→We must do a comprehensive self-evaluation – F.R. Havergal’s hymn is a great place to start:
Take my life, and let it be, consecrated, Lord to Thee;
Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet and let them be, swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing, always only for my King;
Take my lips and let them be, filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine:
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour, at Thy feet its treasure store:
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all, for Thee!
→Just imagine how many radical results this attitude could bring in our own flock here? new conversions & societal changes in Pburg; career missionaries; martyrs; changed lifestyles; transformed marriages & families….
-v.1c, Paul has one further description of our new mode of worship: “Reasonable/spiritual” – A Grk. word (logikos) which is hard to pin down, but the gist of it seems to be that such true worship is the most “rational & reasonable, appropriate” (cf. NKJV) response, in light of: God as Creator and in light of His great saving mercies toward us in Christ; in light of who we are as rational & spiritual, intelligent creatures, worshipping w/our minds.