Tag Archives: living sacrifices

Campus Crusade for Christ

Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – His Ways Will Satisfy

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“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you” (Romans 12:2).

“The trouble with living sacrifices,” someone has well said, “is that they keep crawling off the altar.” That may be true. We “crawl off the altar” when we sin, and the only way to put ourselves back on the altar is to breathe spiritually – confess our known sins in accordance with the promise of 1 John 1:9 and appropriate the fullness of the Holy Spirit as we are commanded to do by faith (Ephesians 5:18).

When we do this, we will be living supernaturally and our lives will produce the fruit of the Spirit in great abundance.

Only by being filled with the Spirit, and thus realizing the fruit of the Spirit, can spiritual gifts be effectively utilized in witnessing and building up the Body of Christ.

We begin by totally yielding ourselves by faith to Christ in a full irrevocable surrender to His lordship.

“He died once for all to end sin’s power, but now He lives forever in unbroken fellowship with God. So look upon your old sin-nature as dead and unresponsive to sin, and instead be alive to God, alert to Him, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Do not let sin control your puny body any longer; do not give in to its sinful desires. Do not let any part of your bodies become tools of wickedness, to be used for sinning; but give yourselves completely to God – every part of you -for you are back from death and you want to be tools in the hands of God, to be used for His good purposes” (Romans 6:10-13).

Bible Reading: Romans 12:3-18

TODAY’S ACTION POINT: Knowing that God’s ways will really satisfy me, I will seek first His kingdom, resist the devil at his every appearance and watch with joy as he flees.

 

Charles Stanley

Charles Stanley – God’s Condition for Blessing

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Charles Stanley

Romans 12:1-2

If people were really honest, many would say their Christianity barely resembles the faith experience God has promised. They struggle repeatedly with the same sins, complain that God rarely answers prayers, and wonder why He hasn’t given them the desires of their heart. However, most believers never stop to ask, Why doesn’t God favor me?

The answer to that question can revolutionize our life if we are willing to meet God’s one condition for full blessing. We are designed with a capacity to experience the Lord’s best in every area of life, but for that to happen, we must offer ourselves as living sacrifices. In other words, we are to be separated from the world and given to God for His purposes.

Don’t be fooled by cultural views on servants. God doesn’t call the weak into bondage to the strong. In fact, believers are the freest people in the world because we can trust our Father to give us the very best in return for our commitment. His best may not always look appealing from the outset, but experience teaches us that He orchestrates all circumstances to our benefit (Rom. 8:28).

We can never be satisfied with less than the Lord’s best. Avoiding submission will result in wasted years of chasing after His blessing through our own cunning. On the other hand, our hearts are saturated with joy and peace when we draw close to Him. The best way to connect with God is to willingly put ourselves in His hand. Allow Him to reveal what great blessings He can send via your surrendered will.

 

John MacArthur

John MacArthur – A Living Sacrifice

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John MacArthur

“Offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

In Romans 12:1 Paul pleads with believers to present their bodies to God as a living and holy sacrifice, which is an appropriate and acceptable act of worship. But as someone has rightly said, the problem with living sacrifices is they tend to crawl off the altar. That’s because sacrificial living demands spiritual discipline and constant dependence on the Holy Spirit. We as Christians aren’t always willing to do that.

According to Paul, the motivation and ability for self-sacrifice are found in the mercies we’ve already experienced in Christ. In Romans 1-11 he mentions several, including love, grace, peace, faith, comfort, power, hope, patience, kindness, glory, honor, righteousness, forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, security, eternal life, freedom, resurrection, sonship, intercession, and the Holy Spirit. Because you’ve received all that, you should gladly surrender every faculty you have for holy purposes.

“Body” in Romans 12:1 also includes your mind. Verse 2 says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” A transformed mind is the key to transformed behavior.

Prior to your salvation, you had neither the desire nor the ability to make such a sacrifice. But because you are a new creation in Christ, you are not to “go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but . . . as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:13). One practical implication? Abstain from sexual immorality. Know how to possess your own body in sanctification and honor (1 Thess. 4:3-4).

You are a holy priest, and your priestly work begins with presenting yourself as a living and holy sacrifice. Is that your desire? Are you a faithful priest?

Suggestions for Prayer:

Thank God for His bountiful mercies toward you.

Commit this day to Him, asking for the grace to live a holy life.

For Further Study:

Read Romans 6.

What choices do you have as a believer that you didn’t have as an unbeliever?

What is the benefit of being God’s slave?