Let’s see here: go to church (sometimes) and be a pretty good person (most of the time) and try not to hurt others (as long as they don’t hurt me) ORRRR give all of my life completely to live for Jesus and strive to think, speak and act like Him? I wonder which way best describes what it means to be a Christian? Give the Lord part of my life or give the Lord all of my life? Hmmm – that’s a tough one. Oh, it’s not hard to figure out – it’s hard to live out. We know better. Romans 12:1 says we should offer up our lives as living sacrifices. Luke 9:23 says we should take up our cross daily. Christians are spiritual priests and priestesses. The difference between Jewish priests in the old covenant and you and me as priests and priestesses in the new covenant is that our offering is not an animal but rather we offer up our very lives – every day from here to heaven. Every day we pledge to live for Jesus. Oh, we make a little bit of a mess with those daily offerings – so we keep repenting and keep hitting the reset button. We no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf (II Corinthians 5:15). Our desire and our Christian commitment is to make every thought, word and deed to be pleasing to the Lord (Colossians 1:10). And, even though we fall short does not mean we fail. When we fall short the blood of Jesus continues to wash away our sins AND Jesus is super-pleased with our faithful heart to live for Him as Lord of our lives. You would think that living for Jesus every moment of every day would make for a miserable life; however, the opposite is true because living for Jesus results in joy. You know JOY: J-Jesus first, O-Others second, and Y-Yourself last. Read Luke 18:18-30; Romans 12:1-2; I Pet. 2:1-10 and then listen to Take It All by Third Day. Then be a devoted priest/priestess today.
Luke 18:18-30
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”
“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Peter said to him, “We have left all we had to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Romans 12:1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Peter 2:1-10
Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone,”
and,
“A stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.