All His. No Right to Myself

1 Corinthians 6:20: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

On January 12, 1723, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down; giving up myself, and all that I had to God; to be for the future, in no respect, my own; to act as one that had no right to himself, in any respect. And solemnly vowed, to take God for my whole portion and felicity; looking on nothing else, as any part of my happiness, nor acting as if it were; and his law for the constant rule of my obedience: engaging to fight, with all my might, against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to the end of my life.

But I have reason to be infinitely humbled, when I consider, how much I have failed, of answering my obilgation.

- You probably did not realize that I was that old, huh? Now, that you read through that once, I would encourage you to read through it again a little bit slower, taking a minute to think about what is really being said.

Jonathan Edwards was regretful that it took him so long to come to his recognition of this type of spiritual commitment to God. I mean it wasn't until he was 19 years old that he wrote that down.
Just a thought

Consecration

Webster's 1611 dictionary (no, it's really Webster's 1828, but often treated as if it were the 1611!) defines the word Consecration as: The act or ceremony of separating from a common to a sacred use, or of devoting and dedicating a person or thing to the service and worship of God, by certain rites or solemnities. Consecration does not make a person or thing really holy, but declares it to be sacred, that is, devoted to God or to divine service; as the consecration of the priests among the Israelites; the consecration of the vessels used in the temple; the consecration of a bishop.

- Separating from a common to a sacred use -

This lunch time Sarah had a great hot meal. Macaroni and Cheese, green beans, cake, fruit bowl, it looked great! She was kind enough to give me her bread and water! So, while she, I mean WE were was eating, I had some Lunch-Time thoughts about Consecration.

The word Consecrate is tied to the words: Sacred, Sanctify, Holy. Perhaps too often we fail to undertsand "holiness," but it means to be separated for use solely of someone else. To be holy is to be separated wholly for God's use. So, to consecrate somthing is to separate it from common use to strictly being used for God.

We see prayers of consecration in the Bible when Aaron & his sons were put into their office of priests, when Solomon dedicates the Temple, when Hannah gives Samuel to the service of the Lord. And those last two ones were really where my thoughts rested.

First of all, First Bible Baptist Church is about to finish building their new building. The existing building has been consecrated to the Lord. It has been set apart for God's use and taken out of the common use. My thought was: Are we allowed to sell something that has been consecrated to the Lord to someone else? Or, must it remain set apart for God's use after the sale? That is, must the church sell the building to another church to keep it consecrated? I believe there was a principle found in the Mosaic Law about redeeming something that had been dedicated to the Lord by adding 5% on top of it or something like that, so I guess we're covered by adding 5% on top of it for the new building!

Secondly though, my little baby Esther. I would love to say (and frankly have said) that I consecrate her to the Lord. However, what a difficult and disciplined task (for me, not her) to carry that out! To make EVERY decision in her life based upon the premise that the decision being made must be made to further her work for the Lord, and for no other reason. Applying this to all of my kids - it means teaching them the Bible more than any other thing, not subjecting them to entertainment that would be against our God, treating them as I would expect them to treat others, and so much more... How difficult it truly would be to consecrate a child for the Lord - yet, we are supposed to.


I guess it makes the job easier to consecrate other things to the Lord, when we get the first part right: Be ye holy, for I am holy. When Christ died for us, He redeemed us, He bought us - and oh, what a great price for my redemption - and has made us His peculiar people. When we live our lives holy separated, consecrated unto the Lord in every aspect, then it becomes much easier to consecrate other things, or people. Hey, He is worthy of our giving everything to Him!

Also, this is my second post today, so don't miss the video on the previous post.