A STATUS SYMBOL:

To be sanctified

• Joel 2:13:  "And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repents him of the evil." 

  Isaiah 64:6,  "But we are all as an unclean thing, All our righteousnesses is as filthy rags..."

• I have no status in this material realm, none whatsoever.   I am an Elder ( born 1952), I have front line experience as a lower income person for over 40 years now, I have no formal achievements except being  a very street smart survivor, scrappy and sharp at times. I have learned by doing. I have high intelligence but not the dynamo button!  With the measurements of this world, I would be near a zero.

• Sanctified is kind of a scary word, as  an unapproachable condition, like how could this mess of a human EVER  measure up to this towards God?? I am disorganized, cluttered, steeply emotionally up and down, get so discouraged so easily.

  I have never measured up, not even close, struggling over money, 24/7.  Why would God want ME? Not one of us in our human condition can measure up by our own efforts, that is why God provided the intense training step by step and day by day, for FREE, (He just requires…everything!) Just like grade one to 12 and above, we are changed by hanging out with God, deeply and profoundly. This is NOT polite surface stuff. He does rub off on us, despite our protestations.

• The more I hang out with God, the more I am stunned by His mercy.  I do not comprehend, I just shake my head.

• God is a Stealth Papa and He sneaks up on us. We do not remain the same when we dig in to follow God and His Son. No, He renews and transforms us, step by step. This is NOT polite Christianity, this is warrior stuff all the way. This is mud and grime and tears and sorrow and weariness…and a tidbit of what Christ Himself ENDURED for every single one of us. Remember that, please! Also remember that AFTER the trials, you are transformed and amazed and better.

• In our Western “surface” culture, we seem obsessed with surface stuff. We scrub ourselves in the hot shower or bath, we present our homes as “immaculate”, orderly and pristine. Scratch just under the surface and you see the frequent disarray we try so hard to hide. I used to tour luxury homes when I was in residential real estate back in San Francisco and was often surprised how “perfect” the kitchens were, as if…they did not cook!

  Surface status! Admirable and yet an inch deep.

  Yet... God looks at the heart. He made it, He knows where you hide the evidence!

• In my weekly  Wednesday church Discipleship class, we are slowly studying two books by Dr. Tony Evans, teaching about the Power of the Names of God. We usually do not think of any name except God or Jehovah or Jesus Christ.  God actually has many names and these refer to various elements of His power to help us and to guide and refine us. One name we studied recently was  Jehovah Mekoddishkem, the God who sanctifies. That chapter was very intense and blunt, not always the sweet and tender God but the transforming God.  

• The whole concept of being sanctified is so foreign to me, even though I humbly desire to go through the refining process of our spirits, as God gradually removes the darkness and renews, refreshes and brings us through the  "washing of regeneration."  Is this fun and easy, like jumping in the shower?? Not remotely.  Is being dark and spiritually unkempt appealing, especially after you begin to meet God and His Son?? Also not remotely. Sanctified means being "set apart for holiness".  Whew!! Holiness in THIS culture??  How in the world? Aren't we too far gone for God to even tend to us??  Look at the mess of our world!

  Control freak that I am, do I find this sanctification process a bundle of fun?? Uh, NO, NO, and NO.  I don't do well at hard things.

• Then WHY does God require this?? Is He a control freak as well?

  Um, YES, YES and TRIPLE YES.  However, I would prefer to " be thou transformed  by the renewing of the mind" instead of relying on my own brilliant wisdom that knocked me repeatedly into DITCHES, desolate places, bankruptcy, poverty, abortions, sexually transmitted diseases, emotional disorder and general malaise and chaos.  

• HEY!! I thought God was all...love and  kind and light and... stuff? He is.  He is also perfect and in the serious business of changing us from dark into light, to be more like His Son Jesus Christ. 

  Sanctified, ME?

• Good grief and gravy, Papa, have You seen my past?? Have you seen my messy house?  Have you seen how rumpled I look?  I mean, I don't even own an iron???  I am one of the queens of RUMPLED, (not dirty but just rumpled, like the vagabond look...)

• Biggest sigh ever, as I begin to weep. Then I hear Papa's dear tender voice saying " look in to My Son's eyes, see the tender love there for you, see His immense sacrifice for you to have entrance and access to Me, past  the stale formality of “religion" . See the overwhelming LOVE  poured out for you! See the way I made and paved for you to come on up here, come boldly before the throne of grace and just flop on the couch with Papa and let your sorrows and anger be released day by day and be able to ask for help!  Remember some of the rants that King David had with God, in the Psalms! Not polite but so real and direct!   This is relationship as Sons and Daughters, not ‘ religion’ ".

• I am being sanctified... or set apart!  

• Does that make me better then you? No, that makes me better than the devil! Yes, that shameless thief  was God's anointed  cherub who threw it all away  because he craved power for himself!  What a fool! This is not “sanctimonious” or “holier than thou” but the overwhelmingly good refining by God Himself.

  I will take the difficult path of being sanctified, even though it is not fun. The end results are worth the struggle.

• Wendy Elizabeth Williams 8- 30- 2024

• —Consider becoming a paid subscriber at $1.25 a week, $5 month

  — Consider ko- fi donation $1 and up at my Ko-Fi site: ko-fi.com/wendyelizabethwilliams

  --Consider hiring me for “emotional descriptive writing”. This is short hops of authentic writing to offer support for your own creative business! Authentic emotion can be an honorable way to present your own work or gifts! Very affordable!

• __I will soon be starting to present simple Tip booklets, “Wendy’s little bag of sweetness” with some of my hard-won experiences and survival tips in being a street-smart person who survived in San Francisco for 31 year! I learned some good stuff, some of it common sense but also some with a weaving of how it affected my survival in a very tough City. Send me a D-M if you are interested. I am learning how to do essentially a mini-booklet, like a few pages sold via my Ko-Fi page and likely for about $1 or $2, not more. I will start with one booklet and go from there. (tipping my toe into the water with trepidation…but hearing Holy Spirit gently say “just do it, W.E.W.! “) OK, OK, OK…

  —Pray for me to hear Holy Spirit’s guidance and to open some simple financial doors, step by step. I have a Servant’s Heart.

  Wendy Williams