Verse of the Day 8/14

Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.   English Standard Version (ESV)

  Along with Romans 8 and Hebrews 11, today's verses come from one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament.  Paul transitions from teaching doctrine and now   turns to the application of what he has taught.  The verses are probably familiar to most of us but the content is inexhaustible.  Full sermons and even books   have been devoted to these verses.    The words that we'll consider this morning are "transformed" and "renewal".  The word for transformed in the Greek is metamorpho from which we get the word   metamorphysis.  This transformation is best captured in real life is the visual and physical change from the caterpillar to the  butterfly.  What we need to  think about is not only that change but what it means for the butterfly.  The caterpiller previously had inched along  in life.  It moved slowly, faced severe   limitations and could not easily avoid trouble.  The butterfly, flies.  It can move about with new freedom, soaring above the landscape and quickly going   where it wants to go and out of reach of (but not immune to) many troubles on the ground.    I have often thought of the renewal spoke of in these verses as something mainly internal, which they are, a changing of our minds of the way we think.  But it  is more than that, it is a change a renewal on the inside that changes what we are, who we are, more importantly Whose we are that leads to a change in the way  we live and act in the world.  We no longer inch along in life and in our faith, but through the Spirit's leading applying God's Word, we can soar.  The change  in us should be evident to others.    All of this is sobering and should cause us to examine are lives looking for the evidence of change.  May we and others see how "God brings the best out of you,   develops well-formed maturity in you", "changed from the inside out".  The Message  --   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

Romans 12:1-2The Message (MSG)

Place Your Life Before God

12 ^1-2 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—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.