Thankful

Romans Chapter 12 verse 1 tells us, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship." This has always been a very challenging scripture to me and I think even more so in the days we live in. When I think of the majority of people in India, they live day to day, many traveling miles each day just to carry water for the family use, with no transportation other than their feet and no guarantee that there will be food for that day. There are 150 million children working in sweat shops, and many never do anything else the rest of their lives.

As I think about these things, I realize how ungrateful I can be and how forgetful I am of God's great mercy. But for the mercy of God I would be struggling to survive in India!

How do I respond to the scripture "in view of God's mercy?" How do I make myself a "Living Sacrifice?" I have two ways that I can respond to this scripture: I can give God a Guilt Offering (Leviticus 5:1-19) or a Thank Offering (Exodus 29:39-41.) The difference between the two offerings is that one (guilt offering) is obligatory and the other (thank offering) is a freewill offering.

God no longer wants or requires guilt offerings from me because Jesus paid it all so my response should be a thanksgiving offering of myself to God.
As I see our son Benjamin and as each of us see our children, we are often perplexed by the fact that they take their blessings for granted. It has been my experience that if our children are not thankful, it is because we the parents are not thankful to God and we do not live a life of thankfulness to God.

Children are wonderful that way; often, the way they behave is a reflection on the way we behave because they learn their behaviors somewhere. Thank you, Father, for your great mercy that does not give me what I deserve and thank you for your great grace that gives me eternal life, that which I do not deserve.

Father, I thank you for our friends who support us in our ministry because of your grace working in their lives. May our partnership bring glory to Your name and fruit for eternity!