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How is the view from your vantage point?
How is the view from your vantage point?
June 30, 2016
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
New International Version (NIV)
               How is the view from your vantage point?  To be fair, and a bit unkind, I am looking out over the Nueces Canyon this afternoon as I write.  Below me lies a crystal clear river.  Deer and turkeys come down to the water every morning and evening to drink.  The scene is permanently etched on my memory after eleven years of coming to Camp Eagle.
               To the point, can you see mercy from where you are?  Paul urges his readers in Rome “in view of God’s mercy.”  Mercy is when God does not give us what we deserve.  Remember he said in 2:4 that God’s kindness should lead all of us to repentance.  In other words, God does not shame us into salvation.  Instead, he loves us into relationship with himself.  This is the only way!
               By the time you read this I will have walked into this life-giving river to invite students to experience baptism for the first time.  The flow of the river will remind us that our sins have been washed away.  Each candidate will be buried by baptism into Christ’s death and raised to live a brand new life.  Why would we give our whole lives back to God as a living sacrifice in worship?  Because we have seen mercy.   Can you see his mercy?  I can. 
Pray with me:   
Father, we see your mercy today because in mercy you saw us.  You could have cast a lightning bolt to destroy us.  Instead you welcomed us to life.  How we love you.  How we praise you.  Thank you that we did not miss your mercy today.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.
Scripture reading for today: 
Romans 12

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