Category: Holiness

Daily Devotion for Tuesday, 9 August 2016 – No Bigger Sinner

August 9, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

I’ve done in again. I do the things that I don’t want to do… that I never want to do. And the things I want to do, well… I just don’t do them. That paraphrasing of the words of Apostle Paul could apply to every man and woman who has ever served God. They apply to me. Yesterday, you and I talked about dying daily, but which of us go a day without failing God? I die daily because I know I fail Him daily.

As a young Christian, I often asked my pastor if I could sin so much that God wouldn’t forgive me. Many times I feared I had reached a “point of no return.” Now, I know that there is no sin too awful to be washed away by the blood of the Son of God. To think so is wrong, and, in its own peculiar way, prideful.

God’s love is unconditional. He doesn’t love us when we are good and hate us when we are bad. His love never changes. To think otherwise is to attribute frail human qualities to the perfect nature of God. His love never fails us. In a strange and inexplicable way, He is always ready to forgive me when I sin. He’s ready to forgive you, too.

His love truly is amazing.

…I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. -Romans 7:14-17

O wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!. -Romans 7:24-25

Daily Devotion for Monday, 8 August 2016 – Taking up the Cross

August 8, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

Following in the footsteps of Christ is no easy task. Christ tells us right up front that we will face persecution, for He was persecuted. He tells us that He had nowhere to lay His head, and that we must be prepared to take up our crosses.

That last challenge, to take up our crosses, is difficult for many 21st century Christians to understand. At least, it is difficult for us to understand it in the same way that first century Christians understood it.

The cross was more than a symbol of shame; it was the ultimate shame and disgrace. Criminals were put to death on the cross. Traitors were hung on a cross, and enemies of the state. Unlike contemporary capital punishment, like the electric chair or lethal injection, the cross was not a quick death and certainly not merciful. It created a tortuous and lingering death, one that was excruciatingly (the word excruciating, in fact, means “of the cross”) painful, and designed to make a public spectacle, an example.

To take up our crosses means to deny ourselves of our carnal desires. It means to rid our hearts of its perverted, sinful nature and fill it with the nature of Christ. To take up our crosses means to be willing to lay down our lives for Christ, and in a more practical sense, it means to give our lives to Christ.

What’s more, we are to deny ourselves and take up our crosses daily. This willingness to give our lives to Christ and for Christ is the key to following in Christ’s footsteps. The journey is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute, and breath-by-breath surrender to God.

When we walk daily in absolute surrender to Christ, our hearts reflect His heart, and our desires are to grow ever closer to God.

To paraphrase Dr Charles Stanley, before we can live, we must be prepared to die.

Daily Devotion for Sunday, 7 August 2016 – It’s About Time

August 7, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

No one knows what Judgement Day will look like. I have seen Chick Tracts, which I very much love and appreciate for their direct, evangelistic approach, that portray the Judgement Day as a recounting of our lives on a large movie screen for everyone to see (here). I don’t know if this is right, but I do believe God will reward His children.

Jesus made this clear in a series of parables recounted in Matthew 24 and 25. The Parable of the Talents demonstrates clearly to us that God has given each and every one of His Children a gift – our lives, and that one day, we will be asked to account for what we have done with that life.

Many lessons can be learned from this parable An excellent summary of five of those lessons may be found here. Yet, while I have heard many men of God equate this parable to our gifts and talents, and many more who say this parable clearly teaches us to be good stewards of our money, I have heard few – if any – who apply this parable to our time.

it's about time — How much time do we spend daily in service or devotion to God?

How much time do we spend in service to God? I think this is a legitimate question. I don’t mean how much time do we spend in church (less than one out of three Americans attend church in any given week, and those that do so spend an average one hour there. On the other hand, Americans spend approximately 31 hours a week in front of a television, more if one counts computers and video games.). I mean, how much time do we spend with God daily, including prayer, Bible study, devotions, or church… those sort of things?

There are no surveys to completely answer this question. George Barna reports that only one in three Americans read the Bible at least once a week. Half of Americans read the Bible at least once a month.

The Washington Post (here) claims that most Americans spend around eight minutes a day praying, with Montana spending only about two minutes daily on their knees and Southerners spending about 17 minutes each day praying.

The average church-going Christian in America spends over thirty times more time in front of a TV than in front of a pulpit. Will God point this out to us on Judgement Day? I don’t know, but I do know… I feel… we should be as accountable for our time as we are our money.

If we believe in tithing 10 percent, should we not also give to God 10 percent of our time? This, to me, is a no-brainer.

2.4 hours a day spent in communion with or service to God. “It’s about time” I try this.

__________

Note: I understand that the common conception of Judgement Day is that only those who never accepted Jesus as their Savior will face Judgement. I use the term generically in this devotion to refer to that day when Christian will exchange their works for a crown.