The group then conducted the missionary to the village cemetery and showed him the grave of a former Christian medical missionary who had lived and served in the village for several years before his death.

The goal of sanctification is to make God's children more Christ-like. Can you think of a more wonderful testimony to receive from the people you live and work with than this medical missionary received? Why not?

Contrast the effects of this man's testimony with that found in the next story.

"Don't talk to me about religion!" an electrician exclaimed, when a new worker on his crew approached the subject during lunch.

"I'll tell you why, too!" he continued, his voice rising. "Ten years ago I worked with a construction crew that had four religious guys on it, including the boss. All of them went to a real strict church, twice every Sunday. They never missed. Do you know what? I never worked with a crew where there was more rough talk and foul language than that group! That crew was so rude toward others and crude in behavior that I finally had to quit. Those church guys were the worst ones! So that's it - no religious talk around here!"

While this electrician was wrong in judging all Christian people by the four with whom he had bad experiences, yet his reaction teaches us something about the power of testimony and example.

What type of testimony from your example is retained by your friends and the people with whom you associate? Is it positive negative, or neither - halting in a lukewarm way between both?

Good works are necessary and important fruits of sanctification. Has sanctification taken place in your past - in regeneration? Is sanctification happening presently in your life - in the mortification of your sinful nature and the quickening of a holy nature with its corresponding good works? Only in the lives of such will sanctification take place in the future - in eternal, perfect glorification in heaven.