"Go therefore 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 that I have commanded you.” — Matthew 28:19-20
We are asking Jesus for one person from each parish to pray 5 decades of the Holy Rosary and the Divine Mercy Chaplet with us daily. Please pray that these people join us in spreading Divine Mercy. In addition if you feel lead by the Holy Spirit to join us; are blessed by this Apostolate and are able please consider giving a $1 a month to help us do works of mercy as a group. Individually we are limited, together we are unlimited in our potential. God bless, Todd
Jehovah-M'Kaddesh
Leviticus 20:7-8 says, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statues, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you (Jehovah-M'Kaddesh)".
Here God reveals himself to Israel for the first time as the God who sanctifies them. Sanctify means "to set apart, wholly keep clean; to appoint, consecrate, dedicate as holy and pure". Webster's defines sanctification as "...the state of growing in divine grace as a result of Christian commitment after baptism or conversion."
To walk in covenant with Him and to be able to have that special relationship with Him, God shows Israel how to keep His statues of the covenant. They must sanctify themselves and be holy as God is holy. Also, knowing that they cannot on their own do this, He provides a way. The way is through His grace. He is the God who sanctifies them.
In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." In John 17:17-20, Jesus prays to the Father, "Sanctify them through thy truth. As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word."
Jesus reveals himself as the one who sanctifies His disciples through the truth. He is the truth, the Word of God. As His disciples, we are sanctified by the sacrifice He made for us and our belief in Him. In turn, He sends us as His representatives to the world to declare His truth to the rest of mankind. That truth is that God now has peace with us through His son, Jesus, and that He wants all people in His family.
The key to staying in that relationship with Him is sanctification. To be set apart as holy and belonging to God places us in a position to receive the blessings of the covenant that we read about earlier. This covenant is a covenant of spiritual and physical blessings.
God has already given us these blessings so that we may be able to concentrate on taking His message of deliverance and peace to the rest of the world. Jesus, thus as high priest of our covenant, administers His will and gives us the blessings we need to do His work in the world. Because we are His body, He will clothe us, feed us, give us health, happiness and pleasure and joy.
Thus to receive those blessings, He keeps us clean and set apart as His holy people. We have been given the mission of taking the gospel to everyone and He has already equipped us and made available to us all that we will need to do it.
So how does His truth sanctify us? Since Jesus is the truth and because we are sanctified by truth, we are sanctified by His sacrifice. Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:17-21, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, He is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
Romans 12:1-2 says, "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." In other words, let us sanctify ourselves by the renewing of our minds to think like God thinks and be in agreement with Him on all things.
Thus, if God says we have been blessed with all blessings, we should agree with Him and expect those blessings to come into our lives. It gives God pleasure to prosper us so that we may spread the news of His goodness to everyone! Ephesians 1:3-4 states, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."
God has blessed us with all blessings, chosen us, made us holy and without blame before Him in agape, covenant love. The goodness of our Jehovah-M'Kaddesh is beyond our understanding. I hope that by now you can see the significance of what He has done for us and that the real blessing that is permanent comes from a God who desires a relationship with us. Who gladly because of His love for us will grant us the desires of our hearts if we stay sanctified with Him.
Psalms 37:3-5 shows us this truth. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass."
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