Grrrrrrrawwwwwgh

If you're wondering about that title, as I'm sure you are, that's because it's thundering here, and that's the sound that thunder makes.
It's also raining, and I DO love the rain.
Today (well rather yesterday, as today is already tomorrow, which is Monday,) Pastor Chad preached about two things in one sermon.  Being sanctified, and being a witness.  He did both of these at the same time.  Preached about them I mean.  And did them too, I'm sure.
If you need a definition of "sanctification" like I did, I'll give you the one that my pastor's wife gave to me: "Sanctification is when you take a plain white unwritten on piece of paper, and you sign you name at the bottom before anything is written on it, and then after you sign it, God will write down bit by bit what he wants you to do.  And you, as a sanctified Christian will do what God asked of you."
Which, it now makes more sense when people are saying that you need to be sanctified holy, and set apart.  It means that you make an agreement to do what God asks, before he asks it, because you know he won't give you more than you can bear.
Pastor Chad said that we're a walking sermon, or something to that affect, which the way I understood it means that people are watching us.  Watching our every move.
People who haven't stepped inside a church in ten years know the Bible, and they know when we're being hypocrites, and they know when we're saying one thing, and living another.
We need to practice what we preach.  And we need to be examples.  I believe that that's how he said it.
And another sermon that I heard a little less than a year ago was about light.  We're the light of where ever we are.
If we're at the mall, we're the light, we should shine for Jesus.  If we're at church we should shine for Jesus.  If we're buying groceries we should be the light.
DON'T HIDE YOUR LIGHT!
God lit your candle for a reason, he has someone he wants you to touch with your light!
He also brought up a man who I don't remember, he knew he was someday going to have to go through the fire, literally, he was burned at the stake for either being a Christian or preaching, I don't remember which, but he was sitting in front of a candle, holding his hand over it, and his friends saw him through the window, and said, "What in the world are you doing?!" (paraphrasing just so you know) and he said, "I'm going to have to go through the fire, and I don't want to disappoint my God."
He was strengthening himself, by God's help, so he wouldn't back down when he was called before the people and burned.
Pastor Chad also brought up Stephen (no not my Uncle Stephen, as awesome as he is, he's not as awesome as the Stephen in the Bible, whom I think he was named after.)
Stephen was preaching, and after he was done, he was stoned for preaching.  And when he died, well, I just can't paraphrase this, it wouldn't work, this is what Acts 6:15 KJV (King James Version) says: "And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel."
Who knows how many people were saved because Stephen wasn't ashamed, because he was willing to die for what he believed in.
They're watching us, and they want to see if it really works.  They want to see if we're really happy, they want to see if we're really content, really at peace.
We're witnesses of everything we stand for, just by the way we act.
There's this poem, and I'll post that, then get out of your hair.
You Tell On Yourself
Author Unknown
You tell on yourself
By the friends you seek,
By the manner in which you speak;
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of every dollar or dime.

You tell what you are
By the things you wear,
By the spirit by which your burdens you bear;
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on your phonograph.

You can tell what you are
By the way you talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat;
By so simple a thing as what you eat,

By the books you choose from a well-defined shelf.
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.
So there is really not a particle of sense
In your efforts to keep up your false pretense

In short, I liked Pastor Chad's sermon, and realize that I'm not always practicing what I preach no matter how much I try.
Anyway, I'll be back later.  Maybe even later tonight (this morning, as it's 1:03, and it's still thundering, so I can't go to sleep.)
Katie :)