When my children were young I would often find extra work to supplement the income of my full-time job. One weekend, I agreed to clean leaves out of a yard, which led to a job the next weekend at the same location. I would be taking down a tree.
I had never cut down a tree by myself but I managed it pretty well. A few days later, the same people asked me to remove the tree stump. How hard could that be? I agreed.
I spent the next two or three weekends digging and cutting and chopping, until, at last, I was ready to tie the stump to a rope and pull it from the ground with my little Ford Courier pickup.
That did not go well. I tugged and pulled, smoking my tires, and straining my clutch, until something gave. It wasn’t the stump that I felt give. It was the rope snapping, the end of which whipped across the truck and shattered the back sliding window.
I never got that stump removed. Instead I cut it off at ground level. A few years later, shoots of green sporting fourth from that stump and began to grow. What the homeowners had thought dead was rooted so deep and so wide that it could not be removed, and it could not be killed.
Those who trust in God for their salvation are given a measure of faith that leads to discipline, compelling us to walk hand-in-hand with our Lord. Consequently, we are rooted in His love, built-up in His grace, and established in the faith. Once we understand that, we cannot help but give Him all thanks and all praise.
“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:6-7 ESV
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Holiness is, perhaps, the most misunderstood concept in Christianity. Anyone who has striven to follow the life of Christ can likely tell you that it is impossible to do. No one can match His love, His grace, or His compassion. For no one but Jesus is perfect. Once the believer is filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit, though, he or she is filled to the brim with the love of Christ, and desires nothing more than to please God and follow in Christ’s steps. The love of sin is gone. In its place is a love and passion for others. That is Christian Holiness. This is Christian Holiness Daily.