Sanctification and do-overs

The sermon delivered on Sunday reminded me of one of my favorite definitions of sanctification: Sanctification is the work that God does in our life in order for me to live out practically what I am in position. My wife thought it was a bit freakish that I have a favorite definition of sanctification. I will consider my parenting a success if my boys have one. I say this a bit tongue in cheek but I do want them to pursue the deeper things of the faith and reject surface-level belief.

My youngest left quite an impression (positive) in his Sunday school class yesterday. One of the teacher who we have a fondness for, said that he was very polite, attentive, and often quite amusing. He is a good boy with a big personality. I just pray that he does not fall into the same traps I did when I was growing up. Especially in high school. I was such a jerk that I vowed that when I went to college that I would not repeat the same mistakes.

God got a hold of me and I didn’t. Thank God there are new days and “do-overs”. I need as many of those as I can get. I fear the youngest will need them as much as I have.

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 11, 2006 at 3:33 AM

    Mark,
    I happened upon your Blog. It gave me some inspiration. Thanks for putting your faith out there. If all we do, we do for Him and in Him, life is unbelievably fulfilling (no matter how tough the moments may be).

    I am hoping to pull together a class of 1988 reunion next year sometime.

    I see your mom every so often at Dr. Schamberger's office. She sure is proud of her children.

    Judging yourself a jerk in high school seems off to me. I thought you were a genuinely kind person. But as I can clearly see from your writing, that perception is just one part of your journey.

    God Bless.

    Please say hi to your brother Steve for me also.

    Merry Christmas.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 11, 2006 at 3:36 AM

    Dan,

    Thanks for your comment and encouragement. God has certainly been good to us and I would appreciate it if you kept me in mind for the reunion next year. Thanks, and Merry Christmas to you as well.

    Mark

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more