| | Explore | | |

October 25, 2009

Romans 12:1-2

Colossal VisION

 

When I was in third grade our family moved to a new house.

 My brothers and I started to make new friends in the neighbourhood.

  And it wasn’t long before we were told about the witch.

   We were taken to the next street over which was Pottruff Rd. S.

    In a yard that was overgrown by trees was the witch’s house.

     The yard was several feet lower than the road and its neighbouring houses.

      It was an old shack of a house sided with asphalt brick shingles.

       We cautiously went by the yard on the other side of the street.

        We were ready to run as fast as we could if the witch should appear.

         Once in a while during our spying on the witch we would see her.

          She was an old woman with stringy grey hair.

           She had moles and wrinkles on her face.

           She was hunched in the back.

            And the thought of being caught by her terrified us.

             No one ventured into her yard alone.

              There was no telling what might happen to a young boy.

               Neither I nor my friends had any interest in being cooked and eaten.

Well I became a paper boy for the Hamilton Spectator.

 Pottruff Rd. S. was part of my route.

  That meant every day I had to go by the witch’s house.

   One day I received notice of a new subscriber.

    You can imagine my horror when the address was the house of the witch.

     I would rush up to the house and throw the paper into the milk box and run.

      I would never look back until I was safely on the street.

       That worked for the first week.

        But then Friday came and I had to collect.

         That meant knocking on the door and waiting for it to open.

          I mustered all the courage I could find and stood at the door.

           Somehow I forced my knuckles to contact the door.

           Knock, knock, knock!

            And I waited.

             The door opened slightly and a face full of suspicion squinted at me.

              “What do you want?” came out of mouth filled with crooked teeth.

               “Collecting?” was the only word my stupefied brain could force.

                I’m not sure whose voice had more fear in it.

                 A smile crossed her face and the door opened wide.

                  “Come in, come in” she said and I thought “I’m cooked”.

                   And before I knew it I was standing in the witch’s house.

                    I have no recollection of what it was like inside.

                     But that was my first of many encounters with the witch of

                     Pottruff Rd. S.

                      And you know what I found out?

                      She wasn’t a witch at all.

                       She was a lonely old lady who loved my weekly visits.

                        In fact, my visits became more than weekly.

                         I would stop at her house even during the week.

                        And we would talk and I remember she loved my dimples.

                         We had something in common – crooked teeth.

                          My teeth are still crooked.

                           The dentist was trying to straighten my teeth.

                              A tooth was pulled and I was to push another tooth.

                               I was to keep pushing it to straighten it.

                                I didn’t do a very good job.

                                 And I remember talking with her about that tooth.

                                    My vision of that old lady had been distorted.

Why am I telling you that story?

 My experience with the witch is repeated by all of us.

  We tend to develop a fear of the unknown.

   And something that is unknown to us is the future.

    We can easily become nervous thinking about the future.

     We can begin to fear the future.

      We can project all kinds of distorted images onto the future.

       Today is our Vision Sunday.

        This is a day when we are called to look at the future.

         This is very much like knocking on the witch’s door.

          We are knocking at a door nervous about what we might see when it opens.

           Are we going to be confronted with a devouring monster?

           Romans 12:1-2 gives us some help in facing the unknown future.

 

I   Paul tells us to PRESENT OUR BODIES AS A LIVING SACRIFICE.

     That’s exactly how I felt at the witch’s door.

      When I knock on that door I’m a dead boy.

       My imagination saw destruction.

        My body was going to be a living sacrifice.

         All manner of atrocities were going to be inflicted on me.

          I was never going to survive.

           But until I put my life on the line I was never going to know the truth.

           I was going to be plagued and paralyzed with fear.

            I had to risk sacrifice to find out what was behind the door.

             I discovered there wasn’t a witch behind the door.

              I discovered a lady who was lonely and liked me.

The only way to step into the future is to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

 We cannot advance in time and leave our bodies behind.

  William Barclay says, “The body belongs to God just as much as the soul does.”

   He goes on to say that the Christian “can serve Him just as well with his body as with his mind or his spirit.”  (The Daily Bible Studies, The Letter to the Romans, William Barclay, page 156)

    Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

     As a living sacrifice we experience God in a whole new relationship.

      Being a living sacrifice reveals to us the truth about the unknown.

       As a living sacrifice we discover something about God.

        We get a fresh understanding of our Heavenly Father.

         We discover that God is merciful.

“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable His ways!  ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?’”  (Romans 11:33-34)

          We discover that God only wants to be merciful to us.

           He doesn’t want to hurt us and destroy us.

            He wants to refine us and purify us.

            He desires to draw us into fellowship with Himself.

             When we are a living sacrifice we are holy and acceptable.

              But we present our bodies as a living sacrifice.

               We set aside our appetites and tastes to know God.

                We lay down our preferences and opinions to know God.

                 We surrender our time, our family, and our resources.

                  And this becomes a spiritual act of worship.

                   We give our whole life to God.

                    We will embrace the vision of the future only when we know God.

 

II  When our bodies are the Lord’s something amazing happens.

     We are no longer conformed to this world.

      Paul says we are to BE TRANSFORMED BY THE RENEWAL OF YOUR MIND.

       I was being controlled by the fears and ignorance of my friends.

        I thought I was confronting a witch from the information I had received.

         But when I was willing to sacrifice my body my mind was transformed.

          My mind was renewed.

           What I thought had been reality was nothing more than fiction.

           I was being restricted in my actions by an unknown person.

Our world has a twisted and distorted image of God.

 The world says God only wants to destroy our fun.

  He is going to stifle us with rules and regulations.

   He is going to punish us every time we step out of line.

    He’s always watching ready to pounce on us.

     He is frowning on us and is a vindictive brute.

      Or, He is a God who couldn’t care less about what happens to us.

       He is detached and uninvolved in the things of this world.

        He isn’t a God who loves but instead let’s people suffer without a care.

         So why would I want to look toward the future?

          I should be trying to hide from God not be exposed to Him.

           When our minds are conformed to the world we are steeped in fear.

           We don’t want to think beyond today.

            Being a living sacrifice enables our minds to be transformed.

             We experience God’s involvement in life in a whole new way.

              When we are transformed we are metamorphosized.

               We are changed from the inside out.

                Our bodies do not change as a living sacrifice.

                 But what we choose to do with our bodies is transformed.

                  We live a Christ-centered life.

Barclay says, “When Christ becomes the centre of life then we can present real worship, which is the offering of every moment and every action to God.”

 Have you presented your body as a living sacrifice?

  Has your mind been renewed as you become the temple of the Holy Spirit?

   Have you taken the step of faith in God that ends in a personal relationship?

    Only then can you move forward boldly, confidently, transformed.

     Only then are you able to embrace God’s good and acceptable and perfect will.

       God will transform your view of the future.

        As He adopts you as a child you can then adopt the Vision His future holds.

         Do not fear who God is or avoid His touch.

          Allow His Spirit to move you and empower you to accomplish His will.

 

Closing Song:  Because You are My Help

 

Benediction:  “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be glory for ever (in all the unknowns of our future).  Amen.”  (Romans 11:36)