Bishop L. Todd Budge
Question
Rather than thinking of sacrifice as “giving up” something, Bishop Budge invites us to view sacrifice as “giving to” the Lord.
What in your life can you “make holy” by giving it to the Lord?
Quote
In modern usage, the term sacrifice has come to connote the concept of “giving up” things for the Lord and His kingdom. However, in ancient days, the meaning of the word sacrifice was more closely tied to its two Latin roots: sacer, meaning “sacred” or “holy,” and facere, meaning “to make.” Thus, anciently sacrifice meant literally “to make something or someone holy.” Viewed as such, sacrifice is a process of becoming holy and coming to know God, not an event or ritualistic “giving up” of things for the Lord.
The Lord said, “I desired [charity], and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” The Lord wants us to become holy, to be possessed of charity, and to come to know Him… Ultimately, the Lord wants our hearts; He wants us to become new creatures in Christ. As He instructed the Nephites, “Ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”
Sacrifice is less about “giving up” and more about “giving to” the Lord. Engraved upon the entrance to each of our temples are the words “Holiness to the Lord; the House of the Lord.” As we observe our covenants by sacrifice, we are made holy through the grace of Jesus Christ; and at the altars of the holy temple, with broken hearts and contrite spirits, we give our holiness to the Lord. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught: “The submission of one’s will [or heart] is really the only uniquely personal thing we have to place on God’s altar. … However, when you and I finally submit ourselves, by letting our individual wills be swallowed up in God’s will, then we are really giving something to Him!”
Bishop L. Todd Budge
Scripture
20 And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not.
3 Nephi 9:20
Bethene Zetterquist Photography 