What Have YOU Sacrificed?

Malachi 1:14-- "Cursed be the cheat who has a male in is flock, and vows it, and yet sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished. For I am a great King, says the Lord of Hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations."

Romans 12:1-2-- I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual body. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

Do we offer petty things to God that He could care less about? God wants our entire bodies- which is soul, spirit and fleshly body. Those two verses encompass so much; so we will dissect them and try to get to the root of the problem with "cultural Christians" as Wilberforce calls them.

The Greek word for sacrifice is thysia. The word literally means: a sacrifice or victim. I find that interesting-- we are presenting our bodies as victims for the sake of Christ! We are required, as Christians, to deny ourselves and offer our entire man to Him- if thats not being a victim, I do not know what is. We are honoring and glorifying God at the expense of our "own" lives. But, do we find ourselves offering pieces of our body that have no effect on bringing glory to Christ? Are we offering our hair to Christ? Or are we offering our heart and soul-- the very source of our life. The Old Testament is full of sacrifice because that was required until the perfect, holy sacrifice came-- Jesus. But now that Jesus accomplished what He came to do, we are still REQUIRED to sacrifice something. That something is our entire man! But, what does our bodily-- spirit, soul, body-- sacrifice look like?

How do we go about offering our bodies as living sacrifices to God? Paul gives us the answer in verse 2. "Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." We are not conformed, or shaped, to this world. The carnal things of life are not our source of life. Rather, we renew our minds daily, and DAILY we become one with Christ-- and that is ONLY through the Holy Spirit. We have been transformed by renewing our minds. That transformation means that we have died-- and that Christ lives in us. But, in order to be transformed, we HAVE to be daily immersed in the Holy Spirit. In order to know the will of God, we must be in tune with the Holy Spirit. I like to think of a guitar. When a guitar is out of tune, the chords sound HORRIBLE. Even if just one string is out of tune. In order to be in tune, we have to daily be immersed into the Holy Spirit. When I say daily, I mean every second. Every second that we walk, we have to be in tune with Him. That one string will throw the chord of God's will for our lives out of tune. That one string may be a secret sin. That one string may be a public sin. But, most of the time that one string is pride. Christ humbled Himself when he came down to this earth to Redeem the sinner who repents. We must do the same thing in order to be in tune with the Holy Ghost. You must listen to the Holy Spirit-- and more importantly than anything else, you must obey. In order to listen, you must SHUT UP. Get on your knees and listen-- try it for once, it actually works. Who would have thought? Getting on our knees does not just mean physically, but, more importantly, spiritually. Getting on our knees spiritually means that we lay aside EVERYTHING that we want and desire and renew our minds in the Holy Spirit. Getting on our knees spiritually is climbing up our cross to our death-- and that death is to the glory of our Father. By renewing our minds, we can walk a life in PERFECT tune with Christ. And if we are in perfect tune with Him, we KNOW what His will is in our lives. By knowing His will in our lives, we can replace His will with ours. That just simply requires our full and perfect obedience.

God, let us be wholly in tune with You. Let us offer our whole man-- not just a piece of it. How much greater can You use the man who offers his everything? Lord, we desire to know You and know Your will. Let us be transformed by the by the renewal of our minds in the Holy Spirit. Let us live in You. Abide in us. Dine with us. Lord, we cry Abba Father. We thank You that Your mercies are new every morning. We are nothing without You, Father. Show us Your ways! We love you.