 Yesterday, we discovered that it is possible to have perfect intent. But how does one achieve such? How does one become a slave to righteousness?Let me offer this illustration. A man wakes up every morning to spider webs in the corner. Day in and day out, he sweeps out the webs. One morning, he wakes up to the realization, “why don't I just kill the spider?” That's what sanctification is about. It is an instantaneous realization that the way that you have been living your life has been ok but that there is a better way. Sanctification is a change of your intent. Sanctification is God killing that selfish part of you, setting you aside for His purposes, no longer living for yourself. Sanctification is a crisis experience but one that grows. Even though he may have killed the spider, he needs to kill any other spiders that move in or other spider webs will appear. This is congruent with the teaching of "work out your salvation with fear and trembling." Now, you say, "that leads to a danger of a works based salvation." However, James says that faith without works is dead. In Nehemiah, he told them to work and pray while they built the wall. A proper understanding of sanctification realizes that any good that a Christian does is only done through the power of the Holy Spirit. This crisis experience of sanctification is a change of the intent of the heart. God takes that heart that is bent towards self and sin and turns it to pleasing Him, much like your son who is getting you a drink of water. He wanted to please you rather than himself.In my life, I was saved at six by my mother's aid. At age 17, I was in Las Vegas and watched a man put money into a slot machine. He looked so sad. I remember God distinctly telling me, “do you want a happy Christian life or a sad one?” That was my sanctification experience. That evening, all alone, I prayed that God would use me however he wanted and that I would never turn my back on him. My life after 17 was much different than it was before. I have had experiences where I hear Satan's voice, “see? All that Christian stuff isn't worth the trouble. Just give it up!” When that happens, I am able, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to remind myself that I had a sanctification experience where I vowed I would never give up on my relationship with God. My sanctification is entire because not only do I have all of the Holy Spirit (His Spirit is given without measure) but He has all of me as well! This sanctification is exhibited by the FRUIT of the Holy Spirit. That means once I became sanctified, I received all of the fruit but it was not fully mature at that point. My sanctification needs to continue to grow. The different fruit may grow at different rates but it is all there. My goal, with God's help, is to have all the fruit mature in my life. So, I still sin. But when I do, I have an Advocate with the Father. I stop, confess, and move on. I don't beat myself up nor allow Satan to drag me down. The closer I stay to God's Holy Spirit, the shorter my fall when I sin. Now you know what to do. What are you gonna do? While you're deciding, that spider is building more webs... BE HOLY.BE A MAN.
 Jesus tells us that we are to be perfect as He is perfect. However, being human, it is impossible to be perfect. What do you think Jesus meant by this statement? Here is a good example of perfection. Maybe it is close to what Jesus was meaning. A piano student practices day and nite on a musical piece until he can execute it without error. His piano teacher would say that he plays “perfectly.” However, if he hasn't moved on and is still playing the same piece a year later, he is no longer perfect. Another example. Let's say that you have a son with whom you are gardening in the hot sun. He sees you sweating and obviously becoming overheated. He thinks to himself, “I'll go get dad a glass of water.” He goes into the house and gets a dirty cup out of the sink and fills it with lukewarm water out of the tap without any ice. He carries it by the rim so that his grubby fingers get into the water. He joyfully brings it to you, knowing that it will help your thirst. When he gives it to you, you look inside the glass and notice that the water is not very clean. What do you do at that point? Do you chastise him for bringing you a glass of dirty water? Nope. A loving father would praise his son and gladly accept the water and drink it down. You have a perfect son. His intent was to please you. The concept of intent is the key in both of these illustrations. You know the intent of your heart (and so does God). Let's say you do something that you think could be very helpful but someone misunderstands your intent and believes that you are not a very good Christian. For example, a Christian brother chastises you for going into a bar. Your intent, when you went into that bar, was to talk to your friend that is drunk in there. You went in there to take him home and prevent him from further harming himself. Now the Christian chastising you does not know your intent. However, you do and moreover, God knows. Therefore, you are sinless (perfect) in regard to your going into a bar, a place where many people would say that a Christian should not be. So, as God told Samuel of David, God looks on the heart. God looks at our intent. Sinlessness (perfection) is to be judged by God only. That's why we have a hard time with this concept, we are looking through human eyes. Some Christians have been taught that “we sin every day in thought, word or deed.” Nevertheless, it is possible to go for a while without sinning. However, it is VERY RARE. If a Christian looks in the mirror and says, “I didn't sin today!” then he just sinned. If you go without sinning, you don't realize it. You don't realize it because you don't focus on sin but on God's righteousness and God's ability to empower you to live a victorious Christian life. We are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. You used to offer your body to impurity and wickedness. However, now, you offer your body as a slave to righteousness which leads to holiness. So, how do you offer yourself to righteousness? Tomorrow, we will discover that together. BE HOLY.BE A MAN.
 I was talking to a gentleman at a bar and he made an interesting comment. "You know Sam that goes to your church? You should talk to him. He used to be one of the meanest men I've ever met." He proceeded to tell about some of Sam's antics. Some of Sam's antics were funny, some were off-color, and some were downright mean. I knew Sam came to our church but I didn't know him very well.
So, next Sunday, I found Sam after church and stopped him for a moment. I told him that I met a man earlier in the week who told me about him. I started to tell him a bit of what I heard and he interrupted me. What Sam said next startled me. He said, "Dale, I'm a Christian now. I am so ashamed of what I used to be. I was not a nice man. I cannot talk about it." Sam said this in such a manner that it was obvious that I had really hurt him. I quickly apologized to him and he excused himself.
Sam taught me an important lesson that day.
Do I take sin seriously?
Do I take my sin seriously?
On another occasion, I was having lunch with a friend who was a new Christian. In the midst of our conversation, he made this interesting comment, "As I grow in my faith, I learn how my past behavior, though forgiven, was shameful and wrong."
That's one of many reasons why I love hanging out with new Christians. They don't have all those defenses that "mature" Christians have.
My new friend taught me an important lesson that day.
Have I taken my sin seriously?
Am I truly repentant of what I have done in the past?
I'm not saying that I need to wallow in my past sinful behavior.
I'm not saying that I need to live a life full of guilt.
I just wonder if I take too many trips down memory lane, thinking about how much "fun" I used to have?
Do I feel godly sorrow for my past?
Do I feel regret for my past behavior?
These men taught me that a real man faces his past and takes responsibility for his behavior. A real man is sensitive to God's work in his life. A real man doesn't recall past sinful behavior in a positive manner. A real man is a new creation. He adamantly rejects sin.
BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.
 Yesterday, I posted about how a young man used the retelling of the crucifixion of Jesus so that he could sin and take others with him in his sin. Today, I want to share something beautiful from my experiences with the Easter Musical. In this church that annually would share the Easter story with its community, there was always a special private showing of the final dress rehearsal. The final dress rehearsal was an invitation to individuals who were physically as well as mentally challenged. The church would clear out much of the seating so that people using wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and canes could easily navigate into the auditorium. This was a fun tradition in this community because these individuals got to see the musical before anybody else. In this final dress rehearsal that I am remembering, Jesus was being taken down from the cross. This is a very solemn and quiet scene, taking a good ten minutes or so. Jesus is carefully removed from the cross, given to Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, John and Nicodemus. They lovingly prepare Jesus' body for burial, wrapping him in cloths. Well, during this scene, one man in the audience who couldn't speak or walk due to his challenges, started weeping uncontrollably. It was quite a poignant scene that was enhanced by this man's sensitivity. I firmly believe that this man was so touched by this reenactment that he said yes to God's invitation to accept Jesus as his Savior. Needless to say, this man's behavior affected many others not only in the congregation but many of the actors and orchestra members as well. In my own heart, I felt a revival of my own commitment to serving Jesus. I'm sure that many had a similar experience. An unspoken revival of sorts happened right there because of this man's sensitivity to Jesus' gift of salvation. I want to tell you that the man that was weeping was so much more of a man than many men I have ever met. Especially, more so than that young man from yesterday who wanted to have sexual conquests to prove his manhood. That weeping man allowed God to transform him. Outside he was still the same but I believe that man left the church a new creation. You may be wondering how the above picture of the extreme mountain climber fits into this story. Well, I'm thinking that when this guy gets to heaven, he's gonna want to do the things he always wanted to do but couldn't because he was in an earthly body that didn't work as he wanted. I'm gonna find him and we're gonna do some extreme mountain climbing. When we get to the summit, I'm gonna ask him, "remember when you were at that private showing of the Easter Musical? I want to know what you were thinking." I anticipate he will share with me his love for God and how the Holy Spirit worked in his life that night. Together we will agree with the Roman Centurion, "Surely, this man was the Son of God!" and we will spend a couple hundred years on that summit praising our Savior and recalling all the wonderful things that God did. Do you want to experience something beautiful? You can right now as you ask Jesus to lead your life, turn from your sinfulness and allow God to transform you. We want you to join us on that summit in eternity. BE HOLY.BE A MAN.
 After reading yesterday's post a good friend of mine wrote me. He is a professional dog trainer. He said, "I may have said the dogs natural impulses are bent and conditioned to serve the purposes of the trainer, and maybe made a parallel from there. " I really appreciate his feedback. I'm gonna follow his lead. Since we have dominion over creation, the natural impulses of animals, especially those that are domesticated , are to obey/fear us. However, we humans don't have a natural impulse to obey/fear God. Rather, we have a natural impulse to obey our natural impulses. We are handcuffed by our impulses. That's why it is so important to get our impulses under the control of God. God clearly talks about this. "So put to death your worldly impulses: sexual sin, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed..." If you feel overwhelmed by your impulses and feel defeated by your inability to resist temptation, know this: For every temptation, there is a way out. How do I know this? Because the Bible reminds us that God is faithful. He doesn't just create us and say, "Good luck! I hope you can ignore sin." God wants to work in your life so that you don't react impulsively but respond the way that He desires. God wants to remove that selfishness that's within you and transform you so that you learn to please Him. You learn "to serve the purposes of your trainer." What does "serving the purposes of your trainer" look like? Well, you change channels when Go Daddy puts up a sensuous commercial during the Super Bowl (since when do we need scantily clad women to sell website hosting?). You have paid channels blocked when you check into a hotel. You meet with men who hold each other accountable for godly behavior. You dump your porn. However, "serving the purposes of your trainer" goes beyond behavior. It goes to a heart change. God wants your sanctification. Sanctification means that you permit God to change you from the inside out and reserve you for His special purposes. Can you let that happen? Yes, you can. Are you humble enough to let God make you into a real man? Yes, you are. BE HOLY.BE A MAN.
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