Category: Daily Walk with Christ

The Poor You Will Have Always

May 14, 2019 by ChristianHolinessDaily

In just a couple of days, Jesus would be betrayed. He had been warning His closest disciples of His impending death, but it seems they did not – or did not want to – understand. Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, seemed to understand. She knew that if Jesus returned to Jerusalem, that He would be put to death. She also knew that He planned exactly that, to return to Jerusalem.

To honor Him, and to let Him know that she worshiped Him, she took a jar of pure nard – or spikenard – and anointed Him, first His head and then His feet, as was tradition.

What a waste. It would take most people a year’s wages to fill a jar that size with such an expensive perfume. Even if it was used for the benefit of one such as Jesus, it is a sin to waste it. It could have been sold and the money given to the poor. The disciples seemed to be in agreement on this matter.

Jesus, though, defended Mary. “Leave her alone,” He said. “She intended to save this for the day of my burial.”

Such a statement must have profoundly confused the disciples. Before they could ponder it, though, Jesus added a reference to the Law (Deuteronomy 15:11). “The poor, you will have always, but you will not always have me.”

There are many lessons to be found in this passage, but we will emphasize only two. First, Jesus knew that, because we are human and we comprise a physical body, intellect, and spirit (or – as I grew up hearing it: body, mind and soul), we must pay equal attention to our physical needs and our spiritual needs. There is, in other words, a time for worship and a time for ministry. There is a time to build our bodies, a time to build our minds, and a time to build our relationship with our Heavenly Father. This was Mary’s time to build her spirit through worship.

The second point is this: Jesus did not say, “The poor you will have always; there’s no fixing that problem, so instead of throwing money at it, we should instead build a cathedral that will outshine the ones that John the Baptist’s followers built out on the highway.” No, this passage is not an excuse to take money from the ministry column of the budget ministry and move it into the building fund (or elsewhere). Quite the opposite. The words of Jesus hearken back to a passage that commands the nation of Israel to take care of the poor and destitute in their nation. Because there are poor and will always be poor people in the land, we need to plan for them, to minister to them, to teach them, and love them, and help them as a part of an ongoing process. Ministering to the poor should be a part of our church budget.

Does ministering to the poor make one holy? No, but those who attempt to be holy as God is holy will help the poor.

Side Note: Perfume such as that which was made from the root of nard was used in many ways
in Jewish Antiquity. It was used in the making of incense Anointing oil was used for three main purposed ”

To Be Like Jesus

September 3, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

When a person accepts Christ as Savior and Lord they can expect that He will desire to live intimately with them, taking up residence in the heart, communicating and communing with every minute of the day. We are speaking of the things new believers can expect on Christian Holiness Daily.

Genesis takes a hard rap these days, as does much of the Old Testament. Much of it is perceived as mythology and a great deal is considered retelling of older tales. Few in this post-truth world consider Genesis as inspired by God. I do.

Genesis tells us that God created humans in His own image (Genesis 1:26-28). It tells us that we were given dominion over all animals, that we were to have dominion over the world. God created us to be His imagers. In other words, God created man so that we could represent Him, rule for Him, rule with Him, and model His behavior. We were not to be Gods; we were to be like God.

From the fall of mankind to the birth of Christ one rarely sees a human who is like God, for until Jesus was born, no one had been perfect. That is not to say that no one modeled a bit of His behavior or acted somewhat like God. Abraham was found worthy of fathering God’s children, but was hardly God-like. Isaiah spoke to and for God. Elijah and Elisha performed miraculous deeds through the power of God. David sought the heart of God. Moses, though, may be the only man short of Christ who best imaged God, but even he fell far short of God’s glory.

When Moses stretched out his hands, God moved, and when his hands rested, so did God. Moses was so like God they some readers – unfamiliar with the Bible or unfamiliar with theology – may be left wondering if God worked through Moses or if Mode worked through God.

Now, the term imager may be unfamiliar to many of you. I don’t know who coined the term but Dr. Michael Heiser does a great job explaining it in his book, The Unseen Realm. An imager of God is one who carries out the mission of “divine image-bearing.”

This commission, he continues, is given to men and women. It is what makes us unique from other created beings. There is something about us that makes us like God. It is not an incremental likeness; it was bestowed upon us at creation.

When Man fell in the Garden of Eden, he lost much of what it meant to carry the image of God. He lost all that was good and pure and holy. He lost life eternal. We lost the place of glory of ruling with Him.

Once we accept Jesus as our Savior part of what was lost is restored, in that God lives within our heart and works through us.

Here is an old hymn that many of you may remember.

Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,

Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart. – Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897.

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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.

Best of Christian Holiness Daily – Jungle Book

August 25, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

What does The Jungle Book have to do with Christian Holiness? Not much, honestly, but let me explain.

I was six years old when the original Disney flick was released and I loved it. So much did i love it that I begged my mom for the book. She brought home the Disney book based on the movie. I wanted Rudyard Kipling’s novel, but school had just started and she had spent every dime she had on clothes for three school-aged boys. So I was content for a while to relive the movie through Disney’s colorful book, and even tried to imitate the voices of Baloo, Bagheera, and Kaa, but especially Bagheera and Kaa because I knew them as Mr. French and Winnie the Pooh. (Look it up.)

I eventually got the Kipling book and was as enraptured by it as I was by the movie. I read that book a dozen times growing up. Fifty years later, though, it’s not Kipling’s book that stands out in my mind, it’s the movie. Here is why I make reference to it. The elephants. Remember? In the Disney movie Col. Hathi, the commanding elephant is a true leader, a benevolent and kind figure whom every other elephant follows.

No. I am not going to compare Col. Hathi with God. I will, however, contrast him with God. In rewatching, I realize that most of the time the elephants do not follow Col. Hathi, rather they follow the elephant that follows the elephant that follows the elephant that follows the colonel.

God never asks us to follow anyone else but His Son. Not once did Christ say, “Follow James. He is following me and I am making him a fisher of men.” He never said, “Follow John. He’s young but he’s wise in spite of his youth.”

Christ inevitably called – and still calls – every man, woman, and child to follow Him. He never calls us to follow a man who is following Him. Sure, we can learn from our pastors and teachers and Christian mentors, but we follow only Christ.

Jesus sits at the right hand of the father, and, if you have accepted Him as your Savior, His Spirit lives in your heart. He acts as our advocate. He teaches us, guides us and even prays for us when our broken spirits cannot utter a word. He preserved all things necessary for salvation and discipleship in His Holy Book, the Bible. All you have to do is follow His command when He calls you.

And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. – MARK 2:14

So… Hup two three four

Keep it up two three four

Company, sound off!
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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.