Consecratio Temporis: The Consecration of Time

Today we begin the time known to Christians as Advent. Hannah's been generous enough to allow me to use this season to share some thoughts on a topic that is very close to my heart: the consecration of time.

Now God is eternal, and therefore He is outside of time. It would sure be nice if it were the same way for us, but it's not. God has see fit to place us in time, and so rather than trying to ignore that, it's our job as Christians to take this reality and transform it.

Until recently, my perspective on time, while not bad, definitely didn't grasp the whole picture. I thought that consecrating my time to God meant being a good steward of the time He had given me; I thought it meant using my time in ways that were not dishonoring to Him.

While both of these things are truly excellent, the consecration of time goes deeper than that. Over the next few weeks, I'd like to examine more closely the various rhythms of time and look at a few ways in which we (high-school girls with busy schedules) can consecrate our time to God. If you're reading any one of the posts and have suggestions, from your own personal or family experience or from inspiring books you've read (which definitely includes the Bible!), please feel free to comment and share.

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One characteristic of life is change. Time is a way of marking change. At 7:30 a.m, the sun rises. At 5 p.m, it sets. In 1997, Ellen Friesen was a cute and chubby baby. In 2014, she's definitely not.

Another characteristic of life is recurrence. While our lives are always changing, there are some things that remain steadfast. One of the primary and most faithful of recurring things is God's love for us. Recurrence includes patterns: patterns in salvation history down to patterns in our own weekly schedules. The rhythms of time mark this recurrence.

When we, as Christians, consecrate time, it means taking both sides into account. It means accepting the change that comes with time, but also using the recurrence marked by time as a way to commemorate the faithfulness of God's love. It means recognizing that the temporal order is transient, but at the same time clinging to an unchanging eternal order.

We measure time in several ways. Over the next few weeks, I'd like to look more closely at how the patterns present in the year, the week and the day can become ways of faithfully allowing God's grace to penetrate into our lives.

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Using the year as a way of drawing closer to God is a concept that was precious to the hearts of His people Israel under the Old Covenant.

In the 12th chapter of Exodus, God commands Moses concerning the Passover: the Israelites are to kill unblemished lambs, smear the blood on their door posts, then roast the lamb with bitter herbs and eat it standing up. God will save the first-born sons of those who obey His commandment. And so it happened.

But the interesting thing was, it wasn't just a one-time thing, over with and forgotten. The Israelite people were to continue celebrating the Passover, even once the actual event was technically concluded and even once those who had actually experienced it were dead:

"You shall observe this rite as an ordinance for you and for your sons for ever...you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, 'What do you mean by this service?' you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, for He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He slew the Egyptians but spared our houses.'" ~Exodus 12:24-27, emphasis mine

Every year was a new year: births, deaths, marriages, change. But through the Passover (and other feasts kept by the Israelites), God's people were able to recall the steadfast love of God and experience His constancy, even in the midst of that change.

Now we're living under the New Covenant, so things are a tad bit different. (Well, maybe more than a tad.) But although the practice of using the rhythms of the year to draw nearer to God doesn't look the same for Christians, a similar principle remains: the year becomes a way of reliving salvific history.

Most Christians apply this principle to parts of their year. Christmas is a day to recall the scandal of the Incarnation, the utter honor of God becoming humble man that man might be lifted up to God. On Easter, we joyfully recall the Resurrection and all of its beautiful significance. (I want to emphasize that simply remembering what happened is not enough: we recall these times in order to cultivate in our hearts the desire to live the reality of what God has done for us.)

But what about Lent and its accompanying sorrow for sin? What about Advent, a quiet period of preparation? What about the Annunciation, when we resolve to repeat Mary's "Let it be done to me according to Thy word" in our own lives? What about Pentecost, when we celebrate the beginning of the Church and the oft-neglected Holy Spirit? What about Epiphany, when in commemorating the journey of the wise men we contemplate in our own lives how far we're willing to go to find Christ and the riches of the gifts we're willing to give him once we do?

There's so much more to remember of Christ's work in the lives of His people than just Christmas and Easter (although those are arguably among the most important), but how often do we neglect the precious gift of the year by treating all the seasons alike?

Unfortunately I don't have the space to go into depth on all the different seasons of the Church (and you would probably get sick of me if I did), but next week I'm going to take the season of the year we're entering right now, Advent, and offer some suggestions of how one could use the season of Advent to draw closer to God.

At other times of the year, contemplate the spirit of the season and ask God to show you how He would have you commemorate it. As long as you're in accord with the commandments of God and respectful of the season (i.e., rejoicing profusely isn't exactly a Lenten thing), there's not a "wrong" way to do it. Different people are at different points; just ask God and older/wiser Christians you respect for guidance.

Glimpses: Son of Man

Muslims have an interesting view of Jesus. They believe he existed. They believe he was a messenger from God. They believe he was confirmed by miracles. They believe he was taken up to God, without dying. They call him their prophet. But to them, to Mormons, to Jehovah's witnesses, to Jews..... he was not the Son of God. Many of these sects argue that Jesus never claimed to be God. But, to paraphrase Christian apologist Frank Turek, if that were true, why did they try to kill Him?!  The phrase "Son of Man" has an incredible depth layered into it. First off, it confirms the deity of Christ. Look at these prophesies in Ezekiel and Daniel:

"3 He said: “Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have been in revolt against me to this very day. 4 The people to whom I am sending you are obstinate and stubborn."

-Ezekiel 2:3-4a

"13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."

-Daniel 7:13-14

When Jesus called himself the Son of man, this was referring to more than just his humanity. By associating himself with this name, he is pointing back to the Old Testament that the Jews knew so well. In essence, He is saying, I am that promise. I am the messenger and rescuer of that rebellious people. I am the one in the throne room, who has been given authority over every nation, and whose kingdom shall not pass away. I am that river flowing from the temple, that Ezekiel references forty-five chapters later..... the one whose source is at the feet of God himself, whose waters give life to all and purify the sea. I am the uncross-able ocean in Ezekiel, taking you deeper into the richness of my presence until it becomes a sea that you cannot traverse, for its depth. I am the mountain, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, who will crush the statue of bronze and clay, and establish the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven. I am the promised Messiah, who will be made known after the seventy sevens, in Daniel 9.
I am the Son of man.

This is our intercessor. Romans 8 tells us that Jesus stands in the throne room of God, interceding on our behalf. Praying for us. Because of his humanity, He not only loves us, but understands our temptations. As Hebrews says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weakness, but one who has been tempted in every way, and yet without sin.

Look at the Gospel testimonies of Jesus' temptations, especially in Matthew 4. As one of the pastors at our church pointed out, these temptations were not randomly selected by the Enemy. The first temptation is for fulfillment outside of God. Turn these stones into bread, and satisfy yourself. You don't need God; you have it in yourself. You can do it!  You deserve it. The second temptation was directed towards approval. Throw yourself down from this point. PROVE yourself. The third temptation was for power. Look at all of this. All the kingdoms of the world. All the flashing lights. You can control it ALL. You can have power. You can have respect. Just turn your gaze away from God. Fulfillment, approval, and power...... sound familiar?  I think these are the main temptations the Enemy uses on our hearts, as well. He uses different forms of these temptations on each person, but he has found a weakness for these things in the human heart. And, by becoming a human, Jesus felt that weakness. He had been fasting for forty days and nights; he was not physically strong. He has walked the path of humanity. He knows..... not from head knowledge, but from experience.

Think about those words of verse from Daniel above. The Son of Man is given authority, glory and sovereign power, and the praise of all nations and people. His dominion is beyond the limits of time and imagination, and it cannot be crushed by any power. He is the King of all Kings. He is the one to whom all infinite power in all the supernatural realm is given. He is seated at the right hand of God, and is immovably seated above all principalities and powers. He is greater than any other. He is beyond any human ability to comprehend. His hands hold the universe in its entirety together.

And yet He took the lowest place. He came down as a helpless baby. God became an unborn life form in the womb of a woman. He was born in a cave where animals slept, because the world He came to rescue had no room for Him. He grew up in a rural, oppressed Roman province, where no one knew all of who He was. When His ministry began, He was rejected in his own hometown. He came as the King of Heaven, to eat with tax collectors, heal the sick, restore prostitutes, love the untouchables, and wash feet. Jesus, the son of God himself, was willing, not only to become a man, but to associate himself closely with man; even in the Old Testament, to be called the Son of Man. He became one of us. Not only that; he made himself lower than us, and served us. The system of elevation in heaven works exactly the opposite of earth's system. On earth, the popular and successful are viewed the most favorably. That's not how the Kingdom of Heaven functions; the higher you truly are in the spiritual economy, the lower place you take. The higher you make yourself, the lower you fall. Jesus proved it, by taking the lowest place of all.

He entered into our humanity for more than to watch us make ourselves great. We are called to follow Him; we are called to die His death, and be "born again" into His birth. We are called to take that lowest spot, and serve those around us. Our God was willing to associate himself with man, even the least among us. He was willing to call himself the Son of Man. How much more deeply could we be following that call to walk in those footsteps, if we were willing to hear it?

Glimpses: He Who is Over the Sun

Vanity of vanities...... all is vanity under the sun.

This sixteenth year of my life has been eye-opening. Before, I'd had my plans. I'd had dreams. I'd had ambitions. But mostly, I'd just had the here and now. Maybe I realized that in a couple years everything would change. Or maybe, I just didn't want to think about it. Whatever the case, this year has brought the realization like a load of bricks that things are not always going to stay the same as they are now. I'm a junior in highschool. I'm less than two years away from possibly never living permanently at home again. This spring, some of my closest friends in the world will graduate, and leave for college. Some of them are going to be twenty minutes away, others twenty hours. And there is going to be more distance than just the physical one. They're moving on to a new life, and exciting adventures. I'm staying here, with my own, until I leave next year. I am so excited to open the next chapter of life. I am so terrified. Part of me just wants everything to stay the way it is now. This year is precious, and I don't want it to end.

But it is fleeting.

Once the wisest man in the world, Solomon recognized and verbalized this more clearly than anyone else in scripture, in Ecclesiastes. After years of walking with God, he fell to the ways of the flesh, and allowed his lust for pagan women to lead him toward their gods. Nearing the end of his life, he was forced to look back on it all, and ask a simple question: Was it worth anything?

Reading his thoughts has been eye-opening. How much of all the things we pore over and worry about actually matter?  Solomon walks through several arenas of life in Ecclesiastes, searching for meaning. He begins with the virtue he is most famous for.

Wisdom is meaningless. All of us shoot for good grades. All of us strive to be more knowledgeable. And it might work. A wise person might walk around with his eyes open to the knowledge around him, while a foolish person lives his life with a blindfold. But ultimately, they both die. And on that last day of life, no amount of human knowledge in the world can save you. The same fate claims the educated as the illiterate.

Pleasure is meaningless. You can enjoy yourself all you want. You can have millions of dollars, and spend it all however you like. You can build yourself a castle even greater than you could have imagined. You can have the flashing lights and beauty. You can have the fame and prosperity of the world. But in the end, it is nothing. You can't take it with you on that final day of life, and it can give you no lasting fulfillment while you are here.

Work is meaningless. We pour everything we can into doing our best. We strive for excellence in what we do. We work hard. And in the end, it means nothing. It isonly a chasing after the wind. It can bring you nothing in the end.

Advancement is meaningless. Spend your whole life striving for something. Work your hardest. Leap above the highest hurdles, and excel above your fellow man. Win their respect. Win their adoration. Win their approval. Be the best. And you will find it empty.

Riches are meaningless. Money cannot buy anything that lasts. It is only a slaveholder to human hearts, that governs them awhile before handing them over to death at the end of their days. No matter how many things you can buy, nothing can satisfy you.

And that's not all. The voices of children are lost in injustice, and are not heard. Their tears are not seen; power is on the side of those who harm them, and there is no one to take the hit. They are trapped in a life of misery without meaning, with nowhere to turn.

2 

"And I declared that the dead,

    who had already died,

are happier than the living,

    who are still alive.

3 

But better than both

    is the one who has never been born,

who has not seen the evil

    that is done under the sun."

-Ecclesiastes 4:2-3

Life is meaningless. Knowledge is worth nothing. No amount of work can bring lasting benefit. Riches cannot buy purpose. Approval is illusory. Advancement is fleeting. Power is temporal. Evil traps the innocent, and causes a world lost in its own pursuit of worthlessness to become deaf to their cries. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity under the sun.

Unless............. there is One over the sun. 

And suddenly, everything changes. The knowledge of Him is worth a thousand lives. The joys of His love satisfy any longing heart. The work of His hands make everything beautiful in its time, and the works done for His Kingdom have eternal ramifications. Advancing His name is the goal. Riches beyond imagination around found in Him. HE is the meaning.

He hears the cries of injustice, and pours out His own blood to rescue the prisoners. His love eases any pain inflicted by the Enemy. His own hand has achieved salvation. He walked among the oppressed, and knows their pain intimately. He will raise up followers to rescue them as His hands and feet to this earth. He is the Hope.

Everything is as nothing without Him. But in Him..... is everything that could ever matter.

"He has made everything beautiful in its time. 

He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

-Ecclesiastes 3:11

Guest Article: Intentionally Building Your Life Around Deepening Your Relationship with Christ

There is a thought that is easy to forget about in the busyness of everyday life. But it’s one that, by the grace of God, will change your everyday life if you think about it. It changed mine.

“At the end of my life, when I stand before the throne of God… what will really matter?”

I often think about what it will be like to be in my Savior’s presence, worshipping before His throne, enjoying the glory of sinless perfection. And I wonder; what I will think of that short, vapor of a life that I lived?

Christ’s love for me will be unconditionally perfect. But I want to have lived a life that was pleasing and fruitful for Him. I want to have been walking in the good works He prepared for me to do (Eph 2:10).

1 Corinthians tells us that our works as Christians will be tested by fire on that final day:

“Each one's work will become manifest... and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved...”

- 1 Corinthians 3:13-15

Will my life’s work survive the fire, or will it be burned up? This is an important question for us to ponder. I want to hear my Savior say, “well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:23).

So as young ladies, we must ask ourselves, are we living deliberate lives for the glory of God, or are our lives slipping away, day by day, lost in the busyness? Are we living in light of eternity?

Some ideas for building our lives around deepening our relationship with Christ:

~ Daily Bible Reading and Prayer

We cannot overestimate the importance of spending time in God’s Word. Sometimes I get so busy that I decide to skip on my devotions. How wrong! Someone once said, “I have so much to do today, that I will spend the first three hours in prayer.” This is the attitude we must have. I so easily forget that unless the Lord is empowering me to do His work for His glory, all of my “busyness” is worthless (Ps 127:1). Jesus was our example in this, in that even though He was busy about the work of His Father, he rose early to pray (Mark 1:35).

~ Feeding Ourselves Spiritually

People who are in love spend all their energy figuring out what the other person likes. It’s amazing how much energy they will put into it! Everything from the other person’s favorite color to their favorite movie is of utmost interest. They want to know their entire history, and what makes them the person that they are. Why is this? Because people in love want to please the other person... because they really care.

Do we want to please Jesus? If we truly care, we will study Him. We will have a passion to know who He is, and what will please Him. We cannot love a person we don’t know, and we can’t please them if we don’t know what they like. In the same way, we cannot love a Savior we don’t know, and we can’t please Him if we don’t know what He desires. Learning to love Christ is a lifelong adventure!

One of the things we can do to grow in our spiritual understanding is to read good books. Read books that teach you more about Christ. Read about the lives of saints who have gone before and whose lives inspire you to follow in their godly footsteps. Supplement your Bible reading with books that encourage you spiritually and books that help you to understand the Bible.

“Visit many good books, but live in the Bible.”

~ C.H. Spurgeon

~ Seeking Wise Counsel

Seek wise counsel from godly older people in your life, who know you well, and ask them what they think you should prioritize in your life. Especially heed the advice of your parents. Ask them how you can intentionally build your life around strengthening your relationship with Christ, and what they wish they had done when they were your age. I have gleaned so much wisdom from hearing what other ladies wished they would have done at my age, and how they could have grown more spiritually, when they were in my stage of life. They have that hind-sight that is 20-20 (Prov 15:22).

One other thing you can do is ask them ways that they think you should grow, personally. These can be character weaknesses, or practical things to learn and grow in (like writing or cooking). This one can be hard, and it takes a lot of humility. It’s easy to gloss over our “rough spots” in our own minds, but other people tend to be more honest. Pray that the Lord would give you the grace to be humble, and ask your parents and siblings where they think you could grow. Take notes. You may not agree with them, but don’t argue, just thank them for sharing, and pray over those things. Oftentimes, our parents, siblings, and friends can see the blind spots in our lives, or help us define our priorities.

This has been such an important part of my spiritual growth over the years. There have been so many areas that I would have never thought I needed to work on, had I not asked others who know my weaknesses better than I do. I was quite surprised at some of the things they said at first, but as time has gone on, I’ve seen how right they were (Prov. 12:15).

My Story:

I remember the moment vividly. I was woefully pondering my lack of spiritual growth in the past few years, and how I wished I could be spending more time reading. I desperately wanted to be learning more about the God I served, and how He wanted me to live. Why didn't I have the time? I was actually feeling quite sorry for myself, pitying the fact that I had to be so busy. Racking my brain, I tried to think of time that I might not realize I had... some spare moments I could use for reading. Suddenly, conviction swept over me as I realized that I did have the time, I just wasn't utilizing it properly. With a blush, I thought about how much time I was spending every day listening to music. I quickly thought back through the weeks, adding up the hours I was spending on a regular basis - about 2 hours a day which made for a whopping 14 hours a week, or 60+ hours a month. Ouch. (I've realized since then that because it takes me about 30 minutes to read 25 pages, I could have read about 75 books in a year's time had I been using that time wisely.) It was easy for me to listen to music because I did that whenever I had busy work: while driving, doing housework, or getting ready for the day. “What if…” I thought to myself. “What if I could take those hours and listen to sermons or audio books instead of music?” I soon filled my iPod with sermons Bible teachers, and audiobooks from deep, Biblical authors. Not to be cliché or anything, but my life has never been the same again. Since then, I have incorporated more ideas into those hours- prayer, scripture memorization, and listening to the Bible - but that initial choice was what started the whole thing. Within only a few weeks my spiritual growth skyrocketed and my interests grew exponentially. It wasn't surprising really. How could I expect to be growing when I wasn't feeding myself spiritually? So I challenge you... What time can you redeem? The days are evil, and we cannot afford to waste time on things that will not help us become better soldiers for our Lord (Eph 5:16). I hope you will pray about where you can redeem the time, and perhaps, today is the day you will look back on, as the day you made a small choice with no small consequences.

Written by Rachel at "Loving the Lord Ministries". View original here: (http://lovingthelord.org/) (not copied for monetary purposes)

Glimpses: The Finish Line

Hey girls :) I’m officially crashing the blog for this week! Before you read, I’ll just be honest, and admit that this wasn’t what I was originally planning to write this devotional about. Actually, when I first told Hannah I would write something, I had no idea what that might be. I jumped around; first, I wrote about the person of Jesus Christ being real... then I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I started writing about the goodness of God, but that didn’t seem right either. But God works in mysterious ways, because on Friday, some of my best friends and I watched the movie “Grace Unplugged” (if you’ve never seen it, I hope you aren’t busy tonight, because you must see it!!), and I knew exactly what it was I wanted to write about.

Instead of giving you a long, complicated description of the movie, I just want you to read the words of this song. It’s written by AJ Michalka (look her up; she is amazing), and it’s called “All I’ve Ever Needed”.

***

Honestly it's time for honesty
My heart is on my sleeve
Oh will you hear me out?
I've got nothing left to give of me
I gave up everything
So there is nothing left to lose from me now
Would you forgive me somehow

I've chased a million things
Bright lights and empty dreams
Now here I am
Right where I thought I wanted to be
I'll trade it all right now
Leave it all and lay it down
To get back to where I belong
Lord all I've ever needed was your love.

Truth be told I made this world my home
I let it steal my soul, but now I want it back
Cause all I need is waiting
In your arms a place to hang my heart
Where I am known at last
You're the one true thing I have

I've chased a million things
Bright lights and empty dreams
Now here I am
Right where I thought I wanted to be
I'll trade it all right now
Leave it all and lay it down
To get back to where I belong
Lord all I've ever needed was your love.

And I know that I was meant to be
More than just a melody
I know that You had hopes for me
I hope you still believe in me...

// 

So often, our whole life becomes a rat-race. We’re talented young ladies; we’re smart, we work hard, we live balanced lives, we try to love our friends and be a part of our families, and above all, we try to live for the Lord. But sometimes in the inherently good process of trying to achieve so much, we lose track of the finish line.

Ultimately, in every race we run, we’re trying to reach a goal; the finish line, the end, the perfect accomplishment. In the race we so often run so blindly, we focus on our own finish lines. We chase after a million things. We want bright lights and empty dreams.

But then we get there. We think we did it. We reach a place where we thought we wanted to be, and we realize that we don’t even belong there.

Because the truth is that only Jesus Christ is the finish line.

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore.” Revelation 1:17-18

He is the Alpha and the Omega.

The Beginning and the End.

The Way, the Truth, and the Life.

The Fullness of Love.

And so, so much more… and honestly? There is nothing else in this world that we could ever achieve, ever need, or ever want except to love Jesus and let Him love us back. And until we figure that out, we’ll always be running the race and never reaching the finish. But when we realize that our true goal, the real finish, is total union with the person of Jesus Christ, then suddenly we also realize that the only thing we’ve ever needed was His love.

This is who Jesus wants to be in our lives, in our hearts, and in our world. He wants to be the end of the line; the striped tape at the end of the track. We push Him away, chasing our own lights and dreams, when all He wants is to be the one and only thing we’re chasing. All He asks is that let we Him love us.

Jesus? Be my finish line. Cause all I’ve ever needed was your love. 

Written by Caroline Andrews.