Sacrifice
“Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2).
“We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).
The ultimate sacrifice is to give oneself in love and service, even if it means death. Several years ago I read an account that touched my heart. The story went something like this:
A young man in a college town in the United States was stirred by hearing of great need on the foreign mission field. He was determined to offer his life in service to the Lord, but before doing so he wrote to his mother telling her of the burning desire of his heart and asking for her blessing and consent. By and by the answering letter came, blotted with his mother’s tears. She gave her consent, rejoicing that her son had such noble and godly desires, and at the end of the letter wrote these words: “I never knew until now how much it cost God to give His Son.”
