Sacrifice

Sacrifice - not my favorite word.  But it is an important part of my life.  When we become Christians, we become living sacrifices.  It used to be just a saying.  Of course my life is a living sacrifice.  Until I am put to the test and actually become the living sacrifice.  Everything is easy in theory or in word only.  But then that day comes when we are tested.  My day came on Tuesday, July 10^th, 2007, as I said goodbye to my new husband at the airport.  Yes, I knew that he was going on a mission trip before we got married.  Yes, I knew it would be a long trip - 5 months.  Knowing this ahead of time didn’t prepare me for the actual event.  I cried so much that I am surprised my tears didn’t end the drought that was in the area at the time!  But God is faithful, and He began to minister to me right away.  He spoke to me in my devotion time in Genesis 22:1-14

Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”  So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.  Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.  And Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you.”  So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and the two of them went together.  But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”  And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.  Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.  And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.  But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.”  And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”  Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.  And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

Next to verse 2, I wrote in my Bible that this is the 1^st time love is mentioned in the Bible.  This really spoke to me because the Lord had asked me to surrender my husband, whom I love.  Just as Abraham trusted God to return Isaac to him, I could trust God to return my husband to me.  I wish I could say that I surrendered him and that was it and then I just waited for him to come home.  But I can’t.  I have to confess that I needed to surrender him every day, over and over.  My flesh wanted to take him back.  So, every day I had to place myself back on the altar and give myself as a living sacrifice.  It was hard to stay there and not try to wiggle off.

Abraham isn’t the only one who surrendered to God.  In 1 Samuel chapter 1, we read about Hannah and how she promised God that if He would give her a son, she would give him back to God.  I can remember God speaking to my heart and asking me about Charles.  I wanted to marry Charles and I was willing to be his support system so that he could serve the Lord in the mission field.  Hannah kept her word to the Lord and I had to keep my word. 

Sacrifice is doing something that your flesh doesn’t want to do but you know that it is part of God’s will so you do it anyway.  Our flesh will fight it every step of the way.  I know my flesh does.  There is no way we could do it on our own.  Thank goodness we don’t have to.  God will not call us to do something that He hasn’t already equipped us to do.  We can’t out give God.  No matter what we sacrifice for His kingdom, God will reward beyond anything we could possibly imagine.  Each one of you is a living sacrifice.  Every day you have choices to make and most likely there will be a sacrifice involved.  I want to encourage each of you to be that living sacrifice - allowing God to do His will for His glory.  You will never be sorry you did.

I will leave you with this.  Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart fail; But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”  In my notes written in the margin it says: God is enough!  Amen!

 What is your food?

Food is mentioned everywhere in the Bible.  You will find it in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Isaiah, Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 Corinthians, Philippians and Revelation.  I am not going to go thru all the Scriptures - but I do want to touch on two that are in the New Testament where Jesus was specifically involved.

One of those verses is in John 6:12.  This is the story of how Jesus fed the 5,000.  Verse 12 says: “So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’” Jesus used leftovers.  The next time your family complains about eating leftovers, read them this verse!  Even though Jesus could make more out of nothing, He said to gather up the fragments so that nothing is lost.  That spoke to me.  We may be blessed with enough money to buy what we need when we need it.  But are we being good stewards of what we have already purchased?  Buying food and then throwing it out because it wasn’t used in time is a big waste of money. When Jesus fed the 5,000, He could have made just enough to feed them with nothing leftover, but He didn’t.  We can learn from this.  There will be days when we will have just enough - nothing left over.  But what are we doing with the “leftovers” when we have it?  Leftovers don’t have to just pertain to food.  We can have money, time, and resources leftover.  Are we using them or wasting them?

The other verse is in John 4:32.  This is where Jesus has just had an encounter with the woman at the well and His disciples have just returned with food and telling Jesus to eat.  Verse 32 says “But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’” Jesus isn’t talking about physical food but spiritual food.  He goes on to say in verse 34 “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work”.  What are we doing with our spiritual food?  Are we taking the Word that we have fed on and nourishing others?  Jesus went without physical food for 40 days.  I would probably have a problem going without food for 40 minutes.  How did He do that?  He was nourished by God the Father.  Are we getting enough nourishment from the Word?  Or are we on a diet?  We need spiritual food as much or even more than, physical food.  Are you in the Word everyday?  Do you skip a day, a week, a month?  Think how that would affect you if you skipped meals for that long.  I want to encourage you to feed on God’s Word everyday.  Doesn’t matter what time of day you do it or how long you spend on it.  Just do it.  Chances are you won’t skip a day without eating (unless you are fasting), so decide to not skip a day without feeding on God’s Word. 

 Resolutions Anyone?

It’s a new year  . . . did you make any resolutions?  We have just completed the first week of January - have you broken any of your resolutions?  Did you give up?  The beginning of a new year is not the only time we can make a new start.  We have the ability to start over every day.  Actually, we can start over at any time, whether it is every morning or every minute.  Just because we "failed" does not mean we are done.  Think of it this way:  F.A.I.L. = First Attempt In Learning

Lamentations 3:22-23:  Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.  They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Discouragement is a great tool of the enemy, and he would want us to quit as soon as we fail.  But we have a gracious God that willingly gives us grace and mercy every day – He never runs out.  We are a “work in progress” and God knows that.  God is also the one who will complete the work He has started.

Philippians 1:6:  being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in your will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

So, consider this your opportunity to make a new resolution.  Resolve to run to the Lord for your help.  That is one resolution that will never fail!