T-I-M-B-E-R-R-R-R!

“Therefore, 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. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

The two-man saw slides back and forth through the tree’s trunk inching its way

little-by-little-by-little

to the point where, at long last, the two men working the saw jump quickly back and one of them shouts at the top of his lungs: “T-I-M-B-E-R-R-R-R-R”!

The large tree comes crashing down having been brought low by the hard work and determination of the men. The tree wasn’t felled by wishing. It wasn’t brought down by a person wielding a butter knife and it certainly did not drop because someone told it too. No amount of wishing or wanting, no application of the wrong tools and not a single word could have been successful in cutting down the tree.

 Sometimes we wish for things to happen in our lives. We apply some sincere effort to making it happen. We even use the tools from our tool shed but to no avail. How come? Because there is a prescribed way that God has determined it will happen. No shortcut, no matter how sincerely attempted, will work.

Worship is that way too.

 Far too often we have watered it down and whittled it down in our understanding to being nothing more than songs and music. God has a different definition and in the end guess who’s right? Not that it is a contest of one-upmanship but rather the created being instructed by the Creator. You see from our verse today that true worship, as defined by God’s Word requires a sacrifice. Guess who gets to climb up on the altar? You do; every day as a matter of fact.

Remember that tree? It didn’t have a choice as to when and to whom it would be sacrificed. It was felled by two men and a saw. You are being sacrificed every single day of your life but you get to choose whom you will fall down before? Will you fall, as a living sacrifice, before your Creator?

T-I-M-B-E-R-R-R-R-R-R!