I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.......
Romans 12:1
have I told you how much I LOVE memorizing scripture??? I really do love it!!!
this is one of the verses that I have memorized! so good to dwell on the Word...
since leaving Israel on Wednesday lots has been going through my mind.. can I say my faith is even more real to me since seeing the places where it all happened... not that it was not real before.. the visual of those 10 days is being combined with what His Spirit has been showing and teaching me over the last 24 years... it's amazing...
this morning in church during worship time I felt even more uplifted and moved than before... and I am emotional always..
at the Garden Tomb, from where you can see the place where Jesus most likely was crucified and where we looked at a grave that could very well have been the one that He was buried in, we had a sweet time of communion and sang Amazing Grace together... for me that was the most touching time of the whole trip... singing His praises this morning I thought if there was anything I would love to do differently if ever I went back it would be that I would want to take the time to sing His praises in all those places..
coming back to the scripture... living our lives as living sacrifices...... not like all the goats and lambs and doves who had to be killed.. but alive, continuing to live, surrendered, fully sold out.. giving up everything, our whole lives... living in a way that keeps us without blemish like the animals had to be, not possible without what Jesus has done for us on the cross, when He offered His body as the ultimate sacrifice... how does this work itself out in our every day life situations..
when we are hurt, disappointed and wounded, when life is hard and boring and frustrating... will we take these moments as ministry opportunities? will living a life on the altar make us more like Jesus as we choose to do what is so against our nature: forgive, keep on loving, honoring, fervently serving, humbly surrendering to His sovereign will in our lives???
as we were driving home from church, in a nice car, going back to a nice house, in safety and comfort my thoughts were : How can we not?????
having been in the place where Jesus chose suffering because that was what God's will had for Him, when He decided to consider this suffering to be pure joy because it was going to allow us full access to the Father.... even though we ourselves had destroyed that relationship in the first place..... How can we not ....
live as an ambassador for Him, bringing glory to Him, by His Grace and strength alone obviously.....
How can we not worship Him as living sacrifices... giving our all, always?????
