Consecration for holiness!

Here at 614 Vancouver, we just fished an all night of prayer, where we stayed up all night praying and praising the name of Almighty God. I thought it was interesting that between the days of Passover and Good Friday we spent the night praying (like the disciples and Jesus in Gethsemane?).
So every hour had a different theme, and for the 4-5 AM hour, I was asked to give a short preach. The theme was consecration and mission. It was a really good opportunity, because God really taught me more of what consecration was and even more just helped me "get it". Here's what I said about consecration.

Consecration has a lot of different definitions. The first that came to my mind was "Set apart", which was kind of strange because sanctification also means "set apart". It also has the connotations of to gather, fill one's hand, dedicate, destroy, and perfect. All this was kind of confusing, so I asked the LORD for some guidance. This is how He helped me put it all together-
When we consecrate ourselves (set ourselves apart) we "gather" together all of who we are, all our time, talents, wants, desires, even our sins and shortcomings, and we "fill our hands" with the offering of us. Then we lift that to God, dedicating all of who we are to Him. Now here is where consecration and sanctification meet. When we fully give ourselves over to God, He takes the offering, "destroys" the bad, and "perfects" us. Consecration is our act of "setting apart", and sanctification is God's act of "setting apart." Really, consecration and sanctification are two sides to the same coin, and that coin is holiness.

One more thing- Our consecration needs to be full. If you withhold part of yourself from God, God can't (won't) sanctify you fully. If we desire holiness, we NEED to give ALL. Anything less is only a hindrance to sanctification and holiness.

Make sense? Am I way off? Agree? Disagree? Tell me about it!

The Greatest Strategy (it never fails!)

I edited my last post a little. If it's worth your time, you can read it over. Only a couple of changes though.

I want to talk more on holiness. But before that, a little Brengle on the Army.

Brengle wrote a book called Ancient Prophets and Modern Problems. His 23rd chapter is titled "What About the Future of the Salvation Army?" It's very interesting and incredibly helpful, especially in this time of the Army's life, where people are wondering "What is the Salvation Army?" This is Brengle's prediction of the future of the Army:

"We must still prove our discipleship by our love one for the other. It is not enough to wear the uniform, to profess loyalty to Army leaders and principles, to give our goods to feed the poor and our bodies to be burned. We must love one another. We must make this the badge of our discipleship. We must wrestle and pray and hold fast that we do not lose this. The Army is so thoroughly organized and disciplined, so wrought into the life of nations, so fortified with valuable properties, and on such a sound financial basis, that it is not likely to perish
as an organization, but it will become a spiritually dead thing if love leaks out. Love is the life of The Army. 'If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.' But if love leaks out we shall lose our crown, we shall have a name to live and yet be dead. We may still house the homeless, dole out food to the hungry, punctiliously perform our routine work, but the mighty ministry of the Spirit will no longer be our glory. Our musicians will play meticulously, our Songsters will revel in the artistry of song that tickles the ear, but leaves the heart cold and hard. Our Officers will make broad their phylacteries and hob-nob with mayors and councilmen and be greeted in the market-place, but God will not be among us. We shall still recruit our ranks and supply our Training Garrisons with Cadets from among our own Young People, but we shall cease to be saviors of the lost sheep that have no shepherd."

What do you think?

Has love leaked out?

Have his predictions come true, or are we as passionate and loving as ever?

How is your love? Do you love your brothers and sisters and fellow soldiers/salvationists?

Test your love. Are you patient? Are you kind? Do you envy? Do you boast? Do you think highly of yourself? Do you behave rudely? Do you try to get your own way, or let others get theirs? Do you get angry with others easily? Do you forgive easily, or tend to hold on to offense? Are you ever happy when wrong is done? Do you rejoice when you see/hear/experience the truth of God, even those truths that are hard to accept? Are you willing to bear all things? Do you think the best of others? Do you hold tightly onto hope? Will your love endure through anything?

That kind of love will NEVER fail. It's got the Biblical stamp of solid Holy Spirit Truth.

Let us spur one another on to love and good deeds.

PS- If you want the whole chapter, I can e-mail it to you...