Being Burnt

May He remember all your meal offerings and accept your burnt offering. Selah Psa. 20:3 

Then he shall take off his garments and put on other garments and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place. Lev. 6:11 

The Lord Jesus is the reality of the burnt offering in Leviticus. He was accepted by God as the most absolute One. Today, we are His duplication and His many brothers. As such, we must offer ourselves up to God by taking Christ as our burnt offering. Only then, our offering will be accepted by God in Christ. 

The Hebrew word translated “accept” in Psalm 20:3 actually means “turn to ashes.”  The Hebrew word rendered “accept” can be translated not only as “turn to ashes” but also as “accept as fat,” “make fat,” and “be as fat.” For God to accept our burnt offering means not only that He turns it to ashes but also that He accepts it as fat, something that is sweet and pleasing to Him. For the burnt offering to be turned to ashes means that God is satisfied and that we therefore may be at peace. If we understand this, we shall realize that in our Christian life there should be a lot of ashes. In Leviticus 6:11 once again we see that the ashes were not thrown away. This indicates that we should treasure the result of our offering of the burnt offering to God. We should never throw it away. In God’s eyes, the result of our burnt offering is highly regarded.  The result of our being a burnt offering will be something that carries out God’s New Testament economy. (Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 57-58)

The Lord has been gracing me to enjoy "being burnt to ashes" these days. A few days ago a brother replied to an email report I sent to the brothers. Since he named me as one of the recipients, I reckoned it proper to take the matter before the Lord in prayer and in the spirit of meekness, reply to the email, accepting the very points he pointed out. 

As far as I am concerned, I am carrying out my responsibility to report to the brothers what the Lord has been doing in North India these days concerning the literature service the Lord has apportioned to me. I had no intention of show-off or exposing myself as I had already settled this matter of myself being nothing. Now, the matter is of faithfulness and responsibility. So all the reports I have been preparing are not for myself, but for the brothers and for the office I am serving in, perhaps, "an official duty," may be the appropriate description.

But when there seemed to be a misunderstanding, it was an experience of being burnt. As I considered the matter prayerfully before the Lord, I realized that the Lord was leading me to the experience of being burnt to ashes. So, after prayer, I replied to the email and acknowledged my oversight. I also apologized for the misunderstanding I might have caused and echoed his comment on my need to be more blended for His building. Then, I had much peace in my being and realized that this was the experience of being burnt to ashes.

Then, another experience followed. After working on an article requested by the brothers for a newsletter concerning the Spirit's move in North India through the ministry of the word literature journey, I sent it to the brothers in my country for their fellowship and feedback. Though I could have bypassed it and sent it to the one who asked me for the article, I have learned the lesson that I must fellowship with the brothers in my country while reporting anything pertaining to the country. In this way, I could be in a proper fellowship and under the covering of the brothers. 

The brothers messaged me that I should "hide myself" which I felt I already did as the report had no mention of who the person concerned was. Moreover, they also mentioned that I needed to get the help of my coordinating brother, which I already did. In fact, the article was first sent to him, and I also incorporated his suggestion to add an introductory paragraph and change the whole narrative to the third person. According to his fellowship, I made the changes and sent the article. The two points comment of the brothers were actually taken care. Nonetheless, I took this experience as a lesson of being burnt again. In my prayer that followed this incident, not really because of this incident but my usual and regular prayer time, I looked to the Lord and experienced the matter of being burnt again. 

The Lord's hand always follows His speaking. And I have been graced to enjoy the Lord as my burnt offering. Though the enemy injected negative thoughts into my mind, I turned to the Lord, took Him as my grace, and experienced the cross to be burnt to ashes. 

Lord, grant me the grace to experience You as my burnt offering, even being burnt to ashes, to become useful for Your building.