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Romans 12:11
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (ESV)
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. (ESV)
Check it here!
A Living Sacrifice
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Gifts of Grace
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Marks of the True Christian
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (ESV)
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I absolutely love this verse, it is one of my favorites of all time! I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind and stand out and be different this year. I want to have that self-control and be able to discern right from wrong. God has given me his word to read and study daily in order to do that. My prayer is that I will not be conformed, but that I will represent Christ in all I do and be that butterfly who does not chill with the caterpillars- Pastor Bobby’s sermon!!!! One of my other favorite verses that comforts me about the Lord’s will is Jeremiah 29:11. It is so awesome to think about and to know that God has a plan for everyones’ life and that it is all worked out for the good. I know I need to trust in God with everything and not rely on myself or worry. When I worry, that shows I am not trusting in God, so I need to definitely realize that more! God is good ALL the time, not some of the time…. ALL THE TIME! I am excited to grow closer to God this year and to put into action my resolutions of obedience to the Lord! I want all my focus to be on him because he is all that matters and all that truly satisfies!
Yea Brooke!
mmmm great comment this morning Brooke Brooke! :D I needed to hear one of my good friends commenting about God’s Word and just to see what you got from it makes my day. You’ve grown so much! <3
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
The part in the this verse that really stuck out to me was “be constant in prayer.” Of course this does not mean sit down with your hands folded and eyes clothes all day and pray, but instead it means have the Lord constantly on our minds. Because if he is, we will also be patient and joyful. Let’s pray always because God is with us always.
Another great comment! :D Awesome Kelly.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Sometimes, some little sins can seem to be not necessarily evil like white lies for example. Sometimes I am tempted to believe that if you lie without hurting anyone it’s ok. Obviously, someone is hurt, and that is God, and I haven’t believed that for a long time. but whenever we sin we are hurting God, we are loving evil. LORD, let me always abhor evil.
Now holding fast seems to be much easier than not sinning, but are we really holding good dearly to our hearts? I guess you could call this sanctification. As we are sanctified we are doing more good, so we are holding fast unto good. LORD, let me be continually sanctified unto you.
Lastly, “let love be genuine.” Let us not be “nice”, but be really loving. Let’s do things for people because we love them, and when we ask them how we are doing, let’s mean it. LORD, let me be genuinely loving to all.
Ro 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is the rigth response to the True North mission! I’m praying for all the TNers and their growth in Christ! And those that aren’t TNers but should be! Let’s invite them!
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse the.
Verse 14 is in line with Jesus’ teaching from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” This is the exact opposite of what the world teaches about how to respond to persecution from others. The world says that if someone hurts you or wrongs you that it is your right to hurt them back. After all, they started it and you are only getting them back for something they did to you. They deserve to be retaliated against. This Scripture and others in the Bible clearly show us that the world has it wrong. We must be like Jesus, who in the face of intense persecution, physical torture and even death, did not stick up for Himself but prayed for His persecutors. Right now I am in a situation where I am not being treated respectfully by someone I am close with. My sinful nature is tempting me to be unkind to this person or even complain about how wronged I have been. I am grateful for Romans 12:14, which I can call to mind when I am being persecuted, that clearly shows me I must love those who are hard to love. Lord, please help me to be like Jesus and choose to love and not hate those who persecute me. Help me to pray for these people and have a broken heart for them because they do not have saving faith and a secured future with You in heaven.
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
So many incredible verses in this chapter!
This is one of my favorite verses in all of the Bible. When I think about God’s mercy, not giving me the punishment I deserve because Christ took it for me, it blows my mind. Christ’s sacrificial life and death is the primary motivator for us to live sacrificial lives for Him. His sacrifice was far more extreme than I can fathom. My sacrifice, although it may feel like a lot, is really just a token in comparison. It is actually the right thing to do, the proper response, considering what God the Father and Son went through to save my soul. When I keep God’s mercy in perspective, offering myself back to Him completely is really the least I could do. It is the appropriate thing to do. It is my act of worship.
Man, Dan, this is exactly my sentiment. I am fixed on this in my spiritual life right now. Suffering anything in my life is TRIVIAL when I consider what Christ endured for my wretched pittance of a life…
Vv. 14-20 are quite a challenge for any human being…thankfully, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, as Christians,, to rise against the innate hedonistic inclinations that are residual to us until we are one day glorified with our Savior.
Kenneth Strayer wrote a dissertation on today’s Scripture, specifically regarding the heaping of burning coals on our enemy’s head by showing them kindness. This impacted me…
“Jesus is concerned more for my motivations in doing good, in loving my neighbor, in loving my enemy, than in the work itself. With this command that seems so impossible to follow on my own, I must make a conscious decision to serve those who persecute me. The words Paul chose to describe the results of these good acts have allusions to “overwhelming” and “ulcerating lesions” caused by hot coals. I cannot hide behind a Sunday School image of Christ as being perfectly loving, denying that He would actually ever execute the promised judgment against those who deny his salvation. Additionally, I cannot satisfy Christ’s personal command to me if I am motivated by any desire to hasten that judgment against others, any desire to improve upon God’s righteousness, or even with a motivation to redeem or reform my enemy through heaping blessings or by heaping shame. I am called simply to love. The remainder is God’s realm.”
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This repeats the command of Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed,”—(‘Do not be overcome by evil,’)—”but, be transformed by the renewal of your mind”—(‘but overcome evil with good’).
I really liked Pastor Bobby’s sermon on this: don’t be shaped like a cookie cutter by the rest of the world, renew your mind with scripture. Then added on top of that: overcome that evil conformity by filling it with good, what is perfect and pleasing in God’s sight.
I am living for eternal rewards now…I can’t waste my life. I won’t conform, but instead I will strive to be obedient in all circumstances to Jesus, so that when he returns I won’t be ashamed of how I lived my life, rather I will be filled with joy because I obeyed him!
MARANATHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
10 Love one another with brotherly affection.
This means not only to love your close friends and family but to love your enemies. We are called to love because Jesus showed the ultimate love towards us…Sinners! He died for us so we wouldnt have to be on the cross which is truly the definition of Love. I dont know about you but i want to be more like jesus in this way. :) WWJD??
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
When someone wrongs a person, the typical response for the one who has just been wronged is to go back and wrong the other person. This world loves revenge. Not only is it prevalent, it’s even promoted by movies and TV shows and even some parents. However, it is not the way that God wants things to be. In fact, no one should be seeking to avenge either themselves or anyone else, instead leaving the wrath and judgment to be carried out by God. God is the holy and perfect Judge. It is him who shal judge each and every person, the Creator judging his creation, not the creation judging each other. And since it is God’s job to unleash his wrath, that leaves a different job for the creation. Instead of trying to get back at people, they should treat them as nicely as they can. Regardless of how the other person may be treating someone with anger and wrongdoing non-stop for no reason at all, the other person should be responding with love.
And this is one way in which a Christian will stand out from the world. Christians will be different because they don’t seek revenge, being characterized by their anger, but instead show kindness to the person any way, thus being characterized by their love. John 13:35 says, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” And so I can’t get angry and repay someone else’s evil to me with evil going straight back at them. Instead, I need to keep a calm and loving spirit as I turn the other cheek. With God’s strength, I can overcome evil with good! I need to leave judgment and punishment to God and the unleashing os his wrath, and just do my part of loving everyone regardless of how they treat me!
20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
I just read this verse in my Proverb’s study! XD I got so excited when I saw it. Anyways, this entire chapter is incredible. There are so many things that one can take from it that can really help us all grow. One thing that I have trouble with specifically, that I know that God has revealed to me, is showing kindness to those that don’t believe. Like Beth and Stacy said, it is extremely difficult to be kind to those that persecute you. There are some people in my tutorial (Stephanie and Mr. Cox would know) that always bash the name of God and say that it’s stupid. Mr. Cox though talked to them and now they are both reading the Bible…now they are doing it so they can “bash better” according to their words but at least they are reading it. XP I pray for them, for Beth Lauder, for Stacy, for everyone that we will all be able to stand up for the name of God and that God will reveal Himself to them that they may also be living sacrifices to God. I’m a living sacrifice because I am nothing compared to Jesus Christ and I’m only saved through His love, mercy, and grace. Lord help me show others mercy, love, and grace and may my mind always be on You, like Kelly said. :) MARANATHA!
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I love this verse!! I want to make it my prayer to not be taken over by the fleshly desires of this world or pressures of people at school but stay strong in the Lord and learn everyday from his word. I am so blessed to have such a loving and encouraging church family. I want to always pray about what the Lords plan is for me. Like this verse says it is so important to discern right and wrong from what the Lords will is.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
It’s funny, you know how you have that crazy scientist guy in a class or at your school. Well, I do and he’s in my science classes and he says he will not conform to anything and makes fun of people who are religious because he think they’re conformist. There’s a lot of Christians in my class and they would talk to him about Jesus. Well, this right here says that do not be conformed to the world. Being a Christian is something such a different life-style then anything else and we’re not being conformed but transformed by the renewal of the mind. The Holy Spirit giving us thoughts about divinity.
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
So Friday, as some of you know I was dressed up as the mascot at the pep rally. I was “Dolly, the Dolphin” so i was walking through the hall in my costume and some punk kid comes up and shove my head upward. it hurt and my flesh immeditaltey told me to hit him back. I was gonna punch the kid, but I remembered scripture.
KJ its good to see you putting your faith in action. Way to follow God instead of your feelings!!
ELLO… I read
I like verse 14,”Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”
I like this verse because it talks about how we should treat our enemies. We are supposed to treat them with love no matter what they do to us. If they try to kill me or just make my life difficult I shouldn’t do the same to them because I should treat everyone as myself or how I want to be treated. I need to work on this because if someone does something to me that I don’t like i usually treat them like an enemy. After all JESUS died for me when I was still HIS enemy and even though I continually sin HE still loves me. I need to follow this example.
CYA
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I made this my verse of the month! I chose to be set apart and live a life that pleases God. This world has NOTHING good to offer, only heartache and disaster. Staying in the word daily and constantly communicating to God through prayer has helped me fight off sin! When Satan comes in with distractions, I pray that the Holy Spirit gives me discernment in making wise choices. Graduating college this May, there have been a lot of questions in my mind about what I will do next. I decided to give it to the Lord and trust that if I am in his word and living in obedience, then the decisions I make are part of his perfect will. I love that God is in control and I’m so excited to see what he has in store. Think about it, he already knows everything! All we need to do is trust that and be willing to go wherever he wants us to. I’m lovin the ATAPAT attitude <3
14,”Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.”
This is a good verse because it is true that we need to be compasionate to others, even if we dont feel like it
This is one of my favorite chapters :)
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Mhmm love has to be genuine. I sometimes find myself withholding love from other people for selfish reasons. I pray that I can love my brothers and sisters in Christ in a selfless and humble way. The word that stood out to me was abhor. That’s a pretty strong word “to regard with extreme repugnance or aversion; detest utterly; loathe; abominate.” Do I feel that strongly about evil/sin? I need to really utterly loathe my flesh and if I see other Christians stumbling I need to keep them accountable by speaking the truth in love to them about their sin. I can’t brush off evil or even hate it but really abhor it because God does. I want to abhor all sin and not compromise anything at all. Also I want to hold fast to what is good by staying in the word and praying.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
I really felt like this verse spoke to me because I think God is asking me to be patient with my trials. Sometimes I try to rush and overthink things. I want the tribulation to be gone fast and hurry it up by or trying to fight it but I realize that I need to be constant in prayer. I want to rejoice always! Because my relationship with God is enough and that should satisfy me alone. I want to always be praying and surrendering my problems to God instead of fixing them on my own. This verse really encouraged me today.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
Its so easy to think more highly of myself than I ought to. Its actually really sad that I would think of myself better than the other guy. Because the truth is I am nothing but a wretched sinner who was destined for hell and couldn’t do anything good. It was only by God’s grace that I was saved from my sins and only by his grace am I able to do good works for the kingdom of God. I need to lovingly share the Gospel with others, because if it weren’t for the mercy of God, I would still be on the path headed for hell. Praise God for what he has done throught Jesus Christ his son!!
20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
It is true that if you want to cool off a situation where someone is against you, or being mean to you, that showing them love can defuse the situation. I have been mean before, and sometimes the person will still help me out or be kind to me, and it feels very weird, because the world says fight fire with fire, but with Christians it is more like fight fire with water. God help me to be kinder to people, and love even when being hated.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Love this verse! Definitely makes me think about Pastor Bobby’s sermon on fervor. So many Christians are at first pumped up about Christ and completely on fire for him when they first become a Christian, but then lose this fervor later on. This should not be! As I grow as a Christian, my fervor should become greater and greater everyday as I strive to follow Christ! Being a slave for Jesus isn’t just ‘part-time,’ it’s full time, 24/7 365 days a year! I want to serve the Lord wholeheartedly and with full zeal! I’m praying that as I strive to be on fire for Christ, that I would be able to encourage other’s in their faith. NO LAZINESS!!!!
16 Live in harmony with one another.
This verse is bringing me back to last nights message. Last night Paster Bobby was saying that we need to live in harmony with our parents. My parents and I are on the same team. We should both be encouraging each other daily. We should be spending time in God’s word together and in prayer. Last night was a great message. My prayer is that this week I will be more obedient towards my mom and dad. I need to live in harmony with my parents. I need to be a listener not hearer. When my mom tells me to do something I need to do it. Wether I eat or drink whatever I do I need to do it all for the glory of God.
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I love this verse!!! It’s so simple and yet such a need. Evil is obviously overpopulating this world but there are still the few (we are apart of that few:)) that have the good residing in them and they need to use it to shine in the darkness; to “overcome evil with good.” Think about it, if we were on this earth for no reason other to be saved, God would take us out of this world the instant we were saved. But we DO have a reason to be here, and that is to be fishers of men. Recruiters for God. Transformers!! We need to overcome the evil with good and we can’t do it alone. We need to rely on God for every single effort we make to turn the darkness to light.
Maranatha!!!
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
I love this verse because it futher proves that all of the religions that say the more good deeds you have done the closer you are to Heaven are wrong. It is beautifully written. I learned it in NIV but i love it is worded here. Awesome verse to spread the Gospel with. We did nothing to deserve God’s love and yet he gives it to us. I think that is soooooooooo awesome. That is reason alone to sing praises to him for a lifetime.
MMMM I could not agree with you more Chelsea!! :]
knowing God and trusting in him are to diffrent things one is you now he is God and doing nothing about it but tusting in him is you put your hole life in Him and we all need to check our lives every now and then to see if we are still on track with God.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
I’m lovin’ all the righteous commands God has given us as Christians!! Many of them may be more difficult than others, and this is why “be patient in tribulation” stood out to me the most in this verse. Normally when I am having a hard day, I cannot wait for it to be over!! It never occurred in my mind to actually be patient and wait for what God might want me to do in times of hardship. Thank you God for revealing more to me through your word today!! :D
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This verse is good because it shows us two very important things.First, everyday we need to do all we do for the LORD. No matter what everything should be done to the glory of GOD. Second we need to make sure to separate ourselves from the world, being holy and pure. I need to make sure to make my life an act of worship for GOD and make sure that I stand our for CHRIST on my water polo team.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
as chrisitans we need to live lives that are pleasing to God, so we can not let the way non christians live affect us, we need to be lights in this world, and in order to do that, we can not conform to the world
c u all at summer in january tommorow :)
I read…
Verse 20… To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
In this verse, Paul is explaining to us that we effect our enemies by doing kind things to them more than we do (and in a more positive manner) than if we repaid evil for evil. This is true in my life because when someone is evil to me and I keep being nice to them, they always end up being dumbfounded. I pray that even though in our schools we are persecuted for our faiths, that we would not be evil to them and always respond to them in kindness. This is SO contrary to worldly thinking and only makes sense if we are in the same mind as the Lord.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
This verse reminds me when paster Bobby gave us the challenge to pray for 10 min a day and how prayer is so important. Also this verse shows us that we must be constant in prayer. It convicted me to start to pray more each day and work out my spiritual muscles.
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I need to perfect myself as much as possible so I can please God and repay Him for my salvation. I resolve not to conform to this world and do stuff that I know I shouldn’t do. I need to let Christ renew my mind and help me to live a godly life for the Lord.
5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
God definitely knows what He’s doing. He doesn’t make everyone the same because He knows that to have a good ministry, we need different people with different strengths. We work together to be one body of Christ that does His work on earth.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
This is definitely where I struggle a lot. Many times, when someone harms me or teases me or whatever, I can’t help but repay them. Paul is saying that I should just let it go, do what’s honorable, and show them the love and forgiveness that Christ showed me. This is definitely something I will pray about and resolve to do this week.
That name was left over from yesterday’s chapter. Ignore the last part :}
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them…
Just as everyone has different talents, every Christian has different spiritual gifts that have been given to us. So there is no excuse to not be actively involved in serving the Church. Sadly, the stereotype for churches today is that 20% of the congregants do 80% of the work. At Compass, we take church involvement much more seriously, and so that isn’t the case. But even so, though we may be only high schoolers, we are still called by God to be active in serving. Christ was the ultimate example of a servant, and we need to follow in HIs footsteps. I need to have the attitude of being joyful to sacrifice my time and energy to serve God by serving fellow believers, using the talents He has given me to bring Him gory.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
It is so important to live your life for God, and doing what he wants you to do, not what the world wants you to do. Do not fall into the world and all that is in it because the world won’t help you in the end but, knowing and following God will. We need to be different and stand out from the world, instead of blending in. :D
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
i love these verses! Its sometimes really easy when things aren’t going so well to lose your fire for Christ, but circumstances like that should only increase it. i need to make sure this is something i live by.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
NO matter how many times you read this verse it is always! true and always gains more meaning and you think about it more each time you read it(or so it feels like to me). I need to be not of this world but of God. I shouldn’t be like the typical O.C. high school student but rather a servant obeying the LORD! I need to stay in God’s word and obey all He commands.
Today I learned that disobeying your parents is equal to hating God! WHOA!!! I need to be commited to God and obedient to my parents. Praise the Lord for all He has done!
My prayer is that the typical High School Student in Orange County has the reputation of being a God fearing Christian that obeys their parents and our Heavenly Father! Please pray with me! For all things are possible with Jesus Christ! Let’s evangelize and get this party started!!! :D
***MARANATHA!!!***
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
I remember a while back Bobby talked about this verse. As a Christian, i should be not only nice to others, but to actually care for them and make an effort to help them out. God doesn’t want me to just be “nice” butn ot actually care for my brothers and sisters in Christ, He wants me to love them because they ARE my brothers and sisters. I’m going to step it up and try to outdo my brothers and sisters in showing that i care!
4 For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
This entire passage has led me to understand more of the body of Christ. There are many that are in the body of Christ..which means each and every one has their own special gifts. I need to not be prideful of myself or my “gift” because it is no greater than the others. We are all equal and special in God’s eyes. The rest of this passage is telling me that I, as a Christian, need to stand out from the rest of the crowd. I need to feed those that are hungry, not fall into the temptations of this world, let the Lord take vengeance, because it is not mine, do what is honorable in the sight of the Lord, and make peace among men, loving them just as Christ loved me and so much more. This really encourages me to go out and be on fire for the Lord.
13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
this verse shows one way we can love each other and brothers and sisters in Christ. we need to be sharing with each other, and giving people what they need. this can be things like food, water, money etc, or spiritual needs, like encouragement, rebuke, love, or accountability. then we are called to seek to show hospitality. this doesnt mean we sit around and wait for an opportunity to be hospitable. this means that we are actively seeking and trying to help others out, and provide for their needs. i need to seek to serve and be hospitable to others. i pray that the Lord would be giving more and more opportunities to serve the body as well. i need to be taking the initiative in my life to help others and to build them up!
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Rejoice in what you can achieve and have hope for even your life its its bad rejoice you have a life. In tribulation pray to God and turn toweards Him because He has a plan we need ti trust. BE CONSTANT IN PRAYER never leave prayer its the closest thing we have to God and we need to do it day in and day out.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
We should love God passionately and hold onto him because he is good! Like we love the Lord, we must also love one another with this same affection. These are God’s commands and we should follow each of them to show our spiritual fervor.
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
I need to put myself in a position that is glorifying God, not the world. So often I appear to the world as one of them and not one of God’s own, but I should always look like God’s child which I am!! I need to repent of my sin and offer myself to God in a manner that is pleasing to Him!
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I get really mad at the people who hurt me and I want to get even, but God says to wait and He’ll get even for me. I’m going to let go of my anger and love those who persecute me and count it joy for it tries my faith in Him :)
MARANTHA!!!!!!!
Vv 9-20
These verses are convicting. Every time I read Romans 12 it is evident to that I still need to grow in my sanctification. These statements in this chapter are bold…do I really “abhor what is evil” or do I tolerate it? Am I in “constant prayer” or is prayer not a priority in my life? Am I patient in my trials or am I prone to frustration? The only way I can tackle this chapter without being overwhelmed is breaking it down into little pieces. I want to be a spiritual sacrifice for the Lord, a person who does not conform to the world. From this sacrificial love for the Lord, these incredible imperatives will reflect Christ to others in my life.
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.—These verses are convicting because I know I can definitely work on showing for ferver for the LORD and making sure my excitement is the same as when I first became a Christian! I just need to go out show my excitement no matter what and not care about what anyone else thinks because it’s all about pleasing God!! I need to be excited that one day soon, I will be with my Father the one I have been longing to see, endure my trials and just know that that is a time to grow closer to God, and also just constantly be talking to the LORD giving everything up to him! I need to be giving everything to God even before I say it to any of my friends! I know out of anxiousness I can go right away to my friends but first I need to take the time to talk about it with the LORD. My prayer is that no matter what anyone else thinks I will show off my excitement for God and what he has done for me!
MARANATHA!!!
Working Full-Time for the LORD!!
These are by far my favorite verses in this chapter!
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I want to be different from this world and stand out! I represent Jesus Christ and i need to be different from everyone else! I cannot act as a hypocrite and be a Christian at church and then be an everyday sinner the rest of the week. I need to be working full time or nothing because i am on Gods team and i cannot and do not want to be a lukewarm christian! I am all the way in and i am going to live and serve God full time! The best part is, if i am different and separate from the world, i will be able to recognize and know the will of God and all that is good and acceptable!
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
I cannot get lazy in my effort and will to serve the Lord. I also cannot lose my excitement for God! I must continue to be fervent. Teenagers are known to be extremely lazy and slothful. Like it is mentioned before, i must be different and apart from this world, therefore, i cannot be lazy. Instead i will be fervent and passionate about serving the Lord because He has saved me from death and nobody could offer a greater gift than that! <3
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
THis is a great verse!!! Do not be invaded and taken over by evil and sin…..but, overcome evil and sin with good! I cannot allow sin to take over my life. Instead, i am going to overcome sin and evil with good because i am on fire for God (:
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
This was a verryyyy convicting verse to me. There have been so many times where during a trial I will pray for a little while but then loose hope and sort of give up… but that is the opposite that this verse tells me to do. It says to rejoice in hope, not abandon it, and it says to stay in constant prayer, not just a little bit of prayer. I pray that the next tribulation I face that I would rejoice in my hope in the Lord and put my trust in him, trusting that through a lot of prayer, he will help me get through it and bring him glory.
3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
This verse stood out to me because, in the last statement, it says that we are to judge someonenot by earthly standards of looks, money, or material things, but instead value one another by their obediance to God and how much faith he or she has.
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Mmm this is what’s right but sometimes its easier said than done! When somebody does something wrong to me or one of my friends the first thing I want to do is fight back…but God says that we should be kind and peaceful, turn the other cheek, and let God do the punishing! He is just and he will make sure that everything is right in the end, no matter what we have to suffer on earth!
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
- theses ae great lessons and things we all should do in our lives daily!!
Way to get back on sotd!! keep it up!
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
mmmm Great verse! I know Pastor Bobby talked about this recently on how we shouldn’t conform to the world’s standard but this reminded me of the Don’t Stop Standing series we did a few months ago, specifically the first one. The main theme of this message was to stand out from the world and one of the verses mentioned by Pastor Bobby is James 4. I read through this, thinking of this verse (Romans 12:2), and one verse really stuck out to me. James 4:4 says “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?…” This goes good with this verse in Romans because we need to be standing apart from the world, having a different mindset to live above the world’s standard and morals to represent Jesus Christ.
Another verse that stuck out to me in James 4 was verse 7 which says “Submit yourselves therefore to God. resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” This verse also goes good with verse of Romans 12 because if we are transformed and living more for God than anything else, we can be more prepared to make the right decision when being tempted.
I pray that people (specifically me) would take this seriously that without God, we will fail and ultimately lead to destruction. I pray that I would just keep myself surrounded in God and his word and always relying on Him. Praise God for He has given us a chance!!
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
Great Scripture!
If love is not genuine, then what is love? Sarcasm in this world is what satan loves. Smoke and mirrors, the facades that he creates. If something is thought, and meant to be said, let it be said in a genuine lovingly manner. If there is nothing genuine for me to say, there is nothing for me to say at all. Therefore we should hold fast genuinely. Don’t fall behind smoke and mirrors, call out the truth when you see it. Hold fast to God! MARANATHA!
I really thought this whole chapter was great. It hit on a lot of things I’ve been thinking about lately so that is really cool when stuff works out like. This verse was one to jump out at me however.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
When I truely became a Christian and started living for god in October I ended up losing some “friends” because of it. This verse made me think about them and how I should even try to “kill them with kindness” a llittle bit more, if you will. Thelast verse also made me think of how Christians shouldn’t be the ones getting revenge on people, even if people have wroged or persecuted them. Rather, Christians should, for lack of a better phrase, “overcome evil with good.”
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
I need to keep my spiritual fire for Jesus burning brightly! Its going to die out if I am not in God’s word daily and not spending time meditating on it and thinking about what it really means, and what God really wants for me! I need to NOT be lazy about this kind of stuff. I need to pray that God would give me more of a desire to be in his word day by day and that it would grow stronger daily!
11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
Our attitude in our ways to grow in our walk with the LORD should always be full of fervor!!! Our zeal for Christ should never be lacking and we must always be pushing ourselves to me completely on fire for Christ!!!!!!
MARANATHA!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that trying to process this whole chapter in one day is like trying to take a tour of the USA in 5 minutes. There is just no way! But here is one bite-sized piece I have been chewing on:
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
When things go wrong or life gets hectic, I am always tempted to be sad, impatient, and prayerless. But through faith and the power of the Spirit, I can fight for a distant response. No matter what the situation, I can rejoice in a sure hope that Paul talked about in chapter 8. Even though circumstances are hard, the Spirit enables me to be patient. And in order to keep up this perspective of rejoicing and patience, I must be sending those text message prayers to God, 24/7!
12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
The mercy that I have been given through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is completely mind-blowing. I cannot understand why a perfectly holy God would care to save his enemy. However, while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me and rose again! I have been graciously forgiven of my sins. As a result of this gift of mercy, I desire to live my life as a sacrifice for the Lord. A person who truly gives their life to Christ has the anyplace, anytime, anywhere attitude. No matter what Christ asks me to do, I need to be ready to respond with obedience. I pray that in everything I may present my life to Christ as an acceptable sacrifice.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Our Bodies, as a Sacrifice….. hm. This book seems to be pointing out things to me the further and further we dive into it. Christianity today is portrayed more as a “What can God do for you?” rather than a “Your everything is sacrificed to Him!” You know I often forget that. I don’t quite think the what can God do for me thing but I forget that my Body itself is a sacrifice to Him. Everything I do, every move that allows me to fit in with this world is muddying that sacrifice. God wants our first fruits, not the one we accidently stepped on.
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
It’s easy to act friendly to people and be nice, it’s a whole other matter to sincerely love people. I’m praying that God would grow me with a love and care for others that is tangible and thoughtful, encouraging others and going above and beyond what I have to show them honor by putting them and their needs above my own.
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
This verse is convicting to me because it talks about how I need to be in constant prayer. When troubling situations come and I get stressed, verses like these are encouraging by saying how I need to be patient and consider trials joy because they will develop perseverance. But I was just thinking how prayer is such and essential component for all of this to work out. I mean how am I going to be able to persevere through trials through dependence on God if I’m not even talking to Him consistently? LORD, please help me to truly be constantly praying to you, because conquering sin and living for you isn’t going to happen by my own mental assertion but only by your power. Please help me to be depending on you everyday through prayer for only then will I be focused and able to live for you like I should.
20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
This chapter is so full of tons of commands and it was super hard to pick a verse out to comment on! i picked this verse because it got me thinking about the difference between how the world does things and how God wants us to do things. the world and society tells us to do the exact opposite of everything this verse says. we are raised up in a world that tells us to repay others that hurt us with revenge and hate, but God tells us not hate them, but to do the exact opposite and help them. this is a very powerful idea that i want to take to heart. even if only a handleful of us took this to heart as our daily goal it could change the worlds view of others
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good
This verse stood out to me because i thought it hit a very good point. As teenagers we throw the word “love” around alot and eventually it loses it’s meaning. We need to make what is good we love and what is bad we abhor. The word abhor is beyond just hating, we need to completley get rid of sin and evil in out lives which is of course extremely hard without the work of God. I pray that i can trust the Lord with my life and let him take the reins in my life so i can grow in him!
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Renewing my mind is something I need to do daily. I can tell you that there is a huge difference in the way that I think whether I have been in God’s Word or not. I have really seen the benefits of thinking about God’s Word since I my vacation this last Christmas. I am excited to continue this so I can do God’s will in 2010.
Let’s pray for new students to be saved at True North next weekend when we start a new series Street Cred Christianity!
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
This verse is really good because it reminds me that even though I’m supposed to give my enemies love, that doesn’t mean that they will not be punished! It’s just not my job to punish them! So I need to stop feeling bitterness towards them because in the end I win. They get the wrath of God and I get eternal life. Even though they might make parts of my life very miserable, I have eternal life with no misery or suffering….eternity is eternity. All they have is a good or bad life here on earth and then eternal suffering. God promises that they won’t get away with their actions. And if I copy their actions and paste them back onto them then I have become them, and thus would be one of them. And I am not one of them.
3) For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
So I was writing my little homework assignment when i realized I hadn’t done this yet and needed to because in exactly 15 minutes it would be the next day so thats’s just not gonna work ha.
Anyways as I was reading, this verse stuck out to me especially where it says to think with sober judgement. It made me think of all the times you judge someone for something your not even sure they might of done and automatically have that view of them in your mind. I think it’s better to know them yourself first but even then we are not the ones supposed to be doing the judgment.
Most of all of Romans has stuck out to me as well because it really explains to us such basic principles we may forget to do for god. It also reminded me of a song verse that says “don’t live for today but tomorrows satisfaction” which really makes me think that everyday we should be living towards our future in ways that will provide us a closer relationship to God. In a sense live the way to eternal life.
Another thing I liked about this chapter is where it says not to repay evil with evil. Its really another way of saying no matter how someone acts towards you you should always act as a christian towards them with kindness. This is something I definately need to work on .
Anyways Go Romans =]
Yeah Erin! I really enjoyed reading your post =] and I liked how you stopped what you were doing to finish this on the correct day haha
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
This verse tells me three things. 1. Love one another…but in a way that isn’t fake. I need to make sure that when I reach out to people it is in a genuine way that shows the love of Christ. 2. I need to make sure that everything that is evil is mut out of my life…such as the media or bad friends. 3. Hold fast to what is good! Get good friends and listen and watch stuff that glorifies God!
I really love verses 3 – 7!!! The things said in those verses are so true and I see them every week at Church wheather it is in main service or in True North!! There are so many people doing different things that God has gifted them with!! There are people preaching, leading worship, greeting making coffee!!! There are so many different things that people do that come together to make it all happen!!!! Let us keep doing what God has gifted us for our whole lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.
This verse stood out to m because its always hard when people persecute you but the main thing behind it all..is that if you are being persecuted it is actually a good thing because it means you are being a good example for God.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
In order to do the will of God and do thing that are pleasing to him, I need to first completely devote myself to him. Sure, it is easy to think about him a read my bible when it’s easy and convenient, but I need to make sure everything I do is about him and not conforming to the things of the world!
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
This chapter was so full of so many great things that I can’t take it all in at once!! This verse stood out to me though. I like how it says let love be genuine. I want to be genuine in love towards others. I want to practically show it and not be fake. I want to show it by encouraging others and having real conversations with others and not be surfacy with people!
Ahh Romans! Continues to blow me away and to be amazing! There is SOOOO much that catches my eye…. Of course there is v. 2, and ther is v. 10-11 that are amazing verses but what I also really loved was v. 17! It is soooo easy to “repay evil with evil” and in our human flesh it is such a natural thing! But our flesh wants to do that ISN’T right…. So little our flesh wants to do the RIGHT thing! Haha ahh that would be great if it DID want to do the right thing, I think that would make a lot of our lives WAYYY easier! (: But its a great verse, reminding us NOT to be like the world! So many times I hear and I’ve heard myself say… “Well they did it to me…” So dumb! We can’t do this but have to think about what others are seeing! We, as Christians, have to continue to be like Jesus in everything we do!!! :D
Romans 12
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
It is so easy to conform to the world in this way by allowing evil to bring out evil from us. We live in a world that is full of revenge and harboring evil thoughts about others. This verse calls us to have no part in returning evil for evil or sin for sin. Society encourages us to become angry and get even when we are hurt or slighted by others. In High School this can become a huge pattern of sin. We must love those who hate us and always return good for evil.
Proverbs 25:21-22 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.
When you return good for evil you are giving testimony to the love and grace of our Lord Christ Jesus.
BRING THE FIRE!!!! PRAY FOR REVIVAL WINTER EDDITION