So.... here's what I want you to do

Ever have those days when you feel especially on top of things?  Or have you ever written something or had a speaking engagement where you concluded to yourself, “I knocked that one out of the park?”

My guess is that the apostle Paul was having one of those days when he wrote the section of his letter to the Romans that we now call chapter 12.  There is so much good stuff packed in there that it’s hard to take it all in.

He starts it this way (in the message)

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.

You may have memorized it in the NIV which says, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Or in the King James which says, 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..

Regardless of the translation the point is clear — God wants all of us — every minute of our lives — to be a living sacrifice.  He doesn’t want us to hold back.

And the interesting part is that Paul suggests that it’s our “reasonable service.’  Paul’s saying that after what Jesus did for us, would we, should we, offer anything less?

So today — take your life and place it before God as an offering.  See what a difference that makes.   

(P.S.  Did you know that I was raising money for Patrick Henry Family Services -- going to the gym 100 times for at least 20 minutes to raise money for our great programs.   Check it out here).