GET TOGETHER – OUR CHRISTMAS TREE AND SANCTIFICATION
Joh 17:19 “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. Ac 20:32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified
Well a couple of weeks ago I shared with you guys about what a powerful time that I had with the Lord that they that I was trying to help J.J. by putting the Christmas tree up by myself. She didn’t have the same spiritual experience that I did when she saw it.
Instead she focused on a few things that I apparently didn’t pay quiet as much attention to. She asked me why there was one whole clump of lights at the bottom that were not burning. She didn’t buy that they represented the people that were still walking in darkness and that needed to come into the light of Christ. And by the way there are a whole lot of people like I was at one time still walking in the darkness and needing to come to Christ. Also there were a couple of ornaments that did not survive the one time that the tree almost fell over.
So, I must admit that J.J. did take some time and make the tree look a whole lot better. She put some red tinsel like stuff around it. That reminded me of the Blood of Jesus that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. She also removed the clump of lights that were not burning and put some more in their place. That tree really looks good now.
This morning I felt like the Holy Spirit gave me an illustration from what has taken place with our Christmas tree. Before I put the tree up, we did not have a tree. But once I put the tree up although it was not perfect and had some dead spots it was still a Christmas Tree. Before we came to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were not people of God. But when we repent of our sins and put our faith in His shed blood we become children of God: “1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
And yet just like our Christmas tree looked when I put it up there are still some places that need work in our lives. Just like some of our ornaments that got broke that day some of us have had our hearts broken. We all have some of those places that just like that clump of burned out lights that need some new light and new life in those places. We need God to remove the darkness of sins and to replace it with the light of Christ.
That is where the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit comes in. The Greek term in the passages that I opened up with is hagiazo, hag-ee-ad’-zo. It means to cause someone to have the quality of holiness. Sometimes holiness gets a bad rap. Holiness isn’t how big a frown that you can put on. It isn’t seeing how religious that you can look. It doesn’t mean that you can never laugh again or have a sense of humor.
I believe that holiness is God removing those dark sinful things in our lives that inhibit us from becoming more like Jesus. Holiness is being consecrated to God. Holiness is being salt and light as Jesus has called us to be.
It is sort of like that Christmas tree was. It the dark places being made to shine. It is the broken places being healed. And like the power that makes the lights shine on the tree. The power of the Holy Spirit enables our light to shine in a dark world that needs the light of Jesus Christ so much.
Lets Us Pray
Lord Jesus as we look at all the lights that shine this Christmas season, we pray that the Holy Spirit will work in our lives removing old sinful habits and attitudes. Lord Jesus please come and heal the damaged and wounded places in our lives in order that our lights shine in a more powerful way.
IN JESUS NAME
AMEN
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your Kinfolk/Friend
Preston
