ANB 67, love is sacrifice

Hello everyone, I hope you all are doing great. Praise God, I'm going to be getting
married soon enough, so my girlfriend and I have done lots of things to prepare ourselves
to approach marriage God's way. In that regard, I highly recommend the teachings of the
ministers at www.marriagetoday.org and www.loveandrespect.com. Aside from the
marital situation, we are all required by God to love both Him and our fellow man
(Matthew 22:37-40). I believe when we review the Bible's teachings, we see God shows
us how sacrifice is the way a person best shows love. If God has commanded us to love,
and then shown us how to love, then we must learn how to love as He does.

God is calling us to the highest standards of love (love the Lord with all your heart, soul,
mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself). If we have any desire to fulfill
these commandments then we must learn to love as God loves.

The first key to understanding Godly love is to see that we must love in act and not in
word alone. "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed
and in truth (1 John 3:18). Sure God's Word tells us He loves us over and over again.
Praise God. But God truly shows His love for us in His deeds. "In this was manifested
the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world,
that we might live through Him . . .Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love
one another." (1 John 4:9,11).

So God loved us so much that He sent His Son for us while we were still sinners
(Romans 5:8). God did not exchange His Son for our good works, we did nothing to
deserve Jesus Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son ..
." Or you could read this, "For God so loved the world that He 'sacrificed' His
only begotten Son." (John 3:16). You remember how under the Jewish law they always
had to sacrifice animals without blemish to atone for sin, well Jesus was the last and
perfect sacrifice, who took away all the sins of the world (John 1:29). Praise the Lord.

Even Jesus Christ told us what great love He had for us and how He would show it.
"Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John
15:13)." Jesus told us what the greatest example of 'love thy neighbor' could ever be, He
would sacrifice His own life for His friends (us). Thank You Jesus.

Over and over again we are told to bring offerings before the Lord. "Give unto the Lord
the glory due His Name: bring an offering, and come before Him, worship the Lord in the
beauty of holiness (1 Chronicles 16:29)." To me this means that we are to bring an
offering when we are going to come into His presence. This says that if we are going to
'worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness' we need to have an offering with us. Now
I'm not going to get into it today, but every time God commands an offering from us He
is asking us for an opportunity for Him to bless us. Sure there are test of dedication and
trust, but God loves the cheerful giver and will not cease to bless that person. Monetary
gifts are commanded, but there are many other offerings we can bring before God, as
we'll see.
Now we are made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). We are supposed to
love like God and we will appreciate being loved like God. It says right there in 1
John (above) that we should be loving in the same manner as God. If Jesus Christ tells
us what the greatest example of love is then we should strive to emulate it. As for how
we like to receive love as God does, just think of personal experience. We know that we
appreciate people showing love in many ways, but when we learn that a person has
sacrificed something, preferred us above them, given us something precious, then we
truly feel loved. I think most of us feel undeserving when someone does something like
this for us. Because of our human prideful nature it takes a lot for a person to really feel
undeserving, but a sacrificial gift from a person can do it for sure.

So what are we learning here? We see what true love is all about at it's core, so now we
can see how to properly love God and properly love our neighbors. Let's begin with
God. Now we aren't going to discuss monetary offerings today, but I can't stress the
importance in God's eyes of this form of sacrifice (read Malachi 3:10-12, you want to
give God His due). Today, however, let's discuss a different form of sacrifice.

"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 you
may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Romans (12:1-
2).

Is that a powerful verse or what. First of all, why is that your reasonable service, because
Jesus Christ did so for you. If you want to love Him properly, you must be willing to go
the distance for Him. If you want to prove what is the perfect will of God for your life,
you have to present yourself a living sacrifice. So you could think of it as a
commandment you have to obey. I, rather, look at it as a master key and vital piece of
wisdom. I long to follow God's perfect plan for my life, and He tells me one of the key
ways. If I can present my body as a sacrifice to Him then I'm headed in the right
direction.

So what does it mean to be a living sacrifice to God? I believe it means that we go

through our entire life totally committed to God and His Word. A sacrifice once given
was given and gone forever (like if they sacrificed a bull or goat). We must also sacrifice
ourselves once and for all to God and His commandments. Sacrificial living before God
must become a way of life, not just an occasional decision. I am a sacrifice that
continues to live on, and I live on in a sacrificial manner. To me this means learning to
obey and follow all His commandments. Because my heart is settled on things like bad
tv shows, bad language, anger, strife, lust, and things that are clearly wrong, now
God will ask for other offerings. He is calling on more sacrifice. For me this is about
less sleep and more prayer, less tv and more Bible.

And let me tell you this, God will never ever tell you to do one thing that is not for your
perfect benefit. I don't care what kind of commandment you receive, it will always work
out for your good if you follow through. It may not look like it in the natural (like God
says start to pray for 1/2 hour and give up that sleep every day), but God will always
empower you to fulfill His commands and bless you for doing so. Praise God.

Let's just finish up with a quick word about sacrificial living towards our neighbors. We
have already seen how much we appreciate sacrifice towards us by others. Let me just
give you a two verses. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,
and gave Himself for it (Ephesians 5:25)." "Be kindly affectioned one to another with
brotherly love, in honor preferring one another (Romans 12:10)." Prefer in the Greek
here actually means 'to go before as a leader.' We should be leading one another in honor
for one another. We should defer to one another. We should lift one another up above
ourselves. We should sacrifice our wants for those of others. We should love like God
loved.

So begin to sacrifice in your daily life. You will feel better (getting back to the true lover
that you were created to be) and you will bless people. You will be acting as the true
child of God you are, and God will bless you in your giving. Praise God.