[{"document_url": "http://myheavenlyfatherknows.blogspot.com/2013/01/set-apart-living.html", "unformatted_src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EoWHsYAW-F8/TFreP8j_eNI/AAAAAAAAAAM/7xEpEx6LRx0/S748/jackson%27s+flower.jpg", "src": "http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EoWHsYAW-F8/TFreP8j_eNI/AAAAAAAAAAM/7xEpEx6LRx0/S748/jackson%27s+flower.jpg", "formatted_filename": "jackson s flower", "rendered_width": 604, "rendered_height": 453}, null, null, null, null, null, null]

Set Apart Living

I recently read a book called "Set Apart Femininity" by Leslie Ludy.  It is about giving our whole lives to the Lord, and not just sprinkling him in to our lives here and there.  I loved the book.  I agree with her message - it's so easy to give God and Christ only the attention that is convenient for us, and to treat them like consultants rather than like they are actually in charge of our lives as they ought to be.

Since reading it in July, I have been going back and forth with questions about how it should look to give my life completely to the Lord and to really put him in charge of it.  Leslie gives the impression that living completely for Christ will mean doing something absolutely world shaking and abnormal.  She uses women like Corrie Ten Boom, Amy Carmichael, Jackie Pullinger, and Sabina Wurmbrand as examples of "set apart femininity" - women who sacrificed absolutely everything most of us hold dear (a "normal" life, a home, marriage, their homeland, children, etc) for the cause of bringing glory to God and loving people.

There is nothing at all wrong with doing mind-blowing things in service to Jesus, but she makes it sound like being an upstanding woman in your community and serving the Lord on a small scale is not important in the Lord's eyes.  I am trying to decide if I believe whether, in totally giving up ones own will to the Lord, he might direct a person to simply serve their own family in some way (for example, caring for a dying parent or a child with a special condition could be all-consuming).  I believe smaller things can be just as radical, and just as important to the Lord, because I believe that he thinks that one person is just as important as many people.

I will be looking into scripture to see what I think, because I have this nagging feeling that one can live radically in a "normal" setting.  Any thoughts??
Posted by Hannah at 8:42 AM Labels: books, devotion, faithfulness, Jesus Christ, learning, questions


