The Worship for the Glory and the Kingdom of God!

“God looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. 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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” – Psalm 53:2, Romans 12:1-2 NIV

Because God, our heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:6) is watching us from the above, we should live our lives as a living-sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to Him. Even though it is going to be hard, we must endure it, for there is another life awaiting for us which is an eternal life in the kingdom of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1)

Then he [Jesus] called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)

Thus, we need to know that we are still sinners even though we believe in the name of Jesus Christ. Because of this, God has poured His Holy Spirit into us to help us in the walk with Him. (John 14:15-17,26-27) Hence, we have to be holy in everything that we do by following the Spirit. In addition we need to stand for the Bible as well; just like what Mark 8:35 states, for it is the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12), and the righteousness of God shall be revealed in it. (Romans 1:17)

Prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:13-16)

Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him. (Philippians 1:27-29)

However, we need to produce godly desires, instead of worldly ones as well by abiding into the Holy Spirit and the word of God; to endure our life as followers of Jesus Christ, for “we know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19) This is because if we do not have any godly desires, then it becomes legalistic and eventually we will give up.

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. (2 Peter 1:3-9)

Overall, let’s transform our minds from the desires of the flesh into the Spirit, so we can do the will of God in full-devotion, for the glory (Colossians 3:4) and the kingdom of God. (Matthew 7:21)

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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1-2)

Even though Romans 12:1 states that we are meant to live our lives as a living-sacrifice, that is holy and pleasing to the Lord—but I believe that it will be not really sacrifice-living once we know that we are going to the kingdom of heaven for sure. This makes sense to fully-devoted believers who surrendered their lives before the Lord. For this reason, I believe that we should live our lives not only living-sacrifice but hope-living as well, for the word of God states:

Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (Philippians 3:20-21, 2 Corinthians 5:1 NIV)