Re: Verse reading — Romans 12 (day one)
“I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.“–v 1.
When does worship happen? Where are you? In a sanctuary? Listening to a choir? Praise band? Sermon? In a quiet time of study and prayer? Looking at a nighttime sky full of stars?
Paul has a specific marker for spiritual worship (some translations read “reasonable service” i.e. that response to God that “makes sense”) Paul says that it is when we give our lives to God. Like a sacrifice in the Old Testament system, only this time the sacrifice doesn’t die, it continues to live with a powerful new purpose. This sacrifice, this surrender of life, Paul calls worship.
No wonder Christians call it a worship “service”. Implied in true worship is a promise to rise from my knees to do His will.
