Rational Service!

Please excuse the poor grammar, and perhaps spelling errors. The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to a young man recently who asked me in the past about what it means to give your life to God, apart from salvation:

romans 12:1-2 has been before me again recently last week. look at it again in accordance to giving our life to God. it's good.

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. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

that we might be holy, and acceptable unto God - Why all this? we need to be holy-separate. we need to be acceptable unto God. John the baptist was a Nazarene. He was especially separate from everyone else, even God's separated people. This is what God wants, us to be even separate from other Christians! God wants men and women for God. One's who are in the book, studying it. One's in fellowship with God, praying always. Our standard is "acceptable unto God."... pretty high standard

which is your reasonable service - reasonable is better as "rational". All this stuff... living this life that some might call a superChristian... it's just rational. it's just what's expected. it should be nothing out of the ordinary. it's only rational based on what blessings we have been given.

Some put "reasonable service" as "spiritual worship," which is good too and makes sense with the use of the greek. all this... our lives... what is rational... what is supposed to be the regular Christian life of being transformed by the renewing of the mind, of being separate to God and acceptable unto Him, it's worship unto Him. He wants nothing more than a life devoted to Him... it's worship.

be not conformed to this age - don't let the ideas of the world and modern society shape who you are and what you believe

but be ye transformed - transformed is the same word as transfigured (when Jesus was on the mountain with Elijah and Moses). My life needs to take on that sort of drastic transformation. from a regular looking man to a man beaming in gloriousness

by the renewing of your mind - i like the word "renovating" better than renewing because it gives a better idea according to our modern language. how are we transformed? by the renovation of the mind. fix up your mind. daily reading. daily application of the word. fixing something here and there. tending to everything that needs to be fixed. if you didn't do that with your house, it would go to pieces. we should do that with our minds and lives that we might be transfigured into the image of Christ

As a side note, something that's impressed me lately is that our lives need to constant and continual and just like this verse says in all situations. it's so easy to get down. to beat yourself up. to lose perspective. but to live our lives not on a spiritual rollercoaster but relying on Him... and though our physical lives are a roller coaster our spiritual life needs to be peace and calm. The shepherd... leadeth me beside still waters, restoreth my soul. God is most satisfied in us when we are most satisfied in Him... in calamity... in tribulation... satisfied in God... it's worship. a sweet smelling savour that will fill the heavenly throne room no doubt as acceptable as the costly spikenard that filled the room as Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus' feet. worship God (Rev 19:10)