Sacrificial Life

 Spent some time with two of my amazing Aunts this past weekend.  (I have many amazing Aunts!) 

I am so appreciative of the hospitality...it got me thinking.

One gave up her room,  her bed and bathroom for six of us to sleep. They both gave up their routine and peacefulness of the house for the time we were there.

The sacrifice of people is humbling, gives a person a warmth, a feeling of being loved and valued. 

And I know there a many examples of sacrifice. 

Every day small sacrifices; giving up your seat on the train, those who give their vacation days and or pay to those who are need at their place of work, giving your meal to someone more in need. You can think of many others, I am sure, of people who sacrifice their time and resources to those who need.

Then there are those who are willing to give their lives

Soldiers, Missionaries, and the other services where people are willing to step up for those they don't even know. Some sacrifice a comfortable, safer life to protect, serve or minister.

Jesus said

📖 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command. John 15:12-14

What makes Christ's sacrifice greater than all the rest?

Any sacrifice here is for those we serve; an individual, a people group, maybe even for a country.

But Christ's sacrifice was for all, for all time.

📖  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. Romans 6:10

 📖  Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered  and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

His blood was the payment for all sin...even for those who chose to reject Him and His sacrificial love. Hebrews 5

📖 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Hebrews 10:10

Our sacrifices, no matter what they cost us, are just our expression of His love for us. We are "paying it forward " in a way that we can.  It allows us to try and be more like Him. 

🙏🏼Lord, I pray that we can live a life of sacrifice, sacrifice that points to Him and His great sacrifice. ❤️