“…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” — Rom12:1
Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice means we do not live for our desires, our plans, our dreams, or ourselves. All of that is surrendered to Jesus and we live for Him. We live out the prayer “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…”
The difficulty we face is that this is an everyday decision. Author Harold Sala said, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar.” Though we have made a decision to follow Christ and worship Him, each day we have to make the decision to live it out. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice or to have a lifestyle of worship.
00Wafiq Harris-Ashbyhttp://www.hoperoadnazarene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hrn-logo-520x140-1.pngWafiq Harris-Ashby2017-09-06 07:56:342017-09-06 07:56:34A Living Sacrifice
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Phil 2:10-11
At the name of Jesus…darkness flees. …death is defeated.…sins are forgiven…beauty is unleashed.…brokenness is made whole…man is made holy.
This name has such depth that we do not deserve to know such a name, let alone to speak it. Yet, God has granted us the privilege of knowing him. And He has decided to trust us to use his name with wisdom and to come to know his name’s power.
Forgive us for misunderstanding the power and importance of Your name. Help us to understand that every time we speak Your name that it is a holy and sacred honor. Help us to understand the power of Your name.
00Wafiq Harris-Ashbyhttp://www.hoperoadnazarene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hrn-logo-520x140-1.pngWafiq Harris-Ashby2017-09-04 07:50:472017-09-04 07:50:47At The Name of Jesus
“[Love] bears all things” (1 Cor. 13:7).
Love confronts sin but protects the sinner.
In 1 Corinthians 13:7 Paul mentions four qualities of love that are closely related: bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things. That might sound like love is indiscriminate and accepting of anything that comes along, but “all things” in that verse is qualified by the context. Love rejects jealousy, bragging, arrogance, and so on (vv. 4-6), but it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things that are within the parameters of God’s Word.
“Love bears all things” speaks of love’s willingness to cover sins and protect sinners from further harm. That’s opposite our tabloid-mentality society in which gossip is big business and people seemingly have an insatiable appetite for exposes and “true confessions.”
Love seeks to protect, not expose. It confronts and disciplines sin but never broadcasts failures or wrongs. It feels the pain of those it loves and is willing to take that pain upon itself when necessary—as Christ did when He suffered for our sins.
In the Old Testament, the mercy seat was the place where the blood of atonement was sprinkled to cover the sins of the people (Lev. 16:14). That covering prefigured the perfect covering of sin that Christ brought through His death on the cross (Rom. 3:25-26). All who trust in Him are forever covered with the mantle of God’s love.
You cannot cover sins in the redemptive sense, but you can help protect and restore its victims. Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” First Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
When you hear of someone’s sin, what is your first reaction? Do you think the worst of him or even gloat over his failures? Or do you expect the best and want to protect him from further exposure, ridicule, or harm? Are you willing to confront sin when necessary and even help bear the burden that person might be carrying? How you react indicates the quality of your love.
A Living Sacrifice
/in Steadfast Hope“…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” — Rom12:1
Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice means we do not live for our desires, our plans, our dreams, or ourselves. All of that is surrendered to Jesus and we live for Him. We live out the prayer “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…”
The difficulty we face is that this is an everyday decision. Author Harold Sala said, “The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep trying to crawl off the altar.” Though we have made a decision to follow Christ and worship Him, each day we have to make the decision to live it out. That’s what it means to be a living sacrifice or to have a lifestyle of worship.
At The Name of Jesus
/in Steadfast Hope“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” — Phil 2:10-11
At the name of Jesus…darkness flees. …death is defeated.…sins are forgiven…beauty is unleashed.…brokenness is made whole…man is made holy.
This name has such depth that we do not deserve to know such a name, let alone to speak it. Yet, God has granted us the privilege of knowing him. And He has decided to trust us to use his name with wisdom and to come to know his name’s power.
Forgive us for misunderstanding the power and importance of Your name. Help us to understand that every time we speak Your name that it is a holy and sacred honor. Help us to understand the power of Your name.
"Covering Sin"
/in Steadfast Hope“[Love] bears all things” (1 Cor. 13:7).
Love confronts sin but protects the sinner.
In 1 Corinthians 13:7 Paul mentions four qualities of love that are closely related: bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things. That might sound like love is indiscriminate and accepting of anything that comes along, but “all things” in that verse is qualified by the context. Love rejects jealousy, bragging, arrogance, and so on (vv. 4-6), but it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things that are within the parameters of God’s Word.
“Love bears all things” speaks of love’s willingness to cover sins and protect sinners from further harm. That’s opposite our tabloid-mentality society in which gossip is big business and people seemingly have an insatiable appetite for exposes and “true confessions.”
Love seeks to protect, not expose. It confronts and disciplines sin but never broadcasts failures or wrongs. It feels the pain of those it loves and is willing to take that pain upon itself when necessary—as Christ did when He suffered for our sins.
In the Old Testament, the mercy seat was the place where the blood of atonement was sprinkled to cover the sins of the people (Lev. 16:14). That covering prefigured the perfect covering of sin that Christ brought through His death on the cross (Rom. 3:25-26). All who trust in Him are forever covered with the mantle of God’s love.
You cannot cover sins in the redemptive sense, but you can help protect and restore its victims. Proverbs 10:12 says, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” First Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.”
When you hear of someone’s sin, what is your first reaction? Do you think the worst of him or even gloat over his failures? Or do you expect the best and want to protect him from further exposure, ridicule, or harm? Are you willing to confront sin when necessary and even help bear the burden that person might be carrying? How you react indicates the quality of your love.