"Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mothers or fathers or children or fields for me or the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields _ and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last shall be first."
Mark 10:28-31
"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Romans 12:1-2
Be a living sacrifice is the summation of the answer Jesus gives Peter. So, how do we truly present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice? In a nutshell, we must die to our prior selves.
There is an anonymous poem written just about this very act of being a living sacrifice:
"When you are forgotten, neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don't sting or hurt with the oversight, but your heart is happy being counted worthy to suffer for Christ;
That is dying to self.
When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart or even defend yourself, but take it all in patient, loving silence;
That is dying to self.
When you lovingly and patiently bear any disorder, any irregularity, any annoyance; when you can stand face to face with waste, folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility, and endure it as Jesus did;
That is dying to self.
When you are content with any food, and offering, any raiment, any climate, any society, any solitude, any interruption by the will of God;
That is dying to self.
When you never care to refer to yourself in conversation or record your own good works or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown;
That is dying to self.
When you can see your brother prosper and have his needs met, and can honestly rejoice with him in spirit and feel no envy, nor question God, while your own needs are far greater and you are in desperate circumstances;
That is dying to self.
When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit, inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart;
That is dying to self."
God wants us to be a living sacrifice. Christ left behind the splendor of heaven to be a living sacrifice. God wants us to give to him our lives to use as he sees best. This is an offering with no strings attached. If our bodies belong to God, they will bring glory to God. It will be attired as God would be pleased with, and used in a way that is pleasing to God. "And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Not being conformed to this world, means being more concerned about what God thinks than about what anyone else thinks about you. The foremost concern is "what does God want?" Our lives should be a manifestation of what the will of God is. How can a person continuing on in sin be that? We can be brought into such a place that we can manifest what the will of God is for us. This isn't getting an elevated opinion of ourselves. This is talking about a life lived for God. It's placing our lives in God's hands for him to do what he wants with. It is being transformed to be like Christ. Offer yourself to God for him to use however he wants to. Even if it would be a lowly position, would you be glad to do it? He is calling us to a life of sacrifice and service. "Not my will, but thine be done."
|
Be followers of God as dear children. Follow Christ in love. Christ is an example of this. Are you in love with God? You can love him with all your heart and walk accordingly. This isn't a great emotion. It's a walk. It's not just saying, "I love you," but to live it. The actions we take are to be a natural result of love in the heart. Jesus suffered for us. Be ready to bear the reproach of being a Christian. We're not wrapped up in this life, but in the next one.
Sometimes there will be reproach, and you will be alone. Christ experienced all this. Give thanks and honor his name. Do good. Christianity isn't a passive thing. It's an active thing. There are things that happen in your life. Doing good is one. Our lives should become living sacrifices. Give back to God your life and resources.
I think the Lord has charged me and no doubt numerous others with making the new covenant clear. The Christian new covenant has become lost under the rubble of salvation by grace, mansions in Heaven, the any-moment rapture, and the rest of the current traditions. The new covenant actually has to do with a transformation of our personality so we keep God's commandments by nature. The One who spoke the incomprehensible bodies of matter into space and time has heard your cry. It has come up before Him. There is no power in the heavens, on the earth, or in the dark regions below the earth's surface that in any manner can prevent His hand from reaching down and making it possible for you to live as a Christian should.
*Picture by Art.com
