Episode 81: Our Daily Living and Holy Sacrifice

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit forever. Amen.

Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

Christ, the light of the world and the life of all.

Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by your

knowledge. Sanctify our souls by your

truth, and grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

fulfil your commandments at every hour.

O you who enlightens the rationale with the knowledge of

your greatness, do enlight, O my Lord, our thoughts that we may

meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times,

O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

Amen. When we leave the church on a

Sunday after having offered our praise, our worship, our

confession and oblation, that is the Qurbana, the sacrifice

without blood, we feel as though we've done our tour of duty for

our Christian life, right? Our relationship with God, our

love, our respect, our obedience to Jesus Christ and His church,

Right. We feel that that's it.

I've done my I've done my duty. We become that one or two or

three hour Christian for that week.

That's what we actually allude to when we claim that I go to

church every Sunday. The exercise of going to church

must not be limited to or pertain to a mere one day a

week, namely Sunday Body Physically Experience.

We must be engaged in a living body, mind and soul experience

of the Church. And that on all the days of the

week, going back to our opening statement, that is what we offer

during church service on a Sunday, namely in the body.

Because half the time our minds have drifted away, our spirit is

somewhere else and our soul is yearning for food.

Saint Paul encourages that this act or Christian obligation of

offering should be a living one, should be alive.

It should be continuous, daily, and not only physically, but

rather spiritually and mentally. Our scripture verse is Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, verse one. I beseech you, Paul writes.

I beseech you therefore, my brethren, by the mercies of God,

that you may present your bodies living sacrifices.

Now this is after he warns the Gentiles in Rome in Chapter 11,

verse 21, that if God did not show pity upon the natural

branches, that is the Israelites, the Jews, surely he

will not show pity upon you. That means don't boast, don't

take face. He then beseeches that they

offer a bodily sacrifice, let's put it that way.

But a living bodily sacrifice, That's not.

That's not it. It's.

There's more to it, but just be patient.

Now let's take these verses upon ourselves.

Saint Paul is talking to you and I.

Which body is he talking about, beloved?

Well, your body that was fashioned in your mother's womb

by God. Psalm chapter 139, verse 13.

Psalms 139:13

Because you have prepared my kidneys, That is you, O God,

have prepared my kidneys, and you have carried me from the

womb to my mother. Your body that was presented to

the Lord on the eighth day after your birth in order to remove

the old man which is corrupted by deceitful desires.

Hence the signing of the cross from the bottom to the top which

denotes A circumcision, a taking off.

When the priest signs the child, he signs from the bottom going

upwards. And there's a reference to that

in Luke chapter 2, verse 21. Our Lord Jesus Christ, When the

Luke 2:21

8th day were completed that the boy that is Jesus should be

circumcised, his name was called Yeshua Eshua Jesus, which he was

called by the Angel before he would have been conceived in the

womb. It's the same thing beloved,

when we bring the child and offer him to the Lord after

eight dates. Rushma Marshanta Colossians

Colossians 2:21

chapter 2, verse 21. And you are circumcised in him

in Jesus Christ, by circumcision, that is, without

hands in the putting off of the body of sin, by the circumcision

of the Messiah, Christ to be named, to be signed, to be set

apart. So that body, Saint Paul is

talking about that body that was presented to the Lord.

To receive this gift from the prayer of the Rushmore of the

signing, the priest recites. Your grace has gathered him or

her in the life giving net, which is the Church, and will

lay him or her in the holy vessel of absolving baptism.

That from there he or she may be born with a new and a spiritual

birth. See the liturgy of the Church is

all biblical. Paul is talking about your body

which was buried, which was put to death with him with Jesus

Christ in baptism into death. Romans 64 clothed with Christ.

Galatians 327 That is becoming the child of God, that body.

Four, says SJC. That is Saint John Chrysostom.

If Christ is the Son of God and you put him on having the sun

inside yourself and being made like him, you have been made

one. Listen to this in kind and form.

Wow. God created man, our race in his

image and his likeness through baptism.

The children of God through Christ receive the kind and form

of Christ. That's why we are called

Christians. We are Christs on earth just as

we are gods. We are divine.

We become Christians through Christ.

That body, beloved, the body which is dead, signed in front

of the altar of God and receives the Holy Spirit in its fullness.

That body, your body. Hence the confirmation of the

adoption of sonship in baptism, just as the Holy Spirit ascended

onto Jesus Christ after his baptism in Luke, chapter 3,

Luke 3:21–22

verses 21 to 22, you receive that confirmation, the laying on

of the hand. Hu Tama, we say confirmation.

And you receive that body that receive the fullness of the Holy

Spirit. Yes, yes, that body.

That body that you prepared for a specific occasion this

morning. Look at it.

Look at it in the mirror. If you are in front of the

mirror. If not, if you're driving, pull

aside. Tilt the rear view mirror and

look at it. Stop your vacuuming, give or

stop and look in the mirror that body.

Do that for a few seconds. Yes, that body Paul is talking

about. What do you see there?

What do you see here in the mirror?

Is it offered as a living sacrifice and not a one time

slaughter to die? No, not a one time suicidal

sacrifice. No, not like the animal

sacrifices. They were killed and eaten and

finished. No, this is supposed to be a

living sacrifice, not the one Time Duhrana food serving

service that once a year you do at church.

No, this is a continual, consistent, sequential offering

of sacrifice. Let me ask you, and please be

honest with yourself, OK? I'm going to give you a few

seconds to prepare yourselves and promise me that you will be

honest with yourselves. Did you pray this morning?

Where were you last night? What were you doing last night?

What were you watching last night?

Would you classify that it was a sacrifice, holy and pleasing to

God? Well, everything that I said is

done with the body and the body parts.

I'm going to leave that to your conscience and honesty with

yourself. Now you may be asking, how does

the body become a sacrifice? St.

John Chrysostom writes. Let the eye look on no evil and

it has already become a sacrifice.

This is what the the members are not to do.

The members of the body are not to do.

This is what we are not to do with our body.

The eyes look on no evil thing, and it already has become a

sacrifice. Let the tongue say nothing

filthy, and it has become an offering.

Let your hand do nothing evil, and it has become a hole burnt

offering. But even this is not enough, for

we must have good works also. And he continues, the hand must

do arms charity. The mouth must bless those who

curseth and the ease must find time to listen to the reading of

scriptures. And he concludes sacrifice

allows of no unclean thing. It is the first fruits of all

other actions. Okay.

Okay. Relax, relax.

I know, I know. Yeah, I'll be you.

You're you're repeating yourself.

You've quoted this already in other episodes.

Fine. Sure.

Yes. I admit, I stand corrected.

But let me ask you, what did you do with this quotation?

Has it been active, alive. Or was it only during the

listening of the episode where you shook your head and say,

yeah, yeah, that's right, Or maybe at best for a few hours,

hours after listening? Now, Saint Paul doesn't stop at

sacrifice, but expands and includes the adjective, a holy

sacrifice off the bat. Since our bodies are a temple of

the Holy Spirit, what is performed by it, how it is being

portrayed, et cetera, must be our offering of the sacrifice

that is holy, meaning. Set apart for the glory of God,

Set apart for the pleasure of God, set apart to serve God,

used only for the glory of God. Just as our Church temples well,

our altars, our altars are consecrated, set apart for the

service of the Lord, the Sacramento service of the Lord.

Just as the Lambs were offered to God, they were unblemished

and pure, just as Jesus, the Lamb of God, with a definite

article. The there's no other lambs,

beloved. Only Jesus Christ is.

The pleasing Lamb of God was holy and undefiled.

We too our sacrifices with our bodies must be holy and under

filed. There must be a holy and under

filed body that will offer that sacrifice which will be pleasing

to God. So another question.

Your entire body, your entire anatomy, the members of your

body. How, For what and where are they

being utilized? Now that's talking about body.

What about the spirit and the mind?

Well, Saint Paul continues to say that our living, quote UN

quote, living, continual daily sacrifice of the body is one

that is acceptable to God by a logical or a rational service.

That is a service of our soul, our spirit, our behaviour, our

spirit and rational sacrifices in the true faith which we offer

during the Divine Liturgy. And that is what we offer during

the Divine Liturgy. The the celebration of the

Divine Liturgy. Look at what the priest prays

and you hear. It is our hearts being sprinkled

and claims from an evil conscience.

There's one body part, my heart. God Who?

Who purges the heart? Our hearts being sprinkled and

cleansed from an evil conscience.

May we be made worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies.

Not physically we've done it physically, but imitating the

spiritually. That means let our sacrifices,

our service with a pure heart, attend and be present before

your throne, that is in the Kingdom of heaven, the High and

Exalted, and in purity, excellence and holiness.

May we stand before your holy altar and offer to you spiritual

and rational sacrifices in the true faith, the Orthodox faith.

See, these are all Scriptural, Beloved.

So the sacrifice of the mind of the soul now is our worship.

John chapter 4, verse 24, Jesus states it for God is a spirit

John 4:24

and they that worship him should worship him in spirit and in

truth. The liturgy, the order.

But this beloved is not to be a one time service and offering at

church for a couple of hours. Keep this in mind, it must be a

living, a continual a daily offering.

In verse two of Romans chapter 12, Paul now continues.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And do not, after we offer this body as a holy and pleasing

sacrifice, We are not to imitate this world, but be transformed

by the renovation of our minds. And we should distinguish what

is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

What is the pattern of this world?

What is, I'm sorry, what is imitating what of the world?

The fashion of the world. The pattern of the world.

Saint John Chrysostom rights, which is groveling.

It's creeping. The world is creepy.

Beloved, don't for a second wait and anticipate and believe that

the world would change. I was preaching this on

Wednesday in in the in the the Eucharistic service.

Let us not for a second thing that one day the superpowers,

the United nation, the governments, those who hate

Jesus Christ, those who don't accept Jesus to be the Son of

God. One day everyone will accept it

unless God then forcefully permits this or bring brings

this into fruition. But it won't.

The world is creepy. It's worthless and temporal.

That's why it will end. It will melt.

And if you don't think so, then you need to have a mind

renovation. Beloved, if you think the world

is it, it is ultimate. It is the best.

It is the best that we can receive.

Well then you will not be able to distinguish what is the good,

acceptable and perfect will of God.

Let me give you an example, beloved.

Now since we're discussing a living sacrifice of the body,

let me give you an example in a question form.

Listen to this very carefully and I hope it doesn't offend and

disappoint and cut a few people. And if it does, I'm not sorry,

just as Paul writes, I'm not sorry to grieve to this point.

I just pray that that grievance and disappointment then produces

repentance, enhancing your body, that is various body parts for

the sole purpose of beauty, glamour and attraction in any

way, shape or form and not for medical reasons.

You must imply that you are not content with how God created

fashioned your body. You are basically implying that

God got it wrong. How can you tell me?

How can you justify that it is a living and holy sacrifice?

You know what I'm talking about. And I don't want to go too

specific as they may be underage listeners, but let me put it

this way. We're talking about sacrificing

your body, the body members enhancement, enlarging pills and

procedures. That's what I'm talking about.

Yeah, right. Holy and pleasing sacrifice to

God, aren't they? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Tisk. Tisk, tisk.

No. Beloved for glamour and beauty.

Well, Proverbs chapter 31, verse 30 states beauty is false,

Proverbs 31:30

beauty is false and favour is empty.

But a woman or a man that is in the awe of the Lord God, he or

she will be praised. We need a renovation of the mind

in order to discern the will of God and not appease the view of

man. We have that tool beloved, and

that tool the mechanism lack. The better term is discernment.

We have that spirit of discernment through the Holy

Spirit. We have that gift and that Holy

Spirit that you received in baptism.

We spoke about that previously, that Holy Spirit that Christ

sent from the Father to grant us the wisdom, the knowledge, the

strength, the discernment, the prudence.

John Chapter 14, verse 26. Jesus states but the Comforter,

John 14:26

the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, He will

teach you everything, and He will remind you of all that I

say to you. He will remind you of this

episode when you want to enhance, when you want to

glamorize and beautify for glamour and beauty purposes.

I'm not talking about medical purposes.

Now you know what I think that is a a lentil, not lentil.

A lentil. A psalmer and a prayer point.

A psalmer and a prayer point. Lord, grant me the discernment

while attempting to offer my body as a living and holy

sacrifice, grant me the discernment.

So once again, I'll leave you with this.

Go back to that mirror, beloved. Look at it and ask yourself, how

is this vehicle you want to call it?

This living Organism, this body, this soul, this spirit, this

mind that is within the body? How is it being offered?

As a sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to

God. Praise be to the name of the

Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

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Until next time, God bless you all.