I Re-Wrote Part of the Bible

I spent about 9 hours yesterday working on one chapter of Pop Goes the Church...the chapter on the biblical basis for leveraging the pop culture. It was a hard chapter to write (since I'm not a theologian), but I had a bunch of help and I'm very happy with the end result.

In that chapter, I decided to re-write Romans 12:1 & 2...so I made my own paraphrase of The Message paraphrase. (I guess that makes it a paraphrase twice removed, or something like that).

Let me know what you think...

The Message Paraphrase of Romans 12:1-2

“Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering…Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

Tim's Pop Culture Paraphrase of Romans 12:1-2

"Take your everyday, ordinary life—going to the movies, watching TV, listening to your XM radio, flipping through the pages of People Magazine—and place it before God as an offering. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, always be looking for God in the culture. You’ll be changed from the inside out. While sitting on the couch surfing channels or listening to the Top 20 on the radio, always be looking for what God wants you to do, who He wants you to be, and quickly respond to it. Don’t let the culture drag you down to its level, but maintain an awareness of God in the culture and keep watching for the next step you can take toward Christ.”