What Week Is It Now?

Well hello again the world wide web! How has your week been? Not the actual web but the people who are on the world wide web reading this blog post. I hope you're all doing well. I know I am! God is so good. It has been another absolutely lovely week yet again here in Derby. God has been just so amazing in all of our outreaches and He day in and day out amazes with me with how He works. I got to play a little football this week with some of the kids at the Roma Outreach annnnd I got kicked directly in the face at point blank with the ball. You'd think I would stop playing right? WRONG! I toughed it out and apparently gained street cred from all of the kids so that's good. I'm still not very good at football, but playing with these kids is certainly helping. They are literally half my size and age yet they absolutely embarrass me. It's rather ridiculous. I just don't understand how their little feet can move so fast and mine move so... less fast. Rachel, I need you to make me better at football immediately. Or just play for me. 

Anyway, the lectures this week were truly amazing. Richard Lowe came and spoke to us on the subject of "sin, repentance and restoration." The main takeaway for me? Renew your mind. One of the main pieces of scripture we looked at was Romans 12:1-2. It states in the NAS, 

"Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. It's interesting that the text does not say, "Therefore I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, get a good job, have a family, only share your faith when you're comfortable, stay in your comfort zone forever actually, give God your free time, you should probably go to church once a week if you can make it, and make sure you don't do anything risky."
I feel like that is what our culture of the Western church has become. Paul doesn't say to do any of that. Not that any of that is bad by any means. Not all of us are called by God to move to a village in Africa and preach the Gospel to only unreached people groups. If everyone did that, then there would be no one left in the other parts of the world. 

Paul writes to be a living sacrifice. He does not menace words. Or as I like to say, "Paul hath no chill." Or as Louie Giglio would say, "Turn down for what?!" That's exactly it. Live like someone died for you. Presenting the Gospel should feel uncomfortable at times and offensive because by nature the Gospel is offensive. Your body is for The Lord. You were made by Him. He died for you. He literally came to earth, died, and then rose for us because of how ratchet we are. That is the epitome of unequivocal love and grace. And I just think that if our response to that love and truth is not to tell our neighbors, coworkers, the people of the United Kingdom and beyond what we know and live for then we are missing something. Rapper KB says so well I think. 

Some say they've seen The Lord, but live on casually
I don't know what you saw, 
But The Lord a'int what you seen,
Cause once you really seen The Lord,
You're obsessed with what you seen

THAT IS SO TRUE!! You are obsessed with The Lord. That's really all I am trying to say to you all. Be so on fire for God that people know there is something different about you. Live it DAILY. Pick up your cross DAILY. Not just once a week for a couple of hours before your favorite football team plays on Sunday afternoon, but everyday. In the Old Testament, an animal was put down and burned up as a one time sacrifice. Done deal. One time event. No more. However, Paul says living sacrifice. That means to be in a state of perpetual sacrifice. This living sacrifice, this surrender of self in a humble submissive act to God, this, as Paul put it, bearing about in my body always the dying of Jesus Christ, this kind of living sacrifice is the basis of true worship. It is the foundation of all Christian dedication. It is what Paul meant when he said, "For to me to live is Christ and die is gain." "I have many things but," in Galatians he said, "I count all things manure compared to what I have in Christ." 

As Jeff Vanderstelt said, "God doesn't just want your afterlife, He wants this life too." 

However, that is not what the world, aka Satan's tool, tells us to be obsessed with. We are told to be obsessed with ourselves and our own happiness. Get more money, sex, whatever makes you happy and don't ever live uncomfortably. That is what we are fed by the media constantly. However, we need to unlearn what the media teaches us. Don't put your mind in harms way. Richard really talked a lot about how important it is to have accountability people in your life. I couldn't possibly stress that enough myself. Community is beyond important in your pursuit of Christ-like attributes and habits. You cannot do it by yourself. There is a reason you are in the church you are in, know the people you know, and live where you live. 

We cannot simply be tolerant of sins that the world tells us should be our lifestyle and livelihood. And that's why we also need to be refreshed in what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:12-13. Paul writes, "All things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient, all things are lawful for me but I will not be brought under the power of any, I will not allow myself to become a victim of anything. The body is not for fornication but it's for the Lord and the Lord is for the body." I said it previously already but I am going to say it again as if I am Paul without exclamation points. The body is for the Lord. He can't work through you unless He works through your body. If you're going to speak, you've got to speak through your mouth. If you're going to see, you have to see through your eyes. If you're going to go, you have to go with your feet. If you're going to think, you have to think with your mind. The body is for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body.

I want to end with a quote. David Livingston, that great missionary to Africa, said, "People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of the great debt owing to our God which we could never repay? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own reward of healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with such a word. It is emphatically no sacrifice, it is privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering or danger now and then with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life may make us pause and cause the Spirit to waver and sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His fathers throne on high to give Himself for us."


God bless you all and thanks for praying, interceding, aiding me financially, and reading! Don't forget to also check out my music site! www.soundcloud.com/drew-andrew-couch. Oh and check out this cat shirt.