Phillippians 3:12 (Phi) ...I keep going on, trying to grasp the purpose for which Christ Jesus grasped me.Matthew 13:44 (Phi) "The kingdom of heaven is like some treasure which has been buried in a field. A man finds it and buries it again, and goes off overjoyed to sell all his possessions to buy himself that field."
2 Corinthians 4:7 (KJV) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels...
Seized By God
1 Corinthians 6:20 (Jer) You are not your own property; you have been bought and paid for. That is why you should use your body for the glory of God.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (Phi) For you must realize that you have been ransomed by your futile way of living passed on to you by your traditions, but not by any money payment of this passing world. No, the price was in fact the life-blood of Christ, the unblemished and unstained lamb of sacrifice.
Romans 12:1 (TEB) So then, my brothers, because of God's great mercy to us, I make this appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.
Available Vessels
John 1:12-13 (NAS) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor or the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
F.B. Meyer: "The act of consecration is to recognize Christ's ownership and to accept it; and to say to Him, with the whole heart, Lord, I am Yours by right, and I wish to be Yours by choice." 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4 (NKJ) For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you show how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor.2 Timothy 2:21 (RSV) If anyone purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the Master of the house, ready for any good work.
Ordinary Jars In The Hands Of Jesus
John 2:5-10 (Wey) His mother said to the attendants, "Whatever he tells you to do, do it." Now there were six stone jars standing there (in accordance with the Jewish regulations for purification), each large enough to hold twenty gallons or more. Jesus said to the attendants, "Fill the jars with water." Then He said, "Now, take some out." Then... [the banquet-master] called to the bridegroom and said to him, "... You have kept the good wine till now."
God's Will To Form Us Into Vessels Worthy Of Future Glory
Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Romans 6:13 (Phi) But, like men rescued from certain death, put yourselves in God's hands as weapons of good for his own purposes.
Titus 3:5,6 (Phi) He saved us in his mercy--not by virtue of any moral achievement of ours, but by the cleansing power of a new birth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit which he poured upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Philippians 3:12(NIV) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Philippians 3:12 (NAS) ...but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:5-7 (Jer) In your minds you must be the same as Christ Jesus; His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave....
Malachi 3:2-3 (NAS) "...For He is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that He may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness."
Apprentice Priests...
Exodus 29:44 (NIV) "So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests."
Hebrews 9:21 (NAS) And in the same way, he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.
Exodus 28:41 (NAS) And you shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.
Consecration Is God's Prerogative, Not Man's
2 Chronicles 13:9-10 (NIV) ...Whoever comes to consecrate himself... may become a priest of what are not gods. As for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the Lord are sons of Aaron...
E.W. Bullinger: "Thus it is now that the Holy Spirit consecrates all who are priests unto God. It is a Divine act, an act of sovereign grace. A grand reality when done for the sinner by God the Holy Ghost but a worthless vanity when presumptuously done by a mortal man." 2 Chronicles 13:9-10 (GLT) ...Whoever comes to consecrate himself ... even he becomes a priest to no gods.2 Corinthians 1:21 (Phi) It is he who has consecrated us to this special work, he who has given us the living guarantee of the Spirit in our hearts.
Defiled Vessels
Daniel 5:22-23 (NEB) But you, his son, Belshazzar, did not humble your heart, although you knew all this. You have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. The vessels of his temple have been brought to your table...
Daniel 5:30 (NEB) That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain.
Romans 9:22-23 (RSV) What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy which he prepared beforehand for glory.
Isaiah 52:11 (NAS) Depart, depart, go out from there, touch nothing unclean; go out of the midst of her purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.
From Desecration... To Consecration
Romans 6:19 (TEB) ...At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness, for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness, for holy purposes.
Matthew 3:11 (NIV) "...He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Deuteronomy 11:22-23 (NIV) "If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways and hold fast to him--then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you."
Mark 11:15 (NIV) Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NKJ) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
2 Chronicles 7:16 (NAS) "For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My Name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually."
Exodus 29:43 (NAS) And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by my glory.
2 Chronicles 7:3 (NIV) ...and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.
Beholding His Glory
2 Corinthians 3:18 (TEB) All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord who is the Spirit, transforms us into his very likeness, in an ever greater degree of glory.
2 Chronicles 29:31 (NAS)..."Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord."
Consecrated For The Wedding
Zephaniah 1:7 (NIV) Be silent before the Sovereign Lord for the day of the Lord is near. The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; he has consecrated those he has invited.
Revelation 19:7,8 (TEB) Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise his greatness. For the time has come for the wedding of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself for it. She has been given shining linen to dress herself with...
Leviticus 16:32 (KJV) And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments...
Matthew 22:12-14 (RSV) "My friend," said the king [after imploring people to come...], "how do you come to be here without your wedding clothes?" He had nothing to say. The king then said to his attendants, "Bind him hand and foot; turn him out into the dark, the place of wailing and grinding of teeth." For though many are invited, few are chosen.
The Sacrifice Of Obedience
1 Kings 19:19-21 (NIV) So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. "Let me kiss my father and mother good-bye," he said, "and then I will come with you." "Go back," Elijah replied. "What have I done to you?" So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the ploughing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
F.B. Meyer: "Consecration is only possible when we give up our will about everything." Luke 14:26 (NIV) "If any man comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple."Luke 9:62 (Phi) But Jesus told him, "Anyone who puts his hand to the plough and then looks behind him is useless for the kingdom of God."
Luke 14:33 (TEB) "In the same way," concluded Jesus, "none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up everything he has."
Oswald Chambers: "We... have to deliberately determine to be interested only in which God is interested." Clay... Ready For Change
Hebrews 10:20,22 (NKJ) By a new and living way which he consecrated for us.... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
James 4:8 (NIV) Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.
Oswald Chambers: "Consecration means the continual separating of myself... We cannot consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to consider God every day of my life?" Joel 2:13-17 (NAS) Rend your hearts and not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate... Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the elders... Let the priests, the Lord's ministers weep between the porch and the altar.Romans 13:13-14 (Phi) Let us therefore fling away the things that men do in the dark, let us arm ourselves for the fight of the day! Let us live cleanly, as in the daylight, not in the delights of getting drunk or playing with sex, nor yet in quarreling or jealousies. Let us be Christ's men from head to foot, and give no chances to the flesh to have its fling.
