Rick continues his reflections on his recent trip to Moldova. You can read part one here and part two here.

An assignment I required for my class was to write on one of the five main sacrifices in Leviticus.  One of my students chose the peace offering found in Leviticus 3 and 7.  The following is a portion of life application he discovered from his study.  He wrote:

“By His mercy and grace, through His death on the cross and the resurrection on the third day, He rescued me from God’s wrath and the slavery of sin, to make me an agent of righteousness.

All I am and all I have belongs to Him.  My talents and my abilities and all my resources were given to me so that I could be a living sacrifice to the pleasure of God.

There is nothing else to make me more happy than to know that I belong to God, and that I can serve Him and other people, motivated by love and compassion, and not by fear, guilt or duty.

Growing up in an orphanage taught me to be a selfish taker…being a part of God’s family taught me to be a cheerful giver.”

Most of the students at the seminary were raised in dysfunctional homes.  Often one parent is an alcoholic and has abandoned the family.  Children are left to orphanages…and fend for themselves by the age of 16.  They have a difficult time accepting what it means to be part of a family and to call God, “Father”.

Yet here is a God, before whom angels continuously cry, “holy, holy, holy”, rescuing us from bondage to sin and tearing asunder the veil that separated us from Him…because of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

Jesus’ blood cleanses us…consecrates us…protects us from being “devoured”…granting us bold access into the holy presence of God.   Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

It was a privilege to stand before a class of new creations…teaching them about a holy God who by glorious nature cannot be approached other than the provision of a substitutionary Life…placing us into His family and transforming us from being selfish takers into cheerful givers.

Written by Rick Pierson, Executive Director of CompassGlobal