When I go to the circus, I expect to find something unusual and innovative. When I go to the circus, I expect to find something novel and entertaining. I do not want to find these in the church. When the church is built upon that which unusual, innovative, novel and entertaining, it is safe to assume that the church has ceased to be the church.

If the church is to be the faithful witness of Christ and the gospel, we are bound to repeat what has been said before. We must not buckle to the demands to offer what no other church offers or develop an innovative and novel message. We must resist the urge to entertain an audience.

Sanctification. A long word for a long process.

Once, a friend I was discipling asked me, “What does it mean to be sanctified?” I took a deep breath, and said, “Well . . . !”

You can talk about positional sanctification, that the moment you accept Christ as your Savior, you are sanctified: set apart in the family of God. You can go on to experiential sanctification, that is, growing as a Christian to become more and more like Christ in our daily lives. You can finish up with future sanctification, that wondrous moment when “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2, NAS).