Day 7 - Week 9 - Romans 12:1 - "Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

I can't believe this is our last night on our last verse of the Romans Road.  I feel that I have shortchanged this week's verse due to the Easter holiday and the associated traveling.  But tonight, back at home, I am compelled to linger on it a bit and let the complete message of this verse sink in and become embedded in my heart.

Can we feel Paul's compelling exhortation to us to offer our earthly bodies in acts of sacrifice for God's glory?  Paul certainly had done this at the time of the writing of this letter to the Romans and would continue to do so...up to the very moment of his death at the hands of his executioners. 

I'm reminded of Paul's recital of how he had suffered in his devotion to the message of Christ in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28, "Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches."

I have no doubt that when Paul's life finally ended with his beheading by the Romans under Nero's rule, that he had absolutely no regret in the way in which he had lived his life, because he knew that what he had endured in no way compared to what God had prepared for him in eternity.  Paul had such conviction of his future in the "then", that nothing would stand in his way of doing whatever was asked of him in the "now." 

Sometimes we tell ourselves that given the big choices ("Deny Christ or die!"), we would certainly stand firm..but as reminded in an online conversation of just this evening, it is often the smaller, everyday choices where we opt to withhold our sacrifice. I really think that is more of what Paul is talking about in our verse that we're focusing on this week.  For it is in these daily sacrifices that we show our continual worship of our Lord. 

It is in the sacrifice of doing what our inner selfishness is driving us away from, that we show that we have accepted a Master other than self. 

It is in the sacrifice of esteeming others as more important than ourselves that we show that we have adopted the attitude described in Philippians 2:1-5, "Are you cheerful because you belong to Christ? Does his love comfort you? Is the Holy Spirit your companion? Has Christ been gentle and loving toward you? Then make my joy complete by agreeing with each other. Have the same love. Be one in spirit and purpose. Don't do anything only to get ahead. Don't do it because you are proud. Instead, be free of pride. Think of others as better than yourselves. None of you should look out just for your own good. You should also look out for the good of others."

Living lives of such self-sacrifice is the way in which we truly show our worship of our merciful and loving God.  It is an entirely opposite lifestyle of the worldly.  It is the way God sets His people apart.

So we have completed our travel down the Romans Road...are you confident in your ability to travel down it with a companion who doesn't know the way?  

Romans 3:23 - "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 5:8 - "But God proves His own love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Romans 10:9 - "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 12:1 - "Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

It's a road of truth and a road of redemption.  And a road to be followed the rest of our lives.  We don't just make a quick stop on this road, and then travel the rest of our lives down our own predetermined routes.  No, the Romans Road is a road that once we start down, we must follow to its final destination...our eternal home.  And we can have full assurance, just as Paul did, that whatever the road brings in this life, the destination will be fully worth the trip!

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has known what God has prepared for those who love him."



Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

Again utilizing my iPhone so the message will be brief! Tonight I pray that you all enjoyed an Easter Sunday that caused you to rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! I worshipped at a church I had never been in, with people I had never seen (except for Robert and our granddaughter, Azra), and I loved the fact that we were all together for the common purpose of lifting up the name of Jesus! I loved hearing Azra sing songs of worship and tell me the reason for Easter. It truly was a wonderful service for me.

At times like this I feel as if I have sacrificed so little for my King...please Lord, accept my humble thanks for this day of blessing, and please show me every way that I can express my thankfulness for your mercies by daily sacrificing my body to Your purpose. It is in the name of the risen Jesus that I pray - Amen.

Day 3 - Week 9 - "Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

Just a quick note as we are traveling tonight - spending the night with my wonderful brother-in-law and sister-in-law. I am not picking up wi-fi so posting this note via iPhone---tedious!

I'm remembering tonight, on this Thursday of Holy Week, that while we are asked to present our bodies as living sacrifices, Christ presented His body as an actual sacrifice, enduring the pain of the cross on our behalf. There is nothing God can ask of us that would ever compare to what He did for us.

Have a blessed Easter! He is risen, yes, He is risen indeed!

Day 2 - Week 9 - "Therefore, dear brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

Which part of this week's verse has the greatest impact on you?

One of the things that hits me first is that Paul calls us his "dear brothers" at the beginning of his exhortation to us? Are you amazed that you share sibling status with the great Apostle? In the family of God, we are all brothers and sisters, no one greater than the other.  If Paul can put himself on the same plane as you and me, maybe we need to think about how we're regarding others.  We really shouldn't exalt any person to a higher status and we shouldn't look down on anyone as having lower status...as the saying goes, "the ground is level at the foot of the cross."

This certainly isn't the main focus of our verse, but I think it is worth considering.  It is so very easy for us as humans to put someone that we regard highly...say Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, or a great Bible study teacher like Jim McKee who leads our Sunday Bible study group...on a pedestal and to look up to them and feel that hold a higher place of esteem in God's eyes.

Or on the other hand, we look at those who struggle with addictions of various types, or Christians who seem to stall in their walk, or those who just don't advance in their walk of faith as quickly as we think they should, and feel that they certainly can't be viewed by God in the same way as those we previously mentioned. 

But as Peter pointed out in the Book of Acts (10:34), "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons."

The truth of the matter is that, as we've already learned, we all fall short and we truly are all "brothers" as Paul addressed us.  We are brothers and sisters in our sinfulness, and we are brothers and sisters in the receiving of God's mercy on us.  And gloriously, we will be brothers and sisters in eternity as we worship God together. 

I was particularly blessed this past weekend to spend time with some of my wonderful "sisters", worshipping and learning and just enjoying each other in the beautiful setting of Glen Eyrie.  There is something very special about sharing time with Christian women, knowing that you all are striving toward a common goal...a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ and a more complete sacrificing of ourselves to the purposes of God. 

I'm thanking God tonight for all of my Christian brothers and sisters, so many that I do not yet know, but that I will get to know over the eternal ages...even my brother Paul! 

Day 1 - Week 9 - Last Stop along the Romans Road

    "It only takes a few brief words to enter the married life, but it will take thousands of confessions of love through word and act to live the married life.  We enter the Christian life through faith in Christ and by confessing Him as Lord and Master of our lives; but it takes all the remaining days of our lives, our confessions of Him as Lord by our words and by the deeds of our lives, to live the Christian life."  A. B. Kendall

For our last stop, I'm going to deviate from Robert J. Morgan's route.  He would take us to Romans 10:10 which is a reiteration of our last verse, "With the heart one believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses, which results in salvation."  That's a great verse, restating the importance of the dual actions of confession and belief in a mirror image of Romans 10:9.

I'm going to detour from Morgan to go to the last stop as I learned the Romans Road, a verse that I think ties to Kendall's quote that I used as the lead in for tonight, and a verse that explains how we are to live our lives once we have proclaimed Christ as our Lord. 

Romans 12:1 "Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship"

It doesn't do much to declare that Christ is the Lord of your life if you don't understand what that means, and what it means is what this verse gives us....we are to give up our physical being to the will of God.  Our earthly lives, housed in these temporary tents, are to be used sacrificially for God's purposes here on earth. This is how we truly worship God in spirit. 

Hear how The Message states this same verse, "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."

So here's the full route down the Romans Road...try to say it with me....

Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." - Recognition of our need for a savior.
Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." - The exchange mechanism provided by God through Jesus --- we earn death, he gives us life.
Romans 5:8, "But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  - God's love is not earned in any way by us and His provision of salvation is driven by His love for us.
Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." - God's simple requirement of us is to accept and believe in His plan, to acknowledge Christ as His Son, and to recognize His power in bringing Him back to life.

and now,

Romans 12:1, "Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship."

In view of everything God has done for us, and as a result of our acceptance of His gift to us, what are we asked to give in return?  Our lives.  Does that sound severe?  Not when you realize that by giving the lives that we cannot keep, we gain lives that will be established in eternity, and all due to God's amazing love for us that rescues us from an entirely opposite eternal fate. 

I cannot begin to sacrifice enough to show God my true feelings of gratitude for His gift...whatever He asks, I hope that I will always respond with a quick and enthusiastic, "Yes, Lord."  That's what I'm praying for tonight, the continual willingness to sacrifice without even a thought of it being sacrificial...just a small act of worship to my eternal King.

Day 7 - Week 8 - Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Last night on this fourth stop along our Romans Road.  Tonight I want to look at the language that the Holy Spirit guided Paul to use in this passage...notice that it is not stated in past tense, but rather in active, present tense. 

It's if you confess - not "if you have confessed" ---- it's if you believe - not "if you once believed."  Does this make a difference to you?  I realize that I'm opening up a debate that goes back and forth among denominations...the debate of "once saved, always saved." 

As much as I would like to believe that a simple confession of faith once in your life is all that God requires of us for our salvation, I have to reconcile that desire with the truth of Scripture.  I think my personal theology is, "once truly saved, always saved" because I cannot imagine experiencing the Holy Spirit living within you and then turning your back on the peace, joy and love that comes from His presence.  Personally, I believe that I could never turn my back on Jesus...how can I when He lives within me?  But I also know that the Bible contains strong warnings against turning away.

There are verses in Scripture that both sides of the debate use to uphold their arguments. 

The most convincing to me on the side of our eternal security are 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, "Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come" and Ephesians 1:13-14, "And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory."

Those are strong verses of security...and I grab on to them and believe them.  I do believe that God has sealed me for my future of eternity with Him. 

But now listen to Peter, 2 Peter 3:17-18, "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

My final thought to give you tonight (I'm obviously not going to settle this debate tonight!) is to ask why do we spend so much time worrying about this matter?  The fact is, as long as we have an active, vital faith and belief we are secured in our position with Christ.  So let's just stay there!  John wrote to believers in 1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."

Let's "grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" and we will have no concern about our eternal future.  Not only will you not have to be concerned about eternity, but you will begin to live victoriously now ---  Jesus told His followers, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." 

Don't shortchange the life you can have now by not grabbing on to the fullness of the life that Jesus is ready to give to you...the  life that comes through a vitally active relationship with Him, not one that is relying on a confession of faith of years ago to "get you through the gates."   I believe that kind of minimal faith is exactly the kind that Peter is referring to, vulnerable to attack and easily deceived by false teaching.
 
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue...what I absolutely know to be true is that God..."is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and live" 2 Peter 3:9.

God wants us in heaven with Him...I believe He will be as gracious and merciful as He can be with us.  And as for me, I'm just going to keep confessing with my mouth that JESUS IS LORD and believing in my heart that God raised Him from the dead, and...what does God say?  I WILL BE SAVED!   Hallelujah and Amen!

Day 6 - Week 8 - Roman 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

After just spending the weekend along with many wonderful Christian women at Glen Eyrie Christian Conference Center outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado, I return to our verse this week with a renewed enthusiasm for the promise of God given in this verse. 

This morning we spent much time discussing our hope, as Christians, of eternal life with God.  That our hope is not the equivalent of wishing for something, but it is a confident expectation of the fulfillment of promises that God has given us. 

This verse is such a promise.  God tells us that if we proclaim Jesus as Lord of our lives, and that if we truly believe God exhibited His supernatural power in raising Him from the dead, we will be saved...no doubt about it.  If we make such a profession and if we truly have such a belief, then our lives are going to be lived out in a manner that reflects our knowledge that we are not citizens of this earth, and that our true citizenship lies in our eternal home (Philippians 3:20).   What difference does that knowledge make in the way we live?  That's the question I'm asking you tonight...if you know that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe that God has raised Him from the dead, and you believe in His promise that you are saved through your belief in His gift of Christ, what are the tangible differences that you see in your life now?

For me, I know that I have been given the gift of His peace.  That no matter what my circumstances are, I know He is with me.  "So do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be terrified. I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. My powerful right hand will take good care of you."  Isaiah 41:10
I also have confidence that He is working all things together for my good, even when I don't understand.  "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28. 

So how do these things make my life different?  I find myself not as anxious as many around me as the world goes through changes and problems.  I do not find myself in a state of fear or dread.  I know that my God lives and that He is in control and that I can trust Him.  And I also know that this world was not designed for eternity, but that I am. 

I firmly attest to Jesus being my Lord, I firmly believe that God raised Him from the dead, and I have firm and absolute confidence that God will save me...because He said He would.

Now it's your turn...what difference does your profession of faith, your belief in God's power, make in your life?  I'd love to know!

Blessings to all tonight...it was good to be away and be separated from the busyness of our lives for a time, but it is also good to be at home and spend time again in our daily walk. 

In His Amazing Love!