Thursday, March 15, 2012

Serving God with all I am……….

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.”        I Thess. 5:23 NLT

When Jesus saved me He did not do it in units; He did it wholly.   My hand is as much redeemed as my soul and my brain is just as much covered by the blood of Jesus as my heart.

When Aaron was consecrated as high priest, the sacrificial blood was placed on his right ear, right thumb, and right big toe (Ex. 29:20).  

Were you being picky, Lord?   No, I see it now!   The lesson is obvious:  Aaron’s body, just as much as his heart had to be priestly.   That is why the sin of the golden calf was so odious and reprehensible to God.   Later the body that God had appointed to service and consecrated by blood callously fashioned a golden idol for the people to worship (Ex. 21:1-6).

God, please do not let me repeat Aaron’s sin.   Do not let me use what Jesus so painfully purchased to do that which Jesus personally despises.   I do not belong to this world or man.  I have no right to throw my gold into the fire and make myself an idol or be another’s idol.   I will not allow the lust of the flesh, the desires for worldly things or my emotions to become an idol.  I dare not defile my body that way.  I am owned and I am His possession.

I see now why Paul said, “I beat my body…” (I Cor.9:27 NIV).   As a disciple I must pummel my body into submission rather than let it violate my calling.   How often must I do it!  My enemies are the world, the flesh, the devil, my emotions, and my body.  

How often my spirit wants to soar into the heavenlies and conquer with Jesus, but it is dragged down and hindered by my glands, my emotions and impulses.

Yet, Lord, I rejoice in the word of Paul: “The Spirit…will….give life to your mortal bodies” (Rom. 8:11 NIV).   The Spirit is sent from Jesus to minister to the body as well as the soul, to quicken it when it becomes lazy, to revive it when it slumps and to manifest Jesus’ complete redemption over me. 

“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.  And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”  Romans 8:11 NLT




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