Category: Daily Walk with Christ

Oddballs

July 26, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

Christian 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.

______

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:9

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;

In what way are we to be peculiar? If you sell out to Jesus Christ, make Him Lord of your life, allow Him to fill you with His spirit and inhabit your very being, and make you holy, consecrated, and pure, you will be a peculiar person in this wicked world.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 –

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 15 What harmony is there between Christ and Belial[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said:

“I will live with them

and walk among them,

and I will be their God,

and they will be my people.”

17 Therefore,

“Come out from them

and be separate,

says the Lord.

Touch no unclean thing,

and I will receive you.”

18 And,

“I will be a Father to you,

and you will be my sons and daughters,

says the Lord Almighty.”

Are you a peculiar person? Are you a child of God? Have you made Jesus Christ you Lord and asked Him to fill you with His Spirit?

R•E•S•P•E•C•T

July 21, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

According to author Michael Munn in his biography, James Stewart: The Truth Behind The Legend, after the actor’s first western movie, many movie-watchers complained that the actor had broken movie tradition. The movie was not full of shootouts, renegade Indians, and larger than-life heroes. Stewart played a sheriff who vowed to never wear a gun, something previously unheard of in the land of Tom Mix and Hoot Gibson. The movie, Destry Rides Again (1939), paved the way for such classics as Shane (with a similar plot) and The Shootist, and such parodies as James Garner’s Support Your Local Sheriff.

Destry, may have been a role that Stewart relished, for both the character and Stewart stood up for right against seemingly insurmountable odds. In real life, Stewart’s foe was mobster Bugsy Siegel, who had helped transform Las Vegas from a sleepy western town into a gangsters paradise and then moved his operation to Hollywood. Stewart detested the mob and thought even less of Siegel. Several times the gangster and the movie star faced off – over a girl, over treatment of a mutual friend, or over general principles. Each time, Stewart stood up to the mob boss, and never showed fear. Friends Henry Fonda and Burgess Meredith urged him to stop making waves, afraid it would cost him his life, but Stewart never gave an inch to Siegel.

Eventually Siegel was gunned down by his own people and Stewart lived to a ripe old age. Stewart is quoted as saying that he believed Siegel respected him, even if he didn’t like him.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:12, Paul encourages Christians to be sanctified. One of the reasons for sanctification, he says, is

so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

The world may hate us. They may persecute us. They may make martyrs of us, but they should respect us.

Why should they respect us? Because we will stand strong – in all cases – in the power of God through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Because if Christ’s love shines through us, we even will represent all that is sacred, pure, and holy. We will stand apart from the world. We will be God’s children, and the world will know this because of our undying love for them. Yes, we will love even they who persecute us.

We will love them and not be afraid, for example do not fear the one who can take the life of the body. We fear the One who, after the body has died, has the power to throw the soul into hell. (cf. Luke 12:4-5).

Minding Our Own Business

July 20, 2018 by ChristianHolinessDaily

You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, Minding our own business is perhaps the toughest piece of advice Paul gives. The problem is, it’s human nature to act. We humans cannot sit back and do nothing; we must be proactive, hands-on, and feel in control, even if that is contrary to God’s will.

When Paul tells us that we “should mind your own business,” my reaction is to fume over his advice, say that he knows nothing of my circumstances, and blame others for not minding their own business first. If someone is in the wrong, I want to point it out. If someone makes a mistake, I wish to correct them. If something is out of my control, I want to gain control. If someone gossips, I want to slap them silent so I can repeat the gossip first. I am human… perhaps too human.

Here’s the rub: sanctified Christians don’t act that way.

Why?

When God fills us with His Holy Spirit, He changes the way we view the world. Before He fills us with His Spirit, we (the carnal Christian) look at the world and see everyone and everything as an enemy, even other Christians (especially those with whom we disagree politically or philosophically).

After God fills us with His Spirit, we (Christians whom God has sanctified) look within and realize that we were once enemies of God, and we pray that God’s will forgive and reconcile even those who oppose us.

We should mind our own business, and, instead of meddling, we should work with our hands. The best work that we can do with our hands is fold them in prayer.