So you’re a Christian. That means you are somewhere on the path to becoming pure and free from sin – sanctified. Sanctification is the process of becoming completely and utterly sinless – no sin at all – none.
When I say ‘sin’ I have to be sure we’re talking about the same thing. Sin is anything that is a transgression of God’s will or any level of rebellion against God.
I hear you saying, “I’m not perfect. I can’t do that. Maybe I can avoid the big sins, but there will always be some kind of sin in my life.”
That’s true, you can’t be without sin, but God can fix it so it’s not a problem.
The ‘fix’ is in three parts:
- Initial sanctification – that’s when you understand who Jesus is and accept Him as your Lord. You have to do this or you’ll never get the rest of it.
- Progressive sanctification – that’s a life-long process of weeding sin out of your life – becoming more and more like Jesus. Unfortunately, every time you remove one sin, you’ll discover another one (or more then one) behind it. The problem is that you’re a human being and that’s just the way we are. The blessing is that you’ll find great satisfaction in making progress. You want to become holy because God is holy – it’s a pilgrimage.
- Final sanctification – When you die, God finishes the work by blessing you with the status of sinlessness. That doesn’t mean He’s going to go back in time and correct all your sins, they’re just not going to count against you. That qualifies you to stand in God’s presence.
So, I assume you have accepted Jesus. That means you are on the path of progressive sanctification.
Just where on that path are you? Are you at the beginning – the middle – or are you closer to the end? Wherever you are now, you must be further along than you were last year – right? So why not celebrate it. It’s a wonderful thing to have a little celebration party – just recognizing the changes God has made in you. Maybe get a cupcake and a candle and spent some time meditating on what He’s done. Perhaps you could even plan the next steps in your pilgrimage.
Some of the steps will be difficult – some will be easy. Whatever you do, you’re becoming holy and that’s the most important thing you can possibly do.
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Each of us is a unique spiritual being. We are born individually, die individually and stand before God every moment of our lives as an individual. No matter how large a group we are in, our relationship with God is one on one. Therefore our worship and each of our styles of worship will be accordingly unique. That idea is developed and expanded in the book “Worshiping Alone” available on Booklocker, Amazon or Barnes and Noble If you haven’t read it, please consider doing so.
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God Everyday 