{"id":232,"date":"2011-02-02T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T20:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=232"},"modified":"2011-02-02T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T20:40:00","slug":"transforming-worship-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/?p=232","title":{"rendered":"Transforming Worship (ten)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>1<\/sup> Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God\u2019s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God\u2014this is your true and proper worship.<\/span> <\/div>\n
ROMANS 12:1 (NIV)<\/span><\/div>\n

Been involved in more conversations then I can count about what worship should look like… To be honest I am really tired of worrying about music and service style. I feel like praise is what often happens on Sundays but I am not convinced worship has a regular place there, not the worship Paul expresses… I still don’t understand our current church cultures idea of worship. Thus I have been craving a clear definition and as you go through Paul’s teaching he lays out worship as not a song and dance thing but a LIFE SACRIFICE thing. Being able to trust so clearly in the love and mercy of our God that we willingly offer ALL OF US in true worship.<\/p>\n

By dwelling on this truth and then going through a journal of mine from a few years back I was able to see a pattern in my walk that has held me back…<\/p>\n

MY CHRISTIAN WALK WAS ON REPEAT!<\/p>\n

Influenced by the church culture I came into when saved I was a high seeker. Selfishly viewing church and all possible Christian experiences as for me and my spiritual mountain climbing benefit I was completely missing the boat! It took many many ups and downs; dry patches or apathetic patches and then flying high experiences for me to grow tired with this rat race… Looking back at my scribbles in my journal I am even more horrified at the futility of it all.<\/p>\n

Thank God he started pulling me out of my comfort zone! I was comfortable with deja vu!<\/div>\n

Today I can honestly say I am looking for lasting consistent joy or happiness in all circumstances and I like to think that even back then that was my goal. What I lacked was an all consuming relationship with Christ. I wanted to drive and he was a passenger… I would only start to give it , or more honestly, bits of it all up to him once I was again bludgeoned with my own shortcomings! That isn’t worship! That is about me still!<\/p>\n

This was my way not Christs. In order to grow Christ requires ALL. He requires my true worship as the message puts it; ‘Take your everyday, ordinary life\u2014your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life\u2014and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.’<\/p>\n

So what now? Well Paul covers that in the following verses in Romans 12. A wealth of opportunity to break bad habits and unlearn incorrect lessons. This true worship of my Lord will lead me to the place where I can understand his will in my life and will be able to willingly follow him.<\/p>\n

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.<\/span> ROMANS 12:2 (the message)<\/span><\/div>\n

Worship is sacrifice and so I think I finally see why last years word was sacrifice. I am thankful for Christ’s changing power in my life and thankful that he loves me so much I CAN trust and lay it all at his feet.<\/p>\n

LINK HERE TO RELATED POST of mine, I have been chewing on this for a while!<\/a>
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P.S. Link RIGHT HERE<\/a> to the last message in a transformation message series, check them all out!<\/a> I hope to go through them with a fine tooth comb because I have come to realize there is so much more to becoming and being a Christian then saying a little sinners prayer. I am SO ready for this!<\/p>\n

TTFN<\/p>\n

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1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God\u2019s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God\u2014this is your true and proper worship. ROMANS 12:1 (NIV) Been involved in more conversations then I can count about what worship should look like… To be honest I am […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,15,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ladymacblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}