Living Sacrifices.

Rom 12:1  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. 

Rom 12:2  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. 

Our bodies are LIVING sacrifices. I know I've talked about this before but I can't help but come back around to it time and time again because there is a message here that I have to learn.

A sacrifice is the giving up of something. You can sacrifice your time- you're giving up your time- time you'd rather spend doing something other than what you are doing. You can sacrifice your money- give money away that you'd rather keep. You can sacrifice any of your possessions- give them up. When the Israelis of old were asked to bring sacrifices they brought animals. But no longer, no sacrificial animals were desired. However, if we present our bodies as LIVING sacrifices - this is what God desires. If we sacrifice our lives to God we are giving Him access to all of us, all our actions, all our everything. To do this we can't be conformed to this world and this world WANTS conformers.

You might think this world is filled with rebels and non-conformers but if you truly look closer at things even the rebels and non-conformers quickly desire conformers to THEIR views no longer allowing them to be non-conformers, but rather non-conformer conformers. If God is our conformer he does so by transforming us in our minds, renewing our minds and our minds are renewed in this way-

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 

We need to be born of the Spirit. Our mind is renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them

We are God's workmanship, we are CREATED in CHRIST JESUS unto good works. TRULY when any good comes from us it is by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR.

We must present ourselves living sacrifices, willing to be alive to CHRIST and HIS will, not our own. We present ourselves to God alive for Him to use by the Holy Spirit. We die to self so we live for Him. How are we to live for Him? We need to do what the Holy Spirit leads us to do. We need to comprehend in the word of God, what He'd have us do. We aren’t stupid. We can say we don't know what to do, but in truth we do. We are told.

Remember this--

Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 

Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 

Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 

Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

We KNOW what Christ would have us do. If we are waiting to get a hand written noted from God, a detailed list of instructions, then we will wait forever because GOD ALREADY GAVE US THE NOTE and the DETAILS! If we want our name at the top we are being stupid! Seriously, stupid! We need to wake up to the truth, the WORD of God and seek the truth. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us as we set out to do what we are led to do through the word of God.

May God help us- transform us. May we TRULY be LIVING SACRIFICES to GOD!

All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!!!!!!!