(Further reflections on “A Living Sacrifice”—Sunday 13-June-2021) The cost of not knowing God’s will is like a mug that is not used as how the potter/ designer purposed it to be or like a car that just sits in the garage or a pen that does not write or a pan that is never used for cooking or clothes that are never worn or the Bible that is occasionally read or the Sunday worship service that is considered as optional. We did not create any life on earth. We have received and continue to receive it from the Life-Giver—God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Okay I've got it. So how do I find out about God's will for my life? Well, first things first. Each of us is called to present or offer our body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. A living sacrifice is a living person whose life is dedicated to the Lord’s purpose and use. A holy living sacrifice is a life that is actively living in Jesus by drawing close to Him every day, from dawn to dusk, from resting to working, and from reading to reflecting of God’s word on a daily basis in the midst of life’s activities and its complexity with a full spectrum of motions and emotions. An acceptable living sacrifice is a life that is birthed by faith in Jesus, is walking by faith in Him and living till the end by faith in the One who saved, redeemed, and sanctifies (a process of being made holy). Alright! But how can I measure my holiness? It's not by the amount holy acts/works (though these are good) we do but by our proximity to Jesus. How close are you to Him? Are you talking to him as your God, friend, Savior, Lord? Or he is more like a genie in a bottle who is only called out when you are in trouble? Okay! But how about being acceptable? How do I know if God is pleased with me or if He is accepting me? Well, we are chosen by grace but accepted by faith. And without faith, it's impossible to please God (cf. Hebrews 11:6). Hold on! How do I know the measure of my faith in God? You know you have faith when you hear God's word and happily/joyfully and wholeheartedly do it even if it's not comfortable or desirable and even gives suffering to a certain degree. This is why you are called to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.
Now a life that lives as a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice will not conform its mind and thought process .to the world This means a natural (fallen) mind needs to be renewed with the mind of Christ. God grants every human an ability to obey God’s word and resists the sinful/evil thoughts. There are times that temptations and sinful thoughts overwhelms our life. This is when we should be aware that we are being conformed by the world. And this is also when we know that we need to take an “active voice” (our efforts)—not to conform to the pattern(s) of the world. It is like knowing that we are falling because of gravity and this is also when we need to resist the falling by climbing or hanging or propelling upward. It is like flying an airplane against gravity. The gravitational pull of our humanity is always downward. So “I appeal to you therefore, brothers (and sisters), by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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 (Romans 12:1-2).” The above urgent appeal is quite straightforward: living our life as a living, holy, acceptable sacrifice, by not conforming to the pattern of the world, by allowing Jesus Christ to do a “brain surgery” and the Holy Spirit to initiate the transformation process in our “prone-to-copy-the-pattern-of-the-world” life.
Now what? Let us journey together in this Living Body—the church, whose head is Jesus Christ.
Amen.
—
Pastor Lap
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