On Sanctification

verb. to make holy; set apart as sacred; consecrate.

I thought I had a lot to say, until I was put in my place. I've found that often I view sanctification through the lens of my own experience. So, when someone does something that I have never done or never even considered doing, I expect them to find their way to the altar and consecrate their lives to God. Is it inbred? Is it because I'm a pastor? Is it due to the fact that I'm so anal, I can't see the forrest due to the one lady bug that has too many spots on the left side and not enough spots on the right?

From what I understand of Paul's writings, sanctification can only come through one's willingness to accept the possibility that God may have a better life planned for them. When we offer ourselves over to God, we have to understand that there are going to be things that God desires us to change. Unfortunately, I've considered everyone else's changes and not really my own.

Well, I assume that if I am going to be set apart as holy for the purpose of God's kingdom work, that I also have to consider that I am not yet holy and that God has some work to do. But...my inner monologue continually desires to judge others, and I am thus thrown into the conflict of letting God do His work and me staying out of the way. I've found, as of late, that quite often, when I think that God needs to do some changing, that it first starts with me. Now really? That's quite an awful thing to do to someone who is already holy...oh wait...

If I may, I'd like to refer back to my previous post on Unconditional Love...the one that I didn't see the need to follow. I suppose that until I am completely changed into the image of Christ, my only recourse is to love unconditionally. I mean, I am not the Holy Spirit, nor am I the judge, jury, and executioner. I am merely a man in need of grace. And if I am in need of grace, then I had better start showing it a little more often. After all, I don't think the words, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," were stated for the purpose of giving me ammunition. No - they were stated, because Jesus realized that in my hastiness, I would inevitably fail. He needed to let me know that my failure would eventually come back to haunt me and therefore I had better be prepared to suck it up.

Oh - and while we're on that subject...the one about dying to pride...I suppose that's also not a good quality to have when asking God to sanctify your life. I don't remember pride being in the recipe for holiness, so I suppose that the absence of pride would be a better ingredient.

That said, I go back to the original definition of sanctification. Being set apart as sacred. Each and every one of us should have the desire to be set apart as sacred. I don't think that we consider this idea of setting apart to be very important, because we don't actually set ourselves apart from anything that is a strong desire in our lives. Since the cat is already out of the bag, I'll consider my own pride. If I am to truly be set apart for God's use, then there can be none of my own pride. It must die. And I don't just mean die as in...prune it back. I mean, pull the entire bush out of the yard, take it out back, burn it, and throw the ashes into the East wind. Die.

My process of sanctification is different than yours, but it doesn't necessarily mean that mine is more right. I just need Roundup in other areas than you do.