1 Corinthians 1:2 (NLT) – “I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, [a] to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, [b] just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.”

I am never more aware or humbled by God’s love than when I realize I have an appointment with Him.

A while back I was reading one of my go to devotionals written by In Touch Ministries with Charles Stanley. A morning devotional encourages me to stay rooted in God’s word and instills growth, challenge and passion to my faith and Christian walk. But if I’m really honest, instead of sitting at a table with my Bible and devotion open studying over God’s word for the day, I’m relaxing in an easy chair, sipping hot coffee, reading the devotion from my phone. But you know what; God doesn’t care how I am sitting, what I’m wearing or even if I’m fully awake. If He wants my attention He has every intention of getting it.

I’m not sure about you, but when the opening sentence to a devotion reads “Many Christians are experiencing an identity crisis”, I’m pretty sure the word “many” includes me. He goes on to say, “They know they’re saved, but they don’t really know what to think about themselves.”

To give credence to this thought, the writer gauged a test with this question, “Do you consider yourself a sinner saved by grace, or a saint who occasionally sins?”…And this is where I put down my coffee, sit up a little straighter and give God my full attention. Sometimes God shows me something that He needs me to take seriously because in His plan to grow and empower me He also has a plan to use me in a whole different way.

Although Charles Stanley goes on to say both answers are correct – and I must say I was relieved there wasn’t a chance to answer the question wrong – I knew that God was specifically speaking to my heart about this. Charles Stanley went on to say “The first statement dwells on your past identity, whereas the second focuses on the Lord’s perception of you.”

So if both statements are correct, why would God make such a point of stirring my soul about this?   I think for me, it is because it is easy for me to believe that I am a sinner saved by grace. But a saint ….well that is a stretch. When I would read in the Bible the word saint in reference to Christians it is one of those things that I would just skim over as not really relevant to me. (Yikes…that sounds really bad now that I actually said it out loud.) God knows what I leave out of the equation, and it matters. God wants me to be passionate about all of His Word, because with passion comes purpose.

When I confessed my need for a Savior, in God’s great mercy and grace He provided the only means for turning a sinner into a saint: the Lord Jesus Christ who came to “give His life as a ransom for many”. Matthew 20:28

Christine Caine is another person that I listen to on a regular basis. She said something about Jesus that I never really put together before with as much emphasis as she did. The final thing Jesus did was to make a “pit stop” on earth.

“After He was crucified on the cross, after He was separated from the Father and died for three days, after He rose again from the dead, instead of bypassing everything and going straight to Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, He made a pit stop on earth and walked among us. And His last command to us while on earth was to make disciples of all men.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” Matthew 28:19-20