I haven't been hungry since Thanksgiving. Not really hungry. And I've gained enough weight so that I'm as heavy as I've ever been. Heavy enough that I'm uncomfortable and don't feel good.

What a time to have to think about sacrifice! To follow my path this year, I need to be honest about areas where sacrifice is needed. While I don't think feeling fat will keep me from Heaven, I do have some guilt about indulging myself so much lately.

I want to use this area to focus on sacrifice for awhile. My hunger is not truly lack of food, but disciplining myself in this does help me remember that sacrifice is a training ground for my character development. No snack food after 7 at night, low-sugar and low-carb foods during the day will help me feel better and focus on the concept of the month.

There is still much to work through regarding becoming a living sacrifice. May this be just a small beginning.

I sometimes think that I have so far to go with this journey that I can lose sight of the distance already traveled.

Yet over the last few days, I have been increasingly aware that some of the changes in my thinking have already occurred. I am far more aware of small kindnesses, and some of the things that would have brought anger to me have not.

There are some temptations that have greatly subsided or disappeared. I believe these changes are directly related to my change of mind.

I have had to think through the day of what I might write before I go to bed, and am sure that has had its impact. I really trust this progress will continue as I spend this time in this pursuit. My sacrifice of this time and giving over to God the concepts of each month does seem to be having its intended result.

In my struggle to learn how to sacrifice my time, I am pleased that God would take this day and encourage me with the journey already completed.

This subject is a great one to hit head on. Not easy - it is too easy to water it down by changing the meaning of sacrifice.

A living sacrifice means simply sacrificing that which most closely
symbolizes my life. The thing I have daily that disappears at the end of the day is my time. I so regularly think of my life as too busy, but during this process of examining sacrifice, I realize there is no such thing as too busy - just un-sacrificed time.

God calls me to sacrifice that which is unimportant to Him. It should also be that which is unimportant to me, but I struggle at that point sometimes.

During this month, I choose to examine the living sacrifice of my time.

At the end, I believe I will not be too busy and certainly not feel overwhelmed, but instead rewarded.

I am sure this is the least popular part of this chapter. You can coat the concept in many ways, but in the end, it isn't about fun and games, but about a sense of commitment that costs.

Sacrifice for it's own sake isn't the issue - all through history there have been people who sacrificed themselves and their children to the god of their making. Still do.

This sacrifice always looks to the cross of Jesus and is a response to His commitment and love. This sacrifice isn't self-abuse, but a self-less abiding in Jesus.

All the sacrifices of all the animals of the Old Testament looked ahead to the Cross of Christ. Every sacrifice we make in life looks back on that same event.

"He, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross."

Sacrifice is a means to a far better end. It has purpose and meaning - giving it value in our eyes and God's. It is my gift of myself in response to the mercy of Jesus. Not a dead gift - a living sacrifice. What a joy divine, what a peace is mine - to give back to Him what should have been His in the first place, so I can become what I should have been in the first place!

Dead man walking. That is a pretty negative way to represent living sacrifice. But the concept is throughout scripture.

"Recon yourselves dead indeed to sin."
"Put to death your sinful nature."
"I die daily."
"So that we might die to sins."
"We died to sin."
"Since you died with Christ,"
"For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ."
"If we died with Him, we shall now live with Him."

Why is this such a common Biblical theme - especially in Paul's writing? Because a more common theme is Jesus' death. He was and is our example of sacrificial death for a holy purpose.

"In view of God's mercies, present your bodies a living sacrifice."

We have viewed God's mercies, and how much we lack in comparison. Now we are challenged to become like Jesus in sacrifice as the avenue to becoming like Him in life.

What a calling - exchanging a death-bound self-centeredness for a heaven-bound Godliness! My goal, my aim, my daily gift to Him.