Becoming a Living Sacrifice...

Welcome to Altar 12 One's blog 'Becoming a Living Sacrifice' . A place where we can discuss, grow and learn what it means to be able to live out our faith on a daily basis

Our focus in this forum is to share stories and interact with each other in order to encourage and uplift each other. We do not wish to restrict people to labels and make their stories un-relatable to others, "Christian-banker vs Tom who works in a bank" for example. What we are looking at doing is sharing the sometimes unvarnished truth, struggles, and victories that we each experience as we work out our faith and what it means to each of us.

We are not here to judge, we are here to love one another, encourage one another and pray for each other. There will be a companion podcast where we will be interviewing folks from as many walks of life and situations as we can in order to hopefully relate to as many listeners and readers as possible. We encourage comments that are constructive and encouraging in nature as we wish to be accurately reflecting the love of God which is for all of us.

Blog #1 "The Challenge"

This is the goal for every person who is serious about their faith. this question ranks up there with many other hard words that confront our nature. Luke 9:23, for example, Jesus tells us that unless we take up our cross we cannot be His disciple. Philippians 2:3, we are told to have other motives than pride and ambition, we are actually told to do the opposite: be humble and "consider others more important than ourselves." BSB

I say becoming because, while salvation happens in a moment, living a holy life happens bit by bit. The temptation is there to strive in our own strength and be motivated by guilt, remorse and even a sense of duty or obligation. there is also a theory of perfectibility; that somehow we can come to live perfect lives here on this side of heaven. Sadly, the temptation to give up and become bitter and hopeless due to lack of sustained success or repeated failure is also all too real.

The temptation to complete in our own strength what God started or to do so out of guilt and shame result in destructive behaviours, most notably thought patterns that edge God Himself out of our lives. Galatians 3 makes pointed reference to trying to do something based on our strength or will versus faith in God. In fact, Paul asks who has bewitched them to start off. Paul continues his argument to ask if we have received the Holy Spirit by any work we have done, or was He given as a gift to those of the faith? In other words, who has the Spirit to give? You or God? If God, then when you came to salvation by faith in God, how can you complete that work of faith that god started and continues to do within you?

So we see how quickly and naturally we can replace God's work in us with our own effort. sinful human nature is always trying to assert independence from God. We must keep watch and not try to either take over or assume that god will do it all Himself. We must also work alongside what God is doing; otherwise we are not taking up our cross. We are called to, as Paul put it in 1 Thessalonians 2:12, "...walk in a manner worthy of God..."And further in 1 Corinthians 6:20, "you were bought at a price. therefore glorify God with your body." BSB

Jesus has authority over us due to two facts; one: it was He who redeemed us with His life, and two: He is God. This brings us neatly to the question of lordship. this is an old word and concept that is quite alien to us in many ways. Lordship means that the lord has power over his or her territory or possessions. In human terms the lord of the land had absolute authority over those living on it and any who disobeyed the lord were imprisoned, driven off, or executed as treasonous rebels. We have lost this concept in our western culture largely through the influence of liberal democratic thought and practice; we find the notion of anyone having absolute power over us outrageous.

The spiritual realm is quite different from the one in which we live, and the question of lordship does not even come up. In every encounter recorded in the Bible with rebellious spirits, they recognized Jesus's authority and dominion over them. In Acts, we find that authority exercised by proxy through the apostles, and before that, the disciples were sent out by Jesus and had similar authority. The only place that questions Jesus' authority exists with the human heart.

What's your story?

We would love to hear from you. How is your faith impacting your life on the day to day? If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, please let us know, otherwise leave a comment and let us know if this has been helpful in any way.

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