Called To Be Saints

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ 

through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

 unto the church of God which is at Corinth, 

to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus,

 called to be saints, with all that in every 

place call upon the name of Jesus Christ 

our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace be 

unto you, and peace, from God our Father,

 and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

1Corinthians 1:1-3 

     A question to begin this blog: Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? If the answer is yes: you are then called to be a saint, and this is to be manifested in your life when you call upon the name of Jesus Christ everywhere you are at the moment. The Greek words: "That are sanctified" is a good translation but the Greek goes further inasmuch as it is a plural participle in the perfect tense, passive: so it means even more: it means that you having been sanctified, a completed work and a continuing work are to live as what God has done for you when you came to believe upon the One He sent forth to bring salvation. 

     Salvation is something that God gives to you upon your belief in Jesus Christ and at that time when you put your life into His hands and believed; it was a time of great joy and even of vision. This vision is often clouded over by life, those valleys that we must walk through, those times of disappointment, or trials that test our faith. The vision dims and often there is a turning back for the preparation for the blows, and they will come, was not done, or was not fully leading your life: you have not fully changed inside/out. If a person is living a life simply in the vision we will not be as what God wants us to be and that means that we must be willing to have our "vision" battered and shaped and then be of use to God. Those times of battering are things within the commonplace of life. 

      Character is formed by influences outside of ourselves and the question is: will we allow the vision to turn us into the will of God and this is not going to be because God turned us; no, we must turn ourselves. The old saying: "You cannot turn a parked car" so God will not turn you unless you are willing to be turned and are turning. If we stay with the vision, it will dim, it will not lead you to the will of God and if we remain in the vision we will not be of any good in the ordinary things that make up life. 

     Liberal Christians, those who rely on an experiential Christianity are attempting to live in the vision, or some vision that they have conjured up in their minds and to reinforce that vision they live in ecstasies, euphoric worship, upon "gibberish" rubbish language that is not to be found in Scripture, they live in some form of meditation as do the Hindus, the Brahams, the Buddhists, an attempt to live in the consciousness of God. What is missing is as an Authentic Christian we must live in the actualities that make of a true vision of God and live through the ordinary things of life until that vision becomes a veritable, that is, a genuine, a reality. Our training, our sanctification is in that direction. We must be thankful that God is allowing us to be battered, to be shaped into what He wants for us, His will for us. 

      It is easy to see in so many Charismatic, or Pentecostal Churches that their desire to be godly is not being led by God, by Scripture, rather to be a little "I am" and to being led by the great "I AM, THAT I AM" for it He who is sending you into the world to be a witness for Him. God will always be with you, and if you, only you, allow God to lead you by His Holy Spirit that lives within all person who have come to believe, put their faith in, Jesus Christ you will find the peace, the grace of God in ways that you will know but will not know how God has given you such a thing because you, and I, have often failed Him, but God does for He will hunt you down for you are a child of God, and as your eternal and heavenly Father, you have security in Him. God knows you, even more than you know yourself. 

     REMEMBER: YOU ARE CALLED TO SAINTS!

Hear ye now what the LORD saith; Arise,

     contend thou before the mountains,

and let the hills hear thy voice.

                                Micah 6:1

God will take out what you put in

Richard L. Crumb