Butterflies are not just beautiful and free,
they cross pollinate the flowers they touch-causing fruit to be produced. Besides
that, their life cycle explains spiritual truth
Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of GOD’s mercy, to offer
up your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to GOD- this is your
spiritual act of worship (reasonable service KJ). Do not conform any longer to
the pattern of this world but be transformed (Greek=metamorphosed) by the
renewing of the mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what GOD’s will
is- HIS good, pleasing and perfect (lacking nothing) will (Romans 12:1-2 NIV
explanation added).
The Old Testament is full of sacrifices, but only one is
strongly urged upon the believer in JESUS CHRIST in the New Testament. Notice
the wording: Urged, not commanded, for it is not the basis of salvation. Our
right standing with GOD comes only from faith in JESUS from beginning to end
(Romans 3:20-24). This sacrifice is for another reason.
If offering our entire being to GOD as a living sacrifice is not
to gain favor with GOD, what is this sacrifice for? I know it pleases GOD but
what we are told it that it will change the way we think so we can know GOD’s
will, and therefore know how to cope in each situation we encounter.
The key to knowing what it means to offer up your body as a
living sacrifice is seen in the word translated transformed. That word in the
Greek is metamorphosed, you know that process of being changed from a larva
(worm) into a beautiful and gloriously free butterfly.
The larva is a crawling insect that eats constantly. To
accommodate its growth the larva will shed its skin three to ten times. A
monarch butterfly larva increases its weight 3,000 times from when it hatches.
To put it mildly it is totally self-centered on it quest to be satisfied.
The natural man is much like the larva: on a self-centered quest
to be satisfied. He is focused on the lust of the flesh (appetites), the lust
of the eyes (things he wants), and the pride of life (what others think) (I
John 2:15-16).
Then the larva spins a cocoon- a protective case that surrounds
it and enters into its resting stage. No longer is it eating or walking around.
NOTE: unless the larva dies by entering into the cocoon, it will never become a
butterfly. While inside the cocoon, the insect will excrete digestive juices,
to destroy much of the larva’s body, leaving a few cells intact. The remaining
cells will begin the growth of the adult, using the nutrients from the broken
down larva. During this stage the insect is resting yet experiences a
considerable amount of activity as its body tissues reorganize to form wing,
legs, new mouth parts. It undergoes a complete transformation.
Examples of changes that modern science is unable to explain:
1-How a lowly crawler (worm) with biting mouthparts can be
transformed into a graceful winged insect with built in straw for sipping
nectar from flowers.
2-While the caterpillar has six sets (total of twelve) of simple
eyes; the emerging adult butterfly has one pair (two) of eyes composed of 1,000s
of hexagonal (six sided) lenses.
To enter our cocoon, the believer enters into GOD’s rest through
faith and rests from his own works. His work is to believe in the LORD JESUS
CHRIST who died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (John
6:28-29, Hebrews 4:3a,10). GOD uses pieces of our past to form us and like
science can’t explain changes in the cocoon neither can we explain how GOD
changes us.
Then as a totally different creature emerges from the cocoon,
there is great struggle and pressure. If however the tiny cocoon opening is
enlarged to aid the butterfly’s exit the butterfly will emerge deformed for by
GOD’s design- the tremendous pressure of squeezing through the small opening is
what forces the butterfly’s body fluids to move into the proper place, for the
fore and hind wings are attached and held in place by the veins at the base of
the wings. Just as the fire of problems are needed for our growth and
strengthening which develops our character. (James 1:2-4).
So when you find yourself having problems, you should be
encouraged for you are now on the path to become a beautiful, life-giving
butterfly. Those difficult ongoing struggles and pressures are necessary for
your development. Without the struggles and pressures, you will not be able to
function for what GOD has intended and designed you for.
Don’t be discouraged or envious of those who do not seem to
struggle, for we are told that in hell the worm (appetites) dies not. They are
forever desiring what they cannot have (Mark 9:48).
Isn’t it marvelous how our Magnificent GOD has placed in HIS
material creation, hidden spiritual truths that help us understand what HE is
doing in us who believe in JESUS?
hugs
Sharon
wakemyear 