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Thursday, August 12, 2010

Loving Life

One of the leaders of my church is reading through the Bible and he's posting on what he's reading every day. Today his reading should include Romans 12. Now, I am actually reading in Hebrews, but I love Romans 12 so I thought I would include it in my reading today. Oh what a treat! It's full of such goodness, such wonderful advice on how to live your life.

Romans 12:2 Do not be conformed any longer by the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

I love that verse. Whatever has happened in the past, whatever thoughts, memories plague your mind, God can renew your mind if you'll let Him. And when you do, your entire life will change. You will learn to love what God loves, desire what He desires, and yes, even love the people he loves.

"do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you"

We all think rather highly of ourselves don't we? Especially when things are going well and we've had a few successes. It's easy to think of ourselves highly. But we must remember that every success is from God, we wouldn't have it without him. But I think we could also go so far, with this verse, as to say don't think of yourself as too low either. So many of us are filled with self contempt but I believe this verse is telling us to cut that out. We are to think of ourselves with sober judgment. That means to look at ourselves with reality, see us the way God sees us. Well God sees us as His children. As His child, I wouldn't be worthless. I wouldn't "suck", or whatever you tell yourself when you put yourself down. You are a child of God and He loves you.

I love 17-21 where it tells you to love your enemies. Pastor Chris gave a sermon once that told us to "love the hell out of them". We are to love them, not for the purpose of "heaping burning coals on their head" in an act of vengeance but to love the hell out of them and transform their lives.

And what about the phrase "heap burning coals on their heads". In my study Bible it said that this may refer to an Egyptian tradition of carrying a pan of burning coals on their head as a public act of repentence. This would mean that when they use that phrase, we are loving them to bring them to a place where they would be repentent and have their lives transformed by God.

I love Romans 12. Such a wonderful picture of how we should represent Christ. Something I'm making a regular habit of asking myself and my kids whenever I'm speaking or perhaps reacting to something. How well am I representing Christ right now? If I react this way, will I represent Him well?

How well are you representing Christ today? Read Romans 12, you'll love it.

1 comment:

On the canvas in my head.... said...

What a wonderful message! Thank you Michelle!!