How Full a Sacrifice is Your Life?

How Full a Sacrifice is Your Life?
by David Brenneman

A Living Sacrifice
"Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God: this is your spiritual service of worship" Romans 12:1.

    God takes great pleasure in worthy sacrifices. In the Old Testament God gave detailed instructions for how His people were to give their offerings. He declared that these brought a "pleasing aroma" to Him (Leviticus 1:13, 17). When the Israelites gave an offering to God, it was no longer their own; it belonged entirely to God. God would accept only the best that people could give. It was an affront to Almighty God to offer Him animals that were damaged or imperfect in any way. God Himself met the standard for sacrifices when He offered His own Son as the spotIess Lamb. Only the death of His perfect Son worthy enough offering to atone for the sins of mankind.
    Now, God asks us to lay down our lives on His altar as a living sacrifice. Just as it was in the Old Testament, our sacrifice once offered, cannot be reclaimed. We belong entirely to Him. We cannot make a partial sacrifice of our lives; our offering must be wholehearted.
    Therefore if you are a Christian, your life is not your own. Rather than dying, however, God asks you to live for Him as a living sacrifice.  Every day, you are to offer your life to Him for His service.  You do not serve Him in your spare time or with your leftover resources.  The way you live your life for God is your offering to Him.  Relentlessly pursue holiness so that your offering to God is unblemished and acceptable to Him (Ephesians 4:1; Philippians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 2:12). Experiencing God Day-by-Day

The question should arise now in your life rather than 1 second after you die.   The question should arise now in your life rather than 1 second after the Rapture of the Church.

What is this question?

Was my all on the altar or was what I thought was there? 

We read in the end of 1st John Chapter 5 that John's warning was to the readers about idolatry. 

We live in a world that hides idolatry in plain sight.  Candy coated, fluff inspired, balloons attached, everything that might grab our attention and get us to call it anything but what it is.

We unknowningly give in because we don't stop to ask God if it is what it might be.   We unknowingly give in because we are taught ahead of time that it's nothing to worry about.  That's our sin nature and the sin nature of others.  "Don't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain!"...a popular quote from a very popular movie.

When our passion is re-directed we should be concerned.  When we let the worlds flow "I just love that..." and we go on and on about it...we should be wary.  

When our time is consumed with it and not in learning more about how to be effective stewards of what we were given in Christ at coming to Christ...we should be conerned to the point of putting the brakes on.

Is our all really on the altar? 
Are we really and truly taking up our own cross to follow Jesus?

Is our pride in the way?
Is our desires for things of this world in the way?
Is the approval of others more important than our once had desire to be found approved by God?

Do we relate to the Psalmist who wrote that they USED to lead people into the House of God?

Do you guard your heart and mind against false teaching?  Would you know if you were being mislead by false teachers?  Would you even recognize false teachers?  Do you even know what a false teacher IS?

The battlefield is our mind.  Satan cannot inhabit the lives of any who are sealed in Christ.  All Believers have a mark upon them from the Spirit upon coming to Christ.  ANY who are not in Christ, are not saved by the blood of Christ, can be inhabited by Satan if the Spirit isn't already at work there in a profound way.  No matter what Satan wants to do he HAS to obey the will of the Spirit of God in the affairs of mankind.

Are you taking this spiritual battle seriously?  Or are you just trying to get by, or are you trying to not think about it?  Are you just so distrubed by it that you don't want to consider it as being real?  That you'd rather talk about anything else but this battle? 

If you should be privey to the behind the scenes of a true battle in this world, frivalous conversations are prohibited.  Staying on task is the difference between life and death for possibly thousands.

Is your all on the altar?

Your life is to be a living sacrifice unto the Lord.  Is the whole thing on the altar or only what parts you feel comfortable with Him having?

In the Garden of Gethsemene Jesus prayed 3 times to the Father that if it be possible let that hour pass from Him.  The response was that it was His hour to go through.  It was time.  What if Jesus hadn't put His all on the altar?  What if He didn't follow His own teachings on taking up our own cross to follow Him? 

Yes it's going to mean letting go of things in our lives.  Yes it's going to mean not pursuing things we have been.  Yes it's going to mean a purge of things.  It's going to mean acknowledging what the Bible says is idolatry in all it's ugliness and giving our ALL.

We CANNOT love the Lord our God with ALL our heart, mind, soul and strength if we aren't giving our all.

We cannot if we are more excited about what this world is offering than what we have in Him. 

We fool ourselves if we say that we are involved in what we are in order to attract people for Jesus.   How does showing people that we are no different than them in our misplaced loyalty and devotion going to show them we're different?

The order of the Ten Commandmants is how we get the passage I just quoted. 

First is you shall have no other gods before me.  Satan loves to set up this world to introduce new 'gods' to entice Believers away from living the Godly life that He desires for us.
Second is make no graven images.  We make 'merch' and other things that we use to embrace idolatry all the time.

Those are just the first 2.  Think about your life and ask yourself...is Jesus getting ALL of you or only what you're willing to let Him have a few times a week?   What we do during the week is to be done as unto the Lord.  Colossians 3.  

How much of your life is on the altar?  Think about it hard...it's probably not near as much as you think is there.  The Spirit will keep trying to show you what needs to go but you have to be the one to put it out of your life.

All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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