We see in this Scripture firsthand that the Apostle Paul asks the Romans to give their bodies to God. Not only was Paul speaking on a physical state of being, but Paul was also speaking on a Spiritual state of being. If we remember, the body as stated in Scriptures is actually "the Temple of the Holy Spirit" to the Spirit-filled Christian. Paul was pleading the Romans to give their bodies to God in order to flee from the deathly lifestyle of totem, taboo, transgression, temptation, and tattoo and head towards Holy Temple living. In fact, we see Paul telling the Romans to "Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?". In the Spiritual realm, Paul is asking that the body be cleansed from the clutter and spiritual merchants that want us to be the den of theves instead of the house of the Holy Spirit. Where Jesus cleared the merchants out of the physical temple twice on earth, Paul is applying this teaching to our bodies, the Spiritual temple. In both instances, the point was not to show a righetous indignation, but to restore the temple back to the original call of the house of worship and the house of sacrifice. As the physical temple in the days of Jesus was supposed to be the house of prayer, worship, and sacrifice and the epicenter of the Hebrew cultue, the Temple of the Holy Spirit through the infilling of the Holy Spirit becomes the mobile house of prayer, worship, and sacrifice that is mobile to go out to the epicenter of the society and usher the presence of God to those in need of his presence.

In verse two, we get the commandment of "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." Like I said in part one of this article, we have grossly misinterpretated this verse to promote a seperatist view of doing things diametrically backwards from the way the rest of the world does it to "show our difference" and show our "seperation" or in some extreme cases "show our disallegiance to the one world antichrist system". We are to be seperate from the wickedness of the world but we have to live in this world. Just because one chooses not to be like the fleshly world and chooses to be changed by renewing his mind to the ways of Christ does not mean that one has to withdraw from life with a "the sky is falling" mentality and live in their self-created utopia of their perception of perfection. We have made Romans 12:2 more complicated and have read more into that verse than what that verse is actually saying. All that verse is saying is that we as Christians need not to do what Satan does, instead we need to change our way of living into a life pleasing and acceptable to God by letting God take control and changing the way we think and see. God came to save his people from sin and not culture. Participating in sin and not repenting of it will lead one's soul to Hell, not participating in a culture.

I have to question many of the modern evangelical tactics used to reach people for Jesus. I am not questioning the actual tactic itself, but questioning the motive behind the tactics. One ministry I read about online formed a "pawk rawk" club where there is a skateboard park, loud bands, and a "Christian tattoo" parlor where people can get tattoos of Jesus on their skin. Are we reaching these people with the freedom found in the words and blood of Jesus or are we reaching these people with a "sanitized version of their culture"? I definately understand the importance of understanding a sub-culture and a demographic segment of a culture but are our modern day evangelistic tactics more of a substitute teacher mentality of temporary substiting a bad behavior with a sanitized version of that behavior or is there a real change in people's lives where these people no longer want to serve Satan but instead want to serve Jesus and continue the process of having their mind changed by the renewing of their thought processes and the purging of their sins into wholeness in Christ? Culture does not define Christianity. However, Christianity in it proper and Godly order can define and influence a world full of cultures. Is our evangelism evangelism by Jesus or is it evangelism by culture. Look at our Christian media / entertainment sectors today. What happens when a fad comes out in the world such as boy bands and young seductive female teenage singers, the Christian entertainment sector has to rush out a shoddy made and inferior alternative product to the market in the name of catch-up. The world gave us the Backstreet Boys, we have Plus One. The world has Britney Spears, we have Stacie Orrico. We preach a seperatist mentality but we sure are quick in providing an alternative solution and copy the way the world acts. Evangelism is not marketing. Where marketing is the ability to adapt to changes and tap into current trends by reaching market segments, Evangelism is the ability to reach people to show then Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore.

I am afraid that when we go out and reach people for Christ, we instead go out and reach people for our defined Christian culture. Evangelism was created to bring people into Christ, not to force people to adopt our defined culture (that we justify as the only move of God). The church is the body of Christ, not a "spiritual widget" factory making clones just alike with no deviance. Are we evangelizing people to have their minds renewed in Christ by the transformating power of Christ or is the church today evangelizing people to have their minds renewed in the ideologies of Dobson, Robertson, Kennedy, and the "official Christian perspective" by the transforming power of the Republican party? We need to look at how we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind. Is this transformation by the renewing of the mind done by Christ and the Holy Spirit? Or is this transformation by the renewing of the mind done by our demographically inspired cultural norms we justified as God? If Christ himself is not in this process of renewal and transformation, then we as believers in Christ are in trouble.

In verse three, we see Paul telling us "As God's messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you." Many have interpreted this verse to discuss the dangers of pride in our lives. Even though pride is one of the seven deadly sins and can blind us in the way we view things, we as Christians have mistaken self-esteem as pride. Where self-esteem is the belief and confidence in one's abilities (in a healthy sense the abilities are given by God), pride is the overexaggeration of one's self-esteem. Therefore, pride and self-esteem is not the same. Pride describes a state of being where one's self-esteem has gone from being in control to being out of control leading to arrogance and haughtiness. Before one has pride, one has to have self-esteem. The mistake we Christians make when we deal with pride is to kill all self-esteem instead of killing the part of self-esteem that has gotten out of control. We even call this humility but the way most Christians apply the Bible to the pride is humiliation. There is a difference between being humbled and being humiliated. In fact, we think we kill pride by looking at ourselves as a wormy being instead of the beautiful creation God made us. Look at some of our old hymns. The chrous of "Love Lifted Me" has that line "Love Lifted Me" and the alto sections are supposed to sing the words in background "even me". Many people sing this background lyric with the tone of voice that they were such wormy people that God had to specifically make an exception to save them. We tell sinners that they are such worthless and wormy people until they get saved. What an oxymoron. If sinners were such worthless people, why do we bother saving them. The truth is that they are not wormy people, but people with a bad spiritual condition.

The Bible is full of people who felt unworthy, inadequate, and ill-prepared to do the things that God called them to. However, when these people obeyed the Lord and did what the Lord wanted to do with Supernatural impartations, the mentality went from being inadequate, unworthy, and ill-prepared to a "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me." The key to proper self-esteem and an honest evaluation of ourselves is knowing the basis of our self-worth is found only in our identity and relationship in Christ. Without Him, we can do nothing. Without Him, we think in our delusion that we can do everything. Based on the previous statement where I stated that our self-esteem is found by our identity and affiliation in Christ, it is safe to say that we must measure our worth by Christ and not by comparing ourself to other people. Comparison is a two way street, we look down on people who are poorer, less spiritual, etc. Or we look dow at ourselves because we are not rich or not as spiritual as a tv preacher. The externals of the culture we live in do not determine nor develop our self-esteem. The mercy of God, along with God's power, God's grace, and God's creative hand that calls you fearfully and wonderfully made is the criteria that determines His estimation of our worth. None of us was worthy to enter the Holy of Holies, but Christ alone was worthy to be the spotless Lamb of God who by shedding his blood on Calvary paid the way for us to be worthy to enter in the Holy of Holies. Transformation by the renewing of our minds in dealing with self-esteem issues will change us and renew our thinking from worthless to worthyness.

Verses four through eight show and enhance the points of verses two and three by the use of one body with many parts. Just because we are a specific part of one body of Christ does not make us more or less important in the eyes of God and definately not in the eyes of others (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). It means we have a specific purpose to perform within the body of Christ. Just because you have the gift of singing and someone you love within the body has the gift of preaching does not mean that you are inferior because you do not preach well. It just means that God made you to sing and not preach. The preacher needs to see the same realm of thought concerning that friend's singing. Just because that preacher can not sing does not make him inferior to the singers. Parts are not bodies, but a body is composed of many parts and it takes all parts to have a fully functional body not a fully functional part. Whatever gift God gives you, use it for His glory. If God calls you to something you feel inadequate, ill-prepared, or unworthy of, just give in and submit to him realizing that it's not in your own abilities that the mission is done, it's in the blessings, supernatural impartations, and gifts of Christ that the mission was done and the desired results yielded.

Please Click here for part three of this article.