When Jesus tells us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him , the cross becomes the symbol of our death to self, in that our lives no longer belong to us…
(Translated, this means that as followers of Christ, we must learn to surrender our ALL to GOD!)
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Good News Translation
19 Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; 20 he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God’s glory.
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The Christian’s body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.
When we are born-again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our bodies and they become a holy place for the dwelling of God’s special presence.
That the Holy Spirit resides in believers points to the new nature of believers’ bodies.
Believers’ bodies are sanctified and holy, being in union with Christ.
Paul also reminded the Corinthians that they did not have rights to their own bodies.
They were not free to use their bodies any way they wished.
He insisted that Christ bought them at a price—His own blood.
As a slave was bought in the ancient world, Christ bought His followers, body and soul, through the price of His own death.
Because they belong to Him, believers do not have the right to rebel against Him by using their bodies in ways the Lord has prohibited.
Further, because this purchase results in redemption and salvation, it ought to inspire grateful obedience, not rebellion.
In this reminder, Paul chastised the Corinthians and pleaded with them to obey Christ eagerly and thankfully.
Verses 20 tells us that we are the Lord’s both by creation and redemption.
Here the latter is particularly in view. His ownership of us dates back to Calvary.
We were bought at a price. At the cross, we see the price tag which the Lord Jesus put on us.
He thought us to be of such value that He was willing to pay for us with the price of His own precious blood.
How greatly Jesus must have loved us to bear our sins in His body on the cross!
That being the case, I can no longer think of my body as my own.
If I am to take it and use it in the way I desire, then I am acting as a thief, taking that which does not belong to me.
Rather I must use my body to glorify God, the One to whom it belongs.
SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Monday, February 24
The Winning Walk
by Dr Ed Young
GIVE YOURSELF FIRST
Paul held up the Christians at Macedonia as an example to his Corinthian friends.
The Macedonians (who had little) had given liberally to the Jerusalem church…and the Corinthians (who had much more) had promised aid, but done nothing.
But Paul’s most convicting description of these generous believers was not about money, but about heart. “They first gave themselves,” he said.
God is not honored when we “tip” Him with our money but withold from Him our selves.
The gift without the giver is bare. Those Macedonian givers climbed into the offering plate with their gift.
They didn’t just nod at God with a few coins…they put their very lives at His disposal.
What a radical act of faith! Jesus illustrated this best when He instructed His disciples to “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s…and to God the things that are God’s.” Well, what is God’s? We are!
Jesus picked up a coin to drive home His point, saying, “Whose picture is on this coin?”
They answered the obvious: “Caesar’s.”
What has God’s picture on it? You and I do. We are made in the image of God, and His picture is etched on your life and mine in an indelible way.
When we give ourselves along with our gifts, our offering is sacrificial, spontaneous and spiritual. And we can be sure that God is honored by it.
Memory Verse
II CORINTHIANS 8:5
And this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us.
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