A Renewed Purpose, part 2

(This is part 2. Click here to see part 1)

Hello Friends,

Jim and I have always had lots of big bulky office furniture to store the office and printing supplies we needed for our publishing/mail order business. Of all the numerous deep cupboards, shelving, countless desks, and bookcases we had to have for the business, it always seemed our house was more of an office complex. This is not to mention all the printing and book-making equipment that required a two-three car garage just to set it up for use. We’ve unloaded most of it over the last several years after having shut it all down back in 2005.

Now it has seemed we’ve been starting over, but with far more simpler needs, and I couldn’t be more grateful as it was really hard to have a large enough house to fit it all. It’s actually been fun to separate the business aspect of our lives from the personal for the first time since we began back in 1990. My own business space and equipment/furniture needs today are miniscule in comparison, and so it’s been nice to design a personal space that I can enjoy being in, and that feels more homey instead of like an office.

Still, business requires storage for so many odds and ends that you wouldn’t need in a house, and if the office is away from home then you also need duplicates of some things, like a few tools and personal items. And so, in keeping with my new furniture theme, I chose a standard old white dresser for my personal and office stuff. I found it for $115.00 at an antique store. I wanted a tallish dresser with the top drawer easily accessible for my personal belongings, while using the bottom three drawers for tools, supplies, and books, not your standard use for a dresser, but just perfectly renewed for my needs at this time. Jim painted it cream color, along with the coat rack my sister found for $18.00 (also at an antique store). They fit nicely together sharing the round corner of my office. And since the walls are very difficult to drill holes in for hanging anything (due to the firewall material put in commercial buildings), Jim is hanging a few things for me from the ceiling with ribbon.

The idea for renewed furniture came to me just after Christmas when Jim and I were going around looking for office furniture for our newly leased office space. It was all quite expensive, bulky and unappealing. I kept thinking there must be another way. I suddenly thought of the pretty little boutique shopping malls in our area, and how they use real furniture for their displays, and even use dressers for their checkout areas. I’m so grateful that God gave me the inspiration to see something differently; to see how I could renew regular household furniture for use in my business space. This is how He wants us to see our lives in Him—as renewed in purpose.

This means He has an entirely different process for us in the building of our family, and in how we train and educate our children. We’re not supposed to just carry on with our lives as before. He wants us for a renewed purpose, a heart-level purpose that we never even knew was possible, because we didn’t see it even though the possibility was there all along. God opens our eyes and brings us to a place among those who are consecrated by faith. Jesus prayed to the Father, “And so for their sake and on their behalf I sanctify (dedicate, consecrate) myself, that they also may be sanctified (dedicated, consecrated, made holy) in the Truth” (John 17:19 TAB). Jesus is the epitomy of a wise leader, a true servant. He doesn’t expect His followers to be better than He is like many parents while in the flesh do with their children. We have so many lessons to learn about our expectations toward our children.

What Does All of This Have to Do with Homeschooling?

To bring this discussion closer to home, and why its absolutely necessary to become consecrated, I want to address the current battles concerned Christian parents face today. It doesn’t take long when first beginning to homeschool to discover what a battle we face with three of the greatest enemies of the modern family. Families continue to be ripped apart by traditional educational objectives, peer pressure, and even religion. Parents grope in frustration to find ways to save their children from unhealthy influences. The maturity of thousands of young lives is aborted by the enemies of our culture and the idol of education. What’s happening when we can’t seem to lay hold of the promises of God for our families?

It could be a matter of divided interests. We pit the desires of our flesh against the desires of the Spirit. This inward battle, when allowed to be waged indefinitely between the flesh and the Spirit, will keep believers in a perpetual state of spiritual immaturity where they are unable to fight the forces of unhealthy cultural influence. Their double-mindedness floods their decision-making process with confusion, uncertainty, panic, and rashness. They can’t walk in wisdom because they don’t know how to listen for it. They are not consecrated to the Lord, because they are trying to serve two masters. They are living life in their own way, being driven by their fears and unaware that God has a heart-level purpose for them.

Do You Have a Say in the Matter?

In my son’s examples (see part 1), John initiated the appropriating and the dedicating of various objects for specific use. The objects had no say in the matter as to whether they would be used or even how they would be used, they simply were yielded up as John layed hold of them. This is an important lesson for believers to learn. In our case (and even in Saul’s) we have a choice by an act of free will to become consecrated for God’s use, or to simply say no and walk our own way. We are appropriated through redemption, but it is not merely so we can have eternal life and then continue to live life on our terms. We must agree to becoming set apart for Him that, first, He can do a work in us, and second, ultimately use us to bring Him glory through the testifying of our lives to His holy works, helping others to know Him too. Consecration renews our purpose in this life, making us available to live our lives on the Lord’s terms.

Your Part in Consecration

My renewed dresser and printer stand, had no say in the matter as to how I would use them. They were yielded up from their prior uses to whatever I had in mind for them. As you and I know it doesn’t work that way with living vessels. We can choose what we do when God, through our redemption, appropriates us for His use. We might agree to a dedication of sorts to live more morally or religiously. But God doesn’t just want us to initiate an outward clean up job of our lives as we continue to live it any way we choose. He wants us for a holy use. A holy use requires His complete involvement in our lives at the heart-level, whereas a natural or merely religious use does not. Because we have a say in the matter, Paul felt it important to urge believers to initiate a deliberate and thorough consecration, inviting the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.” ~ Romans 12:1 TAB (also see: 2 Corinthians 7:1 and 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 4)

Here is another way to view the practical aspect of homeschooling. The Lord wants us to exercise wisdom when making daily decisions to receive from the world and its ways of doing life.

“‘Come out from among them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you’” (2 Corinthians 6:17). AND, “If you extract the precious from the worthless, you will become my spokesman. They for their part may turn to you, but as for you, you must not turn to them” (Jeremiah 15:19).

Intentionally Consecrated to Receive Discipline

Consecration is characterized by giving God “permission” to begin doing a deep and thorough work in your life, cleansing your heart, perfecting it, and making it holy [purely loving]. For consecration does not in itself make us holy, but rather it positions us in, what is to God, a sacred place to make us fit for divine service. By receiving a work of His grace in us, we intentionally cooperate, yielding fully to His lordship. As we allow God to continue working in us, while we “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” not only positional holiness will be ours, but experiential holiness as well [becoming purely loving].

If we expect to be effective in our parenting we must understand how God desires to parent us. Only He can make us into a healing presence for our families and bring needed wholeness to our relationships. Even with a deliberate consecration on our part, our experience will still be only according to the measure of our spiritual insight and understanding, while the Holy Spirit will discipline us according to His light and wisdom. This means that we will never fully understand how God is working in our lives, and that is why we must not assume He is uninvolved in undesirable circumstances. Instead we must first seek His wisdom when questioning our challenges, because if we resist what could be His wise discipline, then His sanctifying work toward godly character will take far too long.

He is your life, “So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective.” ~ 2 Timothy 2:26 (The Message)

Please let me know how this message inspires you. I’d love to hear from you. I pray the Good Lord has His way to renew your purpose.

So grateful to be in the Lord’s service,

Marilyn Howshall for Lifestyle of Learning™ Ministries

P.S.: If you are not already a member of LOLACHE, I hope you can join me, my friends, and other serious parents (set apart ones) who are gathered there to allow God to do a heart-level work in them. We not only provide lots of practical help for your family’s lifestyle of learning, but through the Moms Forum, you are also encouraged to ask questions and receive personal input that will help you influence your family relationships at the heart-level.

The book, Empowering the Transfer of Moral Values and Faith, will help you to understand how God wants to work in parents at the heart-level. If you haven’t already read it, you can get your copy in the eStore here: lifestyleoflearning.org and don’t forget that LOLACHE members can receive a 25% discount in their own eStore!

[Lifestyle of Learning™/LOLACHE eNewsletter ~ Mar 7, 2012, Issue 14]