Have you ever given up something that you felt was important but deemed something else was even more important in the long run?
For instance, giving up single life to get married. Or your freedom as a married person to have a child.
I was talking to my son Rick on the phone the other night. He and his wife have no children of their own so they have just now started fostering a little boy that is in desperate need of loving parents that will help guide and nurture him.
Rick and Heather are just beginning their journey into something unknown to them up until now. And what it will take to be parents. They have already started to sacrifice things that are important to give this child a home. And they are happy to do it for him. Because life is not just about them, but it about taking on something greater than themselves. And we were talking about the sacrifices that have been needed to do that.And those which will come as this young boy becomes more and more a part of their family.
With that in mind, I wanted to give you a short synopsis of some of the sacrifices that were made to God in the Old Testament.
There were three voluntary sacrifices.
The first sacrifice: the burnt offering was an act of worship to express devotion to God and to atone for unintentional acts of sin. Animals used in this sacrifice were either a bull, a bird or a ram that had no blemishes. The meat, organs, and bones were completely burned and offered to God.
It was a very personal experience for the offerer. And the animal was killed for the general state of the offeror's sinfulness and to atone for his unintentional sinfulness. These sacrifices were given each morning and evening as well as on other occasions. And this sacrifice was the most common in Israel.
For more information on this sacrifice please visit https://bible.org/seriespage/2-law-burnt-offerings-leviticus-11-17 and/ or
https://www.gotquestions.org/Old-Testament-sacrifices.html as well as Leviticus Chapter 1.
After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the old law was abolished and man did not need to offer to God burnt offerings for their sins. Jesus did that for us on the cross. Just as the burnt offerings were a personal experience for the Israelites in the Old Testament, so are the offers of prayer and praise to God today. God loves it when we spend time praying to him and praising him. Asking him to forgive us for our sin is a part of what we can now do instead. And thank God we have that way of offering up our sacrifices to him today.
I found this on a site today and had to copy it. Please pass it on.
Thanks for coming by and I hope you will come back tomorrow for another word on Sacrifice. Have a wonderful day and be a blessing to someone!
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