happy early birthday, joseph. :o) i'm so happy that you and bradley have been coming to our home on fridays. it's always so good to meet new people and have new faces in our usual sea of familiarity. when i was growing up, my mom used to tell me to take every new start as an opportunity to consecrate myself to the Lord, i.e. to put myself into His hands, to give myself to Him. so i remember always telling the Lord, every new year, every new school year, every birthday, and eventually every day, "Lord, i give myself to You. Lord, i belong to You. keep me, Lord, for Yourself and for what You have for me." joseph, there's no safer place to be than in His hands and in His perfect will. and that reminds me of one of my favorite ministry portions. i hope you don't mind me laying all this on you. :o) this portion is on loving the Lord, which is why we consecrate ourselves to Him - because we love Him. Give yourself to love the Lord. No other way is so prevailing, and no other way is so safe, so rich, and so full of enjoyment. Just love Him. Do not care for anything else. Teachings, doctrines, gifts, and power do not mean much. We must continually tell the Lord, "Lord, keep me in Your love! Attract me with Yourself! Keep me all the time in Your loving presence!"; If we will pray in this way, we will see what love we will have toward the Lord and what kind of life we will live. We will simply live by the Lord Himself. As long as we love Him from the deepest part of our being, everything will be all right. If we need wisdom, He will be the wisdom to us. If we need power, He will be the power. If we need the proper and adequate knowledge, He will even be that to us. Whatever we need, He is. Do not try to get anything else; just look to Him that He would reveal His love to you. Song of Songs 1:4 says, "Draw me, we will run after thee."; We must ask the Lord to draw us, and then others will run after Him with us. To take Him as our life, we must love Him in such a way.In Revelation 2 the degradation of the church began with the loss of the first love toward the Lord Jesus. The church in Ephesus had many good works and was even strong in faith, but the Lord rebuked her by saying, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."; They had lost the fresh and best love toward the Lord. This started the degradation of the churches. When we lose our love for the Lord, we start to backslide. We must go to the Lord and make a deal with Him: "Lord, be merciful to me! I do not need anything or anyone else but Your loving Self. Simply show me Yourself! Draw me that we may run after You. O Lord, show me Your love that I might be constrained by Your love! I do not want to do anything for You, Lord. I just want to love You. I just want to take You as my Person. I want Your personality as my personality, Your will as my will, Your desires as my desires. I want Your everything as my everything."Thus, we see that it is not simply a matter of believing, but also a matter of loving. We must learn to love the Lord Jesus. If we would have such a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, we will enjoy all that He is. Therefore, I do not encourage you to seek anything else. Go to the Lord and ask Him to draw you that you may run after Him. You must realize that the Lord of life is such a loving, wonderful Person and that love is the way to deal with Him. have a fun and safe time in your birthday celebrations, joseph, and see you in a couple of weeks. :o) lizzie
Unedited, received as an e-mail at 8:57 PM, November 17, 2010.
This woman inspires me and teaches me more about the passionate and enduring love I ought to have towards the Savior who ransomed me with His own blood, who gave everything to bring me, the wandering lamb, the unprofitable servant, the prodigal son, safely to His arms.
My 18th birthday is not anything special. It's one day in one year in one lifetime of one person. Insignificant, it doesn't enable me to do anything life-changingly important. It is not a milestone in my life, but to remind me, as Lizzie reminded me, to dedicate my life to my Savior, who paid the bride-price for my soul and redeemed me with an outstretched arm and with a mighty act of ultimate judgment that He took upon Himself, just as He promised to Noah. The bow shot the Maker as He walked alone through the river of blood, promising redemption to the covenant breakers whose lives He changed with that simple promise of unspoken hope when God crossed the line twice.
After all, "He must become greater; I must become less." (John 3:30 NIV)
