Life is a Sandwich

For hen you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sinand have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternallife in Christ Jesus our Lord.- Romans 6:20-23 ESV

Yesterday evening was the start of Passover (Feast of Unleavened Bread) GOD broughtHis children out of 430 years of bondage. (Exodus 12)They called it the Feast of Unleavened Bread because the Hebrew people had to leavequickly, GOD told them to take bread without yeast so it would last in the desert.There were three Feasts that the Lord told us to keep; Feast of Unleavened Bread,Feast of Harvest, Feast of Ingathering. (Exodus 23:14ff)GOD told us that these were to be kept for generations to come. I would encourageyou to take a moment and read the First Passover. (Exodus 11-13) The Passover hasa huge significance with Jesus and His death.

Greetings!
Right now Subway has $5.00 footlong Subway sandwiches. I do not know about you, but there is nothing like a Subway sandwich. You know the kind I am talking about,one that has the meats and all the fixins piled on. YUMMY!
Picture in your mind that sandwich, just loaded with all the meat and fixins. Now,try to imagine the same sandwich with just one measly slice of meat, with maybe a little lettuce. If you were to look at that sandwich all you would see where thetwo peices of bread. I can imagine that it would taste very plain and bland. I donot know about you, but the first sandwich sounds much better.
Our Christian lives are the same way. Let me explain. There are three words that for me were hard to understand, but the analogy of the sandwich helped me to makesense of it. Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. In this devotionalI want to take a look at the meat; your sanctification. But, to understand thesandwichyou need to know what the other two words mean.
Justification is when you became a Christian, it is an instant act where GOD viewsour sins as being forgiven and Jesus righteousness belongs to us, in other words,because of what Jesus did on the cross, GOD declares us righteous in His sight.Glorification is the final step of the redemption process. When Christ returns, raises the bodies of all the believers that have died and reunites them with theirsouls, and changes all the bodies of the believers that are still alive. We all will have perfect, glorified bodies like Christ.
These are big words, but we should all understand what they mean, because they havea huge effect on us. The justification and glorification make up the bread of oursandwich. Sanctification makes up the meat, the fixins, the good stuff. The firsttwo are already done, if you are a believer in Jesus and accepted Him as you savior,there is nothing you can to do to improve on them, they are yours..... but anctificationis different.
Sanctification is the daily process that frees us from sin and makes us more likeChrist in our daily life. It is HARD word. Let me give you an example of what happenedin my life.
I have been praying to GOD to show me the areas of my life that I need to improve.The Holy Spirit laid something on my heart. I always strive to be a good spiritualleader of our house. I try and raise our son that would please GOD. Our son has become very busy with sports, we sometimes eat dinner at different times as he comeshome late. Kim and I would eat earlier, and Tyler would eat later..... yes, in frontof the TV. Soon we found all of ourselves in front of the TV eating dinner and not talking
The Holy Spirit laid on my heart to have dinner around the table as a family again,and for me to talk about Jesus, even have a devotional afterwards. Here is the hardwork. It is much easier to eat in front of the TV. I do not have to put forth anyeffort, do not have to talk, just eat. But, I knew that it came from Jesus, so itwas going to happen. The night that I said to the family lets eat at the table, my son looked at me like I had a third eye. It was easier for him to watch TV andnot engage us either. Plus, right before our first night that we would gathered together at the table, satan was throwing everything he could at me. My flesh didnot want too. I can identify with Jesus when he told Peter, the spirit is willing,but the flesh is weak.
If you are a believer, sanctification should be a daily process. You might be asking,how do I start this process? It is a good question. The best thing you can do is to pray and ask GOD to show you the areas that He would like to see you work on.If you are sincere, the Holy Spirit will convict you. But, her lies the hard work,Jesus does not wave a magic wand and make you better in that area. He is going togive you an opportunity to improve in that area. This is what I mean by hard work.Be ready for resistance from enemy, he does not want to see you improve or becomemore Christ like. Ask Jesus for strength.
I can tell you that as you succeed, you will be blessed. Even though that first family dinner was rough, our son has been more open with us. In fact he even commentedthat he enjoyed talking with us about the Bible. I hope that the "Sandwich" analogyhelped make more sense of those big words. I know it did for me.
So, what does your sandwich look like? Is it a wimpy looking sandwich with littlemeat? Or is it a yummy sandwich bursting with meat and all the fixins? This is reallymaking me hungry. :) Have a Blessed Week! - Jim Gods411