Willing Sacrifice, a Freewill Offering

[S] Psalm 54:6 --
6 Willingly I will sacrifice to You;
I will give thanks to Your name, O LORD, for it is good.
(NIV) 6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.

[O] The Psalmist emphasizes the fact that our offering to God should be out of free will.  If we offer out of obligation then it's really not an offering but a payment.  But Jesus paid everything I owed to God and so if I sincerely took that to heart then everything I give to God going forward is an offering willingly and joyfully sacrificed.

[A] Willingly giving and willingly sacrificing are totally different and the word sacrificing grabs me today from this passage as I am going through much thoughts lately about the concept of surrendering my will and my plans.  With the family crisis at hand, is my heart willing sacrificing to God and praise His name for it is good?

[P] Dear God, You're total sacrifice for my inadequacy is overwhelming because for me it is so difficult to even think about sacrificing my family as a willing offering to You and yet You did just that for me.  May that same attitude spring up inside me to walk this life here to follow Your footsteps.  In Jesus' name. Amen.

Don't Play With Strange Fire

[S] Leviticus 10:1-2 --
 ¹Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. ²And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 

[O] While it is unclear what they were really doing but the "strange fire" was something that God had not commanded them to do in His presence and the consequence of not adhering to His holy presence was death in this case.  It's like bringing a piece of paper near a burning fire -- it'll be consumed instantly.  Bringing any unholiness near the "burning" presence of God's holiness will only bring instant consummation by His holiness.  Nadab and Abihu disrespected this and they faced the consequence.  Verses 9 and 10 hints the idea perhaps they were under influence of some strong drinks bringing before God profanity.  God is holy and that attribute by nature cannot co-exist with anything unholy no matter what our intentions may be.

[A]  At the end of the day, God will not accept or tolerate any unholiness in my heart when I come before Him.  I am constantly pulled from my daily activities to be tainted by unholiness which can easily cause me to bring some strange offerings to God which He never commanded me to bring to Him.  I need to be very sensitive about my thoughts and heart condition at all times.  Through the Life Journaling my heart is drawing closer to Him by filling it up with His word daily but many challenges in my life currently just seems to deflate it just like a tire with a hole losing air faster than air pumped into it.  I need to pray more to protect my heart as well as my wife's.

[P] Dear Father, as little as it may be my wife and I are trying our best to submit our hearts for your ministry and lately not only due to the ministry's challenges but just overall things in life are simply overwhelming.  May we not fall by the forces that hit us but to stay firm in Your word through consistent prayer lives.  I know You are with us just like how You had been with Your people through the history of seeing how You moved nations in Isaiah 41 and yet promised to be with Your people.  I am trusting Your sovereignty and omnipotence in this world.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Counting the Cost of My Cross First

[S] Luke 14:27 --
 ²⁷"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

[O] Two examples follow this verse which point out how critical it is to plan out the cost before taking action; we rarely just jump in without doing any calculation of the resources and costs to accomplish the task at hand much like what we started to do for the church as we are faced with the new year's ministry goals.  This is a very much needed exercise to go through.  However, underneath all of these goals and processes planned for lies a fundamental "cost" I must consider which is whether I will pay the price of carrying my cross and follow after the path Jesus walked or not.  If I am unwilling to meet this cost of action then I shouldn't even bother taking part in the church planning and execution in this new year because I would be fooling myself of doing some great deeds that may just look good.

This article of a teenage boy in Australia sacrificing his own life to save his younger brother and mother moved me because he didn't know how to swim and was very afraid of the water and yet during the split of a second, he made a choice to pay the price overcoming his own fear.  Man, just trying to imagine what was going through his head then choked me up.

[A] I remember picking up a book titled: Disciples are Made Not Born because the title said it all.  My desire to be Jesus' disciple will take much more than my simple desire.  I have to deeply ponder on what price of the cross I must "invest" and be willing to commit to it.  It will not be a smooth sailing and yet be willing to go through the storms regardless.

[P] Dear Father, I want to be Jesus' disciple.  I know this means more than just saying it and when I face the stormy situation like the teenage boy in the above article, may my faith be large enough to take the right path of carrying my cross for You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Price of the Very First Leather Suit

[S] Genesis 3:21 --
 ²¹The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them. 

[O] Why did God make this leather clothing for them?  After all they are the ones who felt ashamed before God and they already sewn themselves a covering made out of fig tree leaves.  In order to make this leather clothing, God had to sacrifice the animal the skin belonged to and perhaps this was the first sacrifice of His creation in order to cover up the sin of man.  When He created the world at the end of each day He said they were good to Him so there was none that He created reluctantly set apart to be disposed so the animal used to make this leather covering for Adan and Eve had to give up their lives sacrificially.  That same theme continued through Jesus coming to earth to live out a life that did not have to end in a murderous death all for covering our sins.  But He did just that for me.

[A] God's love come alive when I lay my life down sacrificially because the DNA of that love from the beginning of man's sin was based on sacrifice of shedding blood.  That was all done because God loved man (me).  If my heart had captured such a love then willingness to sacrifice must arise from my heart in order to ignite His love coming alive in and through my life.

[P] Dear Father, please kindle the flame of Your love in me as I sacrificially serve Your community starting with my family.  May Your message of sacrifice be embedded into my heart deep inside such that I would follow the footsteps of Jesus's sacrificial love for me.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Revive Me According to Your Lovingkindness

[S] Psalm 119:87-88 --
    ⁸⁷They almost destroyed me on earth,
         But as for me, I did not forsake Your precepts.
    ⁸⁸Revive me according to Your lovingkindness,
         So that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.

[O] The psalmist's expression of standing firm while facing challenges in life is very encouraging, refreshing and strengthening for me.  After voicing his desire to stand firm, he quickly requests God to revive him for the purpose of testifying His lovingkindness to others.  I can certainly do my part to keep my faith and stand firm against the challenges of life, but in the end it's God's sustaining power that will revive me.  As I wrap up this year 2010, part of me is relating to this author where I feel like to I'm almost destroyed with the exhaustion of carrying on my responsibilities in all aspects of my life, especially in carrying on the small group ministry at church.  At my workplace, my years of experience sustains me to carry on the tasks at hand.  At home it's a growing relationship with my family as we adjust to the turns of life together; it's challenging and at times frustrating but deep inside there is an assurance that walking along faithfully will carry us through these challenging phases.  However in the small group ministry I feel the most resistance from the enemy because God is on the move and we're right in the middle of that "storm."  It's very exciting moment, but comes with that territory is the beating from all the darts being shot at us.  Revive me according to Your lovingkindeness!

[A] Memorize v. 88 and claim it for my own life.

[P] Dear Father, revive me from the beaten state of my mind.  As I heard the message today from our pastor that as 2011 begins it's about making the journey I'll be making with other community members towards the "manger" to worship Him is what matters so please revive me to carry on with this tough, long, and sacrificial journey.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

At the Cross-roads of Foolishness and Power of God

[S] 1 Corinthians 1:18 --
 ¹⁸For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

[O] Lately, I've been prompted frequently to the message of the Cross as if God was asking me:  Do you really understand the message behind the Cross Jesus Christ carried?  I knew the textbook answer but somehow I couldn't answer with a confident "yes" because deep inside I knew it was much deeper than the simple definition of where Jesus died for our sins.  It is where my God exemplified what sacrificing His all for me was and in turn for me to do just that because only then I will rise up in the power of God which raised Jesus Christ from the dead.  So, while the spiritual climate these days are so hostile towards Christianity just the thing they consider foolish -- the message of the Cross -- is where I can draw the supernatural power from to live out the life God called me to live out.

[A] Without applying this message of the Cross in my life, there is no way I can serve God because anything short of that will just be fooling myself in thinking I'm doing something for God.  But He does not really need my help, does He?  He wants my heart of obedience leading to total surrender/sacrifice.  As I am disturbed by this thought right now, I am sure He will clearly show me the application as I continue to chew on how to apply the message of His Cross into my own personal life.

[P] Dear Father, You taught me through las Sunday's message about how Your will be done in my own life first.  I want to ask You to do just that as a scary request it may be.  I want to go back to Job 28:28 where he concluded the fear of God is the wisdom and I will claim that You will plant the wisdom based on my awesome fear of You who sent me the message of the Cross.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Perfect Blood for Perfect Covenant

[S] Hebrews 9:13-14 --
 ¹³For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, ¹⁴how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[O] If an animal's blood was used to cleanse people's sin in the first covenant with God, Jesus' own blood will definitely cleanse and then some my sin in His new covenant.  His perfectly pure life was used by God to offer up as a sacrifice for an unworthy life of mine (and the rest of mankind).  This new covenant is a perfect covenant because a perfect sacrifice was used to make it.  Why would God do such a thing?  I believe His purpose was for me to walk away from my own dead works in order to serve the God who lives now and forever.  I need to keep reminding myself how significant this needs to be in my every day life because as I take it for granted my life's purpose becomes more blurry.  God's new covenant is what gave me the new life and that's not a small matter.

[A] I need to take a break from all the busyness of small group ministry and have a retreat of my own to praise God for His perfect and new covenant which is the reason for why I get myself involved in His ministry in the first place.  I have to avoid getting myself too wrapped up in "doing" the ministry.

[P] Dear God, You perfect and lovely plan of salvation is why I call myself Christian, or follower of Christ.  May I not forget that as I involve myself in Your ministry here on earth.  I want to do them not for achieving goals I set but because the joy overflows out of me for remembering the amazing sacrifice You provided for me.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Standing Between the Dead and the Living

[S] Numbers 16:47-48 --
⁴⁷Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people.
⁴⁸He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked.

[O] After a series of grumbling and complaining against Moses (starting with Korah), the whole congregation approached Moses and Aaron to blame them for putting all of them in such a situation. God was not happy with them and asked Moses and Aaron to step aside while He wipes them off the face of the earth. For the third time straight, Moses and Aaron falls to their faces and intercedes to God for the people. I don't know if I can do that, let alone three times in a row. Then even before God's wrath is released on the people, Moses acts quickly and tells Aaron to offer the incense/atonement for the people. What's amazing is how quickly and sacrificially both of the leaders responded to save the people. The phrase in verse 48, "stand between the dead and the living" really grabbed my heart as I was reading it. Is this what a godly leader's role is -- to stand between the dead and the living risking my own life trusting in God based on a firm relationship through Jesus Christ? Wow! The only hope in this picture is "so that the plague was checked." God honors such a servant leadership even to the point of saving lives (and in my limited perspective, changing His mind in this situation).

[A] Spiritual leadership is based on the servanthood of taking of lives of the followers. Humility and willing sacrifice seems to be requirements. Need ask God for strength to carry out such a leadership in the small group ministry on daily basis.

[P] God, You never meant a true leadership of Your people to be a "walk in the park" but is only possible through humble commitment to be fully responsible for Your people's lives (both spiritual and physical). It's a quite scary proposition but You've drawn me in to taking such a role and with trembling I come to You. Continue to pour into my heart Your own heart of sacrificial love for Your people. In Jesus' name. Amen.

How To Turn Off God

[S] Isaiah 1:13-15 --
¹³"Bring your worthless offerings no longer,
Incense is an abomination to Me
New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies--
I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
¹⁴"I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts,
They have become a burden to Me;
I am weary of bearing them.
¹⁵"So when you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide My eyes from you;
Yes, even though you multiply prayers,
I will not listen
Your hands are covered with blood.

[O] This passage reminded me of the fact that God sees our hearts more than our actions. He cares about obedience more than sacrifices themselves (1 Samuel 15:22). In fact, He considers our actions without proper heart abomination and He will avoid even looking or hearing us. God is love, but He is also just and so we shouldn't try to fool Him by simply putting on an act because He will not even "go there." The flip side is also true where even though our actions may be totally "unprofessional," when we apporach Him with the right attitude of understanding that only by His Grace that I am who I am now will please Him and He will consider me good (enough).

[A] Search my own heart for any intentions of putting on an act and expunge them forever.

[P] Heavenly Father, may I please You by bringing my whole heart dedicated for Your purposes while I live here on earth. May I not focus too much on my achievements but how much of my heart I desire to dedicate to You. Especially in light of the small group initiative under way, please accept my and my family's wholehearted desire to be used in the fullest capacity by You to care, nurture, and bless others. In Jesus' name. Amen.