Author: ChristianHolinessDaily

Putting Down the Rock

June 28, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

A heavy, late-winter snow covered the ground, one of those that are wet, accumulate quickly, and disappear nearly as quickly. My older brothers and I built snow forts and stockpiled snowballs for an all-out war. Not once did it occur to me whose side I would be on. Jerry took the high ground above the cellar. David piled a mound of snow near the sistern. I helped both make snowballs, not knowing that I would be the target of both. Because the snow was so wet, the snowballs were dense and heavy as baseballs.

I fought back but to no avail. If I ran into the backyard, Jerry pelted me in the head. If I ran into the front yard, David bombarded me, but much gentler. Eventually, I ran inside.

Childhood memories like these are precious, but I am reminded of the Bible story of the woman caught in adultery. When the Pharisees brought her to Jesus, they asked Him to sentence her to death by stoning. This incident is found in the 8th chapter of the gospel of John if you want to read it. The only thing I can think right now is how much those rocks would have hurt, given how much the snowballs hurt.

If you are familiar with this incident in the life of Jesus, then you know that Jesus rescued the woman by challenging the Pharisees. “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

This week here at Christian Holiness Daily, we begin studying holiness and sanctification, two sides of the same coin, both of which are widely misunderstood.

Holiness is loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit that enables believers to love God in such a manner. One result of loving God so fervently is that we learn to love other people in the same way that we love God, even our enemies. We’ll discuss that as well.

One of the misconceptions about holiness is the belief that those who are sanctified are suddenly sinless, or perfect, or believe that they are miraculously without sin. This is not true. I know of no true Christian who, if challenged by Jesus to cast the first stone, would have thrown the rock. I wouldn’t have. Living the life of holiness doesn’t mean you are perfect. It means that God has filled you so full of His love that there is no room for the love of sin.

We’ll talk more about the perfect love of Christ as we travel together on this journey. For now, let’s just say that I wish I had had the wisdom of Jesus during that late winter snowball fight. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten beaned upside the head.

Until next time, put down those rocks. None of us are without sin.

I Am Free

June 27, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

It seems that we – meaning the collective American Culture – are in love with horror stories. This is nothing new; America has been scaring herself since the days of Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving. In the 1970s, our love of being frightened reached new heights with a movie that left many teenagers (and adults, too) sleepless for nights. That movie, The Exorcist, seemed very real to this 12 year old boy. Today, more blood and gore appear on our TV screens and phones than ever previously dreamed of. Vampires and ghosts are passé. Zombies, pandemics, and alien invasions are fashionable. Why this fascination with the death and the dead?

While I am no psychologist, I would guess that much of the appeal comes from the fact that the horror genre is so black and white (even the post-apocalyptic stories that are so popular right now). Safety is generally found only within your camp. Danger is everywhere. And, no one may be trusted outside your own people. Evil is easily identifiable as an alien, a plague, or the walking dead.

I spent too much of my life as a dead man, at least as the Apostle Paul describes it. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV), he says this about life and death:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

So what does it mean that old things have passed away or died, and that all things have become new or reborn. Paul explains this further in Romans 6:4, when he says “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (NKJV).

First it means that we are no longer enslaved by sin. Think about the one temptation that you could never resist. Ponder the one thing that you could never overcome, no matter how bad it was for you, no matter how much harm it caused. When you are in Christ, it is no longer a temptation, because the old has passed away.

Remember how selfish you once were? How you were all about “ME,” “ME,” “ME?” When you surrender your life to Christ, you begin to care for Christ and others, and you care far less about yourself. All things become new. It is Christ for whom you live, and you express His perfect love in your love for others.

Yes, one day we will be transformed, in the twinkling of an eye, and we will receive a new body. Christ will create a new heaven and a new earth, but we don’t have to wait for that, for He has made in us a new heart – or He will, if you put your life in His hands.

After I became Christ’s, I was no longer dead, no longer a spiritual zombie, and sin no longer bound me. I was alive. I was free – I am free.

_________

Through you the blind will see

Through you the mute will sing
Through you the dead will rise
Through you all hearts will praise
Through you the darkness flees
Through you my heart screams
I am free
Yes, I am free

I AM FREE TO RUN
(I AM FREE TO RUN)
I AM FREE TO DANCE
(I AM FREE TO DANCE)
I AM FREE TO LIVE FOR YOU
(I AM FREE TO LIVE FOR YOU)
I AM FREE
(I AM FREE)
YES I AM FREE
(I AM FREE)

FURLER PETER ANDREW, EGAN, JONATHAN CHRISTIAN

Coming Home – Blog and Podcast

June 26, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

God clothes us in garments of salvation and robes of righteousness.

Father’s Day just passed, and I dutifully put a photo of my dad on my Facebook profile. My brother, a few years older than me, wrote a beautiful piece about being a dad. In it, he mentions that he wishes he could have better known our dad. I was 6 when Dad died, and David was about 9. Neither of us have many memories of him, but – even though I am the youngest – I seem to remember more about Dad than my brother. My memories of childhood are vivid, all the way back to the age of 18 months or 2 years of age. But, we both have a new father…

Dad died fifty years ago. Mom died thirty years ago. My stepdad was no role model at all. I am a mature white male who is supposed to have his act together, who is supposed to be living a life of privilege, but – in fact – I often find myself no more than a quivering child in an old man’s body (something that adults are not supposed to admit). Yet, we have another father, our Heavenly Father, and it is to Him that I look when I need guidance, when I am feeling like a child.

In Isaiah chapter 61, there is a brief picture of the Father-Child relationship that our Heavenly Father wishes to have with us. If one reads that chapter, it passes without notice. It is found in the midst of the Servant-Lord discourse, in the section called “The Year of the Lord’s Favor.” It is adjacent to the passage that Jesus pointed to in Luke 4 when he read from the scroll at Nazareth. Here is the passage, Luke 4: 16-19 NIV:

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him.He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

A little further on in Isaiah, below the section that Jesus read, the voice changes. It shifts from the voice of the Messiah – the Servant Lord – to the voice of God’s Chosen People. Let me call your attention to the first part of verse 10 from the NIV:

I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

This is, as I stated above, a beautiful picture of the relationship that God longs for with you, his child. It is the picture of a child who has come home, restored to his or her rightful place in the house of the Father. The same picture is painted in more detail in Luke 15, where Jesus tells the story of the Prodigal Son, perhaps with this section of Isaiah in mind when told it. Luke 15 expands on this picture in the homecoming of the youngest son. Here are the words of Jesus as found in verses 21-24 in the NIV:

“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Isn’t that an amazing picture, our Heavenly Father celebrating when the lost repent and come home? Clothing us with garments of salvation and arraying us in robes of His righteousness? It is incredible. He seals us with a ring on our finger indicating that we belong to His house. We were dead. Now we are alive. We were lost. Now we are found. And, all of heaven celebrates. What a wonderful picture.

Oh, for the wonderful love He has promised—
Promised for you and for me!
Though we have sinned, He has mercy and pardon—
Pardon for you and for me!

Come home! come home!
Ye who are weary, come home!
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!

– Will J. Thompson