Sanctification

Last time I was trying to contrast Sanctification and Justification.  However, justification took much longer than I anticipated and thought it would be a better exercise to split them up.  One reason I chose to write on this subject is that many Christ followers get so confused and frustrated with themselves and think they could not have possibly trusted in Christ properly because they are still making so many mistakes.  I want you to know that God sees you as justified, if you have placed your faith in Jesus.  However, we see how many mistakes we make on a daily basis, this has to do with our sanctification.  Sanctification is the process of becoming more like Christ.  So what can we do to get closer to that goal?

Read John 17:17, “Sanctify them by the truth, your word is truth.” 

How do we get sanctified?

Where do we find truth?

Yes, read the Bible.  Don’t just read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it.

Read Psalms 119:9-11, “How can a young man keep his way pure?  By living according to your word.  I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.  I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

When I read my Bible I realize that Jesus placed a huge emphasis on prayer.  He left groups of people often to go and pray.  Paul also left for us in his writings many prayers, he often told the people he was writing to that he prayed for them often.  If Jesus and Paul found prayer to be essential, then maybe this would be an important part of my sanctification.  Read the following Scriptures and record how we are to pray.

Hebrews 4:16

Ephesians 1:16-18

Ephesians 3:16-19

Philippians 1:9-10

There are so many more, but this is just a start.  If you are more interested in prayer, follow the cross references in your Bible and begin studying and meditating on Scripture as you learn about prayer. 

So, as we end today I hope you found two important tools to help you live a sanctified life.  I find that if someone asks you almost any spiritual question the answer can almost always be, “Read your Bible and Pray.”  So, if you are avoiding getting involved in a Bible Study or Sunday School class because you think you don’t know enough, this excuse is no longer valid.  If someone at church asks a question, just parrot back, “Read your Bible and Pray,” you will usually be right, after all who can argue against it. 

Justification vs. Sanctification

If you have faith as I described previously, many transactions have already taken place in your life.  Let’s talk about these huge words justification and sanctification.  First, as I humbly see it justification is how God sees you.  Justification is basically being made just as if you never sinned.  Through our faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God will see us as perfect and holy.  This is an unbelievable transaction that happens as a result of our faith.  When you place your faith in Jesus Christ, your Justification is a done deal. 

Sanctification on the other hand is how we, as people, see ourselves.  This is a life-long process.  It is the process of becoming more Christ-like, and we will be working on it as long as we are on this earth.  No one can say, “I have arrived, I am now exactly like Christ.”  However, I have had a few older saints in my life that were much closer to Christ-likeness than I am.  This is our goal.    

Let’s look closely at justification.  God will see you as if you have never sinned, Read Romans 4:24-5:2, “²⁴ but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. ¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

What happens to us once we believe according to these verses?

It is through justification that we have peace with God.  You see, if God could still saw our sinfulness, we would still be enemies of His and could not enjoy a relationship with Him.  Read Romans 5:10, “For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!”

How were we reconciled to God?  (Reconciled means to have a right relationship with)

So, do you now understand justification?  What is it?

Next time we will look more closely at Sanctification..

That's what Faith Must Be

Don’t let anyone add anything to your faith.  Your faith is enough for your salvation; you were baptized with the Holy Spirit and clothed with Christ.  Let the Holy Spirit have His way in the believer.  Human nature wants to control people, we are afraid if all rules are lifted from people then there will be unholy chaos.  However, if an individual is baptized with the Holy Spirit, we can trust that the Holy Spirit will work toward Christ-likeness in that individual. 

Read the following verses and look for the relationship between rules and the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

Romans 7:4-8  “⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. ⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” ⁸ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.” (NASB)

Romans 8:26-30 “²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; ²⁷ and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.    ²⁸ And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; ³⁰ and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  (NASB)

                When we add rules to the life of a believer we are saying that we can’t trust either the person or the Holy Spirit and we somehow know better how to regulate that person’s life.  Churches do this without even considering the implications.  They require a specific appearance, church attendance, a level of participation, a level of giving, baptism, or a specific code of conduct.  How can churches require all these things when God does not require this for salvation?  Is it harder to be a member of church than to get to heaven?  If we drop all these restrictions will anarchy ensue?  No, the Holy Spirit is alive within believers to make them more like Christ.  A church can give believers tools to grow in their faith, but these resources should not be held at an arm’s length until that individual succumbs to some man-made restrictions. 

How does a believer grow and become more like Christ through the Holy Spirit? 

Romans 8:2-14 

Galatians 5:1-6

Galatians 5:13-25

2 Timothy 2:14-26

                Great work today!  I hope you have a firm grasp on your salvation and one of the benefits of your salvation, the Holy Spirit.  Stand firm, be diligent, show love, these are only a few of the things I am willing to trust God to work in me through the Holy Spirit.

Faith vs. Works

So I hope you enjoyed a little piece of my testimony, but now it is back to work.  As I explained when I started this blog, I want to transition to make this more of a Bible Study than just a narrative.  I believe that opening your Bible and reading what it has to say will have a great impact on your life.  So I will slowly stop including the text of the Scriptures I am using, hoping that you look them up on your own.  However, if you don't have access to a Bible (we have several readers from around the world) let me know.  You don't have to agree with me, but then search in the Bible to find an answer.  Keep up the work, it will be greatly rewarded!

The word faith is used 250 times in the Bible (according to blueletterbible.org).  Any guesses to how many time it is used in the Old Testament?  The New Testament (which is significantly shorter) uses it 246 times while the Old Testament only uses it 4 times.  Of these 246 times approximately 140 of them are used in Acts or the writings of Paul while only about 23 are used in the gospels.  The gospels and the writings of Paul plus Acts are about the same length yet Paul uses the word faith almost 7 times as much.  Why do I bring this up? 

The use of the word faith is a perfect illustration to show the shift of how a person comes to Christ.  In the Old Testament and the gospels it was always a faith plus something economy.  You had to believe and then prove your belief through an action.  Let’s look at a few Old Testament examples.

First, Noah was a righteous and blameless man who walked with God (Genesis 6:9).  He surely believed God when God told him to build an ark, but Noah still had to build it (Genesis 6:22).  Then, Abraham also had to put feet to his faith when God asked him to leave his family and a land that was familiar to him and set out for a land he did not know (Genesis 12:1).  Moses, Joshua, David and many other Old Testament characters added action to their faith.

Jesus had an interesting encounter with a rich man.  Read Matthew 19: 16-21, “¹⁶ And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” ¹⁷ And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” ¹⁸ Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER; YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY; YOU SHALL NOT STEAL; YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS; ¹⁹ HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER; and YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” ²⁰ The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” ²¹ Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

What did the Rich man ask?

What was Jesus’ first answer?

What was Jesus’ second answer?

What must we do to have eternal life?  Read Romans 10:9-10, “⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; ¹⁰ for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that it is apart from anything we do that we are saved.  Paul’s writings focus on a faith plus nothing economy.  Simply believe, get rid of your contingency plans and have faith.  Now don’t be confused, faith is something.  Faith is a huge something, it is putting all your trust and hope in one plan.  Are you ready to let go of all the other good stuff you are doing and simply trust God?  If you are ready then tell Him and see what happens next. 

Testimony - the final installment

VERSE 25b “In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this?  He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

                This part of the story is called:  Learning to expect a response

                When you respond to a situation with faith you can expect a response.  My soul was still; I could think and act more clearly.  I told a professor and a friend what was going on.  That lifted a huge burden off my shoulders.  I finished my classes as strongly as possible.  When my parents picked me up at the end of the semester, life seemed sweeter and this new challenge seemed doable.  Jesus was back in a leadership position where He should have been all along and He was calming my spiritual, emotional and physical storms every step of the way. 

                I went to a doctor when I got home and explained my diagnosis-it is odd to sit in a doctor’s office and tell them that you have cancer, it is usually the other way around.  She took more blood work to see what we were dealing with and she said she would call with the results and we would proceed from there.  A few days passed and she called to say my blood work was absolutely normal.  No lumps, no disease, who knows what happened, but I know a lesson was learned long before I was rediagnosed. 

                I learned to place my stormy situations in the hands of the master and things work out much smoother.  I learned to turn to the Jesus during the biggest storms.  God healed me physically and grew me spiritually.  Only God can take a scare like cancer and bring total peace. 

                Recognize Him as master and realize that if you accept Him as savior He is in the boat.  Ask Him for help with the faith to know He will bring peace to your circumstance.  Don’t expect the changes or journeys that Christ calls you to, to be without storms.  The storms will come, but how quickly will you recognize Christ as the Master of your life and your situation and run to Him amidst your struggles. 

                If you don’t know Christ as the Master, if He wouldn’t recognize you as His disciple, there is nothing to wait for.  He has called you to live life with someone else in the boat that controls everything.  If you feel like you are running off course, it is because you have been in charge for too long.  What a comfort to know that I can go life alone or I can welcome Jesus into my life and call Him master.  A burden will be lifted when you are not responsible for all your decisions and getting yourself through all of life’s storms.  He loves you and never intended you to struggle through life on your own.  This master wants to speak the words “Peace be still” over your life struggles.  He is just waiting for you to take your sin, anxiety and fear and lay them at His feet with enough faith to know that He can have the victory. 

Check out "Paul's Gospel" in my December blogs to learn more.

Testimony part 4

VERSE 24-25a:  “The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”  He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided and all was calm.  “Where is your faith?”  He asked his disciples.

                This part of the story is called:  Who's my Master?

                I forgot verse 24.  Jesus is in the boat; I might as well wake Him up and let Him know that the boat is going down.  Yeah, yeah, I know who Jesus is – Lord of my life, savior and transformer of my parents’ lives.  The least I can do is let Him know I am sinking.  So I call Him, “Master, master a storm has come and I am going to die.”  I hand my master a bucket sheepishly, maybe you could help me bail, I have been working so hard.  Instead He says, “Peace be still,” and the storm obeys Him.  He turns to me wondering, where is my faith?  Here I have been wearing myself out trying to stay afloat when I had the Master in my boat.  I didn’t even wake Him up to include Him in my storm until I had no hope of survival, until I had done everything I could think to do in my own strength and was completely unsuccessful, then I woke the Master. 

                How silly, here I had seen Jesus work mightily in my parent’s life and in mine.  I had the Bible to teach me the power of God to part the red sea and flood the earth, but when my situation got stormy who did I run to?  Where was my faith? 

                I told God my fears and I stopped bailing my boat, after all Jesus was supposed to be in charge of my life in the first place.  Tell Jesus your fears but also have faith.  “Lord, take this situation and turn it around for your glory.  Nothing is a mistake for you because you command the storms; the winds and the waves obey you.  You are over every circumstance and nothing is beyond your repair.” 

                He said Peace be still and my soul was still.  When I look back at all the inner turmoil and striving it seems so silly, Jesus was in the boat; the master of all things was beside me and instead of asking for help I tried to manage the situation myself.  When I asked for help, in a moment He rescued me from my fear, insecurity and inner turmoil. 

Testimony part 3

VERSE 22b “So they got into a boat and set out.”

                This part of the story I call:  Can I be obedient to the king

                Ok, Jesus showed me He was good, and He asked me to allow Him into the boat-to also be in charge of the boat.  When He gets in that place of authority in your life, He will not let you just sit in the bliss of having your priorities straight.  He wants His disciples to follow because He wants you to grow so that you can serve Him.  He takes you on journey’s that will challenge your faith and in the end you will know Him more and trust Him more.  So my act of obedience was going to a Christian college called Taylor University.  Looking back I see that God needed to separate me from the world for a time so that I could grow in His goodness.

VERSE 23 “As they sailed, He fell asleep”

                This part of the story is called: Smooth sailing

                The sea must have been calm if Jesus could fall asleep.  My journey started with calm seas.  I was enjoying my new friends and classes.  I was learning a lot from Christian friends and having a great time growing in my Bible reading and prayer time.  I remember my beginnings at Taylor to be a time of renewal for my spirit and I was enjoying every minute of it.  My devotionals were at an all-time peak and I felt so blessed to be there at that time.  The seas were calm.

VERSE 23 “A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger”

                This part of the story is called:  Who said anything about a storm when Jesus is in the boat.

                Most of us think that once things are moving along well we can just maintain momentum.  After all, we were obedient enough to say OK to this journey so the rest should just take care of itself.  The thing about a squall is it comes out of nowhere.  One minute there are calm seas, the next minute you are in the middle of tornado-like winds that threaten your boat.  Once Jesus is in your boat it doesn’t mean smooth sailing and happy days until you go to heaven.  Your squall will come and mine came. 

                I had noticed for a while-several weeks a huge lump on the side of my neck.  I had not been feeling well, but in college you expect these things.  My roommate noticed the lump and insisted I go to the medical center to get it looked at, I balked so she walked me down there.  She left and I waited for the doctor.  The doctor called me to her examining room and I showed her the lump.  She examined it and her face changed, from kind indifference to true concern mixed with slight panic.  She had me lay back and continued to examine other parts of my body with the same look.  She sat me up and began to explain…the lump on my neck was hard and would not move.  Normally, a swollen gland can be shifted; this was a hard immovable mass.  The examination of the rest of my body revealed more of these masses, over 20.  She ordered blood work and wouldn’t be sure of anything until it came back, but she was thinking we were looking at lymphoma or leukemia.  Now this was about 20 years ago and the only thing I knew then was that these were some of the most deadly forms of cancer out there. 

                WHAT????  Are you kidding me?  A squall out of nowhere was about to swamp my boat.  So what did I do, I got a bucket and started bailing the water as quickly as possible.  I went over every scenario in my head.  Quit school?  Finish the semester?  Tell my friends?  Tell my family?  Keep it quiet; after all, the doctor said she couldn’t be sure?  Lose my mind?  Take a nap?  I told my parents and took a nap. 

                My parents were beside themselves and wanted to come get me immediately (I was 3 states away).  Internally, I was freaking out, going through the motions of class and social events, but somehow I couldn’t get the diagnosis of cancer out of my mind.  I started to go further and further within myself.  Was I supposed to die, was that God’s master plan?  When would I die?  How could I die?  Take another nap.

                Then I got the message from the medical center, my results were in, come down and bring a friend.  Bring a friend?  I hadn’t told anyone, but bringing a friend couldn’t mean good news.  So, the normal annoyed nurse turned into a kind, motherly-type when I told her my name.  She quickly, but gently ushered me into a room and the doctor came in and would not look me in the eyes.  She explained, this blood count was high…. this blood count was low and on and on until she finished with it looks like we are dealing with lymphoma.  She handed the sheet to me and there it was written in black and white.

                Bail, bail but as quick as I got a bucket of water out of my boat five more crashed in.  I couldn’t keep up; my spirit was going to sink.  Was I just going to go crazy?  I walked out of the health center with my little piece of paper not knowing what to do.  I called my parents-not easy.  I decided to finish the last month of classes, when faced with lymphoma what difference does a month make?  Classes?  Oh yes, I was normally an A student now I was struggling to pull C’s.  What could I do?  Just sink.  No matter how hard I tried to manage this storm, I was sinking. 

Testimory part 2

VERSE 22:  “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.”  So they got into a boat and set out.

                This part of my story could be called:  Who is in charge and where are we going?

                I saw Jesus’ work in my family and knew I could trust Him.  If you have never witnessed Jesus work in anyone’s life around you, I will share my story so you can see how the power of Jesus transformed my life.  No one gets into a boat with someone they don’t know.  The disciples wouldn’t and neither should you.  Before this story, the disciples had seen Jesus perform many miracles.  They knew Jesus not only by reputation but also by personal experience.  In Luke 5 Simon Peter, a fisherman, gets the biggest catch of fish in his life after following advice from a teacher named Jesus.  Peter knew he experienced the power of Jesus and was ready to follow Him.  Have you see Jesus work?  Have you witnessed His power personally?  You see, once you have accepted Jesus to be part of your life (get in your boat) He doesn’t want to just be some sort of second thought passenger, He wants to be in charge.  Once He is in charge He wants to take you on a journey. 

                This is how Jesus got control of my life.  Fast forward several years (8ish) I was going to church, Sunday school and youth group.  From the outside it would look like I was a model member of church.  Because I knew Jesus and recognized the transformation in my parent’s life a decision to follow Him came as habit to me.  However, there was no transformation in my own life.  I was just following everyone else’s lead.  After my parents accepted Christ as Lord of their lives, I was placed in Sunday school and raised in the church.  It seemed I was at church every time the doors were open, which was fine with me.  I had many good friends at church; in fact church was more about my social life than anything else.  I was much more concerned about if Heather would be there or what Dan said rather than learning about prayer, the Bible or Jesus. 

                However, one day while sitting in Sunday school I suddenly realized how shallow my motivations were and how worthless my “churchy” actions were because they were all motivated by my social life.  I don’t know if you have ever had a “white light moment,” but in Sunday school one morning I did.  Everything that was going on faded to the background and it seemed like God was speaking directly to my soul.  I felt my selfish lifestyle and social living called into question.  All my outward actions were not based on my love for Jesus or for His people, but I did these things to be in the middle of things socially.  The Bible says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain concept…but here everything I was doing was motivated by selfish ambition.

                How could I call Jesus Lord and savior, but not place Him on the throne of my life?  How could I live such a two faced life, claiming that Jesus was to be worshiped on Sunday but not setting Him up as Lord to rule over my day to day decisions?  Maybe some of you struggle with the same thing.  Jesus is good and you know He is the son of God, but instead of giving Him the place of honor in your life.  You place Him on the shelf with a bunch of other worthless things that you have accumulated over the years.  You also wonder why you don’t get an instant response from Him when you do pull Him out and want something from Him.  He doesn’t work like some sort of crystal ball that you get out and look at every once in a while.  A life with Jesus works best when He reigns supreme in your life. 

                From that moment on, I made a decision to allow Jesus to rule in my life, decisions that would be made would be given over to what God wanted rather than what my social agenda called for.  My relationship with God would no longer serve my social purposes, but He would become personal.  This was not that difficult of a step because I had seen Jesus’ work in my life and the life of others, I knew He could be trusted.  Trust me, I wouldn’t let a stranger drive my boat.  Soon after that, God called me to make decisions that weren’t always popular (even with the church crowd).  I lost some good friends along the way, but what I gained was to find God to be faithful in all my circumstances. 

New Beginnings

So, I have found out the hard way, that not many people check their computers very often around Christmas.  I hope I gave you a little time to catch up.  I have gotten many great questions since I have started writing and I encourage anyone who has a question or comment to keep them coming.  I love the challenge of responding. 

Since it is a New Year I thought I would start with a new topic (never forgetting what we talked about previously), this will be much more light hearted and easy to understand.  Several years ago I was challenged to pick out a slice of my life that I could expound on that would show God's prescense and what his salvation did for me.  My testimony will fill my blogs for the next several weeks, enjoy!

When I think of the lessons I’ve learned and the way I have seen God’s hand move in my life I always come back to Luke 8:22-25.  If you are unfamiliar with this passage I will go through it verse by verse as I share how God has revealed himself to me.  My story is one of healing and peace amid the trials and tribulations of life.         

VERSE 22:  “One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.”  So they got into a boat and set out.

                This part of my story could be called:  How I ended up in a boat with Jesus.

                If you notice in this verse Jesus was talking to his disciples, disciples were his close followers.  The first step to peace in your life is becoming a disciple of Jesus.  People come to Jesus in many different ways and under many different circumstances, but one thing that remains constant is that Jesus always calls them.  Here is how I was called to be a disciple of Jesus.

                My story begins in Milwaukee, WI.  I was born into a middle class, blue-collar family.  I was the first-born of three and my parents could be classified as partiers.  I can’t remember a lot of details from those early years except that there were always lots of people around the house.  Many of the stories from my parents past have been edited, but every once in a while they let their guard down and you realize that they made partying into an art form.  They had lots of friends and made lots of mistakes.

                A few years later my dad was lead to Jesus by one of those fellow partiers.  It was then that I was introduced to Jesus and church, and it was then that I witnessed first-hand the power of the Holy Spirit.  My parents were different; our lives were different, almost instantly the parties and substance abuse was over.  Have you ever seen anyone give up drinking and smoking instantly except through the power of Jesus?  It was a miracle and I recognized the change in my house immediately.  My dad shared with me his excitement about Jesus and told me He is real no matter what happened in life.  The old life was traded in for family bar-b-q’s, bible studies and most importantly stability.  This was my introduction to Jesus, what a welcome change He brought to my life.  This was just the beginning, as the disciples were asked to cross the lake so was I.