Tag: paul

Living Sacrifice Day 25 – The Dual Responsibility of a Believer

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading John 17

Romans 12:1-8 is one of those power packed passages. We’ve spent 24 days analyzing it, and we’ve only gotten through the first two verses. If we step back for a minute, we see that there are essentially two parts to this passage of Scripture. It may help that your Bible divides them with a paragraph and maybe a heading as well.

Romans 12:1-2 talks about our personal responsibility as a Christian. Being a 24/7 worshiper, a living sacrifice is something that primarily you will do when no one else is around. It is about integrity and a personal walk with God. And because you are a Believer and have the blood of Christ over you, you are a member of an invisible church, made up of Believers from the past, the present, the future – from the Americas to the far ends of the earth.

The second part of this passage, verses 3-8 deals with our responsibility as a member of the body of Christ. As we’ll see in the upcoming weeks, Paul is talking about how we are to work together with other Believers to use our gifts to serve the Lord. If verses 1-2 talk about our personal responsibility as a member of the invisible church, then verses 3-8 deal with our personal responsibility as a member of the visible church.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian?” Maybe you’ve heard the statement, “Going to church makes you as much of a Christian as going to McDonald’s makes you a hamburger.” Both statements are equally true. There are many Christians who are members of the invisible church but are not part of a visible church. On the other hand, there are people who are involved with the visible church but aren’t members of the invisible church.

Both are important. While God relates with us individually, He is also the Father of a family and will relate to a collective group of Believers. When Jesus poured out His heart in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed for the unity of His children – His disciples. I have three young children, and when I think about them growing up, I hope that they have a close relationship with each other. No father wants to see his children grow apart let alone bicker and argue their whole lives.

Since our Father relates with us all on a personal level, in a sense, the closer we draw to each other, the greater we realize our Father is. Because of our sin and human limitations, we cannot experience everything God has to offer. Someone may experience God as a healer. Someone else may have experienced God as one who forgives the most dismal of past sins. Someone else may experience God speaking to them about a future event. If we don’t share our experiences together, we will tend to see God only as He pertains to us in our limited view. There are always others around us who know more about God, have a stronger relationship with Him, or have had different experiences with our Heavenly Father. When we spend time with each other, we experience God in new and perhaps different ways. We begin to see more of Him.

Our dual responsibility as Believers is to grow personally in our walks with God. Then, we are to share that relationship with other people. We are to encourage our brothers and sisters by telling and exemplifying what God is doing in our lives, and we are to learn and share in their experiences and personal encounters with our Father – the Creator of the world.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 24 – The Desires of Your Heart

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading Matthew 6:19-7:13

Have you ever seen a child throw a temper-tantrum when they didn’t get their way? Have you ever heard someone say, “if you love me, then you would…?” Being human beings, we often associate love with getting what we want. Good news. Jesus tells us that He wants to give us the desires of our heart.

But there’s a catch. Jesus isn’t just throwing Himself at us like some sort of Santa Claus. He wants to give us the desires of our heart, but the catch is that He wants the desires of our heart to be in line with the desires of His heart.

Yes, He does say, “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and ye shall find.” But what else ought we to be seeking? Well, in the Sermon on the Mount that served as today’s reading, before Jesus tells us that He’s going to give us what we seek, He tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God. He explains that “where our treasure is there our heart will be also.” The heart, as Jesus goes onto explain, is the source of our entire selves. All of our thoughts, desires, and actions stem from there. If our heart is in line with God, then everything will fall into place as well. But if our heart isn’t in the right place, then we’re going to treat God like a genie and feed Him our wish list.

The point our Rabbi is making is the Lord is looking to bless people that are seeking after Him. He’s not a reckless God who’s going to give us anything and everything we want just because we want it. If we’re not in line with Him, chances are we’re going to be asking for material possessions and for all the wrong reasons. No, He wants to give us what He wants. But first He wants us to want it.

God knows that we will never have second-thoughts if we follow Him. No one who has tasted the true glory and goodness of God and walked in step with the Master has ever said, “I wish I hadn’t done that.” But on the other hand, we have had plenty of occasions where we’ve gone our own way and now live with those regrets.

God is a gentleman. He doesn’t want to force His desires on our hearts, and so He is patient. He waits for us to want to follow Him, to taste and see that He and His will are good. It reminds me of a story I heard recently about a very successful businessman who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and eventually take over. The son at first had no desire, and so the father did not press the issue any further. But when the son realized how successful and wise his father was, he began to work with him, spend time with him. The more he got to see the business side of his father, the more he understood why he was so successful. The more he experienced the life his father wanted to give to him, the more he desired to live that life and take on that career.

At first, we may stand on the outside and think God’s ways are boring or not fulfilling. But walk with Him for a while, and watch your heart change. Watch yourself be transformed to the likeness of Your Father. That’s when you begin to see His will, and that is when you’ll see how good, pleasing, and perfect of a will it is.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 23 – Knowing the Will of God

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading John 4:4-26

I remember back to my senior year of high school, as I prepared to go to college. I struggled with trying to figure out where God wanted me to go to school and what major he wanted me to have. I thought it was the biggest decision of my life, and I desperately needed to hear the audible voice of the Lord.

We all want to know the will of God. Like the GPS system that sits on our dashboard, we want God to give us turn-by-turn directions. Sometimes He makes it pretty clear for us; sometimes He doesn’t. But the beginning place to knowing the will of God is actually revealed to us in today’s reading.

Once again we find ourselves looking at the story of the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. In this story, we find a woman trying to strike up conversation with Jesus about the differences between Jews and Samaritans and where they worshiped. But Jesus wasn’t interested in talking about that; He wanted to get at the heart of the matter. He wanted to examine her heart. The fact is, she was living in sin. She was a woman who had been married five times and was living with someone who wasn’t her husband. Most likely her reputation proceeded her, which is probably why she was drawing water at a time when no one else would be at the well. She wanted to avoid everyone, and they most likely didn’t want anything to do with her.

What does this story have to do with knowing the will of God? The answer is that knowing the will of God begins with obedience. We will not recognize the Lord’s voice if we are tangled up in sin. If you’re fooling around with someone who isn’t your spouse, don’t think that you’ll be able to hear the Lord giving direction on how to lead your family. Obedience is the key first step. In a sense, Jesus is saying, “Forget about where you worship. God desires people who worship in spirit and truth. Let’s begin with the problem of sin that’s paralyzing your heart.” This was a message from the Lord that we hear in Jeremiah 29:13 and Matthew 15:8, “these are people who honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; they worship Me in vain.”

The Lord is personal. Often times we forget that His relationship is, in a sense, no different than a relationship with a friend. If we want to know what our friend is saying, we need to spend time with them. If we’re hurting them in some way, we’re going to avoid getting closer in our friendship. If we’re holding a grudge against them, we’re not going to want to hear what they have to say. Likewise, our friend probably isn’t going to reveal their secrets to us because we haven’t earned their trust.

Do you want to know the will of God? Is there something in your life where you are anxious to hear from Him? Maybe it’s a big decision and you’re not sure what to do. Maybe He’s silent because He’s waiting for you to draw closer. Don’t just seek Him with your lips. Seek Him with your heart.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 22 – A Fresh Start

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading Hebrews 12:1-13

Being in the IT field, I’ve had people bring their PCs loaded with their problems to me for help. However, the problem I hate dealing with the most is a computer infected with a virus. Having similar experiences myself (before I converted to Mac), it can be the most annoying and difficult problem. Why? Well, depending on the virus, it can really affect the machine. It can cause it to do things involuntarily, keep it from connecting online to prevent you from solving the problem, it can slow down your computer to a crawl, and in general, it just makes your life miserable. Because viruses come out all the time, the anti-virus programs struggle to keep up with them. So, to solve the problem, you first have to find the virus and then hope the anti-virus is up-to-date enough to kill the problem. But depending on the virus, it can be tricky and could take hours to try to figure out if you’ve gotten everything. So, what’s the best solution? The best solution is to reinstall Windows and give your computer a fresh start. As annoying is it is to back up everything, reinstall the operating system, and reload all the programs, it’s amazing at how quickly the computer will run. I’ve had people tell me, “it’s like you gave me a brand new computer.”

This is a good analogy for our lives as Christians. Even in our redeemed state, we are always susceptible to the virus of sin. It can so easily creep into our hearts and cause our whole selves to malfunction. Once sin is in our hearts, our actions can follow suit. What’s inside eventually comes out. No matter how hard you try, sin just doesn’t stay bottled up.

In Romans 12:2, Paul tells us to be different, to renew our minds. Sometimes, we need a fresh start. If we’re really struggling with a particular sin, sometimes we need to get away. That getting away may be in the form of repentance; prayer, meditation, or fasting; encouragement from other believers; or perhaps counseling. We, in a sense, need to be rebooted. When God redeems us, He makes us a new creation. But until we reach heaven, we’re always going to be struggling with the temptations of sin.

In my job, I’m constantly telling people how viruses and spyware work and how to avoid them. “Be careful with what sites online you visit,” I explain. “And when something pops-up, don’t just click on it. In fact sometimes the button that says ‘close’ is a button that will deploy the spyware.” A lot of times, this helps the user from making the same mistake again.

Similarly, Paul tells us to rethink about ourselves. Because when we see ourselves as God’s redeemed, we begin to recognize the traps that Satan uses. We start seeing the places where we are susceptible to his snarls and start to avoid them. I think we will be shocked at what God can do through a creature who is committed to being a living sacrifice. When we’re not slowed down by the viruses of sin, we can run the race marked out for us.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 21 – Free Your Mind

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading Philippians 2:1-16

The Matrix, one of my all-time favorite movies, is about a world within a world known as the Matrix. While the Matrix exists, few people know about it and are simply satisfied with living in the outer world in ignorance. The movie is about a man named Neo, who is invited to see and live inside the Matrix. The rules of the Matrix are different, but he struggles with being confined by the rules of the world he was so used to. Neo’s trainer Morpheus challenges him to stop thinking like a human being and instead tells him to “free your mind.” As the movie progresses, we are dazzled by Neo’s ability, combined with neat special effects, to defy laws of gravity, run up walls, and do all sorts of super-human moves that defy the limits of a human being.

The Matrix has a number of obvious parallels to Christianity, and Neo’s transformation into a new creature inside the Matrix is one of them. Paul tells us, Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Why does the transformation happen by the renewing of your mind?

Here’s why. We’re used to acting a certain way because we’re used to thinking a certain way. When we were an unbeliever we didn’t give credence to God, His divinity, and our place in the Kingdom. If you recall, the first challenge was on getting to know God, and the second challenge was to know our place in His Kingdom. Like Neo, we have to relearn how to act based on our new identity.

There’s a non-smoking commercial campaign airing that depicts people struggling with quitting to smoke. They are so used to lighting up when getting in the car or drinking a cup of coffee, that they struggle to do those activities without a smoke. The point of the commercial is to relearn how to do the other activities like driving and drinking coffee without the crutch of a cigarette.

Being a Believer is similar. We may be used to using bad language, losing our temper, or thinking lustful thoughts. These can be difficult habits to break. Paul is telling us that in order to break these habits we must renew our minds – rethink about who we are and why we exist. This is not easy. If we have lived years losing our temper when things don’t go our way, we have to stop and think about the Lord and who we are as soon as we’re faced with something troubling. If we’re used to thinking a lustful thought every time we see a coworker, then we need to retrain ourselves to honor God with our thoughts.

However, if we can at every moment say, “I exist to glorify God,” then when the temptation arises to revert back to sinful habits, we are more likely to fight it. This isn’t a self-help regiment. This is living up to a standard, up to an identity – we are emulating our Lord Jesus.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 20 – I Don’t Fit In

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading John 15:18-27

Have you ever been around coworkers when the conversation turns raunchy? I can think of a time that happened to me not too long ago at a social get-together. It was awkward to say the least, and it didn’t take me long to realize that I didn’t fit in.

I think if we were all honest with ourselves, we fear that we won’t fit in. We hate being the odd ball standing out. We hate the feeling of standing in the cafeteria with a tray in our hand, looking for a place to sit. We want to be accepted. We don’t like it if people talk about us behind our backs.

There is always a balance between relevance and conformity. When Jesus told us that we would be in the world, He is challenging us to be relevant. I’ve heard it said that a good preacher preaches with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. We don’t want to be so heavenly minded that we do no earthly good. However, the other extreme is worse. If all we want to do is be like everyone else, than we have no identity with Christ.

The temptation to conform to this world happens when we don’t know or we lose sight of our identity with Christ. When we forget about our heavenly citizenship, holding on to our earthly one becomes more prevalent. In John 15:18-19, Jesus told His disciples, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

The truth is we should stand out. We may not need to tell anyone that we are a Christian, but the difference between us and everyone else should be obvious. Whereas the native tongue of the world may be sarcasm and criticism, our language should be encouragement and sincerity. If we are doing just that much, it won’t take long for people to notice a real difference. Consider it a great complement when someone says, “You seem a lot different than everyone else. What’s that about?”

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 that we are both the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We ought to stick out. We ought to feel like we don’t belong. Because if the world loves us and we love being a part of the world, well then it would seem like we belonged to the world.

You may be someone who is struggling with trying to fit in. You want to fit in so bad, that you have found yourself conforming. If that’s the case, let me challenge you to not be afraid of not fitting in. You fit in. It’s just that you don’t fit in to this world. You’re not supposed to, because you fit in to God’s Kingdom.

If you’re one who stands out and may feel lonely, let me encourage you. If you maintain a positive and encouraging attitude, people will flock to you. This world is so abrasive that people are constantly looking for something uplifting. You will quickly become trustworthy – not only on a personal level but on a professional level as well.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 19 – Patterns of this World

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading Psalm 23

Throughout Scripture, us people are often referred to as sheep. Why? Well, sheep tend to follow. In fact, sheep have been known to follow other sheep around trees, creating a non-stopping cycling circle. Or sheep have also been known to follow another sheep right off the side of a cliff. Suddenly being referred to as sheep doesn’t seem very flattering.

The truth is we can be like sheep. The adage “monkey see, monkey do” can sometimes apply to our lives. However, in Romans 12:2, Paul tells us to break the pattern – to stop the endless, mindless cycle of following someone around the tree.

You’ve no doubt heard someone say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Well, we as Christians should not follow this motto. There are patterns in this world; we can see them. There’s patterns of greed, lust, gluttony, self-pity, and the list goes on and on. We see the person who overworks, doesn’t spend time with his family, goes into debt by buying more than he can afford. When that keeps happening around us, that’s called a pattern. That’s sheep following sheep, and Paul says, “don’t follow what they’re doing.”

Sometimes it can be difficult to identify patterns that happen right in our own culture. The other day someone shared with me that often times people drown their lives with all sorts of activities like soccer practice and so forth and neglect spending time with other believers. The difficult thing about this is that it seems so common in our culture to run kids from one practice to another and swamp our lives with all sorts of activities, that it’s difficult for us to identify this as a possible pattern to avoid.

This is why it’s so important to be focused on the Lord. When we live lives of worship, we quickly begin to see the mind of Christ. Having the Spirit give us that insight helps us to identify harmful patterns that we should avoid. It may mean that we aren’t like other people or families. That’s okay. We’re not supposed to be. Those sheep don’t know who their following or where that path will lead. Our eyes are on our shepherd, and He gives us abundant life.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 18 – A Lifestyle of Worship

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by reading John 4:1-26

Being involved in music and worship teams and in traditional and contemporary churches, I’ve heard every possible criticism about music that you could possibly hear. I can still picture the older gentleman, wearing a suit to church, making a serious face as he bellows the words from the hymnal he holds in his hand. He praises the old hymns as great doctrines of theology, while criticizing songs like “Holy is the Lord,” because he’s repeating the same thing over, and over, and over again.

In the other corner, I see the young person, hands raised, signing out the refrain of the contemporary praise song. He criticizes those who sing about the Lord without emotion and says that the hymns of old seem to lack emotion themselves. He rolls his eyes at “We are One in the Bond of Love,” as he mocks the song by singing with a dramatic southern twang.

These are often the arguments in churches that try to appease the traditional and contemporary crowds, and for the first twenty-something years of my life, this was something I constantly heard. But to be honest, arguments about worship styles are nothing new. In the passage we just read, we saw a Samaritan woman who tried to argue with Jesus about worship styles. We even see this earlier in the Bible, as David’s wife Michal rebuked him for being so expressive in public worship.

Yesterday, we redefined the common understanding of worship by analyzing Romans 12:1. We said that “worship is a voluntary activity in response to God’s goodness, predetermined to glorify God – a personal expression of gratitude at any time, at any day that is pleasing to the Lord.”

In the case of Michal and the Samaritan woman, the worship they were referring to were moments of worship, whether they be a physical expression of praise or a sacrifice at the Temple. However, Jesus explains what true worship is – a seeking of the Father in spirit and truth. This is similar to what Paul writes in Romans 12:1 when he uses the phrase – “a spiritual act of worship.”

What Paul is saying is that if we are committed to being living sacrifices, then every moment, of every day is an opportunity for worship. It doesn’t matter what the activity is, as long as its predetermined to glorify God and is something that actually pleases Him. In other words, what Paul and Jesus are saying is that becoming a living sacrifice doesn’t mean merely having moments of worship but rather adopting a lifestyle of worship.

We’re so used to thinking of worship as those moments involving music. That’s what’s been ingrained in our heads. But it’s time to grow out of that thinking and adopt a Romans 12:1 understanding of worship. So, let me challenge you today to make your activities worshipful. What are some things you’re going to do today with an attitude of worship? And how will you begin or continue adopting a lifestyle of worship that will permeate every corner of your life? Those practical things you offer to the Lord are indeed spiritual and acts of worship.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 17 – The Definition of Worship

Justin Hibbard


Prefer to listen to today’s devotional? Click here.

Begin by memorizing Romans 12:1

This is our 17th day of our 40 day challenge of being a living sacrifice. We have meticulously broken down Romans 12:1 in an attempt to understand what it is Paul is teaching us about worship. So, let’s recap.

The words “in light of God’s mercy,” tell us that we should worship God not because we feel like it but because of what He has done for us.

The word “offer” is a keyword that tells us that our attitude in worship should be to give freely rather than feel like it’s an obligation or requirement.

“Your bodies” explains that God wants all of us – not merely our money, our time, or our talent. He wants us to be personally, wholly invested in serving Him.

“Living” is a word that tells us that as long as we are alive, every moment of our life should be dedicated to worshipping the Lord.

“Sacrifice” means that it will cost us. The life of a Believer is a gift that is offered to the Lord – a gift of obedience.

“Holy” means set apart. The discipline of being a living sacrifice, means we set apart the activity and predetermine it to be an act of worship. It means putting God first and foremost in our lives instead of giving Him the leftovers.

“Pleasing to God” compels us that the activity that we are to give to the Lord must please Him, and if we are to offer every activity as worship, then every activity must be something that agrees with His standard of quality and with His taste.

When we put those thoughts together, we come up with this interpretation of Romans 12:1, which may serve as a definition of worship.

“Worship is a voluntary activity in response to God’s goodness, predetermined to glorify God – a personal expression of gratitude at any time, at any day that is pleasing to the Lord.”

Ask yourself – is this my understanding of worship? Is this something that’s incorporated in my life? If we begin to live out a Romans 12:1 understanding of worship, you can bet our lives will be more and more transformed as a living sacrifice to the Lord.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.

Living Sacrifice Day 3 – Motivated by Mercy

Justin Hibbard

When you are in a corporate worship service, what motivates you to worship? Is it the music, the lighting ambiance, the people you are with, or your feelings? Let’s be honest, sometimes those things impact our worship, and sometimes we don’t feel like worshiping at all. Sometimes we want to stand there with our hands in our pockets and say, “I’m so tired” or “I can’t wait to take that Sunday nap” or “I can’t wait for the football game.” Our emotions can lead us down some dismal roads.

That’s why worship shouldn’t be motivated by how we feel. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use our emotions in worship. I’m saying that our emotions shouldn’t dictate when we worship. We shouldn’t wait until we’re in the right environment or have the perfect music to worship. We might be waiting our whole lives.

Paul says in Romans 12:1, “in light of God’s mercy.” In other words, the motivating factor in worship should be God’s goodness. Why? Because it never changes. If our worship depends on our emotions, well, who knows what we might feel like. If it depends on someone’s music, then the music is bound to stop or they might play the wrong note. But God’s mercy, we’re told in Lamentations 3:22-23 “never fail. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness.”

We began our 40 day challenge with focusing on who God is and our place in His Kingdom. That’s the important first step. Now, we are beginning to look at how we should act in our Father’s world.

Today, even right now, whether you feel like it or not, close your eyes and tell God how thankful you are for what He’s done for you. Be motivated to do this just by the very fact of what God has done for you. Tell Him how good He is. Let that be the beginning of your worship today.

Click here to subscribe to get the 40 Days of Living Sacrifice directly in your email.

Missed a day? You can find previous devotionals here.