By David Whitmire

Aside from providing a cool name for an awesome Christian metal band, Romans 12: 1 & 2 hits us with the crossroads of a critical decision that we all must face. In fact, we are likely to find ourselves in this valley of decision on a daily basis. This passage of scripture lays out two diametrically opposed positions, and demands that you choose one of the two: death to self and the world, or death to life in God.

Paul urges believers to ‘present our bodies as living sacrifices to God' and I want to specify the physical nature of this command; he did not say heart, soul, or mind; he said "bodies." Paul understood, that whatever is found on the inside of a person, will come forth and present itself on the outside; and like many Apostles he is addressing the fact that what is done in the flesh is evidence of your true spiritual condition. Furthermore, your bodies being the host for all elements of our existence, a serious emphasis must be placed on the significance of surrendering them to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

To help you understand the importance of this principle I wish to point out that for a human, created in the image of God, that our physical bodies are, and forever shall be, our means of interaction with everything around us. This is true even in the next life for which God will give each of us a new body, not a new soul, or a new mind, but a new body. Even Jesus (who sets the bar for sacrifice) has a physical body in Heaven, and always will. Option 1: give your body, and all that is within, as a living sacrifice to God: death to self and the world, alive in Christ.

In verse 2 Paul warns us not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. For most it is easy to consider all the "bad things" in the world today, and all the "good things" about God; but how often do we actually take the time to prayerfully analyze the profound differences between the values that God gives in His Word, and the values of today's culture? I don't intend to address these, but I want you to think about it.

How many of us as Christians can honestly say that the values expressed by the lives we live match the values taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount? What does the world see when they look at us? How easy is it for them to identify us in public? Is there any difference; or are our ambitions the same, and our goals the same? Our attitudes and our interests; are they the same? What about priorities, how much do we reflect the world when we put money on the top of the list? What about fears; do we share similar fears and insecurities, or do we find our hope and security in the same sources? Where do we place our trust; in other men, leaders or friends, or God, or do we agree that it is better to trust no one at all?

The fact of the matter is that our influence, and our saltiness, is directly related to our levels of conformity and renewal; and the measure to which we as Christians are conformed to the world (having similar fears and similar pursuits) is the measure to which we are able to provoke unbelievers into anything that even resembles authentic message. What reason has anyone to buy into your faith of peace, love and joy in Christ if when they look at you they see that you are: just as worried about money as they are? Or that you are just as desperate to find that "right someone" to validate you and make you feel loved? Or that you are just as easily troubled by the trials of this life as anyone else?

For years, the world has criticized the church for being hypocrites. Even Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians." Are they not justified by their observation? The standard defense has been "Look at Jesus, not at me; I'm not perfect, just forgiven." Where is that in the Bible? Jesus did not say, "I will exonerate your flaws before men." No, in fact, He said quite the opposite! Jesus said, "Be holy, for I am holy." Is it possible that we are so brain washed by the culture about what Christianity should be that it is no longer true to the gospel? Where is the Church whose standards exactly match those taught by Jesus Christ?

To see believers living out these standards and values we have to look back to the Book of Acts. A study of "Acts" will show you an amazing people living according to the Culture of the Kingdom of God; Kingdom Carriers my friends and I like to call them. Despite all odds and persecution, the Church spread at an unprecedented rate and with spiritual power and authority not seen before or since; so much so, that the unbelieving world around them simultaneously feared them greatly and esteemed them highly, leaving unbelievers with only two choices: kill them, or join them. How much does this sound like your Church? Where are the Kingdom Carriers in today's society?

You see one of the most costly side effects of conformity is dullness in sprit. The more we share in common with the world the less we have in common with the Lord; and the less we are prepared to bring transformation and renewal to a desperate world in need. The real question here is: Who is influencing whom? Are you influencing the world with your saltiness, or is the world influencing you with all its temporary pleasures? This is where the corrosion comes in, because, it is always one of these two, and never neither of the two. Whatever areas of our lives we are failing to influence the world by living Kingdom Culture we are being influenced by the world. When we are not living according to Kingdom Culture values, whose values are we living by? Most importantly: how is God affected by our decisions regarding this topic of our lives? Just take a moment to think about that.

Many places in the New Testament speak of rewards given to those who have lived their lives focused on the next age, and their hearts set on the Kingdom of God. God loves to reward those who bless him by living their lives in perpetual sacrifice and renewal. God wants us to get a perspective of our role in this age and the next, which will inspire us to live a life free of conformity, and full of sacrifice and spiritual power and authority. As is usually the case, it is a work of the Spirit, which happens when we make the commitment, and begin to cooperate.

Is sinless perfection possible for anyone other than Jesus? I don't know; but I am going to die trying. Is perfect obedience possible? Maybe not; but as Paul encouraged, I am going to fight the good fight. Now I encourage you: don't let the devil take the fight out of you by desensitizing you with the temporary interests of this world. Pour yourself into the Word and into prayer, find out what it means to live according to the values of God's Kingdom. Do not be conformed and dull with no influence; but sacrifice yourself, and be renewed and transformed into a spiritual powerhouse having an impact on the world for the glory of God in Jesus name! Amen!

In light of recent events in our nation and current events in the evangelical pro-life movement, there seems to be a great need for encouragement. I have heard many stories of people who were discouraged by the direction that the government seems to headed, or by the apparent lack of activity with regard to God's answering of our prayers. Because of stories such as these, I have chosen to write this article. But I hope that this will be a benefit to all who read it, and perhaps the principles mentioned here might be suitably applied to other areas of our lives as well.

I remember the very first time I led a "Silent Siege" outside of the new Planned Barrenhood property in my home town of Sarasota, Fl. It was a warm Saturday morning with little activity on Central Ave. We were standing outside the fence of the construction site for the upcoming mega-bortuary, and so far only the foundation had been laid. We had decided to make a spiritually strategic move to "siege" this location before its occupants moved in. Even though things seemed quiet where we were at the time, it was business as usual at the old location just a few miles away. Since this was my first time leading a prayer movement in my own city, I had a some-what odd feeling. On this particular day there was not much traffic on this street, and many of the people who lived in the area did not know anything about PP, let alone the fact that they were moving into the neighborhood. This being the case, we did not receive much recognition or much of a so-called 'pat on the back' to encourage us. So I quickly diagnosed a self-motivatin as a prerequisite for this movement.

I compare this to high demand sales performance at large commercial businesses. Advertisements for sales positions at these companies nearly always include a line similar to "seeking self-motivated people person." This is because they know that the position for which they are hiring will require tremendous amounts of time away from the corporate head-quarters with prospective customers of all personality types, and no one will be there to encourage you, to motivate you or to help you. In this sort of job, you don't have anyone nearby to tell you how well you are doing or to offer tips to make the next meeting that much better or easier. You have no one to say "don't let that one get to you," "they just need time to think about it," or "you'll get it on the next one for sure." In this type of position, you have to be able to carry yourself, and to push yourself to keep going and to keep moving. If you don't, your productivity will drop and then you will find you have been replaced by someone more motivated the task.

I like this example because I feel it is a good analogy for fighting spiritual battles. I have learned that we are not guaranteed any encouragement from outside sources; in fact, you can count on many discouraging things to happen during the course of the struggle. So the simple fact is, you must be able to find encouragement for yourself.

Here are some tips on how to stay self-motivated. It's not complicated uber-spiritual stuff. These are practical pointers that are easily applied to your life, and to your way of thinking.

The first is simple: REMEMBER

Remember where you came from: what motivated you to start this in the first place? Remember what you have come through: what challenges have you already overcome? Remember your blessings: what resources or previous encouragements has God provided for you in the past? Think about these things, and then remember that God does not change. And of course, we should always remember that Jesus has already secured the victory.

Second: CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

This is where I like to flip-it a bit. Let me use another example from one of my "Sieges." It was the first time I took a youth group out with us, and things were much busier than my own first time. The kids were exposed to a myriad of reactions and responses while we were out there. One car would come by; the driver would see us out there; they would slow down to see what we were doing; and when they figured it out, they would hold up their thumbs and shout out the window "keep it up!" Then another car would come by; the driver would see us out there; they would slow down to see what we were doing; and when they figured it out, they would hold up a different finger for us to see (inappropriate gesture) and shout out the window "get a life!" It is easy to be encouraged by the first car, but as I told those kids that day, we should be encouraged by both. Because if we were of no effect, that second driver would have done nothing. But because they had to respond, it is proof that we did have an effect on them, and we are making a difference. This is what it means to change your perspective; you find encouragement in discouragement.

This is another form of Kingdom Thinking, and it doesn't stop with people driving down the street. This can be applied to powers in high places and all sorts of attacks from the enemy that try so hard to stop us or to slow us down. If we were not causing a problem for the enemy, he would not be fighting so hard to undo all that we have accomplished. So the next time you see a disappointing message in the media about abortion or Christian liberty, you can call it what it is--the enemy trying to make you think that the battle is already lost to keep you off the battlefield. This is why the devil is always playing mind games, because he knows that as soon as we step into the ring, his defeat is imminent. Don't buy into the devil's psycho-babble; you put your armor on and you go claim the victory in Jesus name!

Finally: CLING TO THE VISION

God's ultimate vision for His creation include Holiness and Righteousness, compassionate Mercy, a complete and uncompromising Justice and total Victory. He has said so in His word. VISION comes from God alone; He has chosen to share this vision with us. God has told us in His word that without vision His people perish. So we must never lose sight of the vision that the Lord provides. We do this by staying vigilant, keeping those practices that have carried us this far: we pray, we worship, we review God's promises in His word. Then we believe and step out in faith, because we expect God to do and to be everything He has always proven himself to be: the "I AM", the "Way", the "truth", and "the LIFE"!