I used to describe it as being dizzy, but it is not dizziness, not vertigo, not like an ear infection, not like getting out of a chair too quickly. I am simply not able to stay completely upright at times, and it is affected by the position of my neck and head. Consequently, I am often told that I walk funny, with my head held a certain way and tiny little shuffles instead of long, manly strides. It’s sometimes difficult to hold my head up normally. It’s impossible to sit in a straight-back chair if I cannot slouch. I lose my footing and fall.

I say all that to say this, though the writer of the 94th Psalm spoke metaphorically, I have no problem thinking about slipping and falling literally. My wife knows the injuries I’ve suffered and has confessed that she fully expects me to fall and crack my skull, and bleed-out long before cancer ever takes me.

Either way… No matter how I meet my Maker, I am ready. His unfailing love has caught me (literally and metaphorically) so often when I fall that I have no doubt His love will catch me at that final fall.

Psalm 94:17-18 NIV –

When I said, “My foot is slipping,”

your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.

When anxiety was great within me,

your consolation brought me joy.

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We’ve all heard the story of the man sitting on his rooftop during a flood. You know it, he passes up a rescue boat, a helicopter, etc., saying he is trusting God to rescue him. This does, I suppose, shed light on the old adage, “God helps those who helps themselves.”

I’ve never had a problem helping myself. I reckon my biggest problem is that I help myself too much and fail to trust God enough. I tend to be proud, prone to action, and perhaps I don’t think things through. Quick to judge. Quick to anger. Of little faith. Because I know these things, I ask God to help me change them.

I find the converse of that story to also be true, or truer. Many Christians are apt to see a brother suffering some sort of flood in his life and do nothing more than pray for him. Here is how that story goes:

A man sits on his rooftop as flood waters rise, desperately praying to God and calling everyone he knows on his cell, saying, “My house is gone. If help doesn’t arrive soon, I’ll drown. Everyone he calls sympathizes, agrees with him in prayer, offers encouragement, but no one rescues him. Not even emergency responders come to his aid.

Of course, while this is just another illustration, there is truth to it. The Bible does not say, “God helps those who helps themselves.” No. That’s a Ben Franklin quote. The Bible speaks much more about how God helps the helpless than about helping oneself. Paul, in his letters talks much more about man’s weakness and God’s strength than man’s strength.

James in his epistle places great stock in faith, and he pairs it with action. It is not enough to know the Word and Will of God. We must act on it. We must put it into action (James 1:22-25). We are, the body of Christ and, though I do not understand it, God – who created all that exists – has chosen to work His will and His miracles through broken and repentant people like you and me. We are His body, His hands and His feet. Prayer Should compel us to act.

Too often I have been the recipient of a phone call from a flooded brother. I pray, but fail to act. I have sometimes (even recently) been the one drowning and ignored.

Don’t neglect your struggling Christian brothers and sisters. Don’t assume that everything will turn out all right for them in the end. They may get lost in the flood.

Micah 6:8 NIV – He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

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Early one morning, Jesus walked from the Mount of Olives to the Temple where He began teaching. He was interrupted by a group of Pharisees who presented to Him a conundrum: a woman caught in the act of adultery. What should be her punishment, they asked Him. You know the story.

It was a trick question, designed to discredit Jesus, whose popularity scared the Jewish leaders. According to the Law, she should be stoned until dead. According to Jesus’s own words, He did not come to condemn. If He commanded she be set free, He would break the Law. If He commanded that she be stoned, He would not be true to His teachings.

Jesus ignored their question, stooped to the ground and began to write in the dirt. After a few minutes, He rose to His feet and addressed the men. “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone.”

He knelt and again wrote on the ground. One by one, the Pharisees and scribes left. When Jesus looked up, He asked the woman, “Where did everyone go? Is no one left to condemn you?”

She was, perhaps, afraid to look up, and, when she did, she was astonished. Only Jesus remained. “No one, my Lord,” she said, voice quivering.

“Neither do I condemn you,” He said with the faintest of smiles. “Go and sin no more.”

How could Jesus know that not a man there would be without sin? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You see, we were all born into sin. We are a fallen people living in a fallen world.

It all goes back to the beginning. Adam and Eve were created with free will. They were made innocent, free of sin, a part of God’s family. It seems that Yahweh visited with them daily in the Garden of Eden, His earthly home. They lacked nothing, and were able to eat of any and all of the fruit-bearing trees and plants in the garden. All but one. Their needs were fully provided. They had been given jobs. They were to rule over the world with their Creator.

Then the Tempter approached them, twisting and turning through the garden, just as he twisted and turned the truth. He convinced Adam and Eve to sin. When Adam sinned, all humanity was cursed.

There is no lack of evidence of man’s fallen nature. Everyone I know has sinned. My mother is a saint, but she sinned. My sister is the most holy woman I know, yet she sins. No one had to teach my children to lie; rather, they had to be taught not to lie. David says in Psalm 51:5 that he entered this world as a sinner, as do we all. Paul says in Ephesians 2:3 that we are “by nature children of wrath.” Genesis 8:21 finds God declaring that it is a human inclination to be evil, even from childhood.

Romans 5:12 tells us that both sin and death came into this world because of Adam. That is why we are unable to steer clear of sin. We are cursed.

You may be thinking, “That seems mighty unfair.” And you are right, but for three things. First, you and I would have sinned just like Adam and Eve had we been created first. In fact, I have no doubt that my sin would have been much greater than Adam’s. Second, to curse the human race because our progenitor committed a sin, seems unusually harsh, even cruel. It would be cruel had God not already provided for redemption, even from the foundation of the universe (Revelation 13:8). Last, we do not have to continue to live in sin. Just as Adam brought sin into the world, and as a result, caused all mankind to be condemned, so one man – Jesus, the Son of God – brought redemption into the world.

One righteous act, the crucifixion of Jesus, has made those who trust in him justified and made righteous. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God washes our sins away with His grace so that we may reign with Him in righteousness eternally (cf. Romans 5:17-20).
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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.

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Re-Post: from 4/12/2017

I wondered something last night when studying Psalm 22. I know that the psalm was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that it is a prophecy of the crucifixion, yet I also realize that some truly horrific thing had happened in the life of its writer. So, I wonder…

…here is this thoroughly gut-wrenching psalm (22), and on the same page is one of the most inspiring psalms ever written (23). Same Bible. Same book. Same page. Same writer. Same God.

How is it that a good, all-knowing, all-powerful God can allow something so tragic to occur that His child begs Him not to be forsaken?

How can the same God that inspired the words, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” also inspire the writer to pen the following plea? “The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet… But you, O Lord, do not be far from me.”

The answer is that we live in a fallen world. To put it another way, we live in a world where sin runs rampant. David eventually learned not to fear what man could do to him in this life, and learned to only fear God.

That begs the question, “Why doesn’t God simply get rid of all the sin in the world? To do that, He would have to get rid of all the sinners. He could simply wipe them off the face of the earth. In that case, you and I should say, “So long,” for you and I are sinners. We would be gone.

Well, then, why can’t He just get rid of the sin? He has made provision to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse our hearts of all unrighteousness. However, to fully get rid of all the sin in this world, He would have to remove our free-will, which would make us something like a robot, and not human. He can, however, sanctify believers, and strengthen us with the power of His love, giving us the means by which to resist the temptation of sin. That, though, is up to each and every individual.

The world will not be made new until the end of days. And until God creates a new heaven and a new earth, there will be tragedy, disasters, and sin and death. This is part of the human experience, the course which mankind has chosen and to which we are bound until Christ returns.

In the meanwhile, know this: every evil deed will, in the end, be punished, and every evil-doer will be brought to justice. Jesus will return someday to judge the sins of quick and the dead; He will judge those who do not repent of their sins.

Judgment, though, is at Christ’s second coming. Right now, He offers mercy.  

• “And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.” – John 12:47

Yes, we serve a just God, One Who is righteous, and Who will someday judge all who hear His Word and do not believe.

But, He is a loving God, Who offers mercy to those who believe.

• Yes, we find every human emotion in God’s Word, for it is a letter inspired by God written by humans for humans. The same writers who record their fear, also write about the God-given courage. They write about their joy and their disappointment. They write about tragedy and reward. They write so that we, who are made lower than the angels, can relate to the stories, and grasp the eternal truth.

Ultimately, we learn to

Fear Not, For the same Bible that tells us that Christ will judge the world, also assures us that God sent His Son to rescue those whom believe. 

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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.

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