\u201c<\/strong>Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love…\u201d Sacrificing in the areas of church attendance, tithing, and exhorting empties the heart of greed, loving money, and climbing the social ladder. It starts to fill hearts with loving God because we are being obedient to His Word.<\/p>\nHebrews 13:16 above mentions \u201cBut to do good…\u201d Many Christians have the \u2018do good\u2019 down pact, but their \u2018do good\u2019 isn\u2019t a sacrifice. It\u2019s a \u2018do good\u2019 when I can and when I have the money to. If that is the only way that someone \u2018does good\u2019\u2014it\u2019s no sacrifice.<\/p>\n
Remember, the definition of sacrifice is to kill and destroy. If nothing is killed or destroyed, it\u2019s not a sacrifice. For example, if doing good hasn\u2019t killed or destroyed the finances\u2014it isn\u2019t a sacrifice. Now a financial destruction doesn\u2019t have to be thousands of dollars, although for some it may be. It could be ten dollars that was put aside for milk and bread, but giving that ten dollars to someone worse off is a sacrifice because it means the giver could go without bread and milk for a week. That is destroying something. It\u2019s destroying the desire for bread and milk for a week to help someone worse off.<\/p>\n
On a bigger scale, the sizes of some of the modern-day \u201ccieled houses\u201d could be smaller so the church building can get tithes and update the air conditioning unit, fix the roof, or other necessities that churches are going without because members aren\u2019t tithing but enjoying their grand \u2018cieled houses.\u2019 For example, instead of having 4,000 square feet homes to roam around in, families might have to make do with 2,000 square feet. Families could decide to do without and kill a desire to have something, so the church can go on and be a witness in the community to the lost and see souls saved. If families learned to do without and sacrifice, Biblically, imagine the impact on the children.<\/p>\n
Is a picture being painted of what a sacrifice is? I hope. If the giver isn\u2019t killing or destroying a desire for something\u2014it\u2019s not a sacrifice. It\u2019s just \u2018good works\u2019 but not a sacrifice.<\/p>\n
John 15:13 \u201cGreater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.\u201d This is a sacrifice. A person who is willing to die for another. True stories have been told of parents dying rescuing a child from a burning building or a swimmer drowning while rescuing another swimmer from a rip tide. This is true sacrifice. These people lost their lives for another. Jesus left the glories of heaven to live in this horrible world for thirty-three years. Then he died that horrible agonizing death on the cross for sinners to be saved. He sacrificed his life for us.<\/strong><\/p>\nSomeone with heaps of money tossing a small gift to someone lower on the social ladder isn\u2019t sacrificing anything\u2014it\u2019s just a \u201cgood work.\u201d If the giver isn\u2019t killing or destroying something of their own to give <\/strong>a gift\u2014it\u2019s not a sacrifice.<\/strong><\/p>\nNow to the famous Romans 12:1 \u201cI beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, <\/strong>which is<\/em> your reasonable service.\u201d If we are going to be \u201ca living sacrifice,\u201d it\u2019s going to cost something. Something must be killed or destroyed. Could it be the greed to attain a special something, or the love of more money to work more hours, or the desire to move up the social ladder? To be a sacrifice, something must be destroyed\u2014it must hurt. The giver\u2014in the flesh\u2014would probably gringe and be aggravated. Remember, it\u2019s important how we give.<\/strong><\/p>\nII Corinthians 9:7 \u201cEvery man according as he purposeth in his heart, <\/strong>so let him give<\/em>; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.\u201d In my life, I\u2019ve had the blessed privilege of knowing only a few people who truly understood what it meant to sacrifice and help others, and they\u2019ve done it with a cheerful heart, where the receiver didn\u2019t feel bad for taking something they gave. They sacrificed for another. They did it sincerely, cheerfully, because they loved their Lord, and both giver and receiver were blessed. I remember crying over an envelope given to me by a dear friend, now with her Saviour, that had several dollars in it. It wasn\u2019t the amount that I cried over, but the fact that I knew that amount had cost my dear friend to go without some things so that I could have a few things I needed. That\u2019s sacrifice. That\u2019s what Jesus did for us on the cross. He gave us so that we could have something we needed\u2014eternal life in heaven.<\/strong><\/p>\nIt is my thought that not until the modern-day Christians truly learn what it means to sacrifice and learn what it means to \u201cfill each heart with Thy love\u201d and to fill their hearts with their love towards their Saviour, Revival will never come to the churches. It\u2019s not too late. Until God calls us home, it\u2019s never too late. However, if he calls us home tomorrow, it could be too late for the neighbor, friend, or co-worker, or family member who never got saved because Christians never grasped what it meant to be a \u201cliving sacrifice\u201d<\/strong> and loose some time or money to talk to someone about Jesus.<\/strong><\/p>\nRevive Us Again by William MacKay, (public domain)<\/strong><\/p>\n1 We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love\u2014
\nfor Jesus, who die, and is now gone above.<\/p>\n
Refrain:
\nHallelujah! Thine the glory! Hallelujah! Amen!
\nHallelujah! Thine the glory! Revive us again.<\/p>\n
2 We praise Thee, O God, for Thy Spirit of Light
\nwho has shown us our Savior and scattered our night. [Refrain]<\/p>\n
3 All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain,
\nwho has borne all our sins and has cleansed ev’ry stain. [Refrain]<\/p>\n
4 Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love.
\nMay each soul be rekindled with fire from above. [Refrain]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I pondered this word since reading a devotion. Over the years, to me, it\u2019s become evident as people dwell in their \u201ccieled houses\u201d and … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[428,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonbeamsandshadows.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}