And then sometimes God gives you your word…

Good morning! 

I am super late getting a post up. I actually got ready first, which is unheard of…this new leaf thing is stretching me….hope it passes soon.

As I have been thinking about the “one word” thing…and I am quite certain that unless some random thought crops up that burns to be expressed we are done with it as of today…and it occurs to me that God is pressing a word on me.

Several words actually.

Do you ever find a verse or phrase or theme cropping up in a couple of locations and you start to perk up your ears?

Well, since we cracked open the 2019 calendar ten days ago, I have been smacked in the face by a passage A LOT.

It was featured in our Sunday School lesson, and then the sermon given by our pastor.

It has been in a couple of my devotional readings, from different sources and was thrown out by both a sermon podcast I listened to and a recorded teaching by Beth Moore from December 5th.

And if you feel like it’s hunting you down too, well then I find myself in good company this morning. 

I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God; that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  

Romans 12: 1 & 2 NKJV

I love The Message wording as well…

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 

Eugene Peterson adds this in the commentary:

“God doesn’t want a tithe from you, minced out of the pocket change of your life. He wants all of you. All of your heart. All of your mind. All of your time, your energy, your resources. All of your hopes and dreams. Every bit of who you are and what you have, he wants you to put on the altar as an offering to him.”

The Message Study Bible, Eugene Peterson; navpress, 2007, pg. 1761

Seems like a lot doesn’t it. 

Kind of fanatical. 

Very risky.

Until we remember that the very breath in our lungs is by His will and power and grace.

As Beth said so well at the end of her message I listened to (December 5th on her broadcast) and I paraphrase for you…

We have been raised from a stinking grave for crying out loud and we walk around acting like God has been holding out on us. 

God is calling me to renew my mind this year…to lay down before Him this every-day, ordinary life as an offering and then taking my hands off of what I gave Him. 

I am not loaning Him my life. I am giving back the life He freely gave me.

To stop conforming and to surrender to His transforming. 

What’s God speaking to you this year? 

Share. Please do. 

Oh sure…with me in the comments would be fun…but no… I mean SHARE it out there with others. 

Let’s be people who are effective witnesses because we have taken the time to really absorb and recognize what Christ has done for us.