The Amazing Message

Lately I have been reading the book of Romans in the Message bible. It is awesome. Reading through some of the chapters in the New International Version, which I believe is the most popular, there are phrases that are very well known and often quoted such as
Romans 12:1-2
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer 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.

However in the Message version it reads like this:
Romans 12:1-2
1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 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.

See the difference? I have nothing against the NIV however the Message just puts it so plainly, no research needed. I don't have to figure out what it means to be a "living sacrifice" or how to renew my mind, its written in plain American. Yes I said American and not English in purpose. I have always enjoyed the new testament but reading Romans in the Message lately has just been really really good for me.

See for yourself www.biblegateway.com