In our journey to righteousness, we will talk about the sacrifice that matters most. Our sacrifice that will last forever. We are no longer required to give animal sacrifices like the old times. God wants us to be the living sacrifice for his Glory. To be used for his Glory - remember we should do good things and show good things so that people would thank our Father in Heaven and Praise him because of us.
Let us talk about it more.
Romans 12
1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God – which is your reasonable service.
1Pet 2:5; you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ
Rom 6:13; and do not present your members to sin as instruments to be used for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments to be used for righteousness.
Rom 6:16; Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?
2 Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.
1John 2:15; Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
Eph 5:17; For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord’s will is.
1Thess 4:3; For this is God’s will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,
3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you a measure of faith.
Rom 1:5; Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name.
Eph 4:7; But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
1Cor 12:11; It is one and the same Spirit, distributing as he decides to each person, who produces all these things.
4 For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function,
1Cor 12:27; Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it.
Eph 1:23; Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Eph 4:16; For just as in one body we have many members, and not all the members serve the same function,
Eph 5:23; because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body.
Col 1:24; Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
5 so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members who belong to one another.
1Cor 12:4; Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
2Cor 10:13; But we will not boast beyond certain limits, but will confine our boasting according to the limits of the work to which God has appointed us, that reaches even as far as you.
1Pet 4:10; Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
6 And we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If the gift is prophecy, that individual must use it in proportion to his faith.
1Cor 12:4; Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit.
7 If it is service, he must serve; if it is teaching, he must teach;
1Cor 12:10; to another performance of miracles, to another prophecy, and to another discernment of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.
1Pet 4:10-11; Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God.
8 if it is exhortation, he must exhort; if it is contributing, he must do so with sincerity; if it is leadership, he must do so with diligence; if it is showing mercy, he must do so with cheerfulness.
Matt 6:1-3; “Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in heaven.
Deut 15:7; If a fellow Israelite from one of your villages in the land that the LORD your God is giving you should be poor, you must not harden your heart or be insensitive to his impoverished condition.
2Cor 9:7; Each one of you should give just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, because God loves a cheerful giver.
In the scriptures, we are commanded to present ourselves as a living sacrifice for serving God and the body of Christ. The body we are talking about is the community of believers. Friends we are commanded to have fellowship with those who also have faith to support us and help us grow to be righteous. If you don't have a church right now you don't know what you are missing. I pray that you may have the urge to have your church where you can also share your service. Today’s teaching is just in line with it because when we have received the new life after renewing ourselves and walk with God and he would give us the Holy Spirit to be our helper.
The time we live with Jesus or in the time of our conversion to be with Jesus we get great gifts. The gift of salvation, forgiveness of our sins and make us clean, healing, peace and best of all we now belong to the kingdom of God to his family. Just like when we were born we got to have our parents to obey, family members to be with and the family surname/line we belong. Just like in the Christ Family we have our Father in Heaven who provides us everything we need, Our Jesus Christ who is our Savior – best friend in the family or our Great Elder just like our Father. And I am just realizing it we belong to a RICH family or shall we say a Royal Family. WHY? See this – when we were converted our heavenly Father and Jesus Christ gave us our Chancellor (it is defined in some dictionary as any officials of high rank, a secretary to a monarch or a noble) our Holy Spirit is a great gift of belongingness to the Kingdom of Jesus. Our Holy Spirit is given to us to help us or remind us our schedules, what to do, the TRUTH, our ways and serve as our personal assistant to righteousness. It is written that it is a gift that God personally given us according to his influence fit for us.
Now, as a royal children of God we have our responsibility. To be a living sacrifice or put it this way – live in accordance with the Law of our Father and Live like Jesus. I know it's hard but remember we are now living in likeness of our Family – Our Father, Jesus Christ and our Holy Spirit. Just like the Price/Princess in the Royal Family we are required to ACT rightly according to what is commanded. We belong to the kingdom of God and we should have the bearing of our Father and Jesus Christ in us for the people to see their likeness in us, for them to see our belongingness to the Kingdom of Heaven. I know it’s not easy we will be confronted by the enemy – reason why we just need to ask our Father and/or Jesus Christ for help and they would send us reinforcement. When we are faithful to our Father and to Jesus they would do anything in their power to help and save us.
Going back in our scriptures we are given unique gift according to what God determines. Just like - given responsibility for us to be accountable of. We should use our selves to serve the Kingdom of God/Body of Christ (Church/the community of believers/the needy). Remember that Jesus Christ our King (Heir of the Throne) reveal to us HOW WE SHOULD do it. He had shown GREAT obedience to the Father, servant hood, loving unconditionally, heart of giving, and living according to the standard of our kingdom in heaven.
Friends our God is a loving God, Jesus Christ even died for us. Let us walk according to the standard of Heaven. Honestly, while doing this it reminds me of belongingness to the Kingdom of Heaven not just being part of the Family but living it. I used to envy the Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses here on earth when I have a Heavenly Kingdom I belong to. I am richer – we are richer than we thought. Let us claim it! Belong to it! Feel it! And live it!
May God’s Grace be upon us, May God richness and generosity fill our needs and may he give us continuous strength to live our righteous life here on earth as ambassador of Heaven. Amen.
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