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News and views from the German-language region of Europe

April 5, 2014

Our offering for God

Filed under Sabbath Thoughts

At this time of year we are reminded of offerings for God.

Soon we will be observing the Passover, commemorating the sacrifice of our Saviour, and keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the two annual Sabbaths during that Feast, as well as on the five following annual Sabbaths this year, we will be taking up an offering.

What is our most important offering for God? Is it the content of the envelope that we give on each of the seven annual Holy Days?

Our greatest offering for God is our life! The apostle Paul exhorted Christians in Rome concerning this sacrifice:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1).

Paul dedicated his life completely to Christ's service in preaching of the gospel and caring for the church, which he viewed as his life's offering: "Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain" (Philippians 2:14-17).

Referring to His impending death, Jesus told His disciples: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13).

Jesus "lay down" His life for us not only through His death, but also through His entire life, that He lived as "Immanuel" as a human being on the earth. His entire life was an offering.

Jesus doesn't expect us to do anything that He was unwilling to do Himself (John 13:13-16).

It is only right and fitting that we offer our body – our life – as a sacrifice for God. Paul wrote: "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

The purchase price paid for us was the blood of Jesus Christ (Acts 20:28). We commemorate that event in just a few days when we keep the Passover.

With these thoughts I wish everyone a rewarding Sabbath!

Paul Kieffer's blog with personal insights and news from the German-language region in Europe.

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