Sanctified by His ____?_____

I'm not very eloquent, and that makes me wonder why God wants me to be a teacher. I'll do my best, but my fumbling attempts get to be a little exasperating.

I tried to open class with the Oldheads by driving home an important point, but I think it got lost in translation. Plus, they all looked a little sleepy at the start, which didn't help matters.

I pointed out to them that, throughout the 10 weeks of studying Isaiah thus far, neither Carl or I had ever given them an instruction on how to live. Sure, there's been a little application here or there, but not a single, "Go and do this" or "Go and do that." Instead, we're learning about God and his character, and how he worked in the lives of the Israelites.

For some people, this is enough to drive them crazy. "But what's all this have to do with ME? How does it help me live my life, work at my job, interact with my family and neighbors? Isn't Christianity about being a better person? And isn't church about learning how to do that?" We grow impatient with studies like these, and that's undoubtedly one reason why we avoid the Old Testament so much of the time.

I tried telling them that expanding one's view of God--what a study of Isaiah will ultimately do--will have direct implications on how one lives, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

It's not about teaching what to do and what not to do, and it's not about teaching how to do those things and how to avoid the other things. No, it's about who God is and what he's doing.

In John 17:17, Christ says that we will be sanctified, or made holy, by his truth. He doesn't say we'll improve by following his instructions, no, but rather only by getting to know him and his truth.

We get this wrong a lot of times.

And it's admittedly a hard thing to comprehend, a hard thing for our flesh and strong wills to understand and try out. We'd prefer to get the instructions, grit our teeth, and work hard in our self-sufficiency until we get the job done. And if you're anything like me, that won't last too long before you realize how often you continually fail. But if instead, you start encountering God in all his glory, and those truths start echoing in your mind throughout the week as they've been doing with me, it's hard not to live a little bit differently! You'll start seeing things with an eternal perspective, which begins to prioritize everything in the right order. With a proper perspective of who you are before the eternal, sovereign Lord, things begin to change.

And alas, even now I think I'm failing to make this rather clear. Hmpf.