NO BIBLE NO BREAKFAST DAILY BIBLE REFLECTIONS AND MORE

JOEL 2:12-17 

2 CORINTHIANS 6:1-10 

LUKE 6:16-21 

Ash Wednesday begins the season of lent (40 days of fast, prayers and reflecting on God’s Word in preparation for Easter). It is a day that reminds us that human beings are mere ashes, therefore, we must be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ to have eternal life. Ash Wednesday in some churches is observed by the priest or pastor makes the sign of the cross on the foreheads of the congregants with ash made out of the dry palm fronds of last year’s Palm Sunday. The ashes signify our mortality, weakness and finiteness before God.  Our understanding of Ash Wednesday as mere mortals who must humble ourselves and reconcile to God brings us to the theme for our Ash Wednesday reflection, “Acceptable Sacrifice. Sacrifice by our Christian understanding is following the example of Christ in offering oneself to God as an act of worship and obedience to Him. We shall discuss the following points even as we reflect on the theme: 

1. An acceptable sacrifice must come from the heart. 
2. An acceptable sacrifice is our selfless service by offering our lives or bodies to God regardless of the challenges.  
3. God rewards believers who offer to Him an acceptable Sacrifice.  

Firstly, beloved in the Lord, to offer God an acceptable sacrifice it must come from our hearts. God is not interested in our mere outward display of faithfulness and sacrifice while our hearts are committed to the world and our personal desires. For our sacrifice to be acceptable, we must first of all obey the Lord with our hearts when He said “…return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”  Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:12-13). It is for this reason Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6:12 that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21). In other words, we make sacrifices where our hearts are. The question for us to ponder over is, does your sacrifice of worshipping God comes from your heart or you are only a churchgoer following religious rituals and liturgical orders at church? Do you participate in church activities because you love God with all your heart or do you do so because Sundays are for church but all other days are for personal affairs? 

Secondly, we must understand that it is not enough to declare verbally that we love God from our heart, an acceptable sacrifice must manifest in our selfless service to God regardless of the challenges we face in life. We are mere mortals therefore the only acceptable sacrifice we can give to God is our very bodies or lives. It is, for this reason, Paul demonstrated to the Corinthians the hardships he and the other apostles had to endure or go through as a way of offering themselves as an acceptable sacrifice to God. “We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.  Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;  in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;  known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.” (2 Corinthians 6:3-10). Similarly, Paul admonishes us in Romans 12:1 that “… I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. (Romans 12:1). Dear friend the Lord we must offer our bodies as an acceptable sacrifice to God through prayer, fasting and serve Him by loving Him with “… all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37). Ash Wednesday offers us yet another opportunity to reflect on our service and love for God with all our hearts, souls and minds which forms part of our bodies. Ecclesiastes 12:1 urges us to “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,  before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”. It is also important to add that remember your creator and offer your body or life to Him as a living and acceptable sacrifice before the irrevocable words “dust to dust ashes to ashes” is declared upon your mortal remains when you lie in your grave.  

Thirdly, there is a reward for offering an acceptable sacrifice to God. When you sacrifice what you have, you may become poor and hungry but Jesus makes it unequivocally clear that “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied.” (Luke 6:20-21). In other words, in Jesus’s promise of His reward to those who will offer Him an acceptable sacrifice is that “… everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29). We have been assured and greatly encouraged that our sacrifice all the days of our lives for the Lord shall not go unrewarded. Praise the Lord!  

In summary, Ash Wednesday will be observed by believers all over the world. We must endeavour as believers to offer an acceptable sacrifice that comes from the heart, our acceptable sacrifice must be our selfless service through the offering of our bodies or lives as a living sacrifice to God regardless of the challenges we may face in life, last but not the least, God rewards believers who offer to Him an acceptable Sacrifice. May the Lord strengthen us even as we journey through the season of lent and offer our acceptable sacrifice to Him. Amen. 

Jean-Paul Agidi (Rev)