What Sacrifice Is Acceptable To God In The 21st Century, Hebrews 13:15

Throughout time people sought to please God with a sacrifice; maybe with fruit, livestock, or money. What is acceptable to God in our enlightened 21st century?

"Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise- the fruit of our lips that confess his name." Hebrews 13:15, NIV.

THE VANITY OF SACRIFICE:
Sacrificing something created to the Creator who made it is redundant at best, since the Creator is the maker of that which you sacrifice, so it is already His. If you give gold from the ground it was thereby His doing. If you give a sheep or chicken that creature lives by God's enabling. If you give money you have it only because He gave you life to earn and invest.

Service, too, is only giving back to God what is already His, your life, since he gives every breath we breathe and every beat of our heart.

UNIQUE SACRIFICE:
Only one thing that is unique and originates within us- that is our praise. When rational intelligent people consider God and the work of his Christ we are driven to praise God. In giving praise to God we are giving what only we possess.

FRUIT OF OUR LIPS:
What the Bible calls the "Fruit of our lips" is the result of a process; as fruit is the result of growth through seasons and nurturing husbandry so the fruit of our lips is the end of time spent knowing God and experiencing his blessings. Sometimes we lack this fruit because we have not encouraged our relationship with God. We must spend time with God...

• In daily prayer, 
• Bible reading, 
• Time spent in His service, 
• And participating in a community with those who live a life of faith in him. 

When we nurture a personal life with God we will have the offering of the fruit of our lips; for to know and experience God leads to worship and praise God.

THE GOOD CONFESSION:
The foundation of worship is to confess His name, the name of Jesus.  God has ordained one way to experience fellowship and expressed it through Jesus who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life no one comes to the father but by me." John 14:6.

We must confess to God and man that Jesus is our Savior, that we acknowledge that he is the acceptable sacrifice when he died to pay for our sins, and we are trusting in him alone for our salvation from God's right anger for our sins, and the resurrection from the grave gives proof and guarantee of salvation.

May we all continually offer to God the sacrifice of praise.

© Adron 7/3/12

How Does the Bible Define Love? 1 John 4:10

Love is the thing everyone wants and everyone chases after it. Poets have written about it and singers have sung about it. It only adds to the confusion about what it is and how to find it.

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10. NIV.

LOVE
The Bible does more to show what love is than tell what love is. One might find a few spectacular passages that are quoted by evangelist and read at weddings but the greater part of the subject is wrapped up in the accounts of God showing love to sinners through His actions.

UNLOVELY
To say that we did not love God is a supreme understatement for we were enemies of God.  We oppose God by virtue of our own rebellious nature and sinful bent against his love.  Even the best we could offer pales compared to the evidence of our lives making us forever unworthy of his love.

In spite of our animosity to God and our offense against his holiness, God still has an amazing love for mankind.  It is not like He came around after a while, or decided after our rebellion was spent and we were broken that then He would love us, or at least pity us; it is even while we are in the camp of the evil and wicked that He maintains love to us.

God did not wait for us to initiate a loving relationship with Him, nor did He wait for us to become worthy of His love. He loves us first.

LOVE IN ACTION
His love does not overlook our greatest need and that is the need for a savior.  Because of our sins we face the same judgment reserved for the devil and his followers.  In his great love, God takes our place in the person of His own incarnate son and dies in our stead on the cross where he takes the wrath of the Father's judgment against sin.  Here we see a statement that words could never form; the act of the sacrifice of the holy and beautiful for the vile and profane.

WHY
God's love is not based on beauty or merit status or charm.  God loves because He is the one who is good and merciful.  It is based on the character of the one giving the love and is not dependent on the nature of the one receiving the benefits of love.

No matter what kind of sinner you are God loves you and sent Jesus to die to pay for your sins. That is love.

To learn more about what the bible says about God plan of salvation follow this link: Jesus and Salvation.

(c) Adron Dozat 3/28/12

If Jesus Wants Me To Follow Him Why Does He Say Such Hard Things? John 12:25

Do you wonder what Jesus is about? What is the purpose of the Christian life? These questions are not always eased by the words of Jesus.

“The man who loves his life will lose it while the man who hates his life in the world will keep it for eternal life." John 12: 25, NIV.

These words go against human nature. There is so much to love in this modern world with its gratifications and pleasures. Who would not love all it has to offer?

LOVE LIFE
We love life by living for comfort, pleasure, our own interest, money, food, entertainment, pleasure, family, and the list goes on. Life is more than the living breathing body of flesh and serving its needs. We are spirit and have souls. The body is the vehicle of our souls, and this world is the stage where we serve and glorify God. It is easy to see our time on earth as all there is and our body as who we are and what we do here on earth as the end results of life. To ignore the spirit and focus on the temporal is to use up our resources that were meant to fulfill God’s purpose and will result in missing the blessings of God.

HATE LIFE
We must say "no" to those things treasured among mankind and seek those things treasured by God. To hate your life is to love Christ more than to love your own interest, importance and concerns.

CHOOSE LIFE
We make thousands of decisions each day. Often we choose to love ourselves instead of doing that which would fulfill love for God.

We are of two worlds; we live out one existence now but will spend eternity in another. Our lives become a constant choosing between the two, and a continuous choosing between God and self. If we live for this world we are losers in the next, if we live for the next we are winners in both.

To learn more about how to have eternal life see my other blog.

Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. I sincerely hope this post is helpful and an encouragement.  For more like this see the most popular post in the left sidebar, or use the search box above.

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(c) Adron

Did Jesus Really Mean I Must Give Up Everything to Follow Him? Luke 14:33.

God Loves You

Those “deny yourself” verses sound so demanding, but what did Jesus mean?

“In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33 

BACKGROUND
Starting at verse 25 to the end of the chapter Jesus is saying we must count the cost.  He is stating a fact- that it does cost to follow him.

• The lure of wealth, status and possessions are so powerful that hardly anyone can have them and follow Jesus.
• Love of ourselves stands between us and our Lord.
• Relationships, romance, and marriage get in the way of following Jesus.
• Careers, goals, and dreams get in the way.
• Self-image, appearance, and fashion get in the way.
• Social status and pleasing friends get in the way.
• The list goes on and on.

We must be willing to give these things up if we want to follow Jesus.  It doesn't mean that we will have to but we must be willing to.

IT IS PERSONAL
It can be different considerations for one person than for another.  To one person giving up everything may mean emotional distance to possessions.  For another, it is saying, “I am only a steward of this stuff.”  For another, it may mean actually throwing things away, or sell them and give the money to the poor.  One answer does not fit all of us.  You could sell your car but have not given up status, dreams, or the desire to be loved.

The Christian life is a relationship with the Lord, not a set of rules. You may need to sell something today and tomorrow keep things and adopt a steward's attitude, and the next time may be different.  It does mean to be willing to take drastic steps.

The guiding principle is that if something is keeping you from following the Lord you must deal with it without mercy.  If wealth keeps you from following the Lord then choose poverty.  If popularity keeps you from being a disciple then choose disrepute.

REVOLVING DOOR OF CHOICES
You will forego one thing and another demands your affections.  You may censor a relationship and another pretty face pops up.  We drop hobbies and later start another.    We must to not get discouraged but renew our commitment to Jesus and give up things that get in the way.

RELATIONSHIP
You must be so sensitive to Jesus that we can tell when something is coming between him and you.  You will find blessing when you give up things for Christ, not only a cleaned out and a simpler life but you gain more of Jesus.  He is better than the treasure your paycheck can buy, better than the status, promotion or toy.  He is worth losing the things that perish.

If something keeps you from following Jesus pray about it and give it up.

To learn more about how to have a relationship with Jesus as savior see my other blog.

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Thank you for visiting and reading my blog. I sincerely hope this post is helpful and an encouragement.  For more like this see the most popular post in the left sidebar.  

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(c) Adron