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.
As we enjoy our Memorial Day with family and friends, let us all remember the sacrifices made by so many, so we might be able to enjoy our freedom! THANK YOU, ALL WHO SERVED!
Sacrifice! Now that is not a word we like very much in our ‘I’ve got to have it all’ mentality. It implies lack, hardship, less than, and doing without. But right in the scripture Paul is sending a letter to the Romans saying ‘offer your body as a living sacrifice’.
What could Paul be trying to say here? Well, first off, God initiated the sacrifice. Remember the Hebrews were expected to bring animals to be sacrificed, given up, if you want to put it like that. The animal was taken from the person and killed on an altar to give thanks to God, or offer penance for sin.
In the Hebrew language ‘sacrifice’ comes from the root word ‘korav’ to ‘come close to’. Let’s unpack that thought for a minute! God instituted the sacrifice of the first fruit-the best. And He wanted the blood, or life from the animal. The sacrifice was a offering for a sin, or a thanksgiving to God. Now, track with me here; if the root word for sacrifice means ‘come close to’, I believe God is telling us a way to draw close to Him, is to sacrifice. He showed us what that meant to Him when He sacrificed His son to draw close to us. God’s son was the living sacrifice that allowed us to get close to God. Maybe you have always looked at it that way, maybe not. Let’s go back and look at Paul’s statement again.
Paul implores US to become ‘living sacrifices.’ First off, that is a relief! God does not want us to do anything that would compromise our physical bodies. He just will not ask that. Some off the beaten path ‘religions’ do expect you to do some crazy things that might get you killed, or in trouble with the law! Not our God. The ‘living sacrifice’ he does expect from us, is to stay away from sin! Sinful lives will tear us away from a Godly and productive life.
Still, Paul expresses the Words of God saying, this is ‘true and proper worship’. Going down the path to truth again, when we offer our bodies, mind and spirit to Him, we keep ourselves pure and holy, we are worshiping God in pure form. This is not a Sunday morning in church kind of worship. It is not a blast the ‘worship playlist’ and sing along worship, it is not even reading your Bible kind of worship. It IS live every day, in everything you say, read, do, even eat and drink, pleasing God, and it is reasonable for Him to expect it, He gave us His son!
A butterfly, or a mouse, bear, bird, or nay other animal for that matter. Wait, even everything that grows, all of the natural features of earth and space have been programmed by God to behave in a way that is unique to them. When they live out their lives behaving in the way they were created, they are ‘living sacrifices.’ So have we! When we find out who we are and what God expects us to do, then we do it, we become the ‘living sacrifice’, we become pleasing to God, we are giving Him true and proper worship!
The advantage for us is, when we are living our lives within this ‘worship zone’, we are the happiest and most fulfilled. Let’s take our cue from creation and do what we were created to do!
Question for you today; Have you found out what God wants from you for His ‘living sacrifice?’
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