Your Sacrifice for Salvation

What does the word salvation mean?  Many seem to think that salvation is kind of like a movie ticket.  It’s like I made a date with Jesus to go to a movie.  We planned to meet  at the theater just before the show starts.  Before the “date” I go about my life as I normally would.  There’s no need for any interaction before the movie because I have other things to do and I know I will see Him later.  Not only that, but in this scenario Jesus has the same attitude.  He knows I have the ticket and He will see me later, but between now and then there really is no need to communicate or be involved.  Our date will occur sometime in the future and when it does, it will be great, but until then, what’s the point of getting together?

I don’t think this is what God the Father had in mind when He sacrificed His Son and then exerted His power in Him to raise Him from the dead.  I think what He has in mind is something more immediate, something more present, something more right now!  We don’t have to wait for heaven to experience salvation in its truest meaning.  The intention has always been that we would experience it yesterday, today and tomorrow. In fact, when we look at the meaning of the word salvation we find that it has a meaning we haven’t fully realized.

The word for salvation in Hebrew is yesha (pronounced yay-shah; Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance #H3468).

Yesha means this: deliverance, salvation, rescue, safety, welfare.

1. safety, welfare, prosperity

2. salvation

3. victory

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have this salvation actively working in your life every day? It can.  Look at the instruction given in Psalm 50:23.  The New International Version instructs us to sacrifice thank offerings.  The King James says that we should order our conversation aright, and the New Living Translation again talks about giving thanks as a sacrifice.

How do we do this in a day when there is no “act,” such as an animal sacrifice, to perform?

We sacrifice thank offerings by determining with an active choice of our will to become thankful, even when it seems we should be ungrateful.  We choose.  We decide with purpose to become thankful even in a troubling circumstance.  We determine to order our conversation aright by choosing to speak out loud our thankfulness to the Lord.

Thank you.  God bless you - on your journey today!