#Progressive Sanctification

[pastorkevinc]

Can You Really Change?

Can You Really Change? About this time in a new year, everyone wants to know, Can you really change? One by one, possibly your new year’s resolutions are falling off. You’ve been there or are there… Sugar looks great again. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak! Sleep robs you of your “set aside” time to read your Bible and pray. You slip up and say what you were sure you weren’t going to…

[walkswithmyfather]

“THESE WHOM GOD CHOSE HE JUSTIFIED AND GLORIFIED Part III

Living for Christ Ministries

“Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭30

God uses the Holy Spirit to transform Believers from the moment of new birth in Christ through a process of sanctification to the final instant they go to be with Him through justification, sanctification, and glorification.

Believers are justified, or declared righteous at the moment of salvation: “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” ‭‭Rom‬ ‭10‬:‭9‬ ‭

Sanctification is growing in the Lord: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” II Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬ ‭

Glorification is the removal of sin from the Believer and prepares him or her to stand faultless before God in eternity: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”Rom8‬:‭18‬

Romans 8 delineates the process of the spiritual transformation of Believers.

•Verse 2 He frees us from sin & death.

•Verse 4 He enables us to fulfill the Law.

•Verses 5-11 He changes our nature.

•Verses 12-13 He gives victory over sin. •Verses 14-16 He adopts us as family. •Verses 17-30 We obtain eternal glory.

God shapes the “predestined/called” as the redeemed humanity that resembles His Son through the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process.

•This process that makes the Believer progressively more holy and Christ-like: “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom). [Isa. 61:1, 2.]

•We are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.” ‭‭2 Cor‬ ‭3‬:‭17‬-‭18‬ ‭AMPC‬‬

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” ‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

Photo Credit Unknown

From: “Not ashamed of Jesus Christ” (FB)

[class1akids]

Despite the bitter and slightly sweet ending of the Todoroki family, can we just appreciate how sweet Shoto is towards Toya. Why do you think he holds no more animosity towards Toya? Also do you think Toya has always been Enji's favorite? I feel he never favored any of his kids because he ghosted Shoto too.

I don't like sanctification of Shouto, because that feels like a cop-out from having to progress a complex situation or acknowledge the depth of the hurt he suffered.

I don't know if he doesn't hold any kind of anger / resentment tbh. If anything, I think Shouto is probably angry about Touya attacking and scarring his friends (Jirou and Tokoyami), about Bakugou's kidnapping, about Touya sending Ending to their home. There is a lot to be angry about.

The same way that Shouto doesn't seem to have forgiven Endeavor either, because the scale of the damage is too much.

His progress is more about being able to process those very difficult and negative emotions and not have them guide his actions. It enables him to reach out with empathy even towards those who hurt him.

And with Touya, he's able to understand his spiral probably better than anyone, given how he himself went through similar spiral.

[hiswordsarekisses]

“Of the many that are called to the wedding feast, if you set aside all those as unchosen that make light of it, and avowedly prefer other things before it. . .

If then you set aside all that make a profession of religion, but the temper of whose spirits and the tenour of whose conversation are a constant contradiction to it. . .

If you set aside all the profane, and all the hypocritical, you will find that they are few, very few, that are chosen.

Many are called to the wedding feast, but few chosen to the wedding garment.

That is, to salvation, by sanctification of the Spirit.

This is the strait gate, and narrow way, which few find.”

(Matthew Henry Commentary)

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭13‬-‭14‬

"If any one will observe the populous congregations, and inquire how many there are who live a better kind of life. . .

And are being transformed in the renewing of their mind. . .

Who are progressively struggling against self and surrendering daily to be changed. . .

And how many who are conformed to this world.

And in another place it has been said, ’Many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.’ (Luk 13:24)

And’Strive earnestly to enter in by the narrow gate; for few there be that find it.” (Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14)

(I. Williams)

“A few of those that are outwardly called, are inwardly and effectually called by the powerful grace of God, out of darkness into marvellous light.

Into the grace and liberty of the Gospel.

Into communion with Christ, and to the obtaining his kingdom and glory.

According to the eternal purpose of God.”

(John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible)

“This is another of our Lord's terse and pregnant sayings, carrying with it a supernatural operation on the will - to secure its consent.

It can only mean here the "invited."

And so the sense is, Many receive the invitations of the Gospel whom have never submitted to sanctification and who have not received the love of the truth.” (2Thessalonians 2:13)

(James Faucette)

[laviechristcentered]

God is at peace with us...

Hey Friends, I hope this message finds you well.

Today, I want to write about the security of salvation because if there’s one thing I’ve always been kind of insecure about in my christian life, it was my salvation.

It is only recently that I began to feel secure and at peace with the certainty of it. Why? Because for some reason I couldn’t reconcile the idea of me being saved with the fact that I’m still a sinner stuck in an habitual sin.

If you are in that situation, then you probably understand me and this post is for you. If not, I’m happy for you that you never felt doubt about your salvation.

The truth is, I forgot about God’s grace. I forgot that my salvation doesn’t depend on me, but on Him only. I forgot that my salvation is a unilateral action of God and that I take no part in it. Even the fact that I believe in His one and only son Jesus Christ, is a gift from Him because of His grace for me.

We know that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ : we are reconciled with God through Faith in Jesus. Our Faith in Jesus makes us redeemed children of God, and not His enemies anymore. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is perfect and has the power to free us from any and every sin.

Also, Jesus’ ministry didn’t stop after His resurrection : he sits at the right hand of God, and intercedes for us ⇒ He is the Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Finally let’s not forget the work of the Holy Spirit who convicts and encourages us to walk in obedience to God. He is our guide in our journey through sanctification.

Knowing all of that and still doubting our salvation, is doubting the Power of the cross. It is a sin.

Yes, we are not perfect, and we’ll never be perfect; I would say we are God’s work in progress. Stand firm in faith for the Lord is working on you and me for the glory of His kingdom.

God Bless you and have a great day.

[greenqueenhightower]

not the show’s own producers saying about Larys that “he’s the only one who listens to [Alicent] properly” or “the only one who sees her truly” and the one “WHO SEES WHAT SHE’S GOING TO BE” like excuse you?! how is that an objective personification and description of the characters? Why are they framing Alicent’s character progression as a monster-in-the-making?

I literally hate watching “Inside the Episode” because of the glorification and sanctification of Rhaenyra, the producers’ exonerating views towards team black, their comments about Alicent, and the fact that Olivia Cooke doesn’t get to talk about her character. Thank goodness Emma D’Arcy was there and we heard some truths.

[yieldfruit]

Although all believers are subject to many failings and can fall before the smallest temptation, their determination to continue in the faith and their gradual and progressive sanctification are great evidences of salvation and provide a solid ground for assurance.

Paul Washer

[religious-extremist]

The Steps of Temptation by St. Theophan the Recluse

Be strong. The enemy fights you. But this does not mean that you are sinful. Nor should his attacks shake you or confuse you. Temptations arise from the envy of the enemy and return to his head. Not only are you not responsible for it, but provided you struggle you will profit from it.

Each time you repulse an attack of the enemy you secure a victory and you gratify God. It is not possible to avoid the annoying attacks of the enemy. Our life is formed in such a way. But this does not lead to the loss of the fighter, but rather to his salvation. As a consequence of the fall of the first created humans the passions nestle in us.

In order to get rid of them we must firstly realize their existence. And in order that we realize their existence they must manifest themselves, they must come out of their hiding. Temptations play their part in this and so, without the enemy’s intention, they help in our cleansing and sanctification.

Thus the temptations force the evil that is hiding in us to come to the surface. The temptations arise from the flesh, the world and the devil.

Usually it progresses in these stages:

1. A bad thought appears in the mind or one of the senses is attacked. For example the eyes see an indecent picture. This is the start of the temptation. At this stage there is no sin or guilt because we are still at the attacking phase or at the unintentional attack by the enemy. If you react immediately and you turn to the Lord you have won a crown. But if you do not object and you start occupying yourself with the thought or the picture, this is not a good sign. Your soul wavered.

Despite all these so far there is no sin. But you took a step towards it. There are persistent indecent thoughts, thoughts that do not disappear easily or they return. Do not be weary of this. It is the work of the enemy. If every time you show your immediate dislike towards them and you go to the Lord frequently you are in a good spiritual condition.

So do indecent thoughts come in you? Drive them away. Do they persist? You also persist in driving them away. The ancient fathers did the same thing. They, indeed, taught that the sooner one drives away the first bad thoughts the quicker he is freed from the war of the enemy. But he who delays and starts to occupy himself with the temptation then he will make the second step to the fall.

2. The preoccupation with the temptation or the discussion with it is the second phase. Sin is still not occurring, but its beginning is created.

3. The third phase is a satisfaction or pleasure which arises from the prolongation of the temptation. At this stage we might have not committed the sin, but we are definitely in an unclean situation. Indeed it happens that the experience of pleasure arises without our will taking active part.

4. The fourth step towards sin is the bending of our will even if we have not eventually given our approval. At this point there is guilt because we cannot always be masters of our feelings, but we can be masters of our will. As yet we have not practiced sin, but we are at its threshold.

5. The fifth phase is the consent to sin or the decision by a person to sin. Here we definitely have a sin but an internal sin.

6. After this follows the final stage, that is to say the commitment of sin. Here we have the complete fall, the destruction of the soul, the deprivation of the Divine Grace, the submission to the authority of the enemy.

Regarding the blasphemous thought, or the blasphemous thoughts of disbelief which are directed against the Holy Communion you should know that they come from the enemy. The Lord Himself instituted the mystery of the Divine Eucharist saying: “This is my body” and “This is my blood”. In addition He gave the commandment “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22. 19). The Apostles started to perform this holy Mystery and since then this act of the Church has not stopped nor would it stop until the end of time.

Joy is not something external to ourselves but it comes from the depths of our being. For us Christians joy arises from the expectation and the life in the wealth that emanate from the divine incarnation and it increases with our persistence in the state of our adoption by God.

The carnal sin constitutes a denial of our Christian qualities. And nothing suppresses the spiritual joy as much as this sin, although the enemy continually whispers to us that it is natural and insignificant.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

by Brad Hambrick

Sanctification may come across as a fancy theological word. Don’t be intimidated. Simply put, sanctification is the process of becoming more like Jesus. When we embrace the gospel, God erases our sin debt, and we gain the assurance of eternity with God in heaven. That is justification. It occurs in a moment. For the rest of our earthly life, we experience progressive sanctification. It happens with ebbs and flows and in new ways during each season of life.

As we think about sanctification in light of a journey through suffering, one of the challenges for us is that we usually only think of sanctification in terms of purification from sin. Removing sin from our lives is a vital part of sanctification. We do want to see the desires of our hearts that make sin enticing shrink. The metaphor of pruning is often used for this aspect of sanctification…

[os-eclipses-tamen-son-yuri]

I like how in Disco Elysium the unofficial motto of the Moralintern is : "For a moment, there was hope"

Not, there can be hope, or there will be hope: was, as in a past that has already ended and cannot be brought back.

It's somewhat sad, it's defeatist, romantic, it's final.

The Moralintern has no real intention of bringing any hope back, the lyricism and poetry of its symbols and hymns nothing more than the sanctification of values that are as good as sand castles in the middle of a windy day.

"Why should you have hope? We are here, we are promising change, progress, you won't see it in your lifetime, its small but believe in us. Leave it to us, we are worried too, we care about these things. Dont you worry your little heads. Change will come, we will bring it, there is no need to hope for it, you don't need to bring it".

That's the Moralintern.

This is not a bug, this is its intended feature.

Hoping for change can be dangerous, hope can be powerful.

You can't change anything on hope alone, but you can change nothing without it.

Without hope, it is them who have control of change.

You can't stop the course of a river, it will always find a way to change direction.

But you can dry out its spring.

[pastorkevinc]

What Every Christian Should Remember about Jeffrey Epstein and His Story

What Every Christian Should Remember about Jeffrey Epstein and His Story Hundreds of pages of documents begin to be released related to Jeffrey Epstein and those who were named in the court filings from a defamation lawsuit brought against Ghislaine Maxwell by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre in 2015, after she branded her a liar over her claims that she was sexually abused as a minor. Over the…

[blvck-coffee-dad]

Stop posting porn

- papist weirdo

Y'know, I was just thinking about this today. I post significantly (SIGNIFICANTLY) less than I once did. I chalk that up to progressive holiness. Everyone has their vices, though. No one reaches full sanctification on earth.

❤️, fucking protestant heathen

[cielbleuazur59]

Daily Devotional | Our Daily Bread | Sanctification Is A Progressive Wor...

[3rdeyeblaque]

Today we venerate Ancestor Bishop C.H. Mason on his 157th birthday 🎉

Bishop C.H. Mason founded the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), THE largest Black American pentecostal church in the U.S. In doing so, he preserved and cultivated the religious culturesof our Afrikan ancestors while fighting for ourreligious freedom of expression and integration in the church house.

Brother Mason born to former slaves in Shelby County, TN. Due to his family's impoverished status, young Mason worked as a sharecropper and did not receive a formal education. Yet he still learned how to read and write. As a child, Mason was greatly influenced by the religion of his parents and other former slaves. He admired their prayer rituals, spontaneous singing, & shouting. At age 12, he embraced the Afro-Baptist faith and was later baptized in his older brother’s church.

In 1895, Brother Mason met Charles Price Jones, a popular Baptist preacher from Mississippi. Mason and Jones started preaching the doctrine of holiness and sanctification together in local Baptist churches, which led to their expulsion from the Baptist & Methodist churches. They, and others, established the Church of God and Church of Christ. Their movement consisted of both Black and White folk were grossly dissatisfied with mainstream denominations. From COGIC’s inception, Brother Mason ordained and allowed whites to join his denomination. He dreamed of an integrated church and believed that all races were entitled to equal rights and authority therein. Their principal belief was that being sanctified was an internal experience that resulted in external changes within individuals & their communities. They taught their followers to seek higher spiritual development and encouraged them to rekindle the dynamism of "slave religion".

In 1897, Brother Mason established St. Paul COGIC in an old cotton gin located in Lexington, Mississippi. He then started using the name “Church of God in Christ”, because, "God told him that if he used that name it would cause people to follow him". By 1904, Brother Mason established pastoring 4 churches: St. Paul in Lexington, Saints Home and Dyson Street in Memphis, and a COGIC church in Conway, AR.

In 1907, he attended an interracial service in Los Angeles, CA. After which, he declared that he'd experienced a spiritual metamorphosis and that he now believed in speaking in tongues. This is what spurred Jones and others to excommunicate him from their Holiness association. This ultimately led to Brother Mason and Jones’s 12yr partnership ending over theological differences, rights to church properties, ecclesiastical power, and the COGIC name itself. After 3 years of legal battles, in 1911, Mason’s legal victories catapulted him into historical prominence and placed COGIC in the Mid-South’s religious pantheon.

Brother Mason was also an outspoken conscientious objector. He was arrested in 1918 and probed by the FBI for teaching pacifism and encouraging Brothas to refuse being drafted into WW I and II.

By the early 20th century, the Black Christian middle class frowned upon any & everything associated with Mother Africa. They believed shouting, dancing, & especially speaking in tongues, were shameful & hindered Black progress. Defiantly, Brother bMason encouraged his followers to embrace their Afrikan heritage and gave them space to express themselves in church. He allowed the working classes to dance shout, testify, speak in tongues, string musical instruments, & sing gospel. His preservation of the Afrikan heritage, freedom of religious expression, & leadership spearheaded COGIC’s astronomical growth.

In the 1920s, COGIC had 30K members &, as a result of the Great Migration, 68.7% percent worshiped in urban cities. By the 1930s, COGIC was an urban phenomenon. During the Great Depression, Brother Mason’s churches fed and clothed poor Whites and Black Peoples across Memphis

Today, it has an estimated 6.5 million members and 12,000 congregations. COGIC is the largest African American denomination in the United States, with eight million members worldwide.

We pour libations & give him💐 today as we celebrate him for his passion & commitment to the preservation & cultivation of our Central/West Afrikan cosmologies, cultures, & belief systems via our religious of expression.

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

Offering suggestions: COGIC bible/prayer offerings, water libations, gospel songs of praise/dance

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#hoodooheritage #ATR #ATRs #hoodootradition #TheHoodooCalendar #ancestors #veneration #theblackchurch #ancestorveneration #bishopchmason #cogic #cogicchurch #og #deepsouth

[hiswordsarekisses]

Some people seem to think that we first must repent and then we will encounter the Lord, but it’s actually the other way around: we first encounter the Savior and then we learn the meaning of repentance. Thus Paul’s eyes were opened after he was first blinded by the light (Acts 9:3-6). Likewise, it is only after we have met the Lord that we begin to understand our own blindness of heart, but as learn to see more clearly, we encounter more and more of his love (Rom. 5:20). As Yeshua said, “My yoke is pleasant (χρηστὸς) and my burden is light (Matt. 11:30). Teshuvah, then, is a progressive and ongoing process of awakening, as we learn to love God and to accept ourselves, despite our struggle with sin. As St. Anselm once prayed: “O Lord, grant us grace to desire thee with all our hearts, that so desiring, we may seek and find thee, and so finding thee, may love thee, and loving thee may hate those things from which you have redeemed us.” Amen.

We encounter the Lord “just as we are,” by means of his gracious intervention in our lives, and so we continue to live by faith in God’s grace (indeed, what we call “sanctification” is often just “catching up” with the miracle of his revelation to us). And we always come to God “just as we are,” since we are never more than what we are in the truth: χάριτι δὲ θεοῦ εἰμι ὅ εἰμι- “by the grace of God I am what I am,” as Paul said. “For all things come from You, and from your hand we give back to you” (1 Chron. 29:14). Therefore the Spirit says, “Come unto me just as you are, or you may never come at all....” [Hebrew for Christians]

[wisdomfish]

ON GOOD STANDING

As fallen creatures, even though redeemed in Christ, people simply cannot perfectly and consistently emulate the moral example of Jesus Christ (though God motivates and encourages a person’s attempt).

Believers are called and commanded to grow in godliness and maturity, but behavioral injunctions should take into account that Christians still struggle with a sin nature even after receiving salvation.

At times Christians confuse and overestimate their “righteous” abilities. They then misrepresent Christianity as a religion of “self-help” (clean up your act through rigid discipline), rather than as a religion of true “divine rescue” (Jesus Christ has rescued believers from the penalty of their sins through his life, death, and resurrection).

Christianity is a strongly ethical faith. This does not, however, mean that Christianity is about a set of rules, in which Christians mechanically conform to a set of instructions [you can find that, if you so desire, in the cults such as Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses; the other monotheistic religions Judaism or Islam, and most starkly in the practices of Eastern religions]. Rather, Christianity is about a set of values which arises from being redeemed. [Alister E. McGrath]

Christians don’t achieve redemption or good standing with God by “being moral.”

Rather, because they have been redeemed (forgiven and reconciled to God) by God’s grace through faith in Christ, they desire and strive to conform their [new, 2 Cor. 5:17] lives to divinely revealed moral values (Eph. 2:8-10; Titus 3:5-7).

Grace, the unmerited favor of God, is the source and cause of believers’ salvation and of their progress in sanctification.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.” Titus 2:11-14

~ Kenneth Samples