Baptized to Become an Offering
The best offering you can make to God is a surrendered heart willing to receive and share His love.
"They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering...the burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out...These are the regulations for the grain offering: Aaron’s sons are to bring it before the Lord, in front of the altar...These are the regulations for the sin offering...it is most holy.”
Leviticus 6:5, 9, 13-14, 25
In one passage we see examples of different types of offerings. Guilt, burnt, grain, and sin. There is a tension between intention and obedience. God intends the offerings to be part of a process that draws people closer to Him and to holiness. The challenge is in the process of obedience the offerings could easily become routine and lose the purpose behind the action.
What are the patterns of your life? Is there any place you have fallen into routines where you have lost the power of the practice? Do you ever think I need to pray more, read the bible more, go to church more, do more good, or some other well intentioned practice that feels less life giving and more feeling like a failure for not doing what you feel you should have done? It may be time to simplify your life and focus on the love of the savior.
“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day...Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.”
Psalms 96:1-4, 6, 8-9, 13
There is a freshness to following Jesus and the life of faith that should permeate your soul. David says sing a new song. Praise and proclaim salvation. Worship the splendor of his holiness.
The very state, holiness, that offerings are meant to bring each of us to is in the very character of who God is. When we focus on spending time with God we will naturally experience the radiance of His holiness warming our souls. The goal is intimacy with God. Experiencing His love and allowing His love to transform our hearts. How much time have you spent worshipping God and dwelling in His presence today?
“Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love. My beloved is mine and I am his"
Song of Songs 2:4, 16
The Bible is a love story. God loving you and an invitation for you to love Him back. Picture the time in your life that you have felt most loved. Think of the person who has been most loving. Jesus wants to be even closer and love you with an even deeper, unconditional, perfect, eternal love. His voice calls out to you. You are His beloved. Have you ever said out loud. Lord Jesus, I am your beloved, and you are mine? Offering your heart is the greatest offering you can make to Him.
“In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘I will break the yoke off their necks and will tear off their bonds; no longer will foreigners enslave them. I am with you and will save you,’ declares the Lord...who will devote himself to be close to me?’ declares the Lord. “So you will be my people, and I will be your God.’ ”
Jeremiah 30:8, 11, 21-22
Everything with the Lord is relational and personal. Can you see what God does not say? He does not say you will be my people if you are perfect. He does not say you will be my people if you pray enough, read the Bible enough, give enough, have perfect church attendance, or check the boxes on what's right and wrong.
God declares you will be my people and I will be your God. He wants to set you free to know how much you are loved and how life with Him is better than anything you can imagine.
“So there was great joy in that city. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit...Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him."
Acts 8:1, 4-5, 7-8, 15-17, 29-31, 35-36, 38-39
What does a heart that love God look like? We see in the book of Acts, people who are walking out their belief that they are loved by Jesus. They offer up their very lives worshipping God by sharing the love they have received. Peter and John bring healing and hope. They give the gift of love and power of the Holy Spirit to all who would receive.
Philip, led by the Holy Spirit that he received, encounters a complete stranger and in the process baptizes a soul for all eternity into the family of God. The Ethiopian is so overwhelmed that he wants to be baptized immediately. Imagine all the lives he touched with the joy he felt after receiving the love of God through Philip.
There is not anything that they did that you cannot do. The question is how will you respond to the love of Jesus Christ? Will you offer up your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength to Him? You are baptized with in the name of Jesus and given the Holy Spirit so that you would become love to the world around you. He is leading you to a banquet of love and hope you bring as many guests as you can.