In Hezekiah’s day, “the priests had not sanctified themselves sufficiently” (II Chron. 30:3), and “the Levites were more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the priests” (II Chron. 29:34). Imagine that—men who wanted to serve the Lord, but who didn’t want to sanctify themselves; that is, they didn’t want to set themselves apart unto God (Ex. 13:2 cf. v. 12).

How about you? Are you long on wanting to serve the Lord but short on wanting to set yourself apart as holy unto Him? If so, you should know that “this is the will of God, even your sanctification” (I Thes. 4:3). The Lord gave Himself for the Church “that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:25,26). Why not determine to bury yourself in God’s Word, with the goal of learning how to be as pure as He died to make you now, in this life (Titus 2:14), and become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use” (II Tim. 2:21).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.