What does it mean to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in everything?

Many times we tell the Lord, “Lord Jesus, I give You the first place in my life! You are the Lord!” Also, we call on His name, Lord Jesus! But have you ever wondered what does it mean to give the Lord the preeminence, the first place, in a practical way in your life? Recently I have been impressed with this sharing in the 2011 winter training on the Crystallization-Study of the Psalms(2), message 1 – there are at least 12 ways we can give the Lord the first place in us in a practical way (also mentioned via, 12 ways to give Christ the first place in the new year, and, The Need for Christ as Our Unique Portion and Desire to Be Properly Appreciated and Exalted by Us).

1. To give the Lord the first place in our life means to love Him with the first love, the best love, to be constrained with His love, and regard Him as everything in our life. Rev. 2:4 speaks of not leaving our first love. 2 Cor. 5:14-15 tells us that the love of Christ constrains us to no longer live to ourselves. In Mark 12:30 God commands us to love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. Psa. 73:25-26 says that we have no one in heaven and on earth besides the Lord.

We may have loved other things, persons, matters, etc and considered them as “everything to us”, but now we love the Lord with the first love and we regard God as our everything! We should consider His love and our love for Him to be forever fresh! His love for us refreshes us, and our love for Him refreshes the Lord. Lord, show me Your love, that I might love You with Your love and with a fresh, new, sevenfold intensified love!

2. To give the Lord the first place in our life practically means to repent and do the first works. Rev. 2:5 warns us that if we don’t repent and do the first works, the Lord will remove the lampstand. These works issue from our first love for the Lord – they are a work issuing from a heart filled with zeal for the Lord’s love, and this is precious in the Lord’s eyes. We love the Lord so much that we just do the first works – and they come out of our zeal, our love for Him!

In that day, when we will stand before God at His judgement seat, He will appreciate how much of what we have done out of love for Him. Only those things we do motivated by our love for the Lord are considered gold, silver, and precious stones. If we don’t do these works, the Lord will take the lampstand! Whatever we do in the church life, we need to love the Lord and do the first works – and we will be a corporate expression of the Triune God everywhere on the earth as the golden lampstands!

3. To give the Lord the first place in our life means to take Him as the fountain of living waters! Jer. 2:13 says that it is an evil thing in the eyes of God to forsake Him as the fountain of living waters and to hew out for ourselves cisterns (broken cisterns) which hold no water. Every day we come to the Lord to drink Him as the fountain of living waters! God’s intention in His economy is to be the fountain, the source, of living waters to us to dispense Himself into His chosen people as their enjoyment and everything! The goal of this dispensing is to produce the house of God, the church, His fulness, His expression!

4. To give the Lord the first place in our life practically means to eat Him as the tree of life! See Rev. 2:7 and note 6 – eating the tree of life, that is, enjoying Christ as our life supply, should be the primary matter in the church life. Right now in the church life the primary matter is eating Christ as the tree of life! This is the way to give Him the preeminence in all things. The content of the church life depends on our enjoyment of Christ – the more we enjoy Him, the richer the content will be. To enjoy Christ requires that we love Him with our first love. If we don’t love Him, we will lose our enjoyment and we will lose the lampstand! By loving the Lord with the first love and by enjoying the Lord as the tree of life we will be the testimony of the Lord as the golden lampstand!

5. To give the Lord the first place in our life is to continually come to Him to contact Him, receive Him, and enjoy Him. Isa. 57:20 and note 1 tells us that if we don’t enjoy the Lord we are like the tossed sea, like mud, and what comes out of our being is mire and mud. The evil condition of the wicked is that they do not come to eat and enjoy the Lord – they do MANY THINGS but they don’t contact the Lord to take Him in, enjoy Him, receive Him, and taste Him! Nothing is more evil in the sight of God than our not enjoying Him!

6. To give the Lord the first place in our life means that we take Christ as our centrality (our holding center) and our universality (our everything). Col. 1:17 says that all things cohere in him – all the planets, stars, galaxies, etc, are held together by Christ. Our personal universe is held together by Christ, and we need to take Him as our center, our hub. If not, our personal universe falls apart! Take Him as the center of your personal universe in the way you dress, comb your hair, shop, etc. In small things and big things, take Christ as the center!

7. To give the Lord the first place in our life means that we are walking worthily of the Lord to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God (see 2 Cor. 5:9, Col. 1:10, and Heb. 11:5-6). Before Enoch was translated, he obtained the testimony that he was well-pleasing to God. O, Lord, before I go to meet You or before Your return, I want to obtain the testimony that I am well-pleasing to You! We need to grow, live, and express Christ, by growing in His knowledge, and by walking with God, that is, by taking Christ as your center and everything, and doing everything according to His revelation and leading.

8. To give the Lord the first place in our life is to have a clear sky between us and the Lord and a throne above it (see Ezek. 1:22-26). When there is absolutely no separation or problem between us and the Lord, we are filled with the heavenly atmosphere, condition, and situation of His ruling presence (signified by the Man on the throne, who is heavenly). We need to allow the Lord to rule and reign in us. To have a clear sky with a throne above it where God is ruling and reigning in us is the highest point in our Christian experience.

9. To give the Lord the first place in our life is to hold the Head, Christ (Col. 2:19). Holding Christ as the Head means we stay intimately connected to the Lord as the Head of the Body. We need to enthrone Christ in our being as the Ruler and Decider of everything in our life, and stay intimately connected to the Head to be richly supplied and grow with the growth of God.

10. To give the Lord the first place in our life is to ask for the counsel of Jehovah in everything in our life (see Josh. 9:14). The Israelites were tricked by the Gibeonites to let them live and not destroy them because they did not ask for the counsel of Jehovah. We need to ask the Lord about everything in our daily life – little things, big things, and every little detail.

11. To give the Lord the first place in our life is to practically give the flow of the Lord Jesus within us the preeminence in all that we are and we do (see Ezek. 47:1; Rev. 22:1-2). The flow of the Lord should be given the preeminence and first place in us! The Lord’s practical preeminence and presence in us is the flowof life. Do you have the Lord Jesus flowing in you right now? If not, open to Him, confess, remove any barriers, and treasure the sweet flow of life – even depend on the flow! This flow is out of the throne and brings the throne with it!

12. To give the Lord the first place in our life means to be dominated, governed, directed, led, and moved by our mingled spirit, caring for the rest in our spirit (see 2 Cor. 2:13-14). Paul was dominated, governed, led, controlled, directed, and moved by the rest in his spirit – by being a captive of Christ, taking Christ as a General, and being in His triumphant procession. It is good to pray, Lord, conquer me. Lord, make me Your captive. Never let me win. Defeat me all the time!

[the above sharing are inspired from brother Ed Marks' sharing on, Properly Appreciating Christ by Giving Him the First Place in Everything in a Practical Way, in message 1 of the winter training. Topic: Crystallization Study of the Psalms(part 2).]

Available at http://www.agodman.com/blog/what-does-it-mean-to-give-the-lord-the-preeminence-the-first-place-in-everything/. Accessed 6 January 2012.

I am still loving you

When I close my eyes I think of you

And the times we've had been through

Even though we're far apart right now

I remember back when you were here with me

How you've made my world complete

But now I'm left alone

We talked about love and hope

Wishing we could start a life our own

I wish that I could live without you

# Why did you tear my heart apart

You said you'd love me from the start

All those painful things you've put me through

But I'm still loving you

I've tried to give my best to you

I don't deserve the things you do

Everything has gone to memories

I just wish I knew the truth behind the lies.

#Repeat

I love coffee

I love coffee

Because no coffee, no work

Due to this cold weather, I'm feeling sleepy.

7 days to the assignment deadline...

I need coffee to keep me awake and

rush for assignment!!!

Stay Focus

Do you think it's easy to stay focus?

When you are doing assignment, can you be focus and not doing anything else?

Not logging to Facebook, not listening to music, no chatting, just fully concentrate on the assignment?

When you are working..

Can you focus on the work assigned and not doing anything else?

No chatting online, no touching on the Facebook, no walking around, no munching food or drinking coffee?

When you are lying on bed at night...

Could you close your eyes.. Not thinking of anything or recalling any single thing happened on the day, but just to stay calm and sleep?

Hmm.. It seems not easy for me. I always diverted by something else. The moment I could stay focus is fairly short. If the deadline of an assignment is approaching, I would be more nervous and pushing myself to finish the work fast.

Is it a good sign? Or a bad habit? Or just common to everyone?

Some people could multi-task. They could do work at a time while chatting, listening to music and Facebook-ing. I could say myself multi-task too. I always do many things at a same time.

A solid example is that I like to eat my meal while watching drama. Lol. Multi-tasking? It could be bad for digestion, but this is the way I enjoy eating alone ^^

I would like to say that staying focus yielded a more fruitful production.

Multi-tasking could do many things at the same time, but it might not produce the best work among all.

So, I'm trying to stay focus & finish my work fast. Deadline is 3 days later..

The entrance of Hades MIGHT be drawing near... creepy...

Run!!!

Shayne Ward - No Promises

Hey baby, when we are together, doing things that we love.

Every time you're near I feel like I’m in heaven, feeling high

I don’t want to let go, girl.

I just need you to know girl.

I don’t wanna run away, baby you’re the one I need tonight,

No promises.

Baby, now I need to hold you tight, I just wanna die in your arms

Here tonight

Hey baby, when we are together, doing things that we love.

Everytime you're near I feel like I’m in heaven, feeling high

I don’t want to let go, girl.

I just need you to know girl.

I don’t wanna run away, baby you’re the one I need tonight,

No promises.

Baby, now I need to hold you tight, I just wanna die in your arms

I don’t want to run away, I want to stay forever, through Time and Time..

No promises

I don’t wanna run away, I don’t wanna be alone

No Promises

Baby, now I need to hold you tight, now and forever my love

No promises

I don’t wanna run away, baby you’re the one I need tonight,

No promises.

Baby, now I need to hold you tight, I just wanna die in your arms

I don’t wanna run away, baby you’re the one I need tonight,

No promises.

Baby, now I need to hold you tight, I just wanna die in your arms

Here tonight.

*Can you make promises in love? Can you promise you can love a person forever?

She might need to leave you for 3 years.. Are you willing to wait for her? Promise?

This is a sad love song which touches me. The boyfriend was actually dead.. As a soul, he hope to go back to his girl friend.. The girl is all alone without the boyfriend presence.. I watched until the end only could understand the meaning...

So.. dare to promise in love?

Work or Not Work?

Tonight was the most tiring night I had. Probably because of the work. Actually I didn't promise to work, today just a training for the work.

Initially I did not need to go for the training because of my health condition (just discharged from the hospital), but because of someone ffk.. I had to go just to accompany Eunice. Some more, I don't have a great intention to take up this job... because of... (you will know afterwards :p)

It is a take-away job which I mainly need to receive calls and take order. Also receive the payment in cash or card and give the change. Hmm... This was the first job experience I had in the UK. It didn't give me a very good impression because of the working environment and the attitude of the employees...

I'm really tired now and brain stuck on what to write >.<

I told my dad about this job.. and he gave me a few reasons why not to work.

1. Night time job (5pm - 11.30pm)

2. I'm not desperate need of money (but just to gain exposure)

3. Illegal job (National insurance number is not needed)

Out of the 3 reasons my dad stated, the most concerning me is the illegal job. I don't have much peace taking up this job. My dad even explained that I am the government sponsored student, if anything happened on this illegal job.. Can you think of the consequences?

Yes.. my dad is absolutely right.

So, I decided NOT to take this job =)

Recent Life

It has been 3 months I didn't update my blog. I feel the time are not flying away but zooming like a rocket... Why is time passing so fast that I can't keep hold on it?

It just an instant feelings for me to update my blog. Too many things happened in these 3 months... The most recent thing was my hospitalisation. It was my first time to be admitted in the UK hospital and I never expect this.. It seems I cant avoid the "curse" of admitting to the hospital annually. lol... In a more humorous way, I have my annual vacation in the hospital =)

A wise use on the Facebook have an enormous positive effect. I hardly post anything on the Facebook but I posted the status about being warded and I received lots of concern and positive feedback. I do not expect anything from them but... Indeed Facebook is drawing us nearer and have a mutual communication in every corner of the world.

I have been repeated telling those who concern about me on my skin condition. I don't mind to write it on my blog again, I can almost memorise the sentence. Now, I want to summarise it in one single sentence, "My skin is allergic to the tea tree oil and it spread to be worst till I had a blood infection to be admitted to the hospital" :p

Now, I'm slowly recovering.. Opps.. I forgot to take my antibiotic again.. Since I'm feeling better, doctor said I can stop it tomorrow. Yeah~

I realised I had been lagging behind on my studies :(

There are lots to do to catch up.

Now, I'm feeling better.. No excuse to leave my work behind.

Let's work it out NOW!!!