Thanks so much for stopping by for our Coffee Hour! I’m truly excited that you’re here! So last week I started a new series, Thinking out Loud Thursdays and it was about peace. We actually did have quite a response to it, but I haven’t been able to ask if we could post that response on the blog, so hopefully we can pick up with that next week. But the good news is we can continue on with our big dig in our search for all the ingredients of joy, and we left off with a sacrifice of joy and how it all ties in as far as us in the world today. Grab your coffee and come on in, with your shovels!
In my research for deeper understanding as to the term of “a sacrifice of joy,” I came upon the verse we talked about yesterday, 1st Peter 2:5 wherein Peter is succinctly sharing to his fellow believers then, as well as to us here and now, that when we come to accept Christ as our Savior, we become one of the priests in the priesthood, aka, a member of the family of Christ, part of the Bride (church) of Christ. So each one of us are priests! Really? Okay, I’ll tell on myself here: I’ve always thought the term “priest” was associated to being a Catholic and declaring celibacy for all the days of your life, in addition to being completely devoted to Christ, of course. But here, in 1st Peter, God, through Peter, is declaring that each one of us is a priest in the Royal Priesthood!
Okay, stay with me now because I’m about to get to the sacrifice part, which began in the Old Testament days wherein priests would offer up sacrifices for themselves and for their people – whew, I bet they were extremely thankful when that responsibility was taken from them by and through the Ultimate Sacrifice!
Once the Ultimate Sacrifice was made, the New Testament church, meaning all of us, received the direction to offer up spiritual sacrifices and this is where this gets super exciting. Why? Because it’s something we can do! It’s not bloody and gory, but these types of sacrifices are obtainable … for a cost! Yup, I said there’s a cost so let’s do some digging to see what all it’s going to cost us to offer up a sacrifice of joy.
According to the New Testament each one of us has the obligation of offering up not one but seven sacrifices! Something tells me after we get through each one of them we are going to understand this term, “a sacrifice of joy” a lot better.
The first one is found in Hebrews 13:15: “By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.” So sacrifice number 1 is praise. Why do suppose that “praise” is a sacrifice?”
Well, I know when I’m feeling like picking up my broom and flying around the room, and maybe even leaving home with it, to just stop and actually say the name Jesus, and begin to think upon things that are noble, whatever is lovely, things that are true takes a real act of discipline. In fact, it sometimes feels like pulling the reigns in on a wild horse that refuses to listen to direction!
As a matter of fact, this very thing just happened the other day as we were trying to get some last minute things done before leaving for the long drive to pick up our little four-year-old grandson for a three-week visit, a long overdue visit, I might add. As the minutes ticked away, my husband’s warning that I better be on time and ready to go at 10:00, not 10:01 got louder and closer as if it were reverberating right in my ear. And then I began to get really irritable, downright grumpy, and I started to pick a fight with him because he wasn’t helping me by doing something the way that I thought he should. I mean, he was helping me but making a complete mess while he was at it! And I let him know it! Ugh… I get so disgusted with myself sometimes and disillusioned at how ugly I can be!
But let me tell you, my emotional thermostat was about to explode and I was headed for that broom and was about to leave home and tell him to go by himself. But greater is He that is in me than he who is in the world. [1st John 4:4] I actually stopped slamming things around and swiping at the counter fast and furiously long enough to say the name Jesus, and you know what? That was a form of praise to His ears! I came to my senses almost immediately! Oh, how I thank God for His merciful reminders of who I am in Him, how far I’ve come, and all that I’ve learned, because I stopped what I was doing after I received a little tap-tap in my conscience that echoed down into my heart, and I explained to my husband, “It’s not you; it’s me.”
Of course he had to have a smart retort and I almost fell for the enemy’s plot to have me strike another match in the now smoldering fire and give him a “WHATEVER!” But I didn’t. In my mind, I just remember asking for Jesus to intervene so I wouldn’t make a mess of things, thanking Him for loving me enough to not let me continue in my flesh without a conscience choice. I began to explain to my husband that while I was so looking forward to seeing our little guy, I was also nervous about how he would receive us, if he was looking forward to coming home with us for a few weeks, and I also expressed a reality that I’m trying to wrestle with: the work of it all!
Immediately I felt better; it didn’t solve what I was having all the anxiety about, but it put me in touch with it and I vocalized it by sharing it, risking my husband’s disapproval. It was out there on the counter so I could look at it and deal with it and become better equipped to get through it.
You know what? It worked. He actually, not right away, but within minutes, said, “I understand!”
My mouth dropped and I actually said, “You do?”
“Yeah, I get it.”
My heart immediately filled with praise, which calmed my spirit and I was able to chill out and remember that whatever God brings me to, He’ll bring me through. He honored my tiny, tiny, tiny sacrifice of praise and turned it into a jinormous praise party within me!
Join me next week for the other six sacrifices, which include a sacrifice of joy!
Joyfully,
Evinda
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