Every Monday we’ll post something to do with maintaining sexual purity. Hope it helps.
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Wanted: Not Dead But Alive
“I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” – Romans 5:1
Some men, in the middle of severe depression or despair, start crunching the numbers on their life insurance policy and figure they’re more valuable dead than alive. In the midst of a financial struggle, or personal failure of some sort, they think the combination of their absence (“I’m such a nuisance they’d all be relieved if I was gone”) and the insurance payoff (“That would bring in more than I’ll ever make”) would actually improve their family’s life. It’s a twisted, absurd notion, but to the guy drowning in a seemingly hopeless situation, it can look like a solution.
Clearly it’s not. Suicide destroys many lives, not just one, and lays a virtually incurable curse on the shattered loved ones left behind. A sacrificial life may be harder, but it’s of more benefit than an allegedly sacrificial death, because a living sacrifice is a gift that goes on giving. That’s the sacrifice Paul’s commending to the Romans in this verse, and it’s one required of us as well.
Yes, there’s such a thing as literal martyrdom, when someone physically dies for the faith. And heroes sometimes lay down their lives so someone else might live, but these are rarities most of us never face. The average believer is called not to physically give up his life, but to give from it. And when it comes to a believer’s relation to God, that call is considered reasonable, or, more literally a “logical response” to His mercies.
Indeed. I can’t consider His mercy without asking, as David did in Psalm 116:12, “What can I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” The answer Paul gives is sound and practical – Consider your body an instrument through which you sacrificially do God’s will. Use it to serve your neighbor, preach the Word, love your wife and children, and conform to His purposes by resisting what’s unacceptable and investing in what’s right.
The dead sacrifice does nothing but lie there on the altar. The living sacrifice sees all of life as an altar on which to give, serve, obey. So today, in the interest of keeping it clean, I sacrifice by saying “no” to appetites I might rather say “yes” to, and by saying “yes” to acts of service I’d rather, let’s be honest, avoid. There’s a sacrifice that’s of use to him, one He can consider both a son and an instrument, and of whom He can say much more joyfully than did Dr. Frankenstein of his creation, “It’s Alive!” the difference being, of course, that His new creation both lives and gives life in response to His amazing grace.
And, as Paul said, that’s not much to ask.
Comments
Terri | Apr 30, 2012
Hi Joe, I have to comment about what you have posted....My father in law committed suicide and it is horrendously the worst thing a man or woman can do to his family! Big deal about the insurance policy money, they personally destroy everyone around him or her and their descendants when they kill themselves!
My Father in law lost his job for being too successful and they had to many orders to fill and not enough merchandise at the time. The owner, his boss viscously yelled at him, said he would never work again in Chicago as the president of his company or any other...and that cast him into a spiral of depression he would never recover from...then he killed himself after years of depression in 1974.
I explain suicide this way to people...A person that kills themselves, is like a Dad suicide bomber going into his own family and setting off a bomb. It kills the person, and injuries everyone left behind, and possibly kills them....when they themselves commit suicide from their grief of losing their parent. My mother in law, husband, sister in law and brother in law are still personally injured to this day, 38 years later! My sons and nieces bare the injuries of their grandfather, because of the pain, suffering and loss to their parent and grandmother that never heals.
My father in law wasn't there for my husbands graduation from college, to be a proud dad applauding and cheering his son from the bleachers. He wasn't there for our marriage, to celebrate and toast his son and say how proud he was of him. Nor for the birth of our three sons, no grandfather...so sad. He wasn't there to give my husband advice on how to be a father or husband, how to deal with work situations. The heavy burden my husband has had...by having to go it alone, without any male love or leadership. He wasn't there to laugh with us, enjoy holidays, weekends, school events or our children....None of us got to know him as adults, know what he enjoyed doing, learning, family stories....such a huge loss...I pray that none of the men take their lives because of finances!!!!! I would rather be poor and have a husband, then to have money and no husband!!!
Satan comes to steal, rob and destroy (John 10:10 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.) We are made in Gods image, so satan whispers suicide thoughts to destroy Gods wonderful creation of man or woman! I know this, because I have a TBI brain injury, PTSD and health problems from a car accident. I became suicidal from a chemical imbalance and severe pain problems. It was with the right chemicals, and by the grace of God I am still here, and by personally knowing and fighting what suicide does to a family! I'm now enjoying my two granddaughters, the Lord, my sons, husband and friends... I pray that whoever might be suicidal look at things logically, not emotionally through the power of the Holy Spirit!
John H | Apr 30, 2012
Terri, thank you for posting your comments. I've never seriously considered suicide. Sure I've been down enough to contemplate it several times throughout my 49 years on this earth. But about 3 years ago I attended a funeral of a coworker of 25 years. He'd committed suicide. Hands down... The most heart wrenching expirience of my life. Witnessing what he had done to those he left behind radically changed any thoughts I've ever had about suicide.
Peace to you and yours in Christ.
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