Amanda's Christmas Party with the Nazarenes

Last night I went with Amanda to her work Christmas party. It was a nice time meeting new people and the food was pretty good.

One of the people that works at the Nazarene headquarters with her gave a devotional thought during the little program they had. He recounted a Sunday School class he attended one year while he was home from college on Christmas break. He said how he walked into the class thinking, “I am a college sophomore who has taken, and passed, Old Testament and New Testament from people with PhDs. What does this old woman think she is going to teach me about Christmas that I don’t already know?” He said the woman came in and said, “We all know about Christmas; where Jesus was born, what it meant, and so one. We all know how Jesus lived; what he taught and how he treated people. We all know that Jesus gave himself as a sacrifice for us.” She said, “We all know these things,” to which he replied in his mind, “Of course I know all these things! I have taken, and passed, Old Testament and New Testament from people with PhDs.” But then she said, “So I only have one question for you this morning… How much do you think God must love you to have done so much for you?” The speaker said that the question knifed right through all of his pride and arrogance. He told that as the tears began to roll down his cheeks that morning, he realized that if God really loved him that much then it was time to start doing everything he could to reciprocate that love. He said, “It was that Sunday morning sitting in Sunday School that I was sanctified because I had finally realized how much God loved me… even me!”

I wanted to stand up and shout! I have been in church before when people have talked about when they decided to be a Christian… but this is the first time I ever recall someone “bearing witness” to sanctification in a church meeting. I have heard a handful of people talk about the “work of sanctification” and the “process of sanctification” where they have gone on and on about theology of it all using this illustration and that illustration, but this guy told us about the when, why and how. I loved it!

We ended the little program by singing “Joy to the World” by Issac Watts. I was still being washed over by the speaker’s story when we got to the second verse of the old hymn:
No more let sins and sorrows grow,Nor thorns infest the ground;He comes to make His blessings flowFar as the curse is found,Far as the curse is found,Far as, far as, the curse is found.

And there it is. The same message, that we’ve sung every year… but at least for me, never really ever took notice of. We have freedom from sins and sorrow… they are conquered. The thorns are conquered because of the redemption that Christ’s Kingdom brings. We can now be filled with His blessings that are freely flowing. Sanctification is here!

It was in the company of so many Nazarene’s last night, that I became quite burdened from my church, the church God has called me to served… but also for the rest of God’s kingdom (Nazarenes and all). If we stop offering people the real life changing power of the message of sanctification… are really offering them anything at all? First the thought came to me: Aren’t we just wasting their time and taking their money? But then I realized: Aren’t we wasting God’s time? God’s birth? God’s life? God’s death and resurrection? And the Joy that He is offering the world to be free from sin and sorrow, and the opportunity to live fully redeemed?