That was our future payday without Christ. When we see the true nature of mankind and what man is apart from the mercies of God, and the radically depravation of the human heart, we will fully appreciate God and His mercies. We will love Him more for we know what we have been rescued from. This is what motivates us to give Him our all. We must understand what we were, dead in trespasses and sins, without God and without hope, what we have been forgiven, what was wiped off our slate by the blood of Christ and we will have no problem giving Him our all. We will love God more when we understand the mercies of God.
Quit feeding your flesh! Quit allowing your appetites to rule your spiritual life. God is our new Magnificent Obsession. We are to become something more than just a man or woman but we must become God’s man or woman. The life that you live, is it for God? Is it really for God? Don’t just say the words. If we were to open up your heart chamber and see the motivation, would we see that what you do is really for God or is it all about you in God’s name. What dwells in the secret chambers of our heart? Is it sin, pride, and the world or is it the fullness of God? We cannot have any secret chambers when it comes to God. He must have all of us.
You see Paul’s intention was to stack up all of God’s tender mercies in Christ on one side of the ledger and then point to the other side and say, “Shouldn’t all of these spiritual blessings in Christ result in our living a certain way?” And of course, they should. It’s only reasonable…only logical…only intelligent and rational to say that they should. We do that by constantly reminding ourselves of His extraordinary, undeserved mercy and just responding from the heart out of unfeigned gratitude. Let me say that even plainer. We are not paying God back. No, we are not paying God back at all. Our hearts have been stirred by love and affection and gratitude for all He done for us. When we consider with our minds what He has done…when we reflect on His tender mercies with whatever ability we have to ponder deep things we are just dumbstruck by the enormity of His love and the result is that we naturally tune not only our minds to worship Him, but our bodies as well. We see same thing in Word of God in Ephesians Chapters 1,2,3 (the magnificent things he has done for us in our salvation)and then we see Ephesians 4:1a “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” His grace and mercy are so great in our calling as a redeemed child of God, that God urges to walk in a manner worthy of this calling. We are not walking in a manner worthy of our amazing calling if we hold back any part of our body as a living sacrifice. Have you ever thought what you do with your body throughout the day? Is it for God? Does it glorify God? Or is it to satisfy your own pleasures?
F. B. Meyer once preached the following text…
I remember so well when He came to my heart and challenged me as to the keys of the fortress. I had them upon my bunch, and before I gave them to Him I put one small key in my pocket. Have not you done that, and handed to Him the bunch minus that key? He gave it back, and said He could not be King at all if He could not be King of all.
To Offer: Means to Present your Body, your Mind, your Emotions, your Will, your Time, your Thoughts, your Abilities, and your Possessions 100% at God’s disposal ONCE AND FOR ALL
The word “offer” in Romans 12:1 is the Greek word paristemi from para = beside or near + histemi = set and literally means to place or set beside or near hence to place at someone’s disposal. The English dictionary notes that to present is to bring or introduce into the presence of someone especially of superior rank or status, to make a gift to; to convey to another as a possession; to offer gratuitously for reception; and to put into the hands of another in ceremony. Paristemi includes the ideas of to yield or surrender up, or to place at the disposal of another. The implication is that every aspect of a believer’s life is to be yielded to God. In the Old Testament a worshiper would present an unblemished animal sacrifice to God as an expression of worship. Today, God doesn’t want us to present dead sacrifices, but to present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices. The OT Law demanded sacrifice. The Gospel of Grace invites us to consider the “mercies of God”and respond accordingly. On the basis of what God has shown us He has done, we are not to look to the Law & respond because we MUST. Instead we look at all God has done in showing us mercies & we respond freely from a grateful heart…”With eyes wide open to the mercies of God”. (Phillips). We present our bodies to God, relinquishing our grip, and not letting go only to take it back! In context it is us placing ourselves at the disposal of God. In a similar manner, in Israel the whole burnt offering (which was also a voluntary offering) ascended to God and could never be reclaimed. It belonged to God.
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”: Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an offering far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all. Isaac Watts
The Parable of the Rich Ruler: Is There a Limit to Your Obedience?
Matthew 19:16-22 (KJV): And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
THE rich young ruler consecrated a part, but was unwilling to consecrate the whole. He hallowed the inch, but not the mile. He would go part of the way, but not to the end. And this peril is upon us all. We give ourselves to the Lord, but we reserve some liberties. We offer Him our house, but we mark some rooms “Private.” And that word “Private,” denying the Lord admission, crucifies Him afresh. He has no joy in the house so long as any rooms are withheld.
Dr. F. B. Meyer has told us how his early Christian life was marred and his ministry paralyzed just because he had kept back one key from the bunch of keys he had given to the Lord. Every key save one! The key of one room kept for personal use, and the Lord shut out. And the effects of the incomplete consecration were found in lack of power, lack of assurance, lack of joy and peace.
We are told to glorify God in our bodies. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Cor. 6:20). “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death” (Phil. 1:20). “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2Cor. 4:10). There must be in the believer’s life that final and complete surrender of the body to Jesus Christ. This does not mean there will be no further steps of surrender, because there will be. The longer we walk with Christ, the deeper the fellowship must become. But there can be no subsequent steps without that first step of a complete surrender of the body.
Christian, does the Lord have your body? Have you ever by a very definite act of the will presented it to Him for His control, His use, and His glory? If not, why don’t you do so right now? Just say, “Lord, I’ve already given You my heart, but now here is my body! Help me to keep it clean, pure, and undefiled. Use me for Your glory in any way You see fit. I’m Yours to command!”
Your body as used by Paul represents the complete man, the “part” representing the whole which is a figure of speech known as synecdoche (a part is put for the whole). So our body represents the totality of our being, not just our physical bodies, but our heart, soul, mind and strength…ALL of each of them! God wants ALL of our body on the altar, not just a part. Through the body we serve (Romans 12:3ff).
A pastor friend of Warren Wiersbe’s once said,
There are too many ‘cafeteria Christians’ in our congregation. Instead of letting God plan the whole meal and accepting it, they pick and choose what they want, and they miss the best dishes He fixes for them!” God wants ALL OF OUR HEART, and He expects us to obey ALL of His will in ALL of our ways. If Jesus Christ gave His ALL for us (Ro 3:24, 25, 26-Ro 5:18, Ro 8:3, Ro 8:4), how can we do less than give our ALL to Him? (Wiersbe, W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
What a believer does with his body is as much a part of the spiritual life as what he does in his devotional time or how he uses his talents or his money. The artificial division we make between “physical” and “spiritual” is not at all biblical. Presenting our bodies to the Lord is a part of our “spiritual worship”, and what we do with our bodies will have a direct bearing on how God will reward us one day.
A Living Sacrifice Must be Holy: Set Apart from the Corruption in the World
Holy (hagios) means set apart from the world unto God for a special purpose! Hagios Includes the idea of taking something filthy, dirty and washing it and setting it apart as something brand new and useful for a different purpose. (cf Isa 1:18-note). In the New Testament hagios conveys a moral and spiritual sense describing that which is separated from the sphere of sin (“in the world but not of the world”) and devoted to God and to His service. As human beings we are prone to forget, but in the area of holiness, the believer must determine to continually recognize that we are no longer at liberty to use our body in ways which are displeasing to God. I Peter 1:13-16: Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” II Corinthians 6:14-18: “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.17 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. 18 “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”Says the Lord Almighty.” We must separate ourselves from the contamination of this world.
Stedman comments on what constitutes a holy…acceptable sacrifice:
The only life that is acceptable to Him is the life of Jesus Christ lived again in us. As we have seen, God has put all that I am to death — my plans, my programs, my desires — are all tainted with self, and are worthless. But, the minute I accept this and acknowledge that it is true and right, then it is possible for Christ, Who lives in me, to begin to work out His plans, His programs, His ideals, His desires. He does it through my conscious will, but then it is something holy and acceptable unto God. Anything else is burning false incense, false fire, before God.
The venerable saint J. Oswald Sanders was once asked:
If you had to boil it all down, what are the basic ingredients required for the individual who wants to become all God wants him to become? To which he answered: “I think the basic thing is an unreserved handing of oneself over to the Lord. Wherever there are reservations there is going to be immaturity. But until that act of passing over oneself to the lordship of Christ is done, there will be no spiritual growth worth speaking about. And then after that I believe the next thing is the maintenance of a consistent devotional life and walk of communion with God. That is the soil from which any anointed ministry springs. And where that is missing, there is not going to be fruitfulness.
John 15:5: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. We can do absolutely nothing without our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do I present my body to God as a living sacrifice? Verse 2 has the core answer.
Do Not Allow This World to Mold You Into It Image.
Romans 12:2 (NIV): 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.
This is the attitude and action of a living sacrifice. You cannot be a living sacrifice to God if you are conformed in your thinking, words, thoughts and actions to the world. We make the decision to either be conformed to this world or transformed from this world. The Prince of the Power of the Air has a 24 hour world-wide broadcasting station that broadcasts its images, words, thoughts, reasonings, logic, lusts, desires and schemes every single day, hour and minute. The most powerful mediums of its broadcasting are television, the internet, radio, movies, and books. These broadcasts present the pattern or mold of the world in living color, in vibrant words, in tantalizing images and in irresistible logic. They glorify sin, appeal to the lusts of our flesh and promote the defiled and the unholy. They are designed to prepare the heart for destruction turning it away from God. Don’t think you can habitually play with the pattern of this world and not get burned. The pattern of this world will destroy your intimacy with God and enslave your heart in its pleasures. We often forget that Scriptures plainly tells us that the devil is “the god of this world” and “the prince of this age.” There is nothing neutral in this world. It ALL drives you from the heart of God. Take an honest look at your life. Are you conforming or transforming?
The world wants your body. The world wants your eyes, your ears, your hands, your mouth, your thoughts, your heart and every part of your body. The world wants you to worship it, love it and desire it. It wants you to conform your body, your thoughts, your personality and your life to its standards.
Conformed (suschematizo from sun/syn = together with + schema = external form, appearance) means to form according to a pattern or mold, to fashion alike, to conform to the same pattern outwardly and to strike a pose. The meaning is to form or mold one’s behavior in accordance with a particular pattern or set of standards. The preposition “sun” in this compound verb denotes a personal assimilation to or conformity with the pattern indicated. We do not assimilate and absorb the pattern of the world into our minds, hearts and beings. We don’t drift with the current of the world. We don’t get caught up in thinking and acting like the world or deceived by their opinions, their solutions and their reasoning. It is not of God.
A believer’s continued practice of conforming to the world’s way of thinking and acting is inconsistent with having given his or her body to the Lord’s service. Indeed, such a practice is forbidden because it negates and seriously mars the presentation the believer has made as a living sacrifice and amounts in essence to a sacrifice that places itself on the altar but then begins to “crawl off the altar”. The present tense of this verb suschematizo indicates that this duty to resist conformity is necessary every moment of every day for the rest of our life on earth. Whereas Romans 12:1 calls for a decisive commitment, Romans 12:2 deals with the maintenance of that commitment. The process of non-conformity is a continuous duty that runs parallel with the continual process of being transformed or a continual renunciation and renewal.
We are to stop allowing ourselves to be fashioned after the schemes of this passing evil age in which we live. Practically this means we must be careful what we read and watch.We must not be afraid to be different (to be like Christ – see John 5:18, 19, 20, 21). This same idea of not being conformed to the world is found in 2 Timothy 2:4: “No soldier engaged in active duty entangles himself with the everyday affairs of this life.” As citizens of heaven we are to “set [our] mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:1,2) The danger of being conformed to the world’s way of thinking and doing is ever present. James says that those who seek to practice pure and undefiled religion must keep themselves unstained by the world (James 1:27). James further warns us of the danger of “Friendship of the world” (James 4:4) as we become an enemy of God!.
Compromise leads to Conformity which leads to Defeat
It is when the believer is separated from sin (2 Cor 6:14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 7:1) that he or she exerts the greatest influence for God. Spiritual transformation starts in the mind and heart. A mind dedicated to the world and its concerns will produce a life tossed back and forth by the currents of culture (Ephesians 4:14). But a mind dedicated to God’s truth will produce a life that can stand the test of time. .
John Piper: There is a negative command and a positive one (Romans 12:2): negatively, don’t be conformed to this world; positively, be transformed. Not conformed, transformed. Devote your life as a Christian to being changed. Don’t settle in at the level of transformation you now have. O how many Christians throw away their birthright by coasting. Be transformed! It’s present tense, on-going, continual growth in un-conforming yourself to the world.
BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWING OF THE MIND
Be transformed (metamorphoo from metá = denotes change of place or condition + morphoo = to form from morphe = form, shape referring to the essential form of a thing) has the basic meaning of changing into another form and is the term from which we get metamorphosis, which in biology denotes the amazing change of a lowly worm into a beautiful butterfly. So the change in view here is not a superficial fluctuation of fashion or conduct, but a vital change revealing a new life. Metamorphoo describes Jesus’ transfiguration in which His glory shined through His garments so that what Jesus really was on the inside was made manifest to Peter, John and James (Mt 17:2, Mk 9:2).
The renewing of the mind is so much deeper than simply thinking about a Bible verse or memorizing it. John Piper: But how does this happen? What is involved? Does it mean we should just study what the world wears and watches and listens to and buys and plays, and then do the opposite? Well there will be a difference at most of those levels probably, but that’s not what the text focuses on, is it? It says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” The focus is not first on getting the outside of the cup cleaned up, but on getting the inside cleaned up.
There is a testing process in the renewing of the mind. We can test and approve what is the good and perfect will of God or the things and trappings of the world. John Piper: That is, they so renewed that they can taste, or you might say smell, the rottenness of a temptation way before others and turn away before the least contamination happens. And they can taste and smell a beautiful opportunity for love before others see it coming. In other words, mind-renewal is a deep spiritual change in how the mind assesses things and values things. In Ephesians 4:18 Paul says that ignorance (of mind) is rooted in hardness of heart. So if the mind is going to be wise and discerning about the will of God, the heart must be soft and susceptible to spiritual reality. In other words, the renewal Paul is calling for is profound, and deeper than any mere mental effort can achieve. This is why prayer is utterly essential. The constant prayer of the Christian is, “Open my eyes that I may see” (Psalm 119:18); and, “Let the eyes of my heart be enlightened” (Ephesians 1:18); and, “Cause me, O Lord, to taste and see that you are good” The root of Christian living in verse 2 is a profoundly renewed mind. It doesn’t just think clearly, but assesses truly and values accurately and approves strongly and treasures passionately what is good, acceptable and perfect. This is utterly relevant to our daily lives because 95% of the things we do during the day, we do without any extended logical reflection. We just act spontaneously out of the spirit of the mind that is in us (Ephesians 4:23) – or as Jesus said, out of the abundance of our heart (Matthew 12:34). So to live the Christian life with any authenticity we must be in the process of a deep renewal deep beneath right thinking. What verse 2 describes is a living sacrifice because in the renewal of our minds a whole way of tasting and assessing and approving and valuing and treasuring the world dies. We are, as Paul says, “crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us” (Galatians 6:14). So the renewal is a dying of old values and the coming to life of new ones. It is the dying of old ways of treasuring television and food and money, and the awakening of new spiritual taste buds.
God is My All Satisfying Treasure
So our spiritual worship is to come to God each day and say: “O God, there is nothing that I want more than to approve what is most worthy, and value what is most valuable, and treasure what is most precious and admire what is most beautiful and hate what is most evil and abhor what is most ugly. I reckon myself dead to all that is unspiritual and worldly and deadening to my soul. Renew me, O my God. Awaken spiritual capacities of right assessment.” And then we say, “And take me, body and soul, and make me the instrument of your glory in the world. Let the renewal you are working from within show on the outside. This is my spiritual worship. To show the world that you are my all-satisfying treasure.”The essence of worship is a being satisfied in God and cherishing of Christ as gain. Romans 12:1-2 are not saying anything different. This is what it means to have a renewed mind. The renewed mind perceives and approves and treasures and cherishes the will of God (and thus transforms all of life), because it first and foremost perceives, and approves and treasures and cherishes God. And doing the will of God is the outshining of God in his glory. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). All of life is the outshining of what you truly value and cherish and treasure. Therefore all of life is worship. Either of God, or something else. Therefore be transformed in the renewal of your mind. Cherish God in all his works and all his ways. Reckon the old mind dead and offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice that he may put you on display by the outshining of his worth and his value in your life. Worship him with your life.
Those who have truly chosen to follow Christ are easily recognized. They are not necessarily identified by the testimony they give with their mouth, but by the fact they no longer live for themselves. Many people insist they are Christians but they are still living by their own will for their own pleasures. In other words, the body of sin is still living on. But those who have truly received Christ’s sanctified life into their heart will be found living for God alone. “14 .…Because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15) Having died to their self-life, their whole being is given up to live for Him.
Romans 14:7.8: For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
And that is our heritage – not to be moved by the pressure of human opinion, human love, or human ideas of duty, but to be moved moment by moment by the Spirit of God. We must not permit anything or anyone to move us away from His purposes for our life. The carnal mind does not see the value in following Jesus. Because it finds its life from the temporal realm, it just naturally thinks in terms of finding spiritual support from the world and its things. It does not comprehend how a person can experience an enjoyable spiritual life after dying to the self-directed and self-seeking ways of this world. This is where we must have faith in the God who can create worlds out of nothing and hold them up by what appears to be nothing. After our new birth we must live sanctified and to live sanctified we cannot ignore or be careless with sin because if we are we will miss the mark, the purpose, and the calling God has set before eternity for our lives. Read Romans 6, Romans 8, Romans 12 Ephesians 4, 5 and Colossians 3 to name a few and this comes abundantly clear. We can no longer live by our old sin nature, the flesh or be driven by its lusts and desires. Nothing will work in your Christian life if you live according to the flesh. Sin is very deceitful and always plays the game very well. It convinces us it is harmless, it is trivial and it is just this one time. Yet habitual sin kills our witness for Christ, hardens our heart and causes us to turn from the living God to an dead idol. The pattern is always the same and the consequences are always severe. The Devil just alters the bait, refines the image, changes the message and sugar coats sin to make it glitter like the lights of Las Vegas. The Christian cannot be ignorant or deceived into not living sanctified, dead to the power of sin.
Does God have all of you? Are you holding anything back? Have you given Him all the keys to your heart? Present yourself as a living sacrifice to God and completely at His disposal right now. Do not delay any longer. Do you love anything in the world more than you love God? If you won’t give it up, then you love it more than God. Every day promise not to be conformed to this world; not to be molded into its image; and not to be fashioned after its pattern. Shine as a light of this world by being transformed by the renewing of your mind and cherishing God above all. I guarantee you will never be disappointed now or throughout all eternity.
Tim Rowe
Goodness of God Ministries
http://www.thegoodnessofgod.net
