Saturday, November 27-guest post by Pamela

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Romans 11-14.

Scripture: Romans 12:1

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Observation: Worship is defined by submitting ourselves fully to God.

Application: The first thing that I thought of when I read "offer your bodies as a living sacrifice" was dressing modestly. We had a staff meeting at our school this week and one of the topics of conversation was dress code. I teach at at private Christian school and it has become an issue in the middle school concerning what is appropriate. If our goal as a school is to set standards of modesty than it is our job to enforce certain clothing rules and expectations. We want our students to be ambassadors of our school and examples to others and what they wear may send a message that is not the same as the message we want our school to send out. Thinking about this longer, I began to think about not just the clothing aspect but how we use our bodies as ambassadors to others for God. Is how we are using our bodies sending the wrong message about God? It is not just in what we wear but in how we act-how we use our hands to serve, our feet to lead, our arms to hold each other up. Are we using our body to draw others to God? The most important body part to be concerned about may be our tongue. We need to be conscious about making sure we use it in a way that is "holy and pleasing to God". I know I need help in this area. God created me. He gave me hands, feet, arms, and a tongue and so much more. For these gifts, I should be thankful and willing to use them in a way that is an ambassador for Him. It is when we submit ourselves to God that we can show that we fully acknowledge His sovereignty.

Prayer: Dear Lord, You have given us so much. You have given us a body and instructions for how to use it to glorify You. Lord, we sometimes take this gift for granted and we forget that our best way to worship You is to fully submit ourselves to Your plan for us. Thank you for helping us to remember what we were designed to do. Give us the desire to be an example through our actions of what You would want us to be. Thank you for being patient with us as we fail and for forgiving our mistakes. You are an awesome God. Amen.

Tomorrow's passage: Romans 15-16, 2 Corinthians 1-2:4