Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1).

The Jews offered a dead sacrifice.  They were, in a sense, fulfilling a contract, paying, “The wages of sin” that Paul talks about in Romans 6:23.  But we are not under that contract—that law.  We are under the covenant of grace.  We receive “The gift of God…eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” that comes in the second half of that verse.  So our sacrifice is a living sacrifice.  We offer ourselves.

I mentioned on Saturday that I think I could die for Jesus if it came to that—if someone put a gun to my head and told me to deny him, or some such thing.  I’m sure that, under the same conditions, you would die for him as well.

But we’re not called to die for him—not in that sense.

We’re called to live for him.  And, some days, that can seem so much harder.

One definition of worship is, “To offer God all that we are in response to all that he is.” I like that, because it implies that everything we do can be worship, if we do it for him.

Will you worship him today, Beloved?  Will you offer your body—your life—to him, to do with as he pleases?  I don’t know what that will entail, but I know that it will bring you closer to your Lord.

And it will bring him the glory he deserves.

Not a bad way to start your week, hmm?