A Living Sacrifice

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 says that we are all called the moment we are saved (2 Tim. 1:9). So what is your calling in life? How do you discover your calling? The answer is found in Romans 12:1. The chapter begins with the word “therefore.” That means that the apostle Paul starts off by urging the believers in Rome: “Now based on all that you have known from chapters 1-11, of what God has done for you through Jesus Christ, it is time for you to get serious with the Lord. Start living the kind of life you should be living. Start becoming the person you’re supposed to be!”

The first thing you need to do is to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (12:1). What does God want? More than your love and worship, He wants your body. God wants you to put your body on His altar as a living sacrifice. That means that while you are still breathing and kicking, place your body at His disposal. Let Him live His life through you. Don’t worry if you think your body is not good enough for the Lord’s service. It may be ravaged by drugs, sicknesses and immorality. But Jesus says that anything that is placed on the altar of God becomes holy (Matt. 23:19). The moment you give Him your body, it becomes holy unto the Lord-”acceptable to God.” You will realize that the moment you hand over your body as a vessel for His use, your mind gets renewed (Rom. 12:2). You start thinking in a different way. The calling of God becomes clearer and clearer. You will begin “to prove”-which means “to experience” in the Greek-the calling of God in your life. You will learn that His calling for you is “good” (12:2)-God never plans anything bad for His children. It is “acceptable”-the more you experience it, the more you will like it and accept it. Ultimately, it is “perfect”-it will satisfy every longing and meet every need you have.

God is a realist. He doesn’t expect you to just “talk the talk,” He wants you to “walk the walk!” Let Him have free reign over your body. Be His hands, His feet, His eyes and His mouthpiece to the dying world. The moment you do that, His calling for you will become most obvious.

Crucifying The Old Man

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Romans 6:6

How can we ever come to a place where we seldom or hardly sin? The key is found in Romans 6:6 where it says that our old man needs to be crucified with Christ. What does that mean? Let me illustrate with this example:

Say there is this terrible man who drinks heavily and smokes a lot. He watches pornography on television all the time. He visits sleazy massage parlors and constantly cheats on his wife. Whenever he is in a bad mood or comes home drunk, he becomes violent and beats up his wife and kids. And whenever his wife and children come back from church, he would use the vilest profanities and start cursing God.

One Sunday morning, his wife and kids have gone to church and the man is watching pornography on television again. He has a glass of whiskey in his hand and a cigar in his mouth.

That Sunday, his family has a wonderful time in church. But as they approach home, they become very fearful. Would daddy be drunk when we enter the door? Would he beat us up again? But when they step into the house, they are shocked. The cigar and whiskey are by the table but the man is not smoking or drinking. The television is on but he is not watching it either. He didn’t shout, curse or swear at them. He didn’t get violent or beat them up. What happened?

The man had just died of a heart attack! And when he died, he also became dead to sin-to all his bad habits and vices!

The Bible says that at Calvary, Jesus took your old nature, the old man, the “old you”-who likes to sin, rebel, lie-and nailed it together with Him to the cross. In exchange, the new man, the nature of God in Christ, becomes alive in us. When we live out the life of the new man, the power of sin has no more hold on us.

A very important truth is that Romans 6:6 starts with the word “knowing.” That word means “knowledge by experience” or “knowledge by supernatural revelation.” That is why it is so crucial to have personal encounters with the presence and the power of God. Religious information to your head alone will not help you become victorious. You need daily encounters with God to live out the overcoming life in Christ.

Chicken Hotpot at Novena Square

Its Mother's Day today! So my family decided to dine out at somewhere nice. We were at Novena Square where we came about this new eating place call "Chicken Hotpot". Its a small eating area and we don't really know what is it about, but decided to go ahead and eat as it seems like some good stuff. It has franchised all over the world, very good reviews from Shanghai and Hong Kong and even from our very own Singapore's "Food Detectives". Little did I know that I'm in for a pleasant surprise =)

We've ordered a medium chicken hotpot and a small beef hotpot for me. When it arrived, we were fooled by it's initial look. It look nothing more like just claypot chicken with meat and not much of soup based. My mum was asking me how do we even do hotpot steamboat like this? (There is a fridge with other side-dishes if you want). As we were eating, the service crew came over to add in more soup based to almost the brim. By now, we were already enjoying the tender beef and chickens. After which, I went over to the fridge to grab a plate of duo meow and some mixed meat.

Oh just a little about the fridge. Besides eating from just whatever you have in the hotpot, you can also take side-dishes from the fridge. The range is as follows:
$1 - Vegetables: From duo meow to mushrooms and all sorts of vegetables including bitter gound.
$2 - Meats: Ranging from fish meat to lap chiong and some other stuff
$3 - Mixed meat, beef strips and other more expensive stuffs.

Then with these, you can make your own hotpot steamboat. Its really delicious, especially the beef hotpot. No regrets! With more soup based been added in and with its original herbs and spices, I was literally sipping the soup dry but the service crew keep topping up the soup for me. Oh btw, the service there is good too. The service crews will keep walking around and top up the soup-base for you before it runs low, without you having to ask them. The boss also served us and asked if we like the food. When my parents had finish eating their meal, I'm still guiltly sipping the soup and searching for bits and pieces of beef bits and duo meow in the soup like a glutton =p

When we paid the bill, we realized there isn't even any service charge and we weren't charged for the wet tissues either. Quite a good deal yeah?

My personal recommendation: If you are a meat lover, order a medium beef hotpot, go for beef stripes, duo meow and tao pok. Satisfaction guarantee!

Too bad I dun have a camera phone, can't take any pictures. But if you want to know more info, do visit www.chickenhotpot.com. There is one more outlet in Shenton Way.