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Sidney’s Birthday Party

1 Corinthians 6.19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.  Romans 12.4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  Romans 14.7 For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone. 8 If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.  I was privileged to be included in a birthday party last Saturday. We celebrated Sidney’s second birthday with plenty of presents--a tricycle, a baby stroller for her dolls, a small "stove", etc. The other little girl at the party was my granddaughter. At 23 months, she likes the word "mine."  Carson seemed to think that the present she "gave" Sidney still belonged to her. She and Sidney had a few "tug of war" matches with some of the toys.  When we were ready to leave the party, they hugged each other and Carson reluctantly left the toys with Sidney.

If you think these two are immature, consider the Christian who thinks his life is his own! The Father bought us with the blood of Christ. We belong to Him and each other. He did not call us to be autonomous. He called us to be part of His family--to belong to Him and the other members of our family.

According to the dictionary, the "Lord" is the One who has power and authority over another. Realize that when you are tempted to "be your own person" or act as if you belong to yourself. We are like sheep without a Shepherd if He is not our Lord. When we withhold anything--any part of ourselves or our things--from Him, we need to recognize our immaturity. If you are reading this, you are older than Sidney and Carson...and it is time to grow up.

Dear Father, You have given us Christ and everything we have. We are so grateful and we recognize that we belong to You. We rejoice because we are part of Your forever family. We are grateful that Christ is our Lord. He has given us a reason to live and we want to magnify Him. Help us to grow up--to always know that we are not our own. May we dedicate all that are and all that we have to Your glory. Help those who are hurting. We ask this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.

1 John 5.14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Only God can know HOW our prayers WORK but we believe HE answers. Please write me to add names to the prayer list and to report changes in status.

Let us be thankful and prayerful!

Love
Brad Forgy