Living sacrifices
Just encountered this insight while surfing the FTA satellite onto IBN and the Time to Revive ministry and a message from Dr. Kyle Lance Martin... The Old Testament emphasis on sacrifices was bringing your first and best -- you don't bring leftovers to God. In Romans 12, Paul writes that we should "offer our bodies as living sacrifices." So, my conclusion: Doesn't this mean that God sees us as a worthy sacrifice? That we have something of value to offer? For many of you, this is obvious. But many of today's Calvinist (or Puritan) Christian theologies run instead to OT passages like Isaiah 64 and insist that "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" ...and therefore, we ourselves are like filthy rags to God. That sad not only because it's clearly incorrect, but because it denigrates the human creations that God loves. Fallen? Absolutely. Valuable? Absolutely. Please don't forget that.