Giancarlo Antonelli

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.—Romans 12:1–2

The Bible tells us that, in light of all God has done for us, we should present ourselves to Him. If we do this, then we will know His will for our lives. What does that mean, to present our bodies? It means that you give your whole self to Christ, and Christ alone.

1. We need to present our minds. Fill your mind with the Word of God, not the filth and twisted worldview of our culture. A recent survey revealed that America’s children and teenagers are now spending an average of more than 7.5 hours a day involved in electronic media (TV, video games, listening to music, surfing the Web, texting, and e-mailing). We need to think more about godly things! As Paul wrote to the Philippian church, “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8).

2. We need to present our tongues. This refers to how we use our words, what we say to others. We can do great harm or great good with our words. One word can either elevate, or devastate. The Bible tells us, “So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire” (James 3:5).

3. We need to present our hands and feet too. Among the seven things listed in Proverbs 16 that the Lord hates are “hands that kill the innocent … feet that race to do wrong” (Proverbs 6:16–18). How much more glorious is it to have our hands and feet take the gospel out to a lost and dying world. Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

I urge you to present your body to Him today and every day!

-Greg Laurie

I don’t know why but I feel like blogging lately, I want to start an anonymous blog that talks about all my spiritual valleys and mountains.  I feel like lately God has been telling me to do this and I’ve failed at it the last two weeks because of my laziness.  This isn’t going to be easy for me at all because I have a hard hard time letting people know my weaknesses and short comings hence the reason for me wanting to find out how to do this anonymously, so this blog should hopefully help me grow in a ton of ways.  Anyways I want to explain what has been going on in my head today, I felt like today I have a fresh picture of what I want to blog about so here it goes.  

After working out today I was walking to my car in the parking lot and starting dwelling on this phrase “why me.”  Normally when one dwells on this phrase it is often in a setting that is complaining, I definitely know and understand this because I definitely have been there.  It was a pretty fresh day, beautiful weather, had a good workout, I’m graduated and some other things and I began to repeat this phrase over and over in my head.  It kinda hit me, why me?  Why does God continue to bless me in the ways that he does, Why do I get to drive a perfectly nice car, Why did God give me a perfect step-dad whom I call Dad who loves me as if I was his, Why has God given me amazing friends and people that I will never forget and have been extremely blessed by, Why did God put me in a youth group where I could thrive and know Him better, Why did God put me in a Christian School where I could learn truth regardless if I wanted it?  It hit me today that i needed to start being way more grateful for the things I have, because where much is given much is required.  That is what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12 verse 48.  God has blessed me so much so that means I need to have intent with those blessings, I need to realize that these things that have been given to me are not mine, they are loaned out to me by God so that I can bless others with them, monetarily and eternally.  As Christians, we all need to be the expectant and faithful steward that Jesus talks about in Luke 12:35-48.  We need to live our lives like Jesus is coming tomorrow, keeping our own spiritual houses, bodies, beings, hearts clean and ready for Him to come tomorrow. 

Let me paint this picture for you in your head, If you somehow knew (and this is by the way not possible at all, because Jesus says that no one will know when the Father sends Him back here) that Jesus was coming back on this earth three days from now to take all those that are His back, how would that change your life for the next three days?  After dwelling on that thought think about what you would continue doing, what you would do more of, and what you would do less of.  You would most definitely witness to every person you saw, you wouldn’t worry about little needless things, the sole purpose of the next three days of your life would be extreme intent on following God’s word and applying it to your life.  Well, if we look at Luke 12:35-48 that is the modern day picture for us.  And let me just say for a second, I think I am completely horrible at this.  Today I have witnessed to 2 people thus far, but there are about 4 more people I walked by knowing that I should have witnessed to.  The reason why I bring up witnessing is because it should be a big part of our faith.  If you do it enough it gets less awkward each time and it gets way easier  (Witnessing has made me want to purse philosophy and apologetics.)  In the book of Jude it says that we are to snatch others from the gates of hell and save them, and in my opinion this is the best way to bless someone. 

So lastly I want to conclude with what hit me today and tie things up because I might have gotten a little off here.  But if you look around at all the things you have, they are all gifts from God and should be used to excel His kingdom, because if you have been given much, you have a lot of work to do for Him.  I’d like to end with a quote that inspired me inside and that quote was “If you still have breath, then you still have work to do for God.”  Sounds like a pretty dang good quote right, well the awesome thing about that quote is that it was said by a 18 year old boy that was my age who was about to die of cancer.  And not only that, but this was the fifth time he had ever had Cancer in is life and he beat it four times but this time God wanted him home.  I pray that this will bless you as it has blessed me.  

-Giancarlo

PS sorry if this sounds rough and rambly, I am not good at this at all.