January 18, 2012
Today’s Text: Read Romans 12:1, 2
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1-2
In giving ourselves to God, Romans 12:1-3 is fundamental. It’s so important for us to understand. Over the next couple of days we’ll look at 5 words that help us understand the process of giving ourselves to God and what it does for us and in us.
Presentation– In verse one Paul pleads with us to present ourselves to God. How? As a living sacrifice! What does this mean? We give God the totality of who we are. This presentation tells God, “I belong to You. Everything I have belongs to You.” Paul goes on to say that this presentation is the reasonable response to what God has done for us.
Separation- Paul goes on to tell us not to be conformed to this world. To “conform” means “to take the shape of.” Our values should be different. Our actions should be different. Our thinking should be different. When we are separated we tell God, “I will not let the world press me into its’ mold.” When we are separated from the world’s values and sinful ways, our uniqueness presents a valid identification for others.
Application:
In the way that you live, think, and value things in your life, does it look like you are presenting yourself as a living sacrifice?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
Soemtimes I’m not because I’m distracted by other things, and I want to be a living sacrifice for god and I will. Sometimes I am presenting my self as a living sacrifice and other times I’m not and I want to do that for god I want to be a living sacrafic for him hehe and serve him and make him happy that I’m doing so.
P.S. let me know if I missed the point because I fell like I did.
it doesn’t sound like you missed the point 🙂
Great Mafalda!!! Totally same here! 🙂
I would have to agree with Mafalda and Tristian. I think sometimes it is more obvious than other times. I need to present myself that way all the time. I liked what it said above:”our uniqueness presents a valid identification to others.” It we are presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice daily, than it will be obvious to the “world” that we do stand out and are different. A good rule of thumb: when the people of the world around you seem uncomfortable with you, you are probably having a good “presentation.” We need to be a living testimony. When people look at us it may be the only bible they ever see.
( please keep us lifted up in prayer today. Things are not good with mom at all. Getting worse daily. Going to call Dr’s today. May or may not be in tonight depending on if I feel I can bring Mom to church or not. If not, I cannot even think of leaving her alone at this point. We need a lot of wisdom right now.) Love all of you
The way that I live I am a living sacrifice but there is more that I can do for God and please pray for me that I do better tonight I’m going to basketball and any thing could happen they can say one thing or do one thing that would give me a chance to share God’s word and if nothing happens like that the least I could do is invite them to church.
Sometimes, but other times I’m not because this world IS trying to get me away from God and it’s hard sometimes. What’s on the news, What’s the new hit song, What’s in style. stuff like that is like bait to Christians and the world is saying: “it’s not that bad, be one of us.”
That’s why I’m starting to do my devotions more often, hopefully God will speak with me through his word.
im not always a living sacrifice to God.like mafalda had said,i can get distracted sometimes.i like what ben had said how other things (bad things) in the world try to pull us in and say that its ok.but its not.we need to really avoid those things and be different from the world and tell the world about him and be a living sacrifice for God! 🙂 hope you guys had a great day and seeu guys soon! love you! 🙂 <33333333 (btw,i missed u guys! hehe 🙂 )
I can be honest, I don’t always present myself as a living sacrifice. But I do try, and although sometimes it doesn’t happen, I think most of the time my intentions are good.
Sometimes it’s hard not to conform to this world. Who wants to be the odd one out?! But as Christians, it’s our job to be different, not weird but people should notice a difference in our lives. Because we aren’t living for ourselves, like most people out there, we’re living for God! So I think it’s crucial for Christians not to conform to this world. Because when that happens it could potentially ruin your testimony as a Christian, unfortunately I’ve seen it happen before and it’s not fun to watch. In a way God chose us to be an example to others, to show this dark world the light of God (Matthew 5:16). But if we go out and act like every other person out there, what kind of Godly example is that?. Sorry if I sounded a little preachy, I just really care about our youth group and would never want to see this happen to us. Imagine what Godly examples we could all be and how our youth group could change if we take what this verse/devotion says to heart! Just something to think about. 🙂 I hope you guys had a good night at youth group, sorry I missed it. Hopefully I’ll be back to church soon!
I’m definetly not always presenting myself as a living sacrifice, and I’m ashamed to say that. We’ve done very little to deserve the grace of God, in fact, we’ve done nothing to deserve His grace. God loves us, and in return, we need to show the world how much we love Him! Jesus was God’s sacrifice, His only son. I always reference Abraham and Issac, and think about what a faithful servant Abraham was to God. When I think about Abraham, I don’t even think I come close in comparrison to presenting myself as a living sacrifice. We talked about last week how there are two parts of this world. Darkness and light. Christians are among the light and unbelievers are among the darkness. Although we aren’t always accountable to stay out of the darkness, and conformity of this world, it’s our calling not to. We ought to be outsiders, of the darkness, and bring outsiders of the light, away from the darkness. We have to show unbelievers what God did for us. We need to be presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. I’m guilty of not always doing a great job of this, but it’s something I need, and strive to work on.