Consecrated Lord to Thee

Today I have been thinking about the state of the Church and our nation. I have been thinking about how we can change our nation and what is required for us to move into what God has for our nation. One of the many things that has gone through my mind is that God wants us to be completely dedicated to Him, He wants us to be Concecrated to Him.

A couple of years ago I wrote a article of sorts about Consecrating the Church and I found it today and thought that it was time to bring it out again.


Consecrated Lord to Thee
By Joshua Russell 10-24-06

Take My Life and Let It Be A song by Frances R. Havergal.

Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee; Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee; Take my voice and let me sing, Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee; Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in endless praise; Take my intellect and use Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine; Take my heart, it is Thine own, It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure store; Take myself and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee.

Consecrate the Church
This is a song of surrender and submission to say “Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee” means take my life Lord, purify and use me. To offer your self up as a sacrifice is the meaning of Consecration (Consecrate - to dedicate something or somebody to a specific purpose ~ Encarta World English Dictionary.)

"Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said, "There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst." (Joshua 7:13)

Today’s Church must rise up and Consecrate it’s self unto the Lord. We must remove all sins from our midst not because it is required for salvation, but for three other reasons, which I would like to discuss in more detail, these are 1.) As an act of Gratitude, 2.) To enable us to stand before our enemies, and 3.) To prepare for tomorrow.

Reason 1: As an act of Gratitude
If you have truly accepted Christ into your heart how can you help but be Grateful for all that He has done for you? He gave his life so that you might live what more can you do than to offer up your life as a living sacrifice and consecrate yourself unto the Lord? If you are Grateful for your salvation and the grace given to you then should you continue sinning? If you are already forgiven of all your sins (past, present, and future) should you worry about continuing to sin? These are question that every Christian must ask himself / herself at some point in their life. I believe that the Apostle Paul stated it very clearly when he said

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? [2] May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:1-2)

So what shall we say then? Will we say that since Christ has given us grace we will “live life to the fullest” or will we say, “Father not my will but Yours”. What will you say?

“So that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, [27] that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:26-27)

Christ has cleansed us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9) by the washing of the water with the word, so that He might present to Himself the Church in all her glory. Who doesn’t want a perfect and spotless bride? A bride that is holy and blameless. For this reason we must sanctify ourselves though the Word of God, that we might become the holy and blameless bride of Christ. Ask any bride-to-be on the night before her wedding and she will say that she wants everything to perfect for her wedding. She will want her dress to be perfect and beautiful, and she will want herself to be perfect and beautiful. So I ask again, What more can we do than to offer ourselves a living sacrifice and consecrate ourselves unto the Lord?


Reason 2: To enable us to stand before our enemies
Imagine: it is 1314 A.D. and you are in the army of Robert the Bruce, you are fighting for the rightful King of you country, however you do not have on any armor and you are carrying several burdens. You might wonder how you are able to stand and fight while carrying these burdens, and you are right to wonder because you can’t. A knight can’t go into battle loaded with stuff and without his armor. Neither can a Christian go into battle and fight the evil one while loaded down with sins and without his spiritual armor.

This is the second reason why the Church must be re-consecrated unto the Lord. If we as a body are going into battle carrying our sins and leaving our armor how can we expect to stand strong against the wiles of the devil? We are instructed in Romans 6 to put on the full armor of God.

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." (Romans 6:11)

We are not called to put on only the parts of the armor that we chose, rather we are called to “Put on the full armor of God”. When arming for battle a knight would not put on his armor on-top of his court attire (worldly baggage), rather he would remove all of the things that would get in the way and hamper the efficiency of his armor. Likewise we as Christians must put aside the things of this world that way us down and keep us from going in to the entire world to spread the gospel (Mark 15:16). So today’s Church must set aside the things of this world, take up the armor of God, and consecrate itself unto the Lord

“But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness you are blessed AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, [15] but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:14-15 emphasis mine)

When you stand before an enemy you must do so with courage and with power. Imagine: the smallest weakest guy in school standing up for what is right against the biggest strongest guy in school. Would the big guy think that the little guy was very dangerous? Of course not he would laugh in his face and ridicule him in front of the entire school. Now imagine that the little guy is ready to make a defense against everyone who asks him to give an account. Imagine he knew karate and so could beat the big guy. Now consider your average Christian, they don’t know what they believe, they are apathetic about what their faith. They are sort of like the wimpy guy that doesn’t know karate, they don’t have a chance whenever someone challenges what they believe. They are not “ready to make a defense to everyone who asks them give an account for the hope that is in them [paraphrased]”, today’s Church must learn what they believe and be able to give an account of it to whoever asks.


Reason 3: To prepare for Tomorrow
The meaning of sanctification is.

SANCTIFICATION - The act of consecrating or of setting apart for a sacred purpose; consecration.” [Noah Webster 1828]

So in order to become consecrated we must go through the process of sanctification and set ourselves apart for a sacred purpose. In part 1 I discussed that how consecration (sanctification) should be done as an act of gratitude, in part 2 I talked about how we must be consecrated (sanctified) in order to stand before the enemy, remember how I talked about the knight without armor and loaded with stuff and how he can’t do battle? Now in part 3 I would like to talk about the reason for sanctification, which is the process of consecration.

As an example of sanctification consider the refining of gold. The gold starts off as a lump of ugly useless rock, and the refiner takes it and puts it into the fire (trials and hard times). While in the fire the sludge and grime (our baggage and stuff) are separated from the gold, it is then put in to the fire again and more sludge is removed this process is repeated several times (we go through hard times throughout our lives) to ensure that all the sludge is removed. Next the partially refined gold is refined in water (Eph. 5:26) and it is then 99.99% pure (our lives will never be completely pure until we are with Christ in eternity)


So you see how the process of sanctification takes a lifetime and even then is not complete no matter if you live to be 200 years old you will still not be completely sanctified. For as long as we are still in our physical, carnal bodies we will not be completely sanctified, however we must continue to “read the Bible, Pray every day so we can grow, grow, grow” we must continue to strive for purity and holiness because that is what it takes to be a living sacrifice. We, the body of Christ, his Church must prepare ourselves for tomorrow. For we are the bride and tomorrow is our wedding day, we must cleanse and prepare ourselves for our Savior and Lord.

If we want to be ready we must consecrate ourselves unto the Lord and dedicate ourselves as living sacrifices. So the question I ask you is this, Are you ready for the Lord to do wonders?

“Then Joshua said to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.'” (Joshua 3:5)

The Heavens Declare

Today on my way home from work (a long 2+ hour drive) I saw a most amazing work of art.
The Master artist created a beautiful sky. I didn't get a picture but let me try and describe...

It was clear blue with clouds on the horizon and bright sunshine lighting everything up. directly in front of me the moon had risen early and was sitting just above the clouds, almost as if they were a throne. In front of the moon and clouds just barely visible was a perfect rainbow, it was almost like an illusion, like it wasn't entirely there. as soon as I saw this I was just amazed that God would create such beauty in an everyday thing. That He cares enough about His creation to take joy in making it more beautiful is a proof that He is a creative and loving God.

"The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Psalms 19:1 (NIV)

Open Middle School Week - Tuesday

Today is a much shorter post.

Today we are doing four activities (stations), the kids will go to Spur to go swimming and then we have our evening service under the tent tonight. Today's Stations are: Archery (bows, arrows, shot at the target. This is my station) Horseshoes (the game horseshoes where you throw them at metal spikes in the ground for points.), Craft (day one of building a walking stick) and High Ropes (cat walk and zip line). The campers should have lots of fun and I will get the afternoon off so I ALWAYS enjoy Day 2 (a.k.a. Tuesdays)

Open Middle School Week - Monday

Today we start our open middle school camp, the campers will get here around 11:00am and we will do orientation and lunch. Before they get there all the Staff has lots of chores to do to prepare the camp for the week. Today's Stations are: Flags (painting a team flag), Water Slide (a big 50+ foot water slide), Canoeing (teams race canoes around four poles set in the pond) and Fire Drill (each team gets the 1 hour of this station to make and practice their fire drill. A fire drill is a song/yell/rap/skit that is about the camp theme and their team). Today I am doing Flags, that means I'll be out in the sun all day messing with paint and kids with paint. We also have a campfire tonight where I will be starting a fire with a metal match (kinda like flint and steel), at least I am planning on starting it that way... We will see how it goes, it has worked about half the time this summer (it doesn't work very well when it is wet/damp or windy)

Here are a few prayer requests:

• Good Weather (pray for this all week)


• Open hearts in the campers (this week will be a mix of church kids and non-church kids so there will be some hearts that need to be softened before they receive what God has for them at this camp.


• Pray for PJ and Jennifer PJ is the camp director they both need prayer, PJ for clarity of thought and that God will speak through him clearly to these kids, Jennifer for strength, endurance and patience, She is in charge of everything behind the scenes and has had lots of curve balls thrown at her this summer (no counselers, no cook, filling in for the cook on top of her normal jobs, etc.)


• Camp Staff, Please pray for the staff this week, We have been at this all summer and are all tired and at times don't get along perfectly, Pray for unity, peace and cooperation this week and the rest of the summer for the camp Staff. (Summer Staff: Jordan, Jeremy, Me, Meredith, Ashley, Beth. Interns: Jonny and Steel)


• Pray for protection of all the camp equipment and property, the enemy is attacking this camp and has been all summer, lots of things have gone wrong and stuff has broken that was in good condition. The enemy wants this camp shut down and destroyed so please pray for all of our equipment and property. (Examples of what has gone wrong: One of the camp trucks has been not working off and on for the last few weeks, My keyboard had problems [God healed it!!!], the AC in the boy campers cabin froze and flooded, a window got broken [accidentally], the bus has had problems, a kid got hurt three weeks ago [slight concussion and he had to go home], several kids have been exceptionally bad [even kids who are by all accounts usually well behaved], lack of counselors for several of the groups) I list all that not to complain or dwell on the bad but those are things that have happened and God has made a way for us to get through it. Please pray about those types of things and protection from them.


• Pray that God will touch these kids lives through the Staff and Counselors, We want them to leave here changed and on Fiyah!

If you get a chance I would love to talk on tuesday afternoons (1:00pm - 4:00pm). or just send me an email. I hate being out of touch with my Real family and all my Friends.

Open Middle School Week - Monday

Today we start our open middle school camp, the campers will get here around 11:00am and we will do orientation and lunch. Before they get there all the Staff has lots of chores to do to prepare the camp for the week. Today's Stations are: Flags (painting a team flag), Water Slide (a big 50+ foot water slide), Canoeing (teams race canoes around four poles set in the pond) and Fire Drill (each team gets the 1 hour of this station to make and practice their fire drill. A fire drill is a song/yell/rap/skit that is about the camp theme and their team). Today I am doing Flags, that means I'll be out in the sun all day messing with paint and kids with paint. We also have a campfire tonight where I will be starting a fire with a metal match (kinda like flint and steel), at least I am planning on starting it that way... We will see how it goes, it has worked about half the time this summer (it doesn't work very well when it is wet/damp or windy)

Here are a few prayer requests:

• Good Weather (pray for this all week)


• Open hearts in the campers (this week will be a mix of church kids and non-church kids so there will be some hearts that need to be softened before they receive what God has for them at this camp.


• Pray for PJ and Jennifer PJ is the camp director they both need prayer, PJ for clarity of thought and that God will speak through him clearly to these kids, Jennifer for strength, endurance and patience, She is in charge of everything behind the scenes and has had lots of curve balls thrown at her this summer (no counselers, no cook, filling in for the cook on top of her normal jobs, etc.)


• Camp Staff, Please pray for the staff this week, We have been at this all summer and are all tired and at times don't get along perfectly, Pray for unity, peace and cooperation this week and the rest of the summer for the camp Staff. (Summer Staff: Jordan, Jeremy, Me, Meredith, Ashley, Beth. Interns: Jonny and Steel)


• Pray for protection of all the camp equipment and property, the enemy is attacking this camp and has been all summer, lots of things have gone wrong and stuff has broken that was in good condition. The enemy wants this camp shut down and destroyed so please pray for all of our equipment and property. (Examples of what has gone wrong: One of the camp trucks has been not working off and on for the last few weeks, My keyboard had problems [God healed it!!!], the AC in the boy campers cabin froze and flooded, a window got broken [accidentally], the bus has had problems, a kid got hurt three weeks ago [slight concussion and he had to go home], several kids have been exceptionally bad [even kids who are by all accounts usually well behaved], lack of counselors for several of the groups) I list all that not to complain or dwell on the bad but those are things that have happened and God has made a way for us to get through it. Please pray about those types of things and protection from them.


• Pray that God will touch these kids lives through the Staff and Counselors, We want them to leave here changed and on Fiyah!

If you get a chance I would love to talk on tuesday afternoons (1:00pm - 4:00pm). or just send me an email. I hate being out of touch with my Real family and all my Friends.

Canoeing...

Today was the beginning of the Liberty Rock Elementary camp. On the first day of camp each week we do four stations; Fire Drill (the work on their fire drill a.k.a. song, and team name), Flags (they paint a team flag), Water Slide (self explanatory), and Canoeing. Today I did canoeing with Jordan, it was tiring and quite funny. Here is a picture that I took of Jordan:

Tomorrow I will be running Archery, I'll try and get a few pictures. The campers will also be making a walking stick at craft, doing some of our high ropes elements (cat walk, zip line, etc.), and playing horseshoes. Then we will have swimming (which I won't be doing) and then then evening service.

Tomorrow is also my afternoon off so from 1:00pm till 4:00pm I will be resting (either watching a movie or taking a nap) so if you want to talk (chat, phone) that is the best time for me.

Missing everyone,
Joshua

"A Wounded America and the Bush Band-aid"

With Gov. Huckabee out of the presidential elections many people are feeling discouraged and beaten. They feel that Huckabee was our only chance at changing our nation for the better and turning it back to the values that our nation was founded upon. Many have already signed a petition saying that they will not vote for Sen. McCain and have vowed to vote their values not what the media tells them to vote. To some this seems like a dark time for the conservative voice in America. We are left without a candidate who holds our values and beliefs and it seems like there is only more bad in the future. However, I would like to voice a different opinion.

America as we know it today has been wounded, it has taken wounds from a anti-christian culture that has damaged both it's foundational values and it's outward functions. By allowing abortion, illegal immigration, and self-centered lifestyles, America has lost much of what once made it a great nation. This was once a place where every life was valuable, we did whatever it took to care for our soldiers in battle, wounded or not. We gave our children the best we had to offer and gave them the best chance possible at living a full and prosperous life. We welcomed people from all over the world to enter our country and become law abiding citizens that benefited the economy and nation as a whole. We used to have friendly relations with all our neighbors and helped them when they were in need, and we cared for others even to the detriment of ourselves. But these values have become increasingly rare and undervalued. America today does not value anymore the inalienable right to life that is given to everyone by their Creator. We no longer ask that everyone living in our country be a citizen and contribute to our society. We are so obsessed with self that we don't notice when our neighbor is hurting and in need. We focus on what we don't have instead of being the nation where we are so thankful for what we have that we create a national holiday to give thanks for our blessings.

America's wound goes deeper than just the surface, many of our core values are now under attack and our foundation is at risk of being overwhelmed. The last eight years have functioned much like a band-aid, they have covered up the wound. President Bush has done a wealth of good in our country, but it has been more on the surface and hasn't dealt with the issues that are fundamental. America's skin looks mostly healed but inside is an infection that is killing us from the inside out. Many people would say that America has never been better, we have the strongest military in the world, we have one of the largest economies and have the most freedoms for our citizens. On the surface all looks well, but a closer look reveals otherwise.

America, once the place where life was valued at all stages is now a place where thousands of babies are murdered everyday. Whereas, we once valued marriage as sacred and between one man and one woman, this fundamental truth is now contested and questioned. As many will tell you America is sick and in need of a healer, and they are right. That healer is God, the healer of hearts and the forgiver of sins. What many Christians don't see is that sometimes you have to cut to heal, sometimes you have to cut away the seemingly healed skin to expose the infection within. Sometimes healing is painful, when Jesus died on the cross it wasn't a pleasant and painless experience. But His pain and death bought our Salvation and healing. Sometimes God uses a bad and immoral leader to cut away the apparently healthy skin so that he can bring in a Godly leader that He can use to heal a nation.

As I stated earlier, many people are feeling discouraged and beaten that Gov. Huckabee has pulled out of the presidential election. But my Bible says that God is in control and that He appoints rulers and authorities and that all things work together for the glory of God. God will bring His plan to pass and sometimes that plan requires that a bad ruler be placed in power to prepare the way for healing and restoration. God is Sovereign and His Word never fails (Isa. 55:11), He has said that if His people will humble themselves and pray then He will heal their land (2 Ch. 7:14). What He doesn't say is how He is going to bring about that healing. We are told to pray and the rest is up to Him.

As the time comes when we are going to remove the "Bush Band-aid" and start the healing process I ask that you join me in praying that God's will be done, even if it means that we experience pain in the process. I believe that my God is bigger than the supreme court and bigger than congress, and I believe that my God will do what He promises even when He doesn't do it my way.