Living Sacrifices

Rom. 12:1 & 2- "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God."

In these verses, Paul is pleading with the Roman Christians to present themselves as living sacrifices. these people understood how the Jewish people had to sacrifice animals to God to cover their sins.

We are told this in Hebrews 9:22, let us look at that. "Almost all things are by law purged by blood: and without shedding of blood there would be no remission."

The problem is that the blood of animals was only a band aid, that was not perfect or permanent. That is why they had to keep sacrificing animals. This is why God, in his mercy, sent Jesus to shed his blood once and for all. He was the final and perfect sacrifice (Heb. 9:19-20; Mat. 26:28).

Because of what Jesus did for us, we no longer have to kill animals to cover our sins. God doesn't want that type of sacrifice anymore. In Ps. 51:16-27, we see that God has always wanted the sacrifice of a broken spirit and contrite heart.

How do we do that? Repentance. Repentance means to think differently. That's why Rom. 12:2, tells us to renew our minds. You may say, 'I am a Christian, I don't think as the world thinks.' But do you?

What are you feeding your mind? In other words, what are you looking at daily? In Mat. 6:22-23, we
are told that what we look at is forever imprinted on our minds and souls. So what do you watch? TV, movies, Internet, video games...

Also what are you reading? Many a sinful thing is in print. In fact, many movies started out in a book or newspaper. You need to ask yourself, is what I'm looking at edifying me, and glorifying God? If not, why are you looking at it?

What are you listening to? Evil can enter your mind through your ears. So be careful what you are listening to on radio, computer, TV, by way of music, and what others say to you.

When we take evil into our eyes and ears, it will come out of our mouths, in time. This goes back to the old saying, "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." This is why Isiah said, "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the mist of a people of unclean lips..."(Is. 6:5).

We too, live in the mist of a people with unclean lips and may even have unclean lips ourselves. Even if we haven't said unclean things yet, we probability have unclean thoughts. Meaning that our thoughts rebel against God's Word.

If this is so, how do we get back on track? We repent! To do this, we need to kill our will; stop our minds from feeding on evil and start feeding it God Word.

You see, like a computer, your brain only has so much memory to it. So if you would start feeding on the things of God, it has to push, or boot, old memories out of the way to make room for new. This is how you transform your mind.

But how do you transform your soul? Transforming your soul starts at the foot of the cross. That is where we must go and look fully at Christ and what he sacrificed for us. Then ask him to forgive us for being "undone". Only after we have done that can we be "holy, and acceptable unto God." Only then, can we be living sacrifices that "prove what is that good, and perfect will of God".

I wish you a blessed Easter with a transformed soul, spirit, and mind.