Altar of Sacrifice

“I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.”   Romans 12:1

Serving God is not about us.  In Pastor Rick Warren’s book, A Purpose Driven Life, the very first words are, “It’s not about you.”  Many Christians today have made serving Christ all about what he can do for them and what blessings and riches they can get from Him.  In reality, Christian service is more about what we can give rather than what we receive.   Christ paid the cost for our salvation on Calvary so He already did His part. Our Christian walk is all about giving our life back to Him in service.  Pastor Jeff Garner once said, “Salvation is free, but being a disciple of Christ will cost you everything, even your life.”   So it comes as no surprise that we are called to be a “living sacrifice.”  Further, we are told that this is our “reasonable service.”  One translation says that this is our “reasonable worship.”   Animal sacrifices were common throughout the Old Testament. They were used for atonement and worshipful gifts unto God.  But now, God is calling us to be that sacrifice. He is calling us to lay ourselves down at the altar so He can perfect the inner parts of our heart in order to make us more Christ-like. 

As you lay yourself down on the altar of sacrifice, you are saying that your dreams, your will, your future, your hopes, your everything, is in God’s hands.  You are telling God that He can do whatever He wants to you.   Like Job in the Old Testament, you are saying Even if you slay me Lord, I will still trust in in you.  It’s not easy to place our lives in the hand of another and to put ourselves in that vulnerable place.  We’ve seen all too many times in this life, how people have used their power for evil and have taken advantage of those who were vulnerable.  Sometimes, we carry this fear into our walk with God.  The altar of sacrifice can be quite uncomfortable as those fears play over and over in our head.  We begin to question God’s motives and overall, His love towards us? Will God really give me His best if I surrender everything to Him?  Will He give me evil or good?  Will God really let me live if I place myself at His altar?  You would be surprised how many people feel like God is out to destroy them.   This is far from the truth.  Jeremiah 20:11 says, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  The truth is, God does not want to destroy you, He wants to perfect you.  At the altar of sacrifice, He is testing your love for Him.  He wants to know that even if He does not give you what you want, that you will still serve Him and trust Him.  As God raises His hand on you, you lay there trembling, knowing that this situation may look like its meant to do you harm, but somehow, He will preserve you.  From the depths of your soul, you find the courage to trust His love for you. One song put it, you may not trust His hand, but trust His heart. 

On the altar of sacrifice, in your state of brokenness, you all of a sudden feel his soft gentle hands brush your tear-saturated cheeks and eyes. The Sovereign and mighty God who had the power to destroy you, to wipe you out with one gesture of His hand, did no such thing. He kept you. He may have broken you, but He put you back together.  It’s from that brokenness that the purest oil of worship will be produced.  He may have emptied you of yourself, but He filled you with more of Him. You are a living sacrifice.  It was messy and bloody, but all sacrifices are. Christ is our prime example of this. His body was wounded and bruised for our sin. He died the most humiliating and gruesome death on the cross.  Even when he was resurrected, the scars remained on him. Yet, what His sacrifice did for humanity was the most beautiful thing this world ever has and ever will see. My friend, it is in the aftermath of our living sacrifice where the beauty and the glory truly flows. On a side note, often, people want the glory of the cross without the sacrifice, but God will not use a life that has not been through the fire.  As you lay there, God begins to lift you up and embrace you.  His words drip like honey into your soul, “You do love me, you do love me.  You’ve trusted me and now I trust you. You are now ready for what I have for you.” 

I would like to share a poem I wrote about five years ago. I was inspired to write this after reading Romans 6:13 and Romans 12:1. I don’t think I fully understood at the time what it truly meant to let God have complete control of your life, I just knew that I desired that.  With every situation, I understand more and more that to truly serve Christ is to die to yourself daily.  Each day, we must lay ourselves at the altar of God in complete surrender to His will and His desires. I’m not all the way there yet, but I’m a work in progress.  Blessings!

Altar of Sacrifice

I am an instrument of righteousness

My melody is sweet

I yield all my members

Before my master’s feet

I die daily

My life is not my own

It is offered in sweet surrender

Before His almighty throne

I lay myself at the altar

As a living sacrifice

May He do as He pleases

With this vessel He gave life

When I begin to get weary

My desire to surrender begins to fade

I climb back on the altar

Again He gives me strength

I am an instrument of righteousness

My melody is sweet

I can do ALL things

Through Christ who strengthens me

May I Have Something to Drink?

(Note: I wrote this thought back in July 2011)

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”

 Psalm 63: 1

“...And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the waters of life freely.” 

Revelation 22: 17

Dehydration is when your body loses more fluids than you actually take in.  It occurs when your body doesn’t have enough water and other fluids to carry out its normal functions.  Extreme dehydration can lead to even death. What’s interesting is that most people are dehydrated and don’t even know it.  You only need to lose 2% of your fluids in order to be dehydrated.  It is said that when we feel thirsty, we are already dehydrated.  It has been said that  human beings can live weeks without food, but only a couple of days without water. Case and point: We need water or we will become dehydrated and eventually die.

As I sit and write this, I am on a personal vacation for two weeks to Italy.  Beside me is my most wonderful treasure: my Bible.  Next to my Bible is a tall bottle of Lilia Water that I purchased just a while ago. When I began my trip to Italy, I did not take into account the weather conditions on this side of the world. I knew it would be warm as most summers are in the Mediterranean, but I wasn’t prepared for the extreme heat conditions, humidity, and enormous amount of walking I would be doing.  My first couple of days in Rome were miserable.  I was tired, felt weak, and did not feel like myself. When I started my adventure to Italy and found myself not feeling so well the first couple of days, I continued to feast on sodas.  You see, I have never been a water drinker.  I’ve always been the one to head for the sugary soft drinks, my favorite being diet coke. Often, when I get thirsty (and it is very often), I rush for a soda.  It feels great for the moment, but usually within the hour, I am thirsty once again. Water is not desirable to me; never has been. I hate the neutral taste.  The first three days, as I progressively felt worse, the sodas did not take away the nagging thirst that began to feel like death to me. When I couldn’t take the thirst and weakness anymore, I ran to a snack stand and asked for a large bottle of water.  Within moments of drinking it, I felt my strength return. I began to desire it more than ever, realizing it was the source of my strength and the only way I could finish this trip in bliss. At this point in the trip, water has become my friend. Soda, my enemy. The words of my mumsy are so clear in my head, “Soda is no substitute for water”.  I realize that in order for me to desire water, I had to experience not having it.  My thirst had to become so deep that I had no choice but to trade in my soda addiction for a water addiction.  The benefits have been great, and even when I return home, I believe my new love for water will follow me. Now let's get to the spiritual application.

     Spiritually, many of us are dehydrated. The sad part is that many of us don’t even realize it. Just like many people think they are getting enough water, but are still dehydrated, it is the same with us spiritually. We think we have our fill of God, but truly, what we are doing is not truly quenching that deep spiritual thirst inside us.  What we are doing currently is just not enough.  Our spirit is calling out for more. The Spirit is calling out for more. We are thirsty for more--more than last year, more than last month, more than even yesterday. We need more of God.  We need more of the Holy Spirit. Tapping into the spirit is not always the easiest thing to do because there are other things that vie for our attention. Just like reaching for a cold, sugar-saturated soda is always more desirable than reaching for a clear liquid glass of flavorlessness (aka water), tapping into the Spirit is not always our first choice. Why? Simply because our flesh is weak.  Its not until we submit ourselves and do it anyways that the joy follows. I can recall so many times when I didn't want to pray, but I kneeled near my bed anyways.  After a couple of moments of praising God with my dry spirit, something would break forth inside of me.  Then I didn't want to leave His presence at all!  Like many things, it takes us actually doing it in obedience for the the joy to follow.  

When we’re thirsty, its so easy to fill ourselves with others things hoping that it will take away or quench our thirst. Often, when I feel hungry, I have found that I’m really just thirsty.  Many times, I have fed myself junk food thinking myself to be hungry, but really I was just thirsty. Spiritually, we reach for others things to fill us: television, internet, Facebook, work, friends, a great social life, hobbies, money. For each of us, it is different. Unfortunately, those things can never quench our true spiritual thirst. They were never meant to. They are just substitutes, which if not eliminated or reduced from our lives, can cause spiritual death. For all us, the solution is the same.  We must fill ourselves with more of Jesus Christ and allow him to give us spiritual nourishment and quench our spiritual thirst.

    A special note to singles, having a husband or wife will not fill you like many of you think it will.  The Samaritan woman in chapter 4 of John had five husbands and obviously, each of them failed to give her the fulfillment she longed for. She was left thirsty for something more. That is why when she encountered Jesus for the first time, he offered her himself.  Often, I have found that as a single, when I am anxious for God to bring me a mate, this is a thirst signal.  Often, I don’t want to acknowledge this because it forces me to have to shift my focus from dreaming about God’ prince charming for me to focusing on God alone.  The Bible says that we are complete in him (Colossians 2:10).  This means that in this moment, we have everything we need in Jesus Christ.  He is our fulfillment, our Joy, our comforter, our guardian, our true everlasting Lover of Lovers. No man or woman can ever take that throne. 
      For those of you who have yet to surrender your life to Jesus Christ, I make an invitation to you to take that leap of faith and call out to God. He wants to be your savior and fill that thirst in you.  Your soul was made to be filled by Jesus. If you take that step, wherever you are right now, God will meet you at your thirst point. You will find His love the most fulfilling and wonderful.

So what do you say?  Are you willing to dive deeper into the Spirit and allow Jesus to quench that thirst within you? The depths of the Spirit will leave your life drenched to the point that your life will overflow with Him.  In turn, what you have will flow into the lives of others.  The first step is to get on your knees and call out to him. Even if you don't feel it, do it anyways. You will find that your spiritual dehydration will begin to disappear and God will come in and saturate you with Him. It is refreshing and exhilarating!  It is life-changing! Go ahead and take a drink!

The Fragrance of Your Anointing

"For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of singing of birds is come...The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with tender grape give a good smell.  Arise my love, my fair one, and come away" (Song of Solomon 2:11-13).

"Awake, O north wind; and come south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out" (Song of Solomon 4:16)

Woman of God, something has been locked inside of you for a very long time. Your God, the one truly living God, is now releasing that precious anointing in your life. Its beauty is dazzling! Your persevering faith has brought you to this moment. You've hungered for it. The work of God in you is plain to see. It's fragrance is already in the air. Its flavors marvelous beyond measure. All the work that has gone into preparing you for this moment of destiny has paid off.  Those thick prayers, those tears that have been shed, those late nights of lying flat on your face in the presence of God have now birthed a new season.  Your brokenness has produced such a pure anointed oil that could only be conceived through you. It is costly, rare, and one of a kind.  It is yours alone. Your worship, your praise, your spirit will never be the same again. I'm so excited for you!

"And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed" (Joel 2:26)

Woman of faith, God has dealt wondrously with you. Don't you ever forget that. May your life be used to minister in fragrance to those around you and to those you will meet shortly!  Your season is not coming, it is already here. Open your eyes and see what God is doing! Walk in your divine destiny my sister in Christ! 

April