Imagine walking into a room and seeing two ceramic pitchers. One is beautifully and gracefully made, perhaps trimmed with pure gold, and the other one is just a plain, everyday pot without even so much as a finishing glaze. Which one would catch your eye, drawing you closer for a better look?
The Apostle Paul used this metaphor in 1Corinthians 3:11-13 to explain how some Christians grow in the Lord. You have the ones that honor Him with their "gold and silver" lives of service, while others bring shame to the gospel through selfish and impure "earthenware" living. Scripture often uses the pitcher or vessel image because, as believers, we are to be "filled with," or controlled by, the Holy Spirit that Christ sent to inhabit and care for every believer. This Helper trains us in righteousness and strengthens us during times of suffering. (Eph 5:18) The Spirit's work begins on the inside where He adjusts and changes our thinking to line up with God's thinking that is revealed for us in Scripture. Since whatever we think eventually affects how we conduct ourselves, our outward behavior begins to conform to the sanctified perceptions the Holy Spirit is building into our spirit. Not only are we saved but we begin to act saved as well.
This isn't a matter of obeying church doctrine or laws and other "rules" (don't eat this! don't touch that!) which always remain an exterior response for us and is always created by our own human effort. No, this is about the change in our hearts that takes place within us when we receive the Holy Spirit. We begin to desire right behavior and, in time, we begin to align ourselves with the righteousness we were given by Christ. No longer do we brag about our "night out with the gang," drinking and carousing with loose conduct. No, now we are ashamed of any participation we may have had in such activity. Inside, we've been changed. Once saved, we are different on the inside and that difference affects how we live our lives on the outside. It is essential that we understand that this change in behavior and thinking comes about after we are saved. And this change doesn't take place overnight. It is what we mean by the process of sanctification. Slowly but surely the Spirit (who now lives inside the believer) begins to make adjustments in our wants and desires so that our conduct begins to reflect the image of Christ. And it's crucial we realize we aren't talking about human effort to change ourselves. We can be sure that any attempt we make to gain righteousness by own strength will be useless. Human effort will always fail. We're talking about the Spirit's work within us, deep down into our wants and needs, desires and thoughts. This process happens at varying speeds with various people. It begins immediately but takes a lifetime to complete.
Paul explains that as we cooperate with the Lord by removing dishonorable habits, actions, and attitudes that no longer fit the new creatures we have become in Christ, we become "vessels of honor," being used to further the works of His kingdom. As believers, we have a God-given responsibility in this sanctification process, to work with the Spirit to eliminate sin from our lives. Our heart's desire becomes one with the Lord's desire for our lives. Ugly and sinful activity becomes distasteful to us and we no longer want to run with that crowd. This is a big part of the sanctification process and our job, as believers, is to run from sin and confess and repent when necessary. We will never completely eradicate sin from our lives but when we are vigilant about fleeing from sin, then the Holy Spirit will work within us to mature and strengthen our faith, making us gold-trimmed vessels that pour out God's love upon the world of mankind. What kind of vessel are you? We all start out as earthenware pitchers but are then transformed into sacred, graceful vessels fit for the work of Christ's kingdom once we accept the righteousness that is by faith alone in the Lord Jesus and in what He has done.
And I thought my shoulder was bad yesterday!!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! It is so much worse today! I will complain about it to my doctor tomorrow if it isn't better by tomorrow. I don't know what he can do about it. Maybe X-Ray it, but I think that would be a waste of time because I'm pretty sure it's muscular in origin. I'll probably just sweat it out. But, hey, I could have been hurt so much worse. I have to keep reminding myself of that fact to appreciate the lack of injuries I could have suffered. It's just hard to move my arm at all today. It's not my arm. It's my shoulder. From my elbow down is fine, it's just that shoulder joint that is freezing up on me. It doesn't want to be moved at all today.
Our weather has turned so beautiful the past few days or week. Our highs have been in the high 90s and the lows down in the lower 50s. So nice! Fall is making her way through to us and will be here in no time.
Michael had a T-Shirt made for his navy reunion. On the front is a picture of the destroyer he was on during the Korean War coming straight at you, and on the back is a picture of the destroyer going away from you. These are pictures he drew, of course. It's really neat and I've got it washing now. I'm sure it will be the rage at the reunion. Several of Michael's buddies can't make the reunion and he is rightfully disappointed that he won't get to see them. At their ages you just don't know how many will be left for the next reunion. Time is just relentless, ever trudging forward.
Well, I guess I'll go and see if I can get a few things done. With this bum shoulder I'm going to be pretty limited in what I can do but I'm sure I can find something. I may not get around to blogging tomorrow because of the doctor appointment I have. And then Friday we'll be going to WalMart so I'm not sure when I'll get back to post again. But I will be back. Take care and stay close to the Lord.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Sanctification: God's Goal
The Lord has a primary goal for the life of every person and it can be summed up in one word: Sanctification. If you're scratching your head in doubt, wondering what that word means, you are not alone. But as believers we need to understand what it means because the word actually defines us. We need to understand it to grow in faith.
The verb to sanctify means to "separate" or "make holy." When something is sanctified it is separated out from a common, everyday use to a sacred use. The Lord sanctified a lot of things in the Old Testament: He declared the 7th day of the week as holy, He set aside the tribe of Levite to be priests and He even consecrated the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy, in the tabernacle. (Gen 2:3; Num 3) It was not unusual to have God change common things and people into being holy objects set apart for His use through the process of sanctification.
And God continues to sanctify people today. Before a person is sanctified he is estranged from the Lord. He is spiritually dead and an enemy of God. (Eph 2:1-3; Ro 5:10) But in the exact instant someone becomes a believer and accepts Christ's gift of righteousness, his sins are washed away with the blood of the Lamb, and he's adopted into the Lord's family. Once a person accepts Christ as his personal Savior, he becomes a child of God. You see, God loves His children and desires a personal relationship, not some distant, loose connection. He desires His children to come into a personal kinship with Him. It is important that we understand that this is done on an individual basis. There are many people who mistakenly believe that God only works in "classes" of people. That's simply not true. Jehovah's Witnesses teach heavily on the "class" theory. But that runs contrary to what we find in the Bible. Although He often dealt with the Israelites in a "class" sense, God is and has always been the God of the individual. Remember that God used to meet with His creation in the coolness of the evening every day. (Gen 3:8) It is a personal, one-on-one relationship that God desires to have with us.
So when a person trusts Jesus Christ, that person is "set apart" as a dearly loved child of God for sacred purposes. As believers, we're not here on this earth to acquire personal gain but to serve and glorify God. That's why we were created in the first place. We are called upon to glorify the majesty and grandeur of God Eternal and therefore, as members of His family, we're called saints. The very word saint has the same root as sanctification. We are being sanctified as saints, holy and set apart from the rest of the world. We are called saints, not because we are perfect or without sin, but because we live a life consistent with the One we represent and also because of what He's done.
Sanctification is a never ending process. As long as we live we will be in the state of being sanctified. We are sanctified and will continue to be sanctified until our course in this life is finished. We are saved in an instant and sanctified in a lifetime. Sanctification is a never-ending process that begins at our salvation and ends when we go home to the Lord. God loves us and because He loves us, He has gone about His business of changing us and conforming us into the image of His dearly loved Son, Jesus Christ. (Ro 8:29) This conforming process takes time and is accomplished through various troubles and trials and experiences. I am convinced that many painful things we must endure as we go about living our lives here on this earth are there for the sole purpose of sanctifying us. The act of enduring difficulties shapes us into the vessel God desires us to be. The Holy Spirit comes on board and guides us through the varied and often painful experiences because it's for our own good that we endure these times and trials.
These times make make us better people. We may not see the good in a particular experience but I can guarantee you it's there. Every experience we have is there for our good. We are being sanctified, changed and conformed into the image of Christ and this takes time and effort. Every painful experience we endure now leaves us better people for the future. We become people we never would have become if it weren't for that particular experience. That is why we can "consider it all joy .. whenever [we] face trials of many kinds..." (James 1:2)
The older I get, the more it hurts when I fall. Have you noticed that? When we were kids we'd fall and then get right back up and run off to continue playing. I took a good spill in our driveway yesterday evening and although I'm not hurting as much as I thought I would be today, I'm still quite uncomfortable. Mostly it's just my right shoulder. I have considerable restriction in range of motion. I couldn't even raise my arm up high enough to comb my hair this morning. I had to use my left arm for that. And when I put away the clean dishes this morning I had to have Michael put away all those that required two hands up over my head because I can only raise my left arm. But I have pretty good movement in my right arm even if it is limited in range. I can use it just about all I want as long as I don't try to raise it. Isn't it funny how falls seem to happen in slow motion? You start to fall and then you start to think: this is dumb, I shouldn't have done that because now I'm falling and I'll probably get hurt really bad, hope I don't hit my head too hard, are my neighbors out watching me fall? I hope I fall graciously, gee I hope I don't get hurt too badly, and on and on our thoughts go while we're still in the process of falling. Haven't even hit the ground yet and I've carried on an entire conversation with myself. It's all in slow motion. Oh well, it sure could have been worse. I could have broken my arm, like my sister did a year or two ago, instead of just wrenching my shoulder good. And I only bled in a couple places. I fully expected my right arm and elbow to be shredded meat but after I washed off all the dirt and gravel and oil, I had only superficial scrapes and scratches. They stung like crazy (especially when I washed them) for quite awhile but I got out of the deal in pretty good shape, all things being considered.
Well, yesterday was another day of not reaching 100 degrees for a high. It's so nice to be out of all that heat we had there for awhile. Nights have been nice and crisp and cool, great for sleeping. I'm really looking forward to fall this year. I guess I always do but for some reason it seems to be a stronger yearning than I remember having before. It's almost noon and only 82 degrees. I doubt we'll hit 100 today either. Yes! I just love it!!! If we could just have summers that never went over 80 degrees I would be a happy camper. The weather the past few days has been just about perfect for my liking. It could still get a lot colder at night but it hasn't been bad the last few nights.
I have a meeting at church in a couple hours with the 40 Days of Purpose campaign prayer team. And then at 7:00 tonight I have the regular weekly prayer meeting to go to. We're kind of making Tuesdays days of prayer for me it seems. But I'm so happy the prayer meeting went back to meeting at 7:00 instead of 6:00. I can make the later time and went last week and I just enjoyed it so much. I really hated having to miss it all summer but that 6:00 time slot was just a bad time for me. That's right about our dinner time and I couldn't ask Michael to make his own dinner one night every week, it just wasn't a loving thing to do. I do have the deacon's meeting that starts at 6:00 but that's only once a month so that's not too bad. We've recently changed the lay pastors meeting to 6:30 from it's normal 7:00 time slot but that's only once a month too. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving Michael to himself every Tuesday night. So anyway, I'm back to going to prayer meeting on Tuesdays and I'm loving it.
I also have a doctor appointment coming up on Thursday that will interfere with my blog, time wise. And then we're planning on making another WalMart run on Friday so I'm not sure if I'll get to my blog on either one of those days. But I will try. If I don't maybe I'll get one done over the weekend, I'll just have to see how things go but I wanted to give you some advance notice that I might be off for a few days. I guess I better get this published and find something to eat before I go to my meeting. See you tomorrow...
The verb to sanctify means to "separate" or "make holy." When something is sanctified it is separated out from a common, everyday use to a sacred use. The Lord sanctified a lot of things in the Old Testament: He declared the 7th day of the week as holy, He set aside the tribe of Levite to be priests and He even consecrated the Holy of Holies, or the Most Holy, in the tabernacle. (Gen 2:3; Num 3) It was not unusual to have God change common things and people into being holy objects set apart for His use through the process of sanctification.
And God continues to sanctify people today. Before a person is sanctified he is estranged from the Lord. He is spiritually dead and an enemy of God. (Eph 2:1-3; Ro 5:10) But in the exact instant someone becomes a believer and accepts Christ's gift of righteousness, his sins are washed away with the blood of the Lamb, and he's adopted into the Lord's family. Once a person accepts Christ as his personal Savior, he becomes a child of God. You see, God loves His children and desires a personal relationship, not some distant, loose connection. He desires His children to come into a personal kinship with Him. It is important that we understand that this is done on an individual basis. There are many people who mistakenly believe that God only works in "classes" of people. That's simply not true. Jehovah's Witnesses teach heavily on the "class" theory. But that runs contrary to what we find in the Bible. Although He often dealt with the Israelites in a "class" sense, God is and has always been the God of the individual. Remember that God used to meet with His creation in the coolness of the evening every day. (Gen 3:8) It is a personal, one-on-one relationship that God desires to have with us.
So when a person trusts Jesus Christ, that person is "set apart" as a dearly loved child of God for sacred purposes. As believers, we're not here on this earth to acquire personal gain but to serve and glorify God. That's why we were created in the first place. We are called upon to glorify the majesty and grandeur of God Eternal and therefore, as members of His family, we're called saints. The very word saint has the same root as sanctification. We are being sanctified as saints, holy and set apart from the rest of the world. We are called saints, not because we are perfect or without sin, but because we live a life consistent with the One we represent and also because of what He's done.
Sanctification is a never ending process. As long as we live we will be in the state of being sanctified. We are sanctified and will continue to be sanctified until our course in this life is finished. We are saved in an instant and sanctified in a lifetime. Sanctification is a never-ending process that begins at our salvation and ends when we go home to the Lord. God loves us and because He loves us, He has gone about His business of changing us and conforming us into the image of His dearly loved Son, Jesus Christ. (Ro 8:29) This conforming process takes time and is accomplished through various troubles and trials and experiences. I am convinced that many painful things we must endure as we go about living our lives here on this earth are there for the sole purpose of sanctifying us. The act of enduring difficulties shapes us into the vessel God desires us to be. The Holy Spirit comes on board and guides us through the varied and often painful experiences because it's for our own good that we endure these times and trials.
These times make make us better people. We may not see the good in a particular experience but I can guarantee you it's there. Every experience we have is there for our good. We are being sanctified, changed and conformed into the image of Christ and this takes time and effort. Every painful experience we endure now leaves us better people for the future. We become people we never would have become if it weren't for that particular experience. That is why we can "consider it all joy .. whenever [we] face trials of many kinds..." (James 1:2)
The older I get, the more it hurts when I fall. Have you noticed that? When we were kids we'd fall and then get right back up and run off to continue playing. I took a good spill in our driveway yesterday evening and although I'm not hurting as much as I thought I would be today, I'm still quite uncomfortable. Mostly it's just my right shoulder. I have considerable restriction in range of motion. I couldn't even raise my arm up high enough to comb my hair this morning. I had to use my left arm for that. And when I put away the clean dishes this morning I had to have Michael put away all those that required two hands up over my head because I can only raise my left arm. But I have pretty good movement in my right arm even if it is limited in range. I can use it just about all I want as long as I don't try to raise it. Isn't it funny how falls seem to happen in slow motion? You start to fall and then you start to think: this is dumb, I shouldn't have done that because now I'm falling and I'll probably get hurt really bad, hope I don't hit my head too hard, are my neighbors out watching me fall? I hope I fall graciously, gee I hope I don't get hurt too badly, and on and on our thoughts go while we're still in the process of falling. Haven't even hit the ground yet and I've carried on an entire conversation with myself. It's all in slow motion. Oh well, it sure could have been worse. I could have broken my arm, like my sister did a year or two ago, instead of just wrenching my shoulder good. And I only bled in a couple places. I fully expected my right arm and elbow to be shredded meat but after I washed off all the dirt and gravel and oil, I had only superficial scrapes and scratches. They stung like crazy (especially when I washed them) for quite awhile but I got out of the deal in pretty good shape, all things being considered.
Well, yesterday was another day of not reaching 100 degrees for a high. It's so nice to be out of all that heat we had there for awhile. Nights have been nice and crisp and cool, great for sleeping. I'm really looking forward to fall this year. I guess I always do but for some reason it seems to be a stronger yearning than I remember having before. It's almost noon and only 82 degrees. I doubt we'll hit 100 today either. Yes! I just love it!!! If we could just have summers that never went over 80 degrees I would be a happy camper. The weather the past few days has been just about perfect for my liking. It could still get a lot colder at night but it hasn't been bad the last few nights.
I have a meeting at church in a couple hours with the 40 Days of Purpose campaign prayer team. And then at 7:00 tonight I have the regular weekly prayer meeting to go to. We're kind of making Tuesdays days of prayer for me it seems. But I'm so happy the prayer meeting went back to meeting at 7:00 instead of 6:00. I can make the later time and went last week and I just enjoyed it so much. I really hated having to miss it all summer but that 6:00 time slot was just a bad time for me. That's right about our dinner time and I couldn't ask Michael to make his own dinner one night every week, it just wasn't a loving thing to do. I do have the deacon's meeting that starts at 6:00 but that's only once a month so that's not too bad. We've recently changed the lay pastors meeting to 6:30 from it's normal 7:00 time slot but that's only once a month too. I just didn't feel comfortable leaving Michael to himself every Tuesday night. So anyway, I'm back to going to prayer meeting on Tuesdays and I'm loving it.
I also have a doctor appointment coming up on Thursday that will interfere with my blog, time wise. And then we're planning on making another WalMart run on Friday so I'm not sure if I'll get to my blog on either one of those days. But I will try. If I don't maybe I'll get one done over the weekend, I'll just have to see how things go but I wanted to give you some advance notice that I might be off for a few days. I guess I better get this published and find something to eat before I go to my meeting. See you tomorrow...
Monday, September 10, 2007
Holiness Takes a Lifetime
The weekend just seemed to race by and was almost over before it began. Or that's the way it felt for me anyway. Hope yours was both relaxing and productive. Saturday was a busy day for me and it felt really good to get several chores done. I'd been wanting to do something with my binders for weeks (months?) and that was a major undertaking to get everything into two binders and organized in the way I needed it to be. Then once we do away with all the 40 Days of Purpose material, I can narrow it down to just a single binder for the future. And I liked getting my calendar squared away. In trying to stay organized I had succeeded in complicating things by having multiple calendars to work from. Now everything is on the same calendar and I think that will work out much better. Duh!
Yesterday's sermon was very good. I never tire of hearing what all we have in Christ. Because we died with Him we also rose with Him and share in His glory and reward. What an incredible God we have!! Amazing, isn't He? I made it back to church for the evening celebration last night and was really blessed by the service. Mark has been back visiting with us (he'll be moving to Washington state having accepted an Assistant Pastor's position at a church there) since he graduated from North Park Theological Seminary and he put together a wonder, uplifting service last night. I'm so glad I went. We've only been having evening services for a short time now (probably a couple months) and I went to several at the beginning but then decided not to go again because the acoustics in the gym make it nearly impossible for me to hear what's being said. But the Lord had laid it on my heart to support this evening endeavor and so I went again last night. I plan on making it a commitment on my part to go and worship in the evenings from now on. We spend so little time worshiping together as a community and I just feel that we need to do it every time it's available for us.
I noticed last night when I came out of the gym that it was much cooler than usual. And there was a slight hint and feel of fall to the air. I noticed how much darker it was when I left too. The seasons really are changing. I won't miss the heat but I will miss being able to wear fewer, less cumbersome clothes. Soon we'll need to bundle up to go outside and shorts will not be in our wardrobe. But I am ready for the season to change. I've had enough summer. I'm just hoping for a nice, long fall full of cool nights and warm days. And most of the time my jacket is light enough to not feel burdensome. Our high yesterday was only 98 degrees so we didn't even make it to the century mark, as the people in the weather business say. I just appreciate that the temps have cooled down at night. Right now it's almost noon and I'm still sitting here with the door open, enjoying the fresh air. This time last week we already had to have the cooler on and the house closed up to help us with the heat. So things are changing and I think I'm ready for the changes.
As believers we are sanctified (set apart for God's purpose) when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. Unlike salvation, which takes place instantly, sanctification is a lifelong process. When we trust Christ as Savior and allow the Spirit to control our lives we are being sanctified. We are being separated and set apart for God's use, being made holy by His holiness. Hebrews 10:14 says that "because by the one sacrifice [Christ's death on the cross] He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." We stand perfect before God as He continues to make us holy. It is a process that will take our entire lives. This is true regardless of what we feel or how our conduct may appear to ourselves or to others. If we are progressively maturing in our faith, we are being sanctified. Our conduct is not a precondition to the perfect standing of our salvation before God. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we are Christians. Short and simple. Can you grasp that? We are a Christian; we aren't working on becoming one. We are already a Christian, and as such, we are being sanctified and set apart for God's exclusive use.
And if we are progressing we must be heading somewhere or toward something. At Romans 8:29 Paul wrote: "For those for whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." And if this is the case then our character, conduct, and conversations as believers should reflect Christ, who lives within each of us. But this is something that takes place after we become Christian. Our character and conduct and conversations don't make us Christians. These things change and evolve as we are being sanctified. We don't become "good" to become followers of Jesus Christ; we become Christians and then become "good" because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Left to ourselves, we'd place way too much emphasis on conduct and conversation and get caught up in all the legalities of rules and regulations and commandments that make us look like Christians on the outside but, in reality, have nothing to do with our ability to stand before the holy and righteous God. Fully accepted. Fully approved. We place way too much emphasis on our actions, thinking that if we look holy we must be holy. But that's not the way God works. He works on the inside; not the outside. He gets inside us and changes our wants and desires. He gets to the very root of our problem. We are called to be holy, and in and of ourselves, this is simply not possible. We can never make ourselves holy or perfect. And yet that is what we are called to be. Left to ourselves we are "separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in ... the covenant of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." (Eph 1:12) We stand opposed to everything God requires of us and we are left hopeless and alone. But God has given every believer His Spirit as Teacher and Guide and the Holy Spirit's task is to completely transform our hearts and minds so that our character and conduct is noticeably different from that of the unsaved around us. This comes after salvation and is the role of sanctification. We can only speak and act as the Holy Spirit controls us, reflecting who we truly are: God's children. It is being first, then doing.
Our heavenly Father wants us to be living examples of Christ. He demands our perfection as His holiness requires, but because we have accepted Jesus to be our Savior, He has accepted Christ's perfection in place of our own. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for what [our conduct and rules and regulations were] powerless to do ... God did [for us]." (Ro 8:1-2) We have been declared righteous and now His Holy Spirit shows us how to think and act so that we may walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called. (Php 1:27 and Eph 4:1)
Yesterday's sermon was very good. I never tire of hearing what all we have in Christ. Because we died with Him we also rose with Him and share in His glory and reward. What an incredible God we have!! Amazing, isn't He? I made it back to church for the evening celebration last night and was really blessed by the service. Mark has been back visiting with us (he'll be moving to Washington state having accepted an Assistant Pastor's position at a church there) since he graduated from North Park Theological Seminary and he put together a wonder, uplifting service last night. I'm so glad I went. We've only been having evening services for a short time now (probably a couple months) and I went to several at the beginning but then decided not to go again because the acoustics in the gym make it nearly impossible for me to hear what's being said. But the Lord had laid it on my heart to support this evening endeavor and so I went again last night. I plan on making it a commitment on my part to go and worship in the evenings from now on. We spend so little time worshiping together as a community and I just feel that we need to do it every time it's available for us.
I noticed last night when I came out of the gym that it was much cooler than usual. And there was a slight hint and feel of fall to the air. I noticed how much darker it was when I left too. The seasons really are changing. I won't miss the heat but I will miss being able to wear fewer, less cumbersome clothes. Soon we'll need to bundle up to go outside and shorts will not be in our wardrobe. But I am ready for the season to change. I've had enough summer. I'm just hoping for a nice, long fall full of cool nights and warm days. And most of the time my jacket is light enough to not feel burdensome. Our high yesterday was only 98 degrees so we didn't even make it to the century mark, as the people in the weather business say. I just appreciate that the temps have cooled down at night. Right now it's almost noon and I'm still sitting here with the door open, enjoying the fresh air. This time last week we already had to have the cooler on and the house closed up to help us with the heat. So things are changing and I think I'm ready for the changes.
As believers we are sanctified (set apart for God's purpose) when we place our faith in Jesus Christ. Unlike salvation, which takes place instantly, sanctification is a lifelong process. When we trust Christ as Savior and allow the Spirit to control our lives we are being sanctified. We are being separated and set apart for God's use, being made holy by His holiness. Hebrews 10:14 says that "because by the one sacrifice [Christ's death on the cross] He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy." We stand perfect before God as He continues to make us holy. It is a process that will take our entire lives. This is true regardless of what we feel or how our conduct may appear to ourselves or to others. If we are progressively maturing in our faith, we are being sanctified. Our conduct is not a precondition to the perfect standing of our salvation before God. If we have accepted Christ as our Savior, we are Christians. Short and simple. Can you grasp that? We are a Christian; we aren't working on becoming one. We are already a Christian, and as such, we are being sanctified and set apart for God's exclusive use.
And if we are progressing we must be heading somewhere or toward something. At Romans 8:29 Paul wrote: "For those for whom [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." And if this is the case then our character, conduct, and conversations as believers should reflect Christ, who lives within each of us. But this is something that takes place after we become Christian. Our character and conduct and conversations don't make us Christians. These things change and evolve as we are being sanctified. We don't become "good" to become followers of Jesus Christ; we become Christians and then become "good" because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.
Left to ourselves, we'd place way too much emphasis on conduct and conversation and get caught up in all the legalities of rules and regulations and commandments that make us look like Christians on the outside but, in reality, have nothing to do with our ability to stand before the holy and righteous God. Fully accepted. Fully approved. We place way too much emphasis on our actions, thinking that if we look holy we must be holy. But that's not the way God works. He works on the inside; not the outside. He gets inside us and changes our wants and desires. He gets to the very root of our problem. We are called to be holy, and in and of ourselves, this is simply not possible. We can never make ourselves holy or perfect. And yet that is what we are called to be. Left to ourselves we are "separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in ... the covenant of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." (Eph 1:12) We stand opposed to everything God requires of us and we are left hopeless and alone. But God has given every believer His Spirit as Teacher and Guide and the Holy Spirit's task is to completely transform our hearts and minds so that our character and conduct is noticeably different from that of the unsaved around us. This comes after salvation and is the role of sanctification. We can only speak and act as the Holy Spirit controls us, reflecting who we truly are: God's children. It is being first, then doing.
Our heavenly Father wants us to be living examples of Christ. He demands our perfection as His holiness requires, but because we have accepted Jesus to be our Savior, He has accepted Christ's perfection in place of our own. "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for what [our conduct and rules and regulations were] powerless to do ... God did [for us]." (Ro 8:1-2) We have been declared righteous and now His Holy Spirit shows us how to think and act so that we may walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we've been called. (Php 1:27 and Eph 4:1)
Saturday, September 8, 2007
A Rarity
I thought I'd surprise you all with a short Saturday blog. I enjoyed my days off and am now feeling much better, thank you. I had originally planned on doing nothing today. Nothing except take the entire day off and do nothing! LOL. But I felt so good when I woke up that I just fell right into doing things and I got a lot done. Being that it's Saturday, I washed my car. I almost had myself talked out of it because it still looked nice "enough" until I saw the bird droppings. Why are they always white? White on a brown (bronze?) car stands out like sore thumbs. Anyway I kept with the program and it's now sparkling clean. I also managed to get the laundry done, the bedding changed, and my Lay Pastor cards made out and addressed and ready to mail next week. I combined my deacon and 40 Days of Purpose binders into just one binder. Our 40 Days campaign will end in December and then I will no longer need all that information at my fingertips so I will then combine the deacon binder with the lay pastor binder and I will have only one binder that will hold all the information I need. I think it will be much easier for me if I have all the information in just one binder. Michael offered to make up some calendar pages for me on his computer and so now I have everything for the next six months marked on the same calendar instead of working with multiple calendars. I will ditch the calendar I carry in my Bible since I will now no longer need it and it was not convenient to have with me all the time as it was. I think these changes will make things work better for me.
The weather has been much cooler for the past few days and it is so appreciated! It won't be that much longer and we won't have the heat to contend with. But then watch me, I'll start complaining about the cold. Why is it I am never satisfied? I guess it just gives me something to look forward to. I just finished the book Growing Slowly Wise by David Roper and it was a very good book. I recommend it to anyone. It is a commentary on the book of James. You know the book? The one Luther called a "straw" epistle. James is the book that most people struggle with because it seems to run opposite of everything the Apostle Paul wrote. But Roper's book seems to clear up most discrepancies or ideas that James was teaching a life of works. Anyway, it's a good book for any who might be interested.
I guess I should sign off and get started on dinner. We decided on Eggs Benedict for tonight and my mouth waters just thinking about it. We enjoy breakfast for dinner much more than we enjoy it for breakfast most of the time. And it's so easy to cook. I can't remember if I've already written this in my blog but we use canned Spam (WalMart's version of Spam) for the meat instead of Canadian bacon or ham. It's much more economical than the bacon and we enjoy the flavor of it more than we do ham. So it works out all the way around for us. Tomorrow is the second half of last Sunday's sermon and I am looking forward to it. Last Sunday we were dead and buried in Christ. Tomorrow we rise again in Christ! It's exciting. See you all on Monday...
The weather has been much cooler for the past few days and it is so appreciated! It won't be that much longer and we won't have the heat to contend with. But then watch me, I'll start complaining about the cold. Why is it I am never satisfied? I guess it just gives me something to look forward to. I just finished the book Growing Slowly Wise by David Roper and it was a very good book. I recommend it to anyone. It is a commentary on the book of James. You know the book? The one Luther called a "straw" epistle. James is the book that most people struggle with because it seems to run opposite of everything the Apostle Paul wrote. But Roper's book seems to clear up most discrepancies or ideas that James was teaching a life of works. Anyway, it's a good book for any who might be interested.
I guess I should sign off and get started on dinner. We decided on Eggs Benedict for tonight and my mouth waters just thinking about it. We enjoy breakfast for dinner much more than we enjoy it for breakfast most of the time. And it's so easy to cook. I can't remember if I've already written this in my blog but we use canned Spam (WalMart's version of Spam) for the meat instead of Canadian bacon or ham. It's much more economical than the bacon and we enjoy the flavor of it more than we do ham. So it works out all the way around for us. Tomorrow is the second half of last Sunday's sermon and I am looking forward to it. Last Sunday we were dead and buried in Christ. Tomorrow we rise again in Christ! It's exciting. See you all on Monday...
Thursday, September 6, 2007
A Note to My Readers
I've decided to take a break from my blog for a while. I hope it won't be for long, but I just feel stressed out of late and I'm out of things to write about so I thought maybe some time away would be beneficial. I hope to be back soon, refreshed, and ready to write, write, write. See you in a while...
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Where Do I Get My Ideas?
I'm really getting to my blog late this morning but Michael and I finally got our deck cleaned off this morning since it is cooler so far today. We've been wanting to do it for days but it just stayed too hot to be out there on our super-heated deck. I have to say it looks much better than it did. Michael is still out there puttering around but I came back in to get my blog started before it gets entirely too late to even bother with blogging today. If you haven't read skatemama yet today do go over to her blogsite and check her out. She has some further information on her brain scan that's very interesting. Her doctor thinks the headaches might have been West Nile virus. But she has something else causing them concern.
As much as I enjoy blogging I must confess there's a down side to it. It takes a lot of my time and energy and I'm having to learn to relax; that it won't be the end of the world if I don't get around to updating my blog every single day. When I first began to blog, I was obsessed with it but my daughter-in-law brought that to my attention and I was able to let go a little bit and ease up on the demands I'd placed on myself. So what if I were late with a blog? But I thought you might be interested in the mechanics of my blog. Where I get my ideas, etc. Most of my ideas come from things I read. I subscribe to Charles F. Stanley's daily devotional and quite often I will take something he's written and just run with it. Enlarging it. Reshaping it. Things like that. Morphing it into something of my own. I like his theology most of the time but there have been times when I've taken it and run in an entirely different direction. For instance he tends to think that we are sinners because we sin. Whereas, I believe we sin because we are sinners. And there is a major difference in theology with those two stands. Sometimes I will get an idea from the daily Bible verse that I subscribe to on my email program. These are random verses that are emailed to me every day and they come from Old and New Testament alike. Quite often it is a Scripture I can't do anything with (as they have been lately) and some ideas are my own like with the miracle of the man born blind that I shared. When I was younger I was never short of things to write about but as I've aged my originality has waned as have so many other things with aging.
If anyone has a favorite Scripture they'd like me to expand on just leave me a comment or send it to my email and I'll see what I can do with it. I am always open for ideas. Like I said, I didn't use to have to worry about ideas. I used to overflow with ideas. But my brain no longer works the way it used to, I'm sorry to say. So if you have a question you think I might can shed some light on, just let me know and I'll give it a shot.
I have a few chores I insist on doing before I'll let myself blog in the mornings, but they are just the barebones of chores. I'm discovering that I'm not getting around to a lot of stuff that needs to be done so I'm going to loosen up a bit more on blogging and see if I can correct that situation before it gets any worse. You know? Nip it in the bud, so to speak. I'm hoping to avoid having to give up on blogging because of the time commitment. And it is quite a commitment by the time I get up and get those few chores done and then sit at the computer until noon most days. That was okay for awhile but it's really beginning to encroach on my day. It's really been bad during this heat wave because by the time I finish blogging, it's too hot to do the rest of my chores. The necessary ones! Maybe once the seasons change and we go into winter, things will balance out.
It is now past noon. Where has the morning gone? See, that's some of what I'm talking about. The days just seem to get away from me. I have a meeting in two hours and I've got to take care of some things before then so I'm going to let this be it for today's blog. Remember, if you have any ideas you can suggest them to me. I'm wide open for fresh ideas. In the mean time I'll just keep plugging away as best I can, doing what I do. Everything's for God's glory anyway. I'm not in this for money or fame. I just want to glorify God in everything I do and try to have a little fun in the process. Until tomorrow ...
As much as I enjoy blogging I must confess there's a down side to it. It takes a lot of my time and energy and I'm having to learn to relax; that it won't be the end of the world if I don't get around to updating my blog every single day. When I first began to blog, I was obsessed with it but my daughter-in-law brought that to my attention and I was able to let go a little bit and ease up on the demands I'd placed on myself. So what if I were late with a blog? But I thought you might be interested in the mechanics of my blog. Where I get my ideas, etc. Most of my ideas come from things I read. I subscribe to Charles F. Stanley's daily devotional and quite often I will take something he's written and just run with it. Enlarging it. Reshaping it. Things like that. Morphing it into something of my own. I like his theology most of the time but there have been times when I've taken it and run in an entirely different direction. For instance he tends to think that we are sinners because we sin. Whereas, I believe we sin because we are sinners. And there is a major difference in theology with those two stands. Sometimes I will get an idea from the daily Bible verse that I subscribe to on my email program. These are random verses that are emailed to me every day and they come from Old and New Testament alike. Quite often it is a Scripture I can't do anything with (as they have been lately) and some ideas are my own like with the miracle of the man born blind that I shared. When I was younger I was never short of things to write about but as I've aged my originality has waned as have so many other things with aging.
If anyone has a favorite Scripture they'd like me to expand on just leave me a comment or send it to my email and I'll see what I can do with it. I am always open for ideas. Like I said, I didn't use to have to worry about ideas. I used to overflow with ideas. But my brain no longer works the way it used to, I'm sorry to say. So if you have a question you think I might can shed some light on, just let me know and I'll give it a shot.
I have a few chores I insist on doing before I'll let myself blog in the mornings, but they are just the barebones of chores. I'm discovering that I'm not getting around to a lot of stuff that needs to be done so I'm going to loosen up a bit more on blogging and see if I can correct that situation before it gets any worse. You know? Nip it in the bud, so to speak. I'm hoping to avoid having to give up on blogging because of the time commitment. And it is quite a commitment by the time I get up and get those few chores done and then sit at the computer until noon most days. That was okay for awhile but it's really beginning to encroach on my day. It's really been bad during this heat wave because by the time I finish blogging, it's too hot to do the rest of my chores. The necessary ones! Maybe once the seasons change and we go into winter, things will balance out.
It is now past noon. Where has the morning gone? See, that's some of what I'm talking about. The days just seem to get away from me. I have a meeting in two hours and I've got to take care of some things before then so I'm going to let this be it for today's blog. Remember, if you have any ideas you can suggest them to me. I'm wide open for fresh ideas. In the mean time I'll just keep plugging away as best I can, doing what I do. Everything's for God's glory anyway. I'm not in this for money or fame. I just want to glorify God in everything I do and try to have a little fun in the process. Until tomorrow ...
Monday, September 3, 2007
What a Weird Few Days
Well, where do I begin. I guess I'll start by suggesting you check out skatemama's blog. Lot's of great pictures and, my!, what a busy family. I don't know how she does it all. But God bless her soul for being so dedicated to her children. I was too selfish and immature when I had my own boys. Was much better with Jamie and realized children can be a whole lot of fun. I'll never forget when I took Jamie out under the stars and we laid there and watched stars and clouds and things. Her little eyes were as big as saucers and it was the first time she became aware that clouds and things actually move in the sky. That they aren't stationary objects. There's a learning store over in the next county and I used to go in there when I could and pick up projects she and I could work on together. I think that's where I got the finger painting supplies and workbooks we used. It was just so much fun to watch her little mind work. She was so curious about everything.
Our long weekend started off rather strangely with a good downpour and thunder and lightning Friday morning. The lightning struck a power pole down by the high school and knocked out everyone's power for a time. We were just getting around and getting ready to go do our shopping. Michael was going to go pick up the mail to get our checks and then we were going to swing by the bank on the way out of town but when we lost power we knew our plans had been abruptly changed. We'd made arrangements to borrow my daughter-in-law's little car because it's A/C works where ours doesn't. We stood out on the porch and watched it rain and it rained hard enough to pour off the roof. It was a wonderful surprise and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our power was off for about an hour or so and so we got off to a late start but boy! was I glad we borrowed the car. Once the weather cleared the temperatures soared and the humidity was off the scale. It was like a steam bath everywhere we went. We were late getting home of course because we were late leaving and by the time we finally got home and the car unloaded I had a bad backache. We got everything put away and I returned the borrowed car and came back home totally wasted.
We lost power in one of our circuits Friday afternoon and had to rig up heavy-duty extension cords for the garage door opener and for the freezer and refrigerator in the garage. That was a near disaster because we didn't realize we'd lost power to the freezer and fridge until Saturday morning. Then Sunday morning when I got up early for church and I went into the bathroom to blow dry my hair I discovered the wall sockets in both baths have no power. Neither does the side porch light. Why all these scattered and varied things would all be on the circuit is beyond us! We've done everything we know to do to try and fix the problem and we just can't get any power in that circuit. We started to blame it on the lightning strike but then realized we had used the garage door opener to open the garage when we got home from shopping so that meant we had power after the strike. But it's still pretty odd that they happened about the same time. None of the circuit breakers were tripped and we turned them all off and then back on anyway and we've got power everywhere except for that one circuit. Guess that means we're going to have to call the landlord but we're putting that off until we can get the garage looking a little better which means we'll have to wait for my back to feel good enough to do that kind of work.
Saturday morning my back was so bad I could hardly move so I laid on the couch and brought my knees up, reversing the sway effect I have in my low back. I stayed like that for a couple hours and then, bad back and all, I went out and washed my car. I had to. Friday's rain had totally destroyed my car and it really looked bad. All the dirt and loose leaves had been washed out of the trees by the rain and just deposited on my car. It was a mess. But I managed to get it washed and dried before my back completely gave out. I came back in and reassumed my position on the couch with my knees up and laid there for the rest of the afternoon. I tried to go to sleep but I guess I wasn't sleepy because I never drifted off. I just laid there with the sway out of my back.
Sunday I had to get up early because it was communion Sunday which meant that I needed to be at church by 8:00 to get everything set up. It turned out I was the only one who showed up and I was terrified I'd forget to do something or wouldn't put enough bread on the plates or some other major catastrophe and managed to do everything right and communion when off as planned. After services I cleaned up and got everything put away properly and then came home and got back on the couch again. I laid there all afternoon until it was time to get up and feed the animals. So I didn't get anything accomplished with my house for the entire weekend. And it's a mess. My back is much better after babying it for the better part of two days but my house is a disaster. So today's blog is going to be short so I can get some housework done. Everything needs to be done. One of these days I'm going to have to get in and do some deep cleaning around here. I keep putting it off but I can't do that indefinitely. Eventually I will have to buckle down and really clean things. The animal hair is beginning to build up in the corners and hidden places. If you come in the house, you don't see all the hair but the thing is, I know it's there! And I'm the one I have to please. I'm in the mood to do some deep cleaning today but I want to give my back a little more time to heal before I go and set it off again.
Pastor did a really good job with his sermon yesterday. Wish I had time to tell you all about it but I just don't today. It'll have to be enough to just say that we all died with Christ, we were baptized into His death. Next week's sermon will be the rest of the story in that we were raised to life with Him too. It is His life we live and it is eternal life. We need not fear death because we've already died in Christ and have been given His everlasting life when He was raised on the third day! That is the simple truth of the gospel and we can all praise God for it!!
I have several meetings coming up this week. Prayer meeting has gone back to 7:00 PM again so I can now go again for the winter. Tomorrow afternoon the prayer team meets to discuss our activities and plans for the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. And the deacon's meeting is on Thursday night. So that's a pretty busy week of meetings for me. It will be difficult to remember to go to Tuesday night prayer meeting again since I haven't gone in months now. They always change the time to 6:00 during the spring and summer and that's just the wrong time for me. We usually eat about 6:00. But now that it's gone back to 7:00 I don't have that excuse any longer. It's just a matter of getting in the habit again.
I know this has been a boring blog but it'll have to do for today. I've got to get busy and get some things done before it gets any later. The only thing I have done is my bed. So I'm going to go get busy. [LATER] Well this is really strange. We thought to mention to Ken about the power problem because he had lived here for 5 years before we did and he remembered a special switch somewhere. He couldn't remember exactly where it was but he came over and we started looking for the switch and found it at the plug in the garage. So now we've reset the switch and everything's working again. I just had to climb all around the garage ceiling restringing cords and getting everything plugged back in where they belong but I don't think I set my back off. It's twinging where it hadn't been before I went out and did that but I'm going to think positively and say that I didn't rehurt my back and proceed on with that assumption. I'm glad Ken has as good a memory as he does. Last night while I was in bed I thought I remembered a time when Ken had a weird thing happen with his power and I remembered he found a switch in some weird place but I couldn't think to save my life where it was. I got up and checked the master bedroom closet because I had the feeling there was something in there. But I was wrong about that. But I had remembered correctly in thinking that he'd had the same thing happen and that there was a separate switch in a strange place. So anyway, everything's back to normal here and, sadly, my back is hurting again. But I'm going to go see if I can get a few things done before it goes completely out and I have to spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch again with my knees up. See you all tomorrow!
Our long weekend started off rather strangely with a good downpour and thunder and lightning Friday morning. The lightning struck a power pole down by the high school and knocked out everyone's power for a time. We were just getting around and getting ready to go do our shopping. Michael was going to go pick up the mail to get our checks and then we were going to swing by the bank on the way out of town but when we lost power we knew our plans had been abruptly changed. We'd made arrangements to borrow my daughter-in-law's little car because it's A/C works where ours doesn't. We stood out on the porch and watched it rain and it rained hard enough to pour off the roof. It was a wonderful surprise and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Our power was off for about an hour or so and so we got off to a late start but boy! was I glad we borrowed the car. Once the weather cleared the temperatures soared and the humidity was off the scale. It was like a steam bath everywhere we went. We were late getting home of course because we were late leaving and by the time we finally got home and the car unloaded I had a bad backache. We got everything put away and I returned the borrowed car and came back home totally wasted.
We lost power in one of our circuits Friday afternoon and had to rig up heavy-duty extension cords for the garage door opener and for the freezer and refrigerator in the garage. That was a near disaster because we didn't realize we'd lost power to the freezer and fridge until Saturday morning. Then Sunday morning when I got up early for church and I went into the bathroom to blow dry my hair I discovered the wall sockets in both baths have no power. Neither does the side porch light. Why all these scattered and varied things would all be on the circuit is beyond us! We've done everything we know to do to try and fix the problem and we just can't get any power in that circuit. We started to blame it on the lightning strike but then realized we had used the garage door opener to open the garage when we got home from shopping so that meant we had power after the strike. But it's still pretty odd that they happened about the same time. None of the circuit breakers were tripped and we turned them all off and then back on anyway and we've got power everywhere except for that one circuit. Guess that means we're going to have to call the landlord but we're putting that off until we can get the garage looking a little better which means we'll have to wait for my back to feel good enough to do that kind of work.
Saturday morning my back was so bad I could hardly move so I laid on the couch and brought my knees up, reversing the sway effect I have in my low back. I stayed like that for a couple hours and then, bad back and all, I went out and washed my car. I had to. Friday's rain had totally destroyed my car and it really looked bad. All the dirt and loose leaves had been washed out of the trees by the rain and just deposited on my car. It was a mess. But I managed to get it washed and dried before my back completely gave out. I came back in and reassumed my position on the couch with my knees up and laid there for the rest of the afternoon. I tried to go to sleep but I guess I wasn't sleepy because I never drifted off. I just laid there with the sway out of my back.
Sunday I had to get up early because it was communion Sunday which meant that I needed to be at church by 8:00 to get everything set up. It turned out I was the only one who showed up and I was terrified I'd forget to do something or wouldn't put enough bread on the plates or some other major catastrophe and managed to do everything right and communion when off as planned. After services I cleaned up and got everything put away properly and then came home and got back on the couch again. I laid there all afternoon until it was time to get up and feed the animals. So I didn't get anything accomplished with my house for the entire weekend. And it's a mess. My back is much better after babying it for the better part of two days but my house is a disaster. So today's blog is going to be short so I can get some housework done. Everything needs to be done. One of these days I'm going to have to get in and do some deep cleaning around here. I keep putting it off but I can't do that indefinitely. Eventually I will have to buckle down and really clean things. The animal hair is beginning to build up in the corners and hidden places. If you come in the house, you don't see all the hair but the thing is, I know it's there! And I'm the one I have to please. I'm in the mood to do some deep cleaning today but I want to give my back a little more time to heal before I go and set it off again.
Pastor did a really good job with his sermon yesterday. Wish I had time to tell you all about it but I just don't today. It'll have to be enough to just say that we all died with Christ, we were baptized into His death. Next week's sermon will be the rest of the story in that we were raised to life with Him too. It is His life we live and it is eternal life. We need not fear death because we've already died in Christ and have been given His everlasting life when He was raised on the third day! That is the simple truth of the gospel and we can all praise God for it!!
I have several meetings coming up this week. Prayer meeting has gone back to 7:00 PM again so I can now go again for the winter. Tomorrow afternoon the prayer team meets to discuss our activities and plans for the 40 Days of Purpose campaign. And the deacon's meeting is on Thursday night. So that's a pretty busy week of meetings for me. It will be difficult to remember to go to Tuesday night prayer meeting again since I haven't gone in months now. They always change the time to 6:00 during the spring and summer and that's just the wrong time for me. We usually eat about 6:00. But now that it's gone back to 7:00 I don't have that excuse any longer. It's just a matter of getting in the habit again.
I know this has been a boring blog but it'll have to do for today. I've got to get busy and get some things done before it gets any later. The only thing I have done is my bed. So I'm going to go get busy. [LATER] Well this is really strange. We thought to mention to Ken about the power problem because he had lived here for 5 years before we did and he remembered a special switch somewhere. He couldn't remember exactly where it was but he came over and we started looking for the switch and found it at the plug in the garage. So now we've reset the switch and everything's working again. I just had to climb all around the garage ceiling restringing cords and getting everything plugged back in where they belong but I don't think I set my back off. It's twinging where it hadn't been before I went out and did that but I'm going to think positively and say that I didn't rehurt my back and proceed on with that assumption. I'm glad Ken has as good a memory as he does. Last night while I was in bed I thought I remembered a time when Ken had a weird thing happen with his power and I remembered he found a switch in some weird place but I couldn't think to save my life where it was. I got up and checked the master bedroom closet because I had the feeling there was something in there. But I was wrong about that. But I had remembered correctly in thinking that he'd had the same thing happen and that there was a separate switch in a strange place. So anyway, everything's back to normal here and, sadly, my back is hurting again. But I'm going to go see if I can get a few things done before it goes completely out and I have to spend the rest of the afternoon on the couch again with my knees up. See you all tomorrow!
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