Forgotten Sacrifices (II) ? Author: Esther Agbi
King David would not give to God anything that cost him nothing [2Sam 24:24]!
This is in line with giving something special. That is the right attitude. No little wonder
God testified that David was a man after His Heart!
Cornelius was another man whose offering stood out [Acts 10]….. “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God”, an angel of God told him. This is very fascinating! His prayers and offerings were stored up for future blessings. God remembered Cornelius. He and his household were blessed.
There is a Lady I know of who loves offering sacrifices to God even when she does not have. As her story goes, a man of God called for the members to give sacrificially to foreign missions, assisting refugees. She had no money at the time to donate, but somehow, material goods were being accepted. She had this beautiful and costly attire with shoes and jewelry to match. She contemplated for a long time because she really loved the attire. Finally, she decided to give it up as a sacrifice for foreign missions. A prayer was said that day, according to her, she never thought that she would ever be in that situation in her life time because she was very comfortable at the time. The Man of God prayed that no one who has given towards the missions would ever become a refugee in a foreign land.
Somehow, after many years, this lady found herself as a refugee in a foreign land. She remembered that prayer, and I believe that God remembered that prayer too because she was set free from that situation and now a Citizen of that country. That prayer by the Man of God was stored up for a future blessing. God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore.
The Lord will remember you and me for greater blessings in Jesus Name.
It is good for us to give to the Lord because we care. Give because you love, give because God demonstrated it by giving his only SON Jesus to die for us. Give because God instructed us to do so [Luke 6:38] and there is a reward. God will remember someday. It may not be in your life time, maybe your children or generations down the line.
Sacrifice may not be monetary only. It could be just a smile, a nice compliment that is sincere, or a phone call to brighten someone else’s day, a quiet prayer for someone you know or don’t know. You could sacrifice your talent or your time even when it is not convenient. That is why it is called a sacrifice. If it were convenient, it would not have been called a sacrifice. When Jesus gave his life for us, it was not convenient. That is love.
Solomon gave a sacrifice, and God asked him what he wanted [1 Kings 3:5]. Has God ever testified of your offering/sacrifice? Has He asked you what you wanted after you gave your offering? The same questions I would ask myself.
It is good to ask from God, but it is better to be asked by God what we want. I believe that the Lord is working on us all and he will grant us wisdom to work in line with HIM in Jesus Name.
My prayer for you is that the Lord remember all your offerings in whatever form you have given to Him in support of His kingdom and that He fulfill all your heart desires in Jesus name [Psalm 20:3, 5], Amen.
Bible Characters
Forgotten Sacrifices?
Forgotten Sacrifices? Author: Esther Agbi
Heb. 11:4b “God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaks.”
I was reading about Abel’s sacrifice when this title of my write up came up in my mind. I pondered over it for a little while before I finally accepted to put it down in writing. This is a topic people don’t usually like to talk about because whenever it is brought up, everybody gets jittery, saying there must be a great need in the body of Christ that needs to be addressed in other for them to give what is substantial to God. This is not always the case. I believe it is an opportunity to be blessed by God.
Sacrifice, according to Webster’s dictionary means “An act of offering something special to a deity”. Offering, on the other hand means a “sacrifice ceremonially offered as part of a worship. It sounds interesting to me. For the purpose of this article, I will use both words interchangeably.
Deity here refers to God, the creator of the universe. The offering has to be given willingly for it to be a sacrifice, and special too [2 Cor. 8:12]. I believe so many people gave sacrifices to God in the Bible but a few to my knowledge were outstanding. Abel offered not just a great sacrifice, but an excellent one. The best he could ever offer. It did not end there. God had to talk about Abel’s gift. When Abel was dead, his gifts spoke to God. How amazing! I don’t know if I have ever given a gift or offering to God, that the creator of the vast universe is still deliberating on, or has become an item on the agenda of the meeting of the Godhead. That is yet to be revealed. What about yours?
Abraham was ready to offer his only promised child Isaac, whom he loves to God.
How precious was that sacrifice in the eyes of God? In the real sense, he had already sacrificed Isaac in his mind. He had gone past the stage of contemplating, should I do or should I not do it? How do I know this? Heb.11:19. Abraham believed that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead if he was sacrificed. Abraham did not only believe in God, God believed in Abraham, for HE said in [Gen 22:12b], “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” God is not asking us to make human sacrifices. Jesus has made the ultimate sacrifice. It is a good thing to believe in God, it is greater when God believes in you. This shows dependability. I am still a “work” in progress. I don’t know about you.
………….. To be continued.
Victory of the Cross
The Concept of Perfection
Before reading this article, pause and think of the following: What is your opinion of the word “perfect”? Do you consider yourself perfect or are you perfect? Perfection in this article is different from the concept of “holiness” or “sanctification”.
When Jesus said, “Be ye perfect as your heavenly father is perfect [Matt. 5:48], what did He mean? If Jesus said we should be perfect before we can see God, what are the modalities for achieving this perfection? When God told Abraham to walk before Him and be perfect [Gen. 17:1] is it the same perfection Christ meant in His sermon on the mount? In other words, how do we compare the New Testament concept of perfection with that of the Old Testament, where for example, some kings such as David, Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat were said to have walked with God with a perfect heart. Or even those prophets who many consider “holy” and walked closely with God in their days such as Enoch, Elijah, Elisha and John the Baptist, who by comparison should also have the term “perfect” prefixed to their names, does it mean that these men were sinless? No! Because we read, for example, that Elijah was afraid of Jezebel and Ahab and went into hiding [1 King 19:1-4].
The concept of “perfection” has to mean more than “sinlessness” becasue neither New Testament nor Old Testament saints qualify to be termed “perfect” on this merit. New Testament saints merit their perfection by the “grace of Jesus Christ” not because we are physiologically different from those of the Old Testament. Before Christ came, Old Testament saints had to earn their “perfection” by their obedience to God’s word through the Law and the prophets. God pointed His searchlight into their hearts and saw how much their hearts yearned towards Him [Psalm 42:1-2]. He does the same for New Testament saints but now looks through the prism of the blood of Jesus at man’s heart [1 Cor. 6:11]. So those who were termed “perfect” in the Old Testament really exemplified themselves above the mortals of their time. They walked closely with God (although missing some few steps here and there), lived holy lives and obeyed His word. For example, David claimed his ways was “perfect before God”, and that stands in Scripture. However, we know he was an adulterer and murderer, a weakling at his son’s rebellion, a failure at disciplining his sons, etc, etc. Therefore “perfection” has to mean something other than sinlessness.
How then is perfection better defined and how is our perfection as New Testament saints superior to theirs? Old Testament had enough marks to pass on God’s scale of perfection but their perfection still was short of New Testament standards which is Christ. Our “perfection” is better than theirs because our perfection is Christ’s perfection IMPUTED to us. How do we receive this perfection? First by accepting Christ. It is through the blood of Christ that God now looks at our hearts giving us advantage over persons of the Old. Our perfection becomes reality when we are touched by His Spirit and desire His spotless nature so we can dwell continually in His presence in a clean state. Remember nothing unclean can dwell or be allowed into heaven.
How did the Old Testament saints earn their perfection? By their closeness to God. In Isaiah 6:1-8, where Isaiah entered into heaven bodily in an open vision, a coal of fire was used to touch the prophet’s unclean tongue which transformed him. This allowed him to stay in God’s presence and affirmed his call into the ministry as a prophet. We have the advantage of having Christ’s righteousness imputed to us but we still have to continue to yearn to be close to God so we do not fall out of grace. The type of touch Isaiah expereienced is what believers should yearn for so that we can experience the glories of heaven here on earth while we are still mortal.
Enoch and Elijah did not allow the flesh to rule them, neither should we as New Testament believers. They were men full of the Spirit and power of God throughout their stay here on earth. In our effort at pleasing God, if we fall short in our perfection momentarily, through falling into sin for example, God sees the perfection of Christ and restores us to fellowship with Him again as we repent of our sins. However, please note that frequent wilful fall into sin and untoward repentance to God by a believer is toying witht the grace of Christ and we cannot continue in sin while at the same time calling on the grace of God to abound [Rom. 6:1]. Rather such believers should heed to the command of Christ, “go and sin no more” [John 5:14; 8:11]. The following Scriptures points out the big advantage we have in this dispensation of grace.
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world [1 John 2:1-2].
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world [1 John 4:17].
In summary, having understood what perfection in the New Testament means with the proviso that we should stay clear of wilful sins, we see that it is the grace of Christ that distiguishes our perfection from the Old Testament saints since they too had to contend with the power of sin. However, from 1 John 2:2, it appears they too were covered in retrospect by the death of Christ for their sins. Hence the bible reckoning them as “perfect” is because Christ died for the sins of all mankind. Enjoy the grace that is in Jesus Christ and God will accept you as perfect before Him.
Prayer Points
1. Lord, purify my heart with your word.
2. Lord, saturate me with your spirit and your power in Jesus’ name.
WHY GOD LOVED DAVID
WHY GOD LOVED DAVID
BY DAVID AGBI
INTRODUCTION
God loved David so, so much because he was a man after God’s heart. God also loved David right back. So there was a lot of bonding between the two. David would do anything God said and God blessed him. This lesson will help you to go after God’s heart in Jesus Name.
OUTLINES:
PRAISES TO GOD
GLORIFIED GOD
GOD CAN LOVE AND BLESS YOU TOO
PRAISES TO GOD
David sang praises to God whenever he could and that’s one reason God loved David. He didn’t just sing when he was in trouble or when something bad was happening. He sang all the time. Also, he praised God so much, it became a habit and God blessed him so much to the extent that he became king over Judah and eventually, over Israel. If he can find time to praise God we can too because He made us in His own image [Gen. 1:26-31].
GLORIFIED GOD
David would glorify God all the time. He built temples for the people of Israel to worship God and made sacrifices to Him. It didn’t end there. He would give glory to God in every situation, even the bad ones. God blessed David for that and gave him strength to take over cities like Zion and Jerusalem and made them to be cities of God, not for himself. He didn’t hesitate if God said something and defeated any people that were in his way to do what God said [1 Sam. 17: 40-58]. God loved him so much for that too.
GOD CAN LOVE AND BLESS YOU TOO
God can bless you too if you praise Him and give glory to Him. God loved David and He can love you too if you did what David did. He praised God, built temples, glorified Him and did whatever God told him to do. If you do what David did, God will give David’s blessings to you and will help you in any thing you need help with.
CONCLUSION
David was a man after God’s heart and that’s what God liked about David. If you do what David did, God will bless you. So don’t just stand there! Go out and let people know there is a God that is alive!