***And you shall know the truth. And the truth will set you free!!!***

SALVATION INVOLVES SANCTIFICATION

A devotion by Vince Lichlyter based on the Jonah33 song

Track #7: "BURNING CLEAN"

From the album The Strangest Day

Fire can either consume you or purify you. Let me share two amazing passages from God’s Word about "getting burned."

The first one is Proverbs 6:27: "Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?"

This passage is obviously not about setting our pants on fire. Rather, it’s about our tendency to flirt too closely with temptation. More specifically, Proverbs 6:27 is about falling prey to sexual sin.

Make no mistake: sin IS attractive, sin IS pleasurable, and sin IS addictive. Whether it’s the thrill of cheating or stealing, the intoxication of drugs or alcohol, or the rush of porn or violence, "sin"-sation is an "open-throated grave" just waiting for us to fall in.

I should know, as a teenager I fell into an open grave with sides so steep and so slippery that I couldn’t climb out of it. God knows I tried, but there was absolutely nothing I could do to escape. God didn’t help me out; He pulled me out and rescued me. That’s why Christians call this "salvation" or getting "saved."

But salvation isn’t the end of the story; it’s just the first chapter! God wants to give you and me a whole new life in and through Christ. This life-long process is called "sanctification," which literally means, "to be set aside for a holy use." In this second passage, the prophet Isaiah experienced this in a supernatural vision in which he saw the Lord in all His glory:

"‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’ Then one of the seraphs [angels] flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it, he touched my mouth and said: ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for.’" Isaiah 6:5-7 (NIV)

Isaiah already belonged to God, but the Lord wanted to burn away everything Isaiah used to be so that he could fill him up with His own character and presence. Are you surprised to learn that even believers need to be forgiven (1 John 1:8-9) and transformed daily into His image?

Today’s prayer: Lord, remove these scales from my eyes so that I can see my sin as clearly as You do. Help me to be "undone" by my own sinfulness, and then burned clean by Your holiness from everything I used to be. Reach inside and pull out anything that keeps me from being what I should be. Separate me from my sinful habits and patterns and transform me by the power of Your Holy Spirit . Sanctify me... I give You my life. Amen.

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SALVATION INVOLVES SANCTIFICATION