A piece of wood bitterly complained because its master kept whittling, cutting, and filling it with rifts and holes; but the master quietly replied, “What I am doing may make you think I am destroying you, but soon you will see it is the making of you. I am changing you from a worthless black stick of ebony into a lovely flute whose music will charm the souls of men.”  Like the master in our illustration, God the Master Craftsman uses the knife, file, and drill of trial to extract, mold, shape and create you into His very own masterpiece.  It is God’s plan to conform you to the image of His own dear Son who also was made “perfect through sufferings.”  Its God’s purpose to take even the unexpected, unwelcomed and unwanted circumstances that alter our lives and use them to transform our lives.  He never waist a single experience, trial or circumstance in our life, it’s all used by Him to reflect Himself and His Glory through us.  “We know that God all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Rm.8:28).  God uses whatever He chooses to use to add, remove or change our lives to reflect His Glory.    

The term “transformed” used in our verse today, is where we get our English word metamorphosis.  Matthew used the same word in describing Jesus transfiguration.  When Jesus was “transfigured before them; His face shone like the sun, even His clothes became as white as light.” (Matthew 17:2). The three disciples present that day saw the inner divine nature and glory of Christ.  While it is true that this was somewhat limited to a degree, it was an outward manifestation of His inner divine nature they were able to see.  The final time this word is used is in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  He wrote: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2Cor.3:18).  God through is revealing that all who are in Christ have the veils removed from their hearts making possible the reflection of the Lord’s glory.  The NASB helps clarify some of our confusion in this translation by the translating the phrase “beholding in a mirror the Glory of the Lord.”  Paul is illustrating how converts with a new heart can reflect the Glory of the Lord through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit.  He is forever expanding His Glory in and through His people through a continual transforming work of conforming us into the image of Christ. One commentator insightfully suggests, “Christians are able to bear the bold, direct revelation of God’s Glory because the state of their heart has been” forever and completely changed.  While Moses covered his face to hide the Glory of the Lord, our covering is removed so that we can reflect the Lord’s Glory. 

Keep in mind there will be times in our life-journey when we will cast a poor reflection of the Lord’s Glory due to the influence of the flesh, our battle with the world and the seductions and schemes of our enemy.  In those times we must remember the phrase: “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet.  He’s still working on each and every one of us, conforming us to His image.  There is no one and I mean no one, who has fully arrived and can reflect the Glory of the Lord at all times and in every way.  Keep in mind that we are all in the process of “being transformed” into the image of Christ each and every day.  God is going to work in your life today to transform you into the image of Christ.  Embrace each challenge, obstacle, hardship, circumstance and situation whether good or bad as a part of that process.  God never wastes a single moment or circumstance in your life for that purpose and His Glory.  It’s exciting to know that God is going to whittle, cut, chip away, and fill in the rifts and holes of our lives so that we move closer to His reflection.  

App:

1. God is continually working to reflect His Glory through me
2. God wants to transform my life completely – totally
3. Exercise patience: There will be times when I will not reflect His Glory
4. Embrace every circumstance – God never waists a single experience

 Prayer:

1. I believe that You do all things for YOUR Glory
2. I trust You to use this day to move me closer to YOUR Glory
3. I will embrace every moment, circumstance or trial for YOUR purpose
4. Give me patience with myself and others to give YOU time to work
5. Help me see YOUR reflection in myself and those around me today

A goat wanted more than anything else in the world to be a lion. He told himself that if he could learn to walk like a lion, talk like a lion, and go where lions go, he would be a lion.  So he practiced walking through the jungle and tried to swish his stubby little tail majestically.  Then he sought to turn his pitiful little bleat into the deep, awesome roar of the king of beasts.  He worked and worked on it.  Finally he convinced himself that he really looked and sounded like a lion.  “Now,” he said, “all I have to do to be a lion is go where lions go.” So he marched into lion territory one day about lunchtime.  You can imagine what happened!  A goat is still a goat no matter how hard it tries to be something else because it was born a goat.  When we were unbelievers we

There are those who think that because they’ve learned to walk, talk, and act like Christians, they really are.  They put forth a valiant effort with inexhaustible disciplines to secure the right look and the right speech, seeking to blend in with authentic believers wherever they congregate.  They foolishly convince themselves that because they have mastered exterior performances and appearances that they must be authentic.  What they fail to understand about Christianity is that life transformation begins with the Spirit of Christ within the heart of the individual at the moment of salvation through a new birth.  This new birth is synonymous with the work of regeneration that happens simultaneous with salvation.

Jesus has a late night conversation with a man named Nicodemus who had spent a lifetime seeking external conformity without an internal transformation or rebirth.  Nicodemus was so desperate to be set free from His masquerade, empty religious traditions and inconsistent effort to attain perfection that he was willing to risk everything.  Jesus knowing his lifelong struggle with self-righteousness says to Nicodemus that “unless someone is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (Jn.3:3).  Seeking clarification Nicodemus asks; “How can a man be born when he is old?  Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again” (Jn.3:5-7).

Our new birth as believers is brought into reality by a gracious act of God.  “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph.2:4-10).  Our new birth as believers is brought into reality by a sovereign act of God.  For “all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God’ (Jn.1:12-13).  The result of our new birth is a transformed life.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2Cor.5:17).  Once we receive our new birth, we begin the lifelong process of being continually transformed by God into the image of Christ (Gal.4:19; Col.3:10).  “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2Cor.3:18)  We now have a hope and an expectation that this transformation will continue throughout our life’s journey,  for “he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it” (Phil.1:6)  “When He appears, we will be like Him” (1Jn.3:3)

Life App:

1. God is the only one who can cause spiritual rebirth/transformation
2. My new birth/continual transformation is a direct result of God’s grace
3. My new birth/continual transformation is a sovereign work of God
4. God is consistently/continuously move toward Christ likeness

Prayer:

1. Lord, I commit to your gracious/sovereign work of transformation
2. Transform my life from performance/empty traditions/self-righteousness
3. Lord Jesus I want to become like You – Transform me – change me

Have you ever had a time in your life where there was an obvious failure to communicate?  Something was lost in the translation and a misunderstanding occurred?  That is exactly what God is trying to avoid in these two verses we’ve been examining for past few days. God doesn’t want any miscommunication or misunderstanding to take place.  He is clearly defining what He desires and deserves from those who commit their lives to Christ.

While it’s true that understanding our commitment to Christ grows with time, it’s our daily decision to commit to Him that moves us closer to it’s reality.  I believe there have been many who have made the decision to accept Christ as Savior, but failed to make a commitment to follow Christ as Lord for lack of information and understanding.  Only later did they discover what was expected in becoming a disciple of Christ and rather than moving toward submission they settled for a life of complacency and compromise.

Our passage this morning informs us that if we want to keep our faith authentic, then we must understand and live out the right kind of commitment to the person of Jesus Christ.  How do I commit to the person of Jesus Christ?  Our passage states that I must continuously present myself on the altar of sacrifice and give myself completely to Him. Offering myself as a “living sacrifice,” is the most pleasing, reasonable, intellectual and spiritual offering I can offer to God.  It means that I die to myself each and every day and choose to live for Him alone.  It involves committing to a  life completely under His authority and perpetual life-transformation that resists the pressure to conform outwardly to the pattern of this world that is unholy and unacceptable to God.

The problem we all have is that we still live in the world.  The “world” referenced in our text is a world that is under the influence and is an instrument of Satan.  He uses his ungodly and tremendous influence upon the “world” on those who seek to live for God.  This “world” becomes extremely difficult to resist, because we are surrounded by it every day.  This depraved atmosphere that surrounds us each and every day would have us inhale and then exhale it’s poison with every breath we breath, because instead of producing life it produces death to all who fall victim to it’s influence and treachery.  It’s because of the inevitable disappointment and eventual spiritual death it brings to the believer that God warns us to resist inhaling it with all our might.  If we allow its influence to corrupt and control our lives, our commitment to Christ becomes complacent and filled with compromise.  Only by breathing in the fullness (Eph.5:18; Gal.5:16,18,25) and the sanctification of the Holy Spirit (Rom.16:15) can we hope to resist it’s poisoning and deadening impact on our commitment to a deserving Christ.

So let’s commit to become Gospel nonconformists whose behavior, beliefs, views and lives refuse to conform to the prevailing culture, ideas or practices of the world.

LIFE APP:

1. Commitment to Christ involves offering a “living sacrifice”
2. Commitment to Christ involves dying to self every day
3. Commitment to Christ involves resisting the world
4. Commitment to Christ involves yielding to His Spirit

PRAY:

1. Lord today and every day – I offer myself as a living sacrifice
2. Reveal where I am conforming to the world – I’ll repent
3. Fill me and sanctify me so that my life reflects Your Holiness
4. Keep me from the influences of a fallen world

At the age of nine my parents answered God’s call to the foreign mission field and moved our family to Brazil.  Even though it was almost five decades ago, there are things that my mind will never forget.  I have many memories of those early days as a child growing up in a foreign country, learning a foreign language and a foreign culture.  Because Brazil was a less developed country than United States, there were things that we had gown accustomed to that were simply no longer available to us.

In preparation for our journey, I can remember going to the department store and buying a lot of blue jeans, to ensure that I would have clothes to wear while serving a five year term in Brazil.  I can imagine the difficulty that must have been for my parents, trying to visualize my height and weight for the next five years.  Needless to say, there were some years when I wore jeans that were either too short or too long.  I also can also remember my mother spending hours sewing clothes for our family.  She would purchase a piece of cloth, lay it on the floor in their bedroom and pin a pattern to it.  Then she would follow the lines that were clearly marked on the pattern, cutting the cloth to match the pattern of whatever she was about to sew.  Her first attempts were somewhat short of perfection, but I must admit that over time she learned to develop her skill as a seamstress. There is a pattern we are to emulate, His name is Jesus.

Our phrase under consideration today simply states: “Do not be conformed to this world.”  The word conform comes from the root word that means to fashion like, to pattern after, or to be conform to an appearance of something or someone.  The verb used here is in the present, passive and imperative.  The passive indicates the individual being conformed is allowing the conforming process to happen.  They not only have sufficient power to stop this process, they have the ability to switch to a new and better pattern, standard, and alliance.  It indicates that those who are in Christ have both the choice and the power necessary to influence this conforming process (1Cor.9:27; 2Tim.1:7).  The imperative indicates a command not a suggestion.  It’s as if God were stating that we are by no means or under any circumstances allow ourselves to be fashioned, patterned or influenced by the world.  The world is simply that which does not reflect or represent who we are in Christ.  We are not to fashion ourselves, mimic in any way or put on the appearance of a world that is filled with everything that defiles the believer and rejects God.

God’s purpose is that every believer will be conformed into the likeness or the image of Christ.  He boldly declares that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2Cor.3:18).  The glorious transformation God has foreordained for all believers will only be complete when we reach our final destination.  God’s word declares that “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers” (Rom.8:29). Until then we are to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1).

LIFE APP:

1. God commands Christ-followers not to be fashioned by the world.

2. God has given the believer ample power to resist worldly influence

3. God has set a better standard and pattern in Christ

PRAY:

1. God, reveal the glory of YOUR Son as my pattern/example

2. Forgive me for not resisting the pattern of this world

3. Spirit, show me where I am choosing compromise – I will repent

4. Transform/conform/shape/mold me to look more like Christ

5. With your help I commit to YOUR pattern – I’ll resist worldly influence

During a wedding ceremony, the bride and groom choose to place the individual candles back into their holders with the flames burning.  Just before the groom could get situated to escort the bride back to the alter for the final prayer and the announcement, the pastor noticed a little impish gleam in the eyes of the bride, and unexpectedly she leaned over and blew out her husband’s candle.  The congregation burst into laughter.  Later the pastor performing the ceremony told his church staff, “During the marriage ceremony two become one – after the honeymoon they discover which one!”

Todays wedding ceremony has become about as individual and personal as the couple “tying the not.”  Some couples choose to celebrate the tradition of lighting candles during the wedding ceremony while others don’t.  The couple that makes the choice to light candles during their ceremony can then choose to communicate a message that is equally individual and personal.  As the bride and groom each take their lit candles, they proceed to use their individual candles to light the unity candle.  What the couple does with the two individual candles communicates an important message.  If they choose to leave the individual candles lit, they communicate that they are going to unite as a couple yet remain two unique and separate people.  However, if they choose to blow their candles out, they are dying to self and becoming one.  When we walked that well-known isle and united our hearts and lives with Christ’s on our conversion day, how did we communicate our commitment to Him?  What kind of commitment did we make?  Did we blow out our individual light or keep it lit?

Our passage today stated that when I offer myself to God, it’s an “act of worship.”  It is the highest from of worship I can give to God.  This act of worship takes place when I place myself on the altar of sacrifice and give myself completely to God.  I am now and forever living under His authority.  I relinquish all claims I ever thought I had on my life and I give yourself completely and totally to God’s Word, Will, Ways and Work.  God can do with my LIFE OFFERING whatever He pleases or desires.  I am no longer my own the moment I trusted Christ as my personal Savior and committed to His Lordship over my life.  I now belong to Him completely.  I am not my own for I have been bought with a price (1Cor.6:20). “I’ve been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal.2:20).  Offering myself to Him is the most pleasing, reasonable, intellectual and spiritual offering I can offer to God.  I die to myself each and every day and choose to live for Him alone.

LIFE APP:

1. God desires to be my Sovereign Lord, accepts nothing less
2. Commitment to Christ is dying to myself and enthroning Him
3. Offering myself as a Life-Offering is my best act of worship

PRAY:

1. Father, I want YOU to be Sovereign Lord over my life
2. Jesus, I place my life before YOU as a Life-Offering
3. I lay aside any and all claims to my life I might think that I have
4. Make me completely/totally YOURS from this moment forward

How would you define clean?  Is it fair to say that your definition of a clean house may not be someone else’s?  I know that around the church office, my definition of clean is not always the same as the people I work with.  There is no way I could work in an environment where things are strung out all over the room in a disorderly fashion.  I dislike clutter and I can’t stand a messy desk for a work place.  Before I leave every day, the last thing I do is clean my desk and arrange the room by placing things back where they belong.  Call me OCD, but it works for me.  Just be glad you don’t have to share a workspace with me.  I wonder if what we define as a clean life or a holy life is God’s definition of a clean, holy and acceptable life?

As a living sacrifice we’re called by God to present ourselves to Him “holy.”  Holy in the literal sense carries the idea of being set apart for spiritual purity and moral purposes. While sanctification and righteousness are synonymous with salvation when the Spirit convicts and cleanses from sin, temptation is still very much a reality in the life of the believer.  Even though we strive to live holy before God, we yield to the tempters treacherous schemes, live in a fallen world, submit to human weakness and sin against God.  God indicates through this one word the kind of commitment He desires and demands from us.  When we come to a place of personal sacrifice and commitment we are to offer to God a life without blemish, defect, imperfection, and sin.  While Christ provides His righteousness as our own before God, we must commit ourselves to a life of holiness.

As a living sacrifice we’re also called to present ourselves acceptable to God.   As we present ourselves to God, we must present ourselves in a way that is acceptable to Him or in a way as He alone specifies.  We should never offer an offering to God that is not acceptable to Him.  The intent of the offering and the manner in which it is offered should always be taken into consideration when presenting oneself to God as a living sacrifice.  In offering myself to God as a living sacrifice, I must relinquish any and all rights or claims I may want to protect and sacrificially surrender completely to His will, purpose and plan.  Once I place myself before the Lord as a living sacrifice, I surrender my past, present, future, body, mind, heart, goals, dreams, possessions, and plans completely to Him.  As a living sacrifice, I then become a steward of the things that are now His and His alone.  From now on God can send me wherever He desires.  He can remove anything that would prevent His will.  He has the right to ask anything from me that would fulfill His purpose.  He has complete authority and control to accomplish His purposes through my life.  When my life s completely His, I will always seek do what is acceptable to Him even if it means I will disappoint others in my life.  While Christ makes us acceptable before God, we must commit ourselves to His standard of acceptability.

As we reach the end of our journey I hope we will all be able to say with Paul: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing (2 Tim.4:6-8).

LIFE APP:

1. God demands from me a living sacrifice that is holy
2. God desires from me a living sacrifice acceptable to Him alone
3. As I present myself to God, in Christ I can meet all of His requirements

PRAY:

1. Lord, empower my resolve to live a holy and righteous life for YOUR glory
2. Lord, enable my offering to meet your approval  alone
3. Lord, encourage my commitment for I live in a fallen world

Have you ever been to one of the high priced restaurants where they serve art rather than food?  Maybe you’ve noticed what I’ve noticed about the food.  It’s not just about the taste; it’s also about the presentation. As we prepare to present ourselves to God in the New Year, I wonder what kind of presentation will we offer?  Will we take the time to prepare ourselves properly and offer to God our very best?  Our passage this morning states that we are “to present” ourselves to God.  It’s a call, exhortation or an encouragement to make oneself available or to present oneself to God.

The call God is issuing in this verse is an exhortation based completely on the merits of the Gospel and targets those who have placed their faith and trust in Christ.  This verse builds on the Old Testament metaphor used in the sacrificial system of worship.  Believers are being exhorted to make a decisive commitment of themselves as worshipers stepping forward to place their offering on the altar of sacrifice.  Rather than placing a live animal that was slaughtered for the atonement of sin, they are to present themselves alive on the altar of sacrifice.  The living sacrifice represents the giving of one’s own life without reservation, restriction or resistance.  This is an act of complete and unrestrictive resolve of surrender and self-sacrifice.  It’s the greatest act of worship a believer could offer unto God.  When offered correctly; it’s holy and pleasing unto God.

If God exhorts all believers to present themselves daily as living sacrifices, then why does He mention our body?  Because the believer’s body already belongs to God through salvation in our inner man, it’s the believer’s outer man that God wants us to continually yield to Him.  Our bodies are more than just a physical shell that houses our soul and the Spirit of Christ.  Our bodies also incorporate our unredeemed humanness, which incorporates our flesh, and our flesh incorporates our sin (Rom. 6-7).  Because our bodies incorporate the sinful cravings of our mind, emotions and will, it serves as the springboard that propels us to more sin.  It’s this force and influence within our mortal bodies tempting us toward sin that must to be placed on the altar each and every day.  The only way we can resist and reject the impulses and cravings of the flesh averting sinful thoughts, desires and acts; is to place oneself on the sacrificial altar.  Failing to accomplish this exhortation would not only result in our bodies reverting back to being instruments of sin and unrighteousness, we would have no possibility of being holy or pleasing to God.  The only way to avoid the lure and entrapment of these impulses of the flesh is to present our unredeemed bodies to God as living sacrifices submitting them to His complete control.

Our commitment to Christ involves a voluntary act of bringing ourselves to the altar as a living sacrifice and committing our totality to God.  We are laying ourselves upon the altar, dying to ourselves and laying aside all claims me might have over our lives.  When a sacrifice was presented to God in the Old Covenant it was presented alive but in the act of worship it was killed.  The Lamb of God was sacrificed in our place on the altar of Calvary nearly two thousand years ago and died in our place.  Now we offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices on the altar of worship.  We present ourselves to God as living sacrifices committing, offering, and presenting ourselves to God in every single aspect of our lives committed to live daily for Him and His glory.

LIFE APP:

1. God calls us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices
2. God’ call is to offer my unredeemed self – dying to it’s impulses
3. God’s call is to be complete, offering every part of myself to Him

PRAY:

1. I affirm your sovereign claim over my life as YOUR child
2. I willingly lay my all before you right now and forever
3. I openly confess the areas of my life that are not under YOUR control
4. I repent of my neglect, resistance, rebellion and sin
5. Strengthen my resolve to surrender my all to YOU

 Having the grandchildren in our home for the week has brought back all kinds long forgotten memories of child rearing.  You would think raising three children who were full of life and as individual as three people could possibly be, that a parent would never forget the challenges of parenting. It’s amazing what you choose to remember and what you choose to forget.  I had forgotten the sacrifice and self-denial that goes along with parenting.  The countless times when life was not about me are now a faint memory.  Those time consuming, energy draining and mind boggling helpless little people took all that I had to offer and then some.  Parenting is not for the weak, the self-centered or the egotistical.  Parenting is for the sacrificial servant who is willing to give his all for a cause greater than himself.  The single motivating factor that drives every parent to do what they do for another is love, dedication and devotion.

What is the one thing that should motivate us “to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God” as our spiritual act of worship?  What is the one thing that can motivate us to no longer conform “to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind?”  Why should we “test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will?”  The answer to our question in found in one single and simple phrase of our verse for today.  God through inspiration of the Spirit informs us that we should take into consideration and always have in our view, the rich and unending “mercies of God.  The word for Mercy in the original language is plural and is intended to remind us of the many great mercies of God toward us. These mercies are a reflection of God’s compassion or forgiveness shown toward those who trust Christ as their Savior when it was completely within His right and power to punish and condemn us for our sin.  For those of us in Christ, God’s mercy is in complete harmony with the demands of the His law and righteousness because of the atoning sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

With a stroke of the pin Paul is reminding his target audience all that God has provided in the first eleven chapters is a direct result of God’s mercies.  Tucked away in those life transformational truths recorded the first eleven chapters we discover God’s mercies reflected through forgiveness of sin, freedom from sin’s dominion and condemnation, deliverance from the law, victory over death and sin, reconciliation and redemption and so much more.  The mercies of God displayed in our salvation should be more than enough to motivate any saved by grace through faith believer in Christ to dedicate himself or herself wholeheartedly to God.

What motivates a disciple of Christ to sacrificially serve God wholeheartedly? Discipleship is not for the weak, the self-centered or the egotistical.  Discipleship is for the sacrificial servant who is willing to give his all for a cause greater than himself.  The single motivating factor that ought to drive every disciple is God’s love, dedication and devotion revealed through His tender mercies. How could those of us who have received so much from God offer any less than our total and complete selves to Him?  Weigh in what you have already received through faith and trust in Christ and you do the math.

LIFE APP:

1. God is a merciful God
2. God has revealed His mercy toward us through Christ
3. God’s mercies should motivate our sacrificial service to Him

PRAY:

1. I thank you for being such a merciful God
2. Open my eyes/heart and help me know your mercies
3. Forgive me for taking advantage of your tender mercies
4. Lord, help me be an instrument of YOUR mercy to others

Have you ever had a time in your life when it was hard finding time alone with God?  This week has been exceptionally challenging for me.  Our immediate family is staying in our house for the weeklong celebration of the birth of our Savior.  It has been a great week of fun and excitement.  There are sounds of running feet and loud noises once again in our household because of the presence of four grandchildren under five playing everywhere.  In Doc and Grana’s house grandchildren are always free and encouraged to roam wherever their hearts desire.  For the week there are no limitations or sacred personal spaces where children are not welcome or uninvited.  Seldom do we get the joy of hosting these precious blessings, so we don’t want their short time with us to be about boundaries or limitations.  We leave most of the boundary setting to the parents, so that we can enjoy our time spent building memories that will last a lifetime.  Did I fail to mention that there are seven other adults presently living in our house for the week as well? These adults include: my parents, my mother-in-law and her husband, son and wife, daughter and husband and our son Aaron.  The last count I made during breakfast this morning added up to fifteen hungry people looking for something to eat.  I don’t even want to think about the grocery bill we have already spent trying to feed this mob.

With all this excitement it’s no wonder I have had a hard time finding a quiet place to have a personal devotional.  Some of you are aware that I write these blogs each day from my daily devotional life.  So where do I go for personal space and uninterrupted time for God? I am presently sitting on the floor in the closet of our master bedroom. So I hope you don’t find it strange when I say that it is in this quiet place, God spoke to me this morning.  In my quiet closet He simply said; I urge you, brethren.”  In these four words I learned that God is not giving me a suggestion but a command.  He is commanding me to “offer myself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to” Him.  My relationship to Him is based and built upon my relationship with Christ.  Once I place my faith and trust in Christ as my personal Savior and Lord I am adopted into His family.   He becomes my Heavenly Father with all the right to lead me wherever and whenever He chooses.  I can never place boundaries or limitations on His leading.  Because I belong to Him, I simply follow His lead.  The Bible states clearly: We know that we have come to know Him if we obey His commandments” (1Jn.2:3).

When God speaks, He is inviting me to walk in obedience and compliance to His leading.  He wants from me an all out effort to make what He is asking a reality in my life. When He issues a command, He expects me to follow willingly and immediately.  While I have known people who believed they had a special dispensation with God that allowed them to do whatever they wanted with little or not regard to His leadership and commands; that is not the path for authentic life transforming discipleship.  While there may be times when others seek to persuade me from following God’s leading because it’s either too radical or far from tradition, I must follow His lead.  Even though God’s lead may take me outside my personal comfort level and into the realm of the unknown or unfamiliar, I must follow His lead if I am to enjoy the fullness of Him.  God has not stopped speaking into my life and He has not stopped speaking and leading into yours.  When He speaks we have no other option but to follow His leadership wherever He may lead.  He commands and expects a willing compliance to His voice when He speaks.  If you know the familiar hymn “Wherever He leads I’ll go” sing it now and commit to follow Him wherever He leads.  God wants to speak into your life and lead you like a loving Father leads His children.

LIFE APP:

1. God wants to commune with me on a personal level
2. God still communicates and leads me today
3. God commands and expects me to follow when He speaks/leads

PRAY:

1. Lord, I want to hear YOUR voice more than any other voice in my life.
2. Lord, help me find a quiet place away from the noise/distractions
3. Lord, speak clearly into my life right now with YOUR direction
4. I commit to follow no matter what YOU ask or where YOU lead
5. Give me the strength to follow YOU

This morning I went to the web and typed in counterfeit bill.  The first site that popped up on my search engine directed me to the secret service.  A search engine lists other pages on the web where you can find additional information.  The title on the secret service front page said, “KNOW YOUR MONEY.”  It was an article teaching United States citizens how to detect counterfeit money.  It read: “The public has a role in maintaining the integrity of U.S. currency. You can help guard against the threat from counterfeiters by becoming more familiar with United States currency.   Look at the money you receive. Compare a suspect note with a genuine note of the same denomination and series, paying attention to the quality of printing and paper characteristics. Look for differences, not similarities.”  The article then encouraged the study of our currencies portrait, Federal Reserve and Treasury Seal, border and the quality of the paper.  The Secret Service was trying to instruct us in knowing when a bill is counterfeit or an original.  To distinguish between a counterfeit bill and an authentic bill, we must carefully study one that is authentic.  How do you know when someone is an authentic Christ-follower or a counterfeit?  How do you measure the authenticity of someone’s profession of faith in Christ?  Just because someone claims to be a disciple of Christ doesn’t necessarily make him or her one.  I can stand in my garage all day long and claim to be a car, no matter how many times I say it or claim it to be so, doesn’t make me one.  I am not trying to sit in judgment of others but is everybody who claims to a disciple of Christ in really a disciple?  Are they authentic?  How can we tell an authentic disciple from a counterfeit?

God opens with the word “therefore” in our scripture for today.  This word indicates that even though God has identified and defined through His spokesman several key doctrinal truths in the last eleven chapters, they are not for self edification so we can be puffed up with knowledge, they are intended to be lived.  These doctrinal truths include things like: salvation by grace through faith; justification in Christ; freedom from the penalty of sin; forgiveness of sin; election and other key doctrines of the faith.  Paul states by this single word, that the doctrines God has just identified and clarified are more than just to gain understanding and develop spiritual truths.  These doctrines were given to strengthen our commitment to building an intimate relationship with Christ.   These doctrinal truths are intended to be more than just truths we read about, study and teach; they were given to motivate, inspire and encourage us to a greater level in our commitment to Christ.  All the great doctrinal truths found in the Word of God were given not only to anchor our faith but to impact and transform our lives.  They are more than just an intellectual exercise.  They were intended to affect not just our thought life but our practical life as well.  They were purposed for information, education and application.  Knowing a Truth and not practicing that Truth isn’t a truth worth knowing. To be able to understand, discuss, teach or quote doctrinal truth was never God’s ultimate purpose for His truths.  If they are not having an impact in the way we live your lives then we are not fulfilling the purpose for which they were given.

You know what they say?  “The proof is in the pudding.”  Biblical truths and doctrines need to be more than something we believe.  Our belief in these doctrines should lead us to a deeper level in our commitment to Christ.  Truth should  spill over into our behavior, attitude and action.  What good is head knowledge about God and all the doctrines of the faith if that knowledge doesn’t affect and influence the way that we live our lives for Christ.  Luke 11:28; Jesus replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”  How can we claim to be disciples and not practice truth?  The mark of authenticity is a life being continuously transformed by God’s infallible and inerrant truth.

LIFE APP:

1. God gives truth for life transformation – not self edification
2. God expects me to practice/live His truth
3. Disciples don’t just proclaim truth, they live it

PRAY:

1. I believe YOUR truths are for my life transformation
2. I ask YOU to convict me where I am not being compliant
3. I confess I have become a consumer of truth/knowledge/information
4. I know more truth than what I am currently living/practicing
5. I ask that you forgive my hypocrisy and self righteousness
6. I commit to knowing/living/proclaiming YOUR truth