Our thoughts—one part of us

Our thoughts—one part of us.  Romans 12.1-2

Greetings, Dear Ones. 

Cannot really talk about thinking, and fixing ours, without looking to Paul’s words to the Romans; but first, let me ask you to consider, what shapes the way you think?  Would you say your thoughts and viewpoints are conformed to a secular world’s values and ways of doing things, OR is your thinking regularly transformed by the power of God in your life?  Think about it for a minute. 

Consider Romans 12, verses one and two: And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. New Living Translation

Paul starts out pleading that, we who are Christ followers, (already having given our souls to him), take a look at our whole beings—body and mind—and offer all of who we are to him; he quickly follows with the challenge to let God transform our thinking as well.  Our Creator wants we the created--body, soul, and mind—to be fully consecrated to him.  Yeah, I call that holistic Christianity.

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. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  The Message.

As always, Eugene Peterson’s Message gives good insight, does it not?  He breaks down ‘giving our bodies’ to ‘sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life’ … seems like these fit into the category of lifestyle choices.  A life fully submitted to Jesus is more than just Bible study and learning, and more even than being a faithful churchgoer; turns out—a whole lot more; a life fully submitted to Jesus is about what we do with all of who we are. 

You and I are meant to be living, breathing representations of Jesus Christ—in all we do.

Here’s another take on same two verses:  Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. Don’t be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. Contemporary English Version.

I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].  The Amplified Bible.

As many times as I have read these verses, actually having memorized them as well, I have missed something that the Amplified Bible illuminates for us— so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. 

And why was this so important to Paul that we understood this?  Why did he plead, urge, appeal, beg or beseech (King James Version) us to think carefully about offering ALL of who we are to Jesus?  Because God is not just holy, but holistic--      holistic |hōˈlistik|

Adjective chiefly Philosophy

characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole. 

Turns out that I, Christine DiGiacomo, am the sum total of my parts, and    God wants me to offer all of who I am to him.

Turns out that you, ____________, are the sum total of your parts, and     God wants you to offer all of who you are to him as well.

Christine

PastorWoman.com