Verse of the Day 10/25

   

Verse of the Day 10/25 

 

Romans 12:1-2  Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That's the most sensible way to serve God. ² Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him.  Contemporary English Version (CEV)

 

As I read today's verses in the Contemporary English Version above, the first thing that jumped out at me was the statement "God is good".  It caused me to pause and think about that. It brought to mind the prayer learned as a child at the dinner table – "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, Amen".  I then thought of the simple chorus that we used to sing "God is go good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me."  That prayer and that chorus and many other verses from church and Sunday school helped form the concept of God and who He is at an early age.  They helped shape the way I lived my live, helped me turn to Him in prayer, helped form the outlook on the world that He would develop in me.

 

My hope and prayer is that we will continue to teach our children, grand children and great grand children these prayers, songs and verses so that they too will start out life with those concepts, those beliefs as the framework of their world view.  But even if those things are not instilled in them then, there is hope.  God is capable or reaching anyone and as the English Standard Version (below) states in verse 2, prevent them from letting the world force them into its mold but rather to transform them by the renewing of their minds through His Spirit working in them through His Word.

 

For those that have that Christian world view, the verses remind us, encourage us and even beg us to offer ourselves, our lives in service to Him, trying to please Him in all that we do.

 

Read the passage below, think about what it means to you that "God is good" and how you may live for Him today, showing that your mind has been renewed.

 

Living for Jesus a life that is true, Striving to please Him in all that I do; Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free, This is the pathway of blessing for me.
	O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give myself to Thee, For Thou, in Thy [redemption],* Didst give Thyself for me; I own no other Master, My heart shall be Thy throne, My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ, for Thee alone.
2	Living for Jesus who died in my place, Bearing on Calv'ry my sin and disgrace; Such love constrains me to answer His call, Follow His leading and give Him my all.
3	Living for Jesus wherever I am, Doing each duty in His holy name; Willing to suffer affliction and loss, Deeming each trial a part of my cross.
4	Living for Jesus through earth's little while, My dearest treasure, the light of His smile; Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem, Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.

 

--   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 12:1-8 English Standard Version (ESV)

A Living Sacrifice

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,^[a] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.^[b] 2 Do not be conformed to this world,^[c] 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.^[d]

Gifts of Grace

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. ⁴ For as in one body we have many members,^[e] and the members do not all have the same function, ⁵ so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ⁶ Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; ⁷ if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; ⁸ the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,^[f] with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.