Genesis tells us that God created humans (male and female) in His image and likeness. The words “image” and “likeness” are poetic parallels conferring the same meaning: we were created to be imagers of God.

In fact, a thorough reading of the Creation Story tells us that we humans had a unique and short-lived relationship with God and the rest of His creation. We walked with God, talked with Him and – indeed – reigned with Him over the rest of His creation. Many Hebrew scholars even go so far to propose that God’s spiritual children, (angels and other heavenly creatures) and God’s physical children (the first man and first woman) shared God’s edenic dwelling with Him.

It was God’s divine will in His wisdom that humankind co-rule with Him on this world. Humans, decided to, instead, trust in their own will. As a result of that rebellion, mankind was barred from God’s earthly dwelling place and found unworthy to rule with Him. But God didn’t give up on humankind. Throughout history, He tested us to prove one worthy.

The Bible speaks of many whose faith was tested, just like Adam and Eve. Yet no human was found worthy to co-rule the earth with him.

God did find many who came close to such worthiness. Enoch walked with God until, one day he walked away with God. Noah was put to the test and passed it; he relied on God’s wisdom and was chosen to help save mankind. In the end, though, he fell back on human wisdom.

Abraham and Sarah were found worthy to be put to the test. They failed, though and did not have the faith to wait on God’s timing. God had promised them innumerable descendants. In a tale that reminds us of the creation story, Abraham trusted the voice of his wife more than he trusted promise of God. Later, Abraham passed the test by yielding to God’s voice on the mountaintop. Still, he was not worthy to co-rule with God in His creation.

Moses was perhaps found to be the most worthy among humans. He met God on the mountain and received His instructions. Being exposed to the glory of God changed him so much that he was forced to cover his face. His outstretched arm by which he parted the waters was called the arm of God. Still, his faith faltered and he would not co-rule on earth with God.

David was called a man after God’s own heart, but he often mistrusted God. Solomon passes the test and asks for God’s wisdom over money and power. At the same time, though, he seeks sexual pleasure and pride. He, too, was not worthy to co-rule God’s creation.

In the midst of exile, Daniel is shown a peek into the future and sees a human ascending to heaven where he will sit on a throne next to the Ancient of Days, God the Father. That man is Jesus.

Because of a sinless life on earth… Because He – the Son of God made human – surrendered his life to His Father in the ultimate test of faith… because He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven… we can once again be imagers of God.

If we trust in God’s wisdom instead of man’s, and if we die to our own will and instead live in the will of God as found in His Holy Word, then we too will reflect His image. We will be a part of The Kingdom of God ruled by Jesus Christ on earth.

For myself, I could never pass the test. But Christ who lives through me gives me strength and faith to take the test and endure. He lives in me eternally. I surrender to him constantly. He passed the test for me.

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The book of Hebrews tells us that it is our faith that saves us, not our actions. In fact, it was by faith that Abraham was made the founder of an innumerable nation. No matter what we do, we can never be found worthy to co-rule with God. That is why he sent His Son to be born as a man, to live and grow and learn and experience life as a frail human who is tempted and tried and everyday dies. It is only because we trust in His wisdom and His sacrifice that we may live as part of His Kingdom.

God tested each of these people and recorded their stories for eternity so that we would see that no one is worthy but His Son Jesus Christ.

What part will we play in His Kingdom? Only God knows, but what part does a child of God play, anyway? We are God’s adopted children, brothers and sisters of King Jesus.

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Fewer movies are more quotable than 1996’s sports romance, Jerry Maguire. Even if you weren’t born yet, it is likely you have heard these references:

“Show me the money!”

“I love him for the man he wants to be… and I love him for the man he almost is.”

“Success consists of getting up one more time than you fall.”

“What do you want from me, my soul?” -“I deserve that much.”

“I love you. You… You complete me.” – “Shut up… just shut up. You had me at ‘hello.'”

I think no better compliment has been paid than the words, “You complete me.” Writer/Director Cameron Crowe was at his best in this flick. I have often wondered if he is a Christian, or – at least – familiar with the Genesis story of creation, because those words could have come right out of the mouth of Adam when God created Eve from one of Adam’s ribs.

Ok, I know I lost half of my readers when I mentioned Creation, because most Christians no longer believe in a literal Adam and Eve. I do, though.

I’m going to lose half of my remaining readers with this paragraph, but what I’m going to say is not sexist and not naive. I urge you to stay with me and let me explain. Most Christians don’t realize that Eve was actually created to complete Adam. Neither Adam nor Eve were created as a whole person; they needed one another.

According to Genesis 1, Adam and Eve were created as equals. One was not master and the other servant. One was not dominant and the other submissive. In the beginning, Adam and Eve were co-rulers with God over His creation.

They were BOTH created in the image of God and their main task was to continue living in His image. They were to be fruitful and multiply, or reproduce the image of God. They were to – together -have dominion over the earth. God, it seems walked with them daily and imparted to them His wisdom. Through God and His Wisdom, the held dominion of the earth.

In chapter 2, we see a more detailed version of the creation of Eve and we learn that she was created to be Adam’s helper, a most unfortunate translation of the Hebrew word, עֵ֖זֶר (‘ê·zer). The KJV used the words, “help meet” to translate the word ezer. That is still insufficient. Helper or help meet, to our 21st century PC ears, sounds subservient. In the original language, it is not subservient.

The International Standard Version of the Bible gets it a little closer when it says that “no strength corresponding to him could be found”. The NET Bible reads “no companion who corresponded to him was found.”

You see, we have no single word to translate ezer. “Helper” doesn’t cut it. The Hebrew word means someone of equal or superior strength and abilities who makes up for one’s deficiencies. In other words, ezer means that Eve completed Adam. Only together did they have the strength and means by which they could rule God’s creation.

If this equal and complementary relationship between man and woman is the ideal Judeo-Christian picture of marriage and family, why then do Christians get such a bad rap over the way that women were treated in the Bible? Why is it said that Christians believe that women should be silent, subservient, and second-class.

That is the result of the curse, the result of Humankind’s first sin. In Genesis 3:16, God tells Eve, “Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” it is because of sin that women were ever considered as second-class.

Yet, there are few examples of men and women acting as equals in the Bible. There are even some rules set down by Paul that could – if lifted out of 1st Century context – enforce inequality. The fact is, Paul lived (and we live) in a fallen world. As Christians, we should be aware that God values every life and every soul.

It is only in the Judeo-Christian world that women have made strides towards equality. Only in parts of the world where Christians dominate or once dominated have women significantly benefitted. There are yet many dark places in this world where women are respected little more than an animal, and may be legally abused.

Christian men and women should re-look at the Genesis ideal of marriage. It is only through two equals who emulate God’s image that marriage is successful.

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As my body grows weaker with cancer, I am compelled to write less. I have determined, though, that there are a few topics I must address while I am able. While listening to a podcast a few days ago, my attention was turned to a verse that the podcaster read in passing: Colossians 3:16. Here it is from the New King James Version of the Bible…

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t imparting my bias into the scripture, so I investigated further. To me, this verse reinforces the singing of hymns and the use of hymnals in the church. But, do any scholars agree?

Dr. Michael Heiser recently studied Colossians in his Naked Bible Podcast. Heiser is an evangelical Christian theologian who has a unique knack for stripping away (hence the name of his program) 21st century bias and examining the Bible from the viewpoint of its writers and original readers. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages.

Sure enough, Heiser noted that Paul’s emphasis on teaching through songs leads him to believe that our Christian hymns do a better job of teaching than most (but certainly not all) modern praise and worship songs.

Modern worship music, while long on creating a buzz that stirs the emotions, often lacks substance and rarely teaches the Word of Christ.

Paul, Himself used hymns to teach. His letters, written 20-40 years after the Resurrection, quote hymns that First Century Christians sang in worship, hymns that would have been familiar to his readers. One such hymn is found in Colossians 1:15-16 (NKJV)

He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation.

For by him all things were created,

in heaven and on earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rulers or authorities—

all things were created through him and for him.

That is a hymn that teaches substance.

Another hymn that Paul quotes is found in Philippians 2:6-11. It is commonly called the Christ Hymn:

Who, though he was in the form of God,

did not count equality with God

a thing to be grasped,

but emptied himself,

by taking the form of a servant,

being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form,

he humbled himself by becoming obedient

to the point of death,

even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him

and bestowed on him the name

that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth

and under the earth,

and every tongue confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to three glory of God the Father.

Therein, is the Gospel.

Moses, too, taught by song. Most of Exodus 15 is called the Song of Moses. It recounts the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt and heaps praise on God for his mercy and might. Moses knew a lot about learning. It is he who recommends that the Law be written and worn around our heads. Solomon suggests we copy the Law and wear it around our necks. Wouldn’t we be well-advised, then, to learn the Words of Christ through song? Wouldn’t those songs be easier to learn if we could follow along with the music, perhaps in a book?

Heiser points out that much of today’s praise and worship music fails to teach the Words of Christ. It serves only to edify the worshipper, make one feel good, or create a “buzz.” While those may not be bad things, they are not the reason we sing, not according to Paul’s letter to the Colossians.

I have been in worship services that do nothing less than glorify those in the audience. One service I attended even blasted Lynyrd Sky through the sound system while serving biscuits, gravy, sausage and eggs before church. Making ourselves the center of worship is nothing less than idolatry.

What’s worse, the worship team is sometimes the focus of the service. Though it may be unintentional, it can sometimes be the performers who receive the glory and the praise. They certainly get the applause.

Do the songs we sing at church teach the Words of Christ? Do they glorify God? Is the focus of your worship well-placed? According to the Word of God, our songs should teach the Words of Christ,.

It is something to consider.

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There’s Power in the Blood.

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All Hail the Power of Jesus Name

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Lily of the Valley

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Cruise is a genuine hero, something that we rarely see in the 21st Century. Many paratroopers never made it to the ground, for they were an easy target as they fell slowly to the ground. Many more landed miles from their intended targets and were captured or killed. The majority, like Cruise, joined in combat and were wounded. Countless were left dead on the battlefield.

Cruise tells NPR’S Morning Edition of such an incident. After parachuting into France, Cruise and his friend, Pvt. William Vargas, fought for 33 days straight to liberate French villages from the Nazis. Then, a shell exploded just beyond Vargas. Cruise tried to save him, but the best he could do was buy his friend a few more hours by slowing the flow of blood. Vargas died later that day.

Cruise told NPR about that Vargas: “His body was sacrificed for mine, simple as that, so that was a traumatic experience among others but that was probably the most moving. So I always think of that as my physical salvation.”

Cruise rightly calls his friend’s sacrifice his “physical salvation.” We, too, have been offered salvation, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who gave His life to pay the penalty of our sins. The sentence that accompanies our sins is death, but Jesus didn’t want to see us suffer spiritual death in hell. Instead, He died for us.

Now, we must choose to believe in Him and accept His substitution. Will you allow Him to be your salvation?

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How Great Thou Art

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The Old Rugged Cross

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“Steve from Berkley” was what everyone called him. I’ve written about him before. He has left an indelible mark on my life.

His long stringy hair was oily and gray. His beard was scraggly. We usually met in the dining room, but when I arrived at the nursing home to see him near the end of his life, he was unable to get out of bed.

When I first met him a couple years prior to his death, he was in a federal prison hospital. Thirty some-odd years before, he had robbed a bank. Though behind bars and confined to a wheelchair, his heart had soared in freedom. Freedom of the Spirit. Freedom from sin.

Now, on this visit, he was out of prison on compassionate release, but he was bedridden and near death. When he saw me, his smile grew from one ear to another. He sat up a little and stretched out his hand for a hug.

I don’t remember of what we spoke, not that particular day, but I do know that it was typical of him to brag of God’s grace and mercy. Even near death, Steve from Berkley was full of joy. In fact, his joy, while always full, now seemed to flood the entire nursing home.

I hope and pray that, when my time comes to leave this world, my joy grows by leaps and bounds. In fact, Why wait? — Lord, let the joy that you gave me overflow to those around me.

The Gospel of John seems to have more red font in it than any other. It is chocked full of the words of Christ. Reading through it this morning my heart stuck on three of the countless things that Christ says in chapters 14 and 15… The promises. It is those promises that compelled me to remember Steve from Berkley.

John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

John 15:11″These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Joy, from what I can see in John, is not a decision we make, not a discipline, and not an attitude. It is a gift from Christ all we have to do is receive it.

There is no doubt that death is scary, even for Christians like Steve from Berkley. It is a lone journey; no one may join us.

Yet Christ promises us that we shall never be alone. Always. Even until the ends of the earth, Christ is with us, holding our hands, gently leading us along, sharing His joy.

God Leads His Dear Children Along

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

1. • Refrain:
     Some through the waters, some through the flood,
     Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
     Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
     In the night season and all the day long.

2. Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
   God leads His dear children along;
   Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
   God leads His dear children along.

3. Though sorrows befall us and Satan oppose,
   God leads His dear children along;
   Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
   God leads His dear children along.

4. Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
   God leads His dear children along;
   Away up in glory, eternity’s day,
   God leads His dear children along

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It is Well With My Soul

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Solomon alludes to the Garden of Eden when speaking of wisdom. He personifies wisdom and compares her to the Tree of Life. He promises that those who eat of the fruit of wisdom will be blessed (or those who hold her fast).

In the Garden, though, were two trees: in addition to the Tree of Life there was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Judging on the names alone, if you were seeking wisdom, is which tree would most likely eat?

The names of both trees are bursting with promise. To eat of the Tree of Life may have meant life eternal. And who could resist the promise of knowledge. Wait, evil? “Forget about it! It’s just superstition.”

Humans are curious creatures. So curious, in fact, that we tend to ignore danger. God, though, attached a warning to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. “On the day you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Today, we face a similar choice. Embrace the love of God and His knowledge and wisdom, and we shall receive life everlasting, or seek the knowledge and kinsmanship of evil and surely die alone and full of regrets. Of course, the temptation presented by the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil never seems evil. Yet, it is.

It is the temptation to seek self. It is the temptation to seek pleasure. It is the temptation to dismiss sin. It is the temptation to embrace the world.

One of the rules for Christian living is to be holy as God is holy. How do we do that? I know I fail daily to live up to God’s standards. So how, then?

We may only over come sin through the wisdom and understanding given to us through the Holy Spirit. That may only be accomplished through loving God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

How do you live holy? Trust in God.

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God would not command us to be holy unless He also gave us the means to do so.

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Medium who claims to speak to the dead added to the staff of a progressive Pentecostal church in Atlanta

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Psalm 94, as we saw earlier in the week, reminds us that it is because of God’s unfailing love that He catches us when we fall. The psalm also reminds us that God will punish the wicked in the end… wicked of all stripes.

My political journey through life may be summed up best by Winston Churchill, who said:

“Show me a young Conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.”

As a young man, I was indeed an idealist who embraced both liberal social plans for the poor, homeless, and needy and Reagan’s moral majority. I was very much an oddball. Later in life, I considered myself a conservative, albeit a compassionate conservative. Today, I am still a compassionate conservative, but I am sorry I ever identified myself with either party. Both the left and the right seem driven by the wicked. Psalm 94 (and other passages) seems to agree.

The psalm reminds us that wickedness is wickedness, no matter who embraces it. Left and Right, Democrat and Republican, Conservative and Liberal all embrace principles and platforms that are contrary to God’s Word.

I will pause while you look it up.

If you read first on verses 4-6, we will see the focus of this blog.

They pour out arrogant words;
all the evildoers are full of boasting.
They crush your people, Lord;
they oppress your inheritance.
They slay the widow and the foreigner;
they murder the fatherless.

Few boast more than politicians. While that has always been true, it is only of late that they boast in their evil-doings, such as preying on women, killing unborn babies, and speculating that the mother and doctor together can decide whether to let a newborn die. …They are full of boasting …They murder the fatherless (What better way to describe abortion?).

Those who claim to lead our nation are heartless and cold. Because the nuclear family has been purposely destabilized and devalued, leaders have lost all sense of compassion and respect for any family. They prey on the helpless, weak, poor, and needy. They prey on traditional Judaeo-Christian families, emasculating fathers and replacing his authority with the power of the state. They make the school system mothers to our children and destroy the confidence and ability of the biological mother. If they could, they would remove all children from their mothers and let the state raise them. They prey on families who come across the border. They have destroyed minority families. They lift up as example and heap praise on unconventional families, especially those with gay parents or transgender children. …They slay the widow and the foreigner… They oppress your inheritance.

Most of those whom we call national leaders or representatives merely feign a weak affinity for Christianity; few are sold out disciples of Jesus. Interested only in quieting the outcry of the richest donors or most powerful constituents, our political leaders implement codes that stomp on the rights of Christians to hire only persons who maintain the Christian values that the organization represents, and take away the right to refuse to boycott those people or companies that are found to be morally reprehensible. As Christians, we can no longer preach the unabridged Word of God without worrying about breaking the law. We are not allowed to raise or own children to be morally sound because the school systems preach and teach an amoral gospel of their own.  …They crush your people, Lord. 

Who are “They?” The left. The right. Those who are in power who would rather boast of their evil-doings than lead us in a morally upright direction.

Verse 20: Can a corrupt throne be allied with you – a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?

Verse 22-23: But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. He will repay them for their sins and destroy them for their wickedness; the Lord our God will destroy them.

Feel free to be angry at me.

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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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For several years I’ve been reading stories of the miraculous things happening in the persecuted Church: stories of Christ appearing to Muslims in dreams and visions; stories of Christians protected by angels; stories of lions appearing to rescue Christians about to be beheaded. Many more such stories have been told. Are they believable? I believe that God is working in miraculous ways.

I have communicated with a handful of Christians native to persecuted areas. Many have now vanished from social media and email. I know this about them: they felt abandoned by the Church in the West, if not by God; they felt alone.

It is in our nature to sometimes feel alone in the struggle of righteousness, even here in the US. It is both easy and self-serving to believe we are the only ones standing against the post-Christian version of Baal worship. In truth, the Church in the West may be fooling itself into believing we are a part of the Church at all. Our faith paddles in comparison to the faith of Christians in Africa.

We in America may be a type of Church of Pergamum while the Church in Africa and the Middle East is the Church at Smyrna (see Revelation 2:8-17).

Yet, know matter how often or to what degree any of us feel abandoned, we never stand alone. God always has a remnant. Just as Elijah knew nothing of his 7000 contemporaries who had not bowed down to Baal, Christians worldwide are refusing to bow to the false gods of this world. We are not alone, even when we stand unto death.

Christ said, “For I am with you always, even into the end of the earth.” He is with us, and there is always a remnant.

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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 ”

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Persecution of Christians Nears Genocide – Read More…

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Take a look at your hands. How well do you know them? I can recall how I earned every scar. I know every freckle. I can tell you how I obtained a spot of pencil lead in my left palm in the second grade. Barely visible now, it is still there.

I know how hard my hands have worked and I know how they have betrayed my staunchest values in spite of my protests. My hands have did things in their younger days of which they should be dreadfully ashamed. I know, too, that my hands do not have a mind of their own. They are but a metaphor of the sin that flowed from my heart (before Christ delivered me from sin).

In Matthew 15, some Pharisees confront Jesus because His disciples did not ceremoniously wash their hands before eating. You see, the Pharisees were not merely pious observers of the Law of Moses. They had, for generation after generation, implemented laws of tradition – hundreds of oral laws – that governed every aspect of life both public and private. It is said that the Pharisees built fences around the Law of Moses that must be jumped to even dare break the written law.

Those oral traditions were considered as binding as the written law. One such law was that Jews must ritually wash their hands before eating.

Makes sense, after all. Jesus, the Creator of all life surely knew about the microscopic life that can live on our hands and make us ill if ingested. Of course, He did.

The Pharisees, though, were not concerned with the health of of Jesus and the disciples. They were concerned with power. They were attempting to slap Jesus down by catching Him in a sin.

Jesus, however, reminded the self-righteous Pharisees that it is not that which we pick up with our hands that condemns us. It is not that which rests in our stomachs that makes us “unclean,” but what rests in our hearts. Our hands do not condemn us, our hearts do.

I sometimes which I could wash away sin in a basin of water, like Pontius Pilate tried to do. During the trial of Jesus, Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea, found no reason to condemn the accused to death. He offered the mob an alternative, a rebel name Barabbas that he hoped would satisfy the agitated mob that cried for the death of Jesus. The mob, instead, asked for Barabbas to be freed and demanded Jesus be crucified. Pilate ordered Jesus flogged, hoping – perhaps – that beating Him within an inch of His life would quench the mob’s thirst for blood. It didn’t. Pilate conceded. He ceremoniously washed his hands of the conviction of Jesus, placed the blame on the mob, and turned over Jesus to be crucified.

The strongest soap and an over-abundance of water is unable to wash away the sins of our hands.

Only the pierced hands of Jesus can wash the stain of sins from our hands.

The Roman soldiers made Jesus lift and carry the patibulum, the thick horizontal part of the cross. The patibulum weighed over 75 pounds. It had a hole bored through it that allowed it to fit down over and secure it to the stipes (pronounced sty-peez). The beaten and exhausted Jesus would carry it as far as he could.

Moments later, they tied and then nailed the hands of Jesus to the patibulum. Two Roman soldiers lifted the cross bar with Jesus affixed to it, and sat the hollowed out part over the upright stipes. His feet were nailed to a small foot rest called the suppedaneum. There he would hang with His beaten back against a rough-hewn cross, His feet and hands pierced spikes. I weep when i think that His hands, bloodied and broken, are the same ones that freed me from the bondage to our sin.

Only the nail-pierced hands of our risen Savior can wash away the sins of our filthy hands and guilty hearts.

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Before God set the earth spinning on her axis / Before He hung the stars up in the sky / Before the angels in heaven sang His praises / It is with mortal man He would reside.

God is perfect; He lacks nothing. Because He is perfect, He never changes. He has never lacked a thing and never will. Never lacking, always perfect, He cannot be lonely. Why, then, craft a family of spirit beings to share the heavenly realm? Why, then, create a physical realm and fill it with weak and pathetic mortal beings?

Since He is perfect, then He is all-knowing, which means He knew that both the spirit beings and the mortal beings would rebel. Why, then, create beings who will rebel?

It was His plan from the beginning of time (which has no beginning) to share His Dwelling Place with His families. He would dwell in heavenly realm with the spirit beings. He would walk in the cool of the day with the mortal beings.

Because God is spirit, He and the spirit beings could pass back and forth from the heavenly realm to the physical world. Because the mortal beings are physical, they could not pass back and forth to the heavenly realm, God made His home both in the heavenly realm and the physical world.

It has always been God’s plan to dwell with us, His creation, imperfect though we be. He and His sprit beings lived with us, mortal beings, in Eden. He visited us on Mt. Sanai. He dwelt in the tabernacle. He sat on the throne in the Temple. He visited Joseph, Daniel, and John in their dreams. He became a mortal being, was born, lived, died, was resurrected, and ascended back into the heavenly realm in His physical body.

Why? Not because He was lonely, but because it was always His plan to have children to love.

Today, His Spirit dwells within the hearts and minds of mortal beings… Us. Because He dwells in us, we know His love.

He inspired 66 perfect books so that we could know Him better. Within those 66 books is the promise that, someday soon, He and the sprit beings and the mortal beings will reside together in a new heaven and a new earth.

For that, I anxiously wait.

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While waiting for yet another surgery to remove any cancer cells in the muscles and tissues around the tumor site, I went to a men’s prayer breakfast where two men pulled me aside to pray with me. Specifically, they prayed that my sins would be removed and my faith would be bolstered so that my cancer would be healed. A few weeks later, the surgeons flayed my leg from my knee to my ankle to obtain “clean margins.”

Though I was offended and confused by by the prayers of those two gentlemen, I knew they meant well; they are good men. However, they told me directly that if my faith had been strong enough then I would have grown close to God that I wouldn’t have gotten cancer. Over time, I became resentful of that statement. Still, I had to investigate the truth of the matter.

Is there any truth to the belief that Christians battle illness because of sin and lack of faith? That question is too big to deal with in its entirety. The question of faith-healings and faith-healers has incessantly stalked the Church for a century and a half. Any stance taken has been and will be largely subjective. Instead of looking at faith and healing, let’s see what the Bible says about sin and sickness.

We will begin with James 5, where the brother of Jesus asserts that when someone is healed of their illness, their sins are also forgiven (James 5:14-15 NIV).

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

The relationship here, though not explained, is undeniable: the prayer of faith makes one well and raises them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

Moreover, the next verse could not be clearer (James 5:16 NIV):

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

It follows, are you sick? Call the elders, ask to be anointed with oil, pray in faith, confess your sins to one another, and then your sins will be forgiven (if you’ve sinned) and you will be healed.

Still, that is a far cry from saying that the sins of the person who is sick are to blame for their illness. There is a growing belief in people that I know who attend churches that put greater emphasize the practice of praying for the sick than they do anything else. It goes like this: many are sick because they have sinned, and because they are unrepentant we won’t pray for them, but instead we will turn them over to Satan. This is a dangerous, unloving, and calloused belief. It may be why James concluded his letter with a call to rescue the perishing.

The belief that illness is directly linked to the sins of the ill was also a common belief in the first century. But, is it a sound belief?

Let’s look at John 9:1-7 NIV:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

Here we see that Jesus and His disciples encounter a man who had suffered a lifetime of blindness. His parents would have suffered as well, raising a boy who was blind. The disciples look at the man and – in their minds – condemn him for his sins. But then they think that perhaps they are being too harsh. Maybe he didn’t sin at all; maybe it is his parents who are to blame*.

Jesus tells them that neither supposition is correct. The man had been born blind so that God would be glorified in His healing. God knows why we suffer illness, but we cannot with certainty determine such things, so we must not pass judgement.

While we cannot and must not conclude that anyone is sick because of one’s own sin (only God can say for sure), we can be certain that the path to healing begins with the attitudes and faith that James outlines in the steps in his epistle. Corporate confession (genuine confession must include repentance), faith, personal and corporate prayer, and the symbolic anointing with oil. One may not be sick because of sin, but unrepented sin demonstrates a lack of faith in Christ, and one cannot be healed without faith in Jesus.

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible never tells us (not that I can recall) that Jesus asked believers to gather together, pray, and anoint the sick with oil while He walked in this earth, but after He ascended into heaven this practice became the norm. Why? Because it is just as important to God that we (His body, filled with the Holy Spirit) love and care for each other in the same way we love God. He emphasized this in naming the Greatest Commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).

This too is certain: sickness and death have been with us from almost the beginning of this age and will be with us until the end of this age. Sickness and death, though, are not part of God’s ideal journey for humankind; sickness and death came about only because the first-created of mankind (Adam and Eve) chose to be like gods instead of loving and cherishing the true God. Original sin.

*It is interesting to note that even the Pharisees, experts in the Law, believed that this man had been born blind because of sin. See John 9:34.

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Two questions arise when I read the last half of James 5. First, will God answer the prayers of Christians who harbor sin? Secondly, what is the relationship between sin and sickness?

Let’s look at the first question. James tells us that the prayers of the righteous avail much. This implies that the prayers of the unrighteous avail little. Let’s step out of James to see what other New Testament writers say about this.

John tells us that God answers prayer because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him. 1 John 3:22.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:15 that God forgives us only if we forgive others.

It seems plain that God answers the prayers of the righteous. Those who sin, though, separate themselves from God.

Likely, your heart just sunk. Mine did. I may never be righteous enough that God will answer my prayers. My actions may never please God.

God knows that. From the creation of Adam to today, there has been only one person whose actions entirely pleased God. There has been only one who is righteous: Jesus Christ.

God knows that we were born with a sinful nature. That is why He replaced it with the nature of Christ when you were saved. If we have faith in Christ our sins are forgiven and we are washed clean by the blood of the lamb. To ask God to forgive our sins because of our faith in Christ and His sacrifice, and for God to count the righteousness of Jesus as our own righteousness… Well, that is the only way our prayers will ever be heard.

Why, then, do we feel condemned and unworthy when we try to pray? That, too, is human nature. Read what John says about sin and prayer in context (1 John 3:20-24 NIV):

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

God is greater than our deceitful hearts. He knows everything. Just believe in Jesus, and love one another and we will be counted as righteous.

If we have believed in Christ but continue living in sin, then we make God out to be a liar and our prayers are gibberish. We should confess our sins to God and our brothers and sisters in Christ before expecting them to be answered. Again, only if we confess and put our faith in Christ and love one another will we be considered righteous (because of His sacrifice on the cross). Hard words to hear, harder yet to obey, but they are the words of God.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 NIV

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In our last Blog, we spoke briefly of depressed Christians and how those in the ministry should treat them. My point was this: depression is an illness and should be treated like any other illness. In my studies of depression, I kept coming back to the 5th chapter of James.

James 5:15 is rarely the topic of Sunday morning services. It is a bold statement:

And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven.

When I read this verse I must wonder why, then, we do not see more people healed. Here are a few thoughts.

First, we cannot center our beliefs around any one verse. Months ago, I reminded my readers that the phrase “by his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5), which so many (including me) quote when praying for healing, is a single phrase in verse within a larger context that deals with our iniquities and transgressions. Taken in context, the word “healed” could be referring to healing from injurious sin as much as physical health.

So, here in James, let’s look at the context, James 5:13-18 (ESV):

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.

The first thing that I notice is that there are three types of prayer mentioned in this paragraph.

1. Personal Prayer: is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
2. Corporate Prayer: is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
3. Intercessory Prayer, or Praying for each other: pray for one another, that you may be healed.

I have heard Christians state that they get as much (or more) spiritual growth from staying home and enjoying family activities or watching sports as they do from going to church. That is because few of our churches provide an environment conducive to spiritual growth. Few exhibit the love and power of God, and one reason for that is because they do not follow the prayer guidelines presented in James 5. Instead of heart-felt, faith-driven prayer, most churches have “pastoral prayer.” What is pastoral prayer? It is a well-rehearsed pattern of platitudes and florid speech designed to teach or lead the body of Christ to the altar of God. In most cases, it doesn’t teach at all. What it really accomplishes is to extinguish conviction in the hearts of those who need to fall on their face and repent. Pastoral prayer also keeps our services orderly so that we can get to the dinner buffet before the Baptists. A church seeking spiritual growth and healing would do well to follow the guidelines in these verses and rediscover true prayer. An individual seeking to join a church that is a true spiritual body of believers, would search for a church like that understands prayer as outlined in James.

The second thing I notice is that James implicitly tells us that not everyone’s prayer will be answered. Those whose prayers are answered are those who pray fervently from a position of absolute surrender (which may be gained through suffering), bathe themselves with the prayers of faith-filled mature Christians, demonstrate a measure of their own faith, and confess their sins to their brothers and sisters in Christ.

• 1st, Is anyone suffering? Let him pray. The first condition we see is that one must be suffering. If we dig a little deeper, we see that the word suffering means “suffering from evil.” James wrote this epistle to the twelve tribes that had been scattered around the world. Most of the Jews around the world suffered persecution, and it is with persecution in mind that he wrote this letter. Persecution leads to absolute surrender to the power and love of God. It is when we are surrendered – at our weakest – that He exhibits His strength and rescues us.
• 2nd, Call for the elders of the church who will pray over the sick and anoint with oil. Surround the sick and suffering with men and women of faith, mature Christians who have learned to trust in Jesus at all cost. Anointing with oil is symbolic of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, who works with the authority of the Father. Hebrews 1:9 expresses the understanding of the 1st Century Church as it pertained to the anointing oil, there was a relationship between the anointed and the degree in which they loved the righteousness of God (Hebrews 1:9 ESV):

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
    with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

• 3rd, the prayers must be made in faith. We must believe that God is able and willing to rescue us and to heal us physically, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically, and financially. Remember, God wants the best for His children, just as we want the best for our children.
• 4th, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. This requirement is the reason that most churches do not exhibit spiritual growth and power. People will not confess to one another. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where Jesus or an apostle asked the multitude to raise their hand it they had an unspoken request. Sure the Bible says that God knows what you need before you ask, and the Bible says that the Spirit prays when you don’t know how, but that is a far cry for saying you don’t have to ask, or you don’t have to share.

Prayer must be fervent and the pray-er, righteous. The KJV used the word fervent, which is perfect here. The NIV misses the implication all together, and even the ESV, misses the point. The image I chose for this blog is that of a long-abandoned hospital because it implies that all hope is gone. It is that attitude – one of hopelessness – that God wants us to take. It is human nature, that only when we have lost faith in ourselves that we will trust in God and others who are devoted to God. That is what the KJV means by fervent.

Who is righteous enough to have their prayers answered? I trust only in Christ. It is only His righteousness that God honors.

There is a definite correlation between sin and answered prayer. We will look at that next.

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Once, when his wife noticed Luther in the midst of a bout of depression, she put on her finest mourning garb. Dressed in black, face veiled, she presented herself to him.

“Who died?” Luther asked.

She lifted her veil and replied, “It seems as if God must have, by the way you’re acting.”

Like Luther, I suffer depression. I often feel like I am fading away, or like there is a veil that prevents me from looking within, or like I simply want to stay in bed forever. Like Luther, I have learned to cope most of the time. He seems to have figured out how his wife could help lift him from the depths. His wife, it appears, had a few tricks of her own to help him cope. I think most people who suffer fron depression develop some coping skills, even if they do not seek professional help.

Too often, though, pastors and others in Christian ministry dismiss the idea of Christians suffering from depression. One pastor I spoke to in preparation for this blog represents the attitude of many. When asked how he counsels parishioners with depression, he responded with, “… I also tell them that they have no need to be depressed because there is an inner joy that we as Christians possess.”

While what he says is true so far as it goes (Christians are blessed with an inner joy), he is misinformed. Depression is an illness not an attitude. Like any illness, the attitude of the patient can affect the sickness, but it does not cause or cure it. To tell that someone suffering from clinical depression is akin to telling a man who just suffered a heart attack that there is no need for bypass surgery because he has Jesus in his heart.

While pastoral education about depression and other mental illness is becoming more common, it is not yet common enough. Today, more Christian pastors are trained as counselors than ever before. The science of psychology has grown by leaps and bounds, just like all the sciences.

Personally, I have no doubt that, had my sarcoma been diagnosed in 1915 instead of 2015, I would have died a slow and miserable death. Had it been diagnosed in 2005 instead of 2015, I would have likely lost my leg. There have been so many miraculous medical advances in the last 100 years that practically no pastor would counsel a sick parishioner to change their attitude so that all will be well.

It is time to start viewing mental and emotional diseases like we do cancer and heart disease. Sure better attitudes help, but better attitudes don’t heal us. God heals us and He usually – but not always – does so through the hands of medical professionals.

Just as a pastor would advise someone with acute chest pains to go to the ER, a pastor should advise someone with chronic depression to seek medical attention. Besides that, though, what can pastors – or anyone – do for those in depression? Here are a few ideas:

• Do not be dismissive of their problems.
• Ask them how you may help.
• Sit with them without speaking if necessary.
• Let them know they can talk to you without judgment.
• Let them know you will support them emotionally and prayerful through the entire journey (do not say this if you don’t think you can handle it).
• Let them know you are their friend and would love to hang out whenever they are ready.
• Without condemnation and without cliche platitudes, help them look at the positive things in life.

We should remember, though, with every illness – physical or psychological – that though He usually works through the hands of doctors, it is God alone that heals. Every illness should be taken to God in prayer.

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Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In our last blog, we discussed that Jesus fully understood the cost of our salvation. Fully God yet fully man, he chose to endure a gruesome beating and tortuous death to pay the price for our sin, but He was tempted to turn away. What man wouldn’t be fearful? How could the thought of running away not occur to Him?

No, it is not sacreligious to speak of the temptation of Jesus during His Passion. Too often we emphasize only His godly perfection and relegate the temptation to His wilderness experience. The point of His birth as a man was to overcome the sinful nature  inherent in man. He came to redeem mankind, to conquer sin and death, to restore us to the image of God, and to make us worthy to rule with Him in Glory (Daniel 7:27). Only One who bore both the nature and frailties of man and the nature and power of God could be found worthy serve as sacrifice of the cumulative sins of mankind.

As Christians we are told to deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Him. The clause “to take up your cross” explicitly implies that we should suffer the death of our carnal, sinful, nature. It implies also that we should consider Christ of such great value (and ourselves of such little value) that we are ready to die physically for Him if asked.

The Apostle Paul understood just that. While we learn theology through Paul’s letters, we learn his bio in the work of Luke that we know as the Acts of the Apostles. The wonderful thing about Luke is that he wrote two works, one of which is a sequel to the other. We learn about the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. We learn about the birth, growth, persecution, and scattering of the Church in Acts.

There are many other parallels in the literary styles of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, but only one that we will note here. In Luke, we view six trials of Jesus before His crucifixion. The writer makes clear in his narrative that Jesus is innocent in all six trials*. The powers that be – the governors of Judea and Galilee – find that Jesus had broken no laws. Nonetheless, Christ is punished unto death.

In Acts, we see that Paul also endured six trials. In each, he too was found to have broken no laws. He was brought before Porcius Festus and Marcus Antonius Felix, governors of Judea. Like Pontius Pilate before them, both men allowed the sentiment of the ruling class Jews and the public to sway them. Festus sends Paul to Rome where the apostle would – tradition tells – face the Emporer Nero who eventually condemns the apostle to death**.

Is Luke making out Paul to be a replacement for Christ, a new messiah? Not at all. He is emphasizing that, like Paul, we must bear our cross and be willing to follow Christ to our deaths. Paul says in Acts 20:20-24 (NIV), Paul declares,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me —the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

A few paragraphs later, he reiterates the same sentiment:

Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” – Acts 21:13 NIV

Paul’s eyes were open wide and he knew exactly what awaited him in Jerusalem,

And, he went anyway.

Would you? Would I? I would like to think so. It is that kind of faith – the kind that says, “Lead me to the cross” – that Christ expects of us.

* Six may significant in that it represents man in the Bible.

** Many scholars believe that Paul won his appeal to Nero and, afterward, ministered in Spain, a journey that was not recorded in Acts. Later, he was again arrested and condemned to death in Rome.

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There’s an old joke that is not near as funny to me now that my hair is thin and graying. The punchline is “I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandpa did, not screaming in terror like those in the car with him.”

What would you do if you knew the time and manner of your death? As Easter draws near I am reminded that the Son of Man knew exactly how, when, and where He would die. In Luke 18:31-33, He forewarns His closest disciples for the third time. Here are His words as translated in the NIV:

Jesus took the Twelve aside and told them, “We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”

Though the words are plain in hindsight, the next verse tells us that the disciples did not comprehend His meaning. Maybe they didn’t want to understand.

“How can the Christ be killed?”

“How would God let His Son perish?”

“If Jesus dies, what becomes of us?”

“If You die, your Kingdom dies too!”

In spite of his foreknowledge, the Son of Man did not run away.

Many times i have felt dread for my future and curled up in a ball hoping it would never arrive. On the night of His betrayal, the Son of Man knew what awaited Him. He asked His father for an alternative to the beating and crucifixion he faced, but in the end, He submitted to His Father’s will.

You have likely noticed that three times I have referred to Jesus as the Son of Man, which is the term He used most often when describing Himself. I do that to remind you that Jesus, the Son of God, was also fully man.

Part of Him undoubtedly wanted to curl in a ball and not face His destiny. Part of Him may have wanted to simply walk away, go back to Galilee and pick up his hammer and saw. He wanted, perhaps, to call down the angels to strike down Pilate, Annas, Herod, and their Roman guards. He was all man. He feared. He angered. He loved. He was tempted.

He died.

In Ezekiel 3 we see a picture of the Son of Man figuratively eating a scroll, bearing the sins of His people. In Daniel 7 the Son of Man ascends to Heaven on a cloud where He will sit next to the Ancient of Days. In the Gospels we see how the Son of Man transitions between the two, the Sin-bearer and the Exalted One. The transition from Sin-bearer to Exalted One is the Resurrection. Easter.

He lives.

The Son of Man Who is also the Son of God bore our sins, died, was resurrected, and ascended to Heaven, so that we too may overcome our sins and live with Him in eternity.

The Good News is He lives.

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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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I imagine times are tough for two of my Christian friends who live in Muslim countries. Both have disappeared from social media for months. I had just been composing stories about them for publication here when they stopped corresponding. I fear the worst. Though we are not facing persecution in America, we, too, live in tough times.

The last two presidents have polarized the public in ways I had never dreamed possible. Liberals now mistrust and fear conservatives the same way that conservatives mistrusted liberals during the last administration.

No longer are our national leaders people of good moral fiber. They, in fact, seem to pride themselves in personal debauchery. No one trusts national elections to be honest. Everyone fears that, someday, a president will simply refuse to step down. Not a week goes by without some publication mentioning a looming civil war. No one has stepped forward on the national level to provide true leadership both politically and morally.

Hard times, though, are not all political. Both conservatives and liberals ignore or neglect the true scope of many social problems. The disappearance of the middle class, the plight of the working poor, homelessness, and legalized abortion all seem to be problems that no one on the national level dares to address. The collapsing healthcare system is just one symptom of a larger problem: the disappearance of quality jobs. Everyone but the super-wealthy suffers. But, no one left or right wants to see the bigger issue.

Yet, no where in my Bible do I find where it says, “Follow me, and I will give you a perfect economy, a caring government, and money to fight your cancer (for example).”

Jesus sees things from an eternal perspective, where we see only the past and the immediate. Our God does make several promises of an eternal nature to which we – I – should greatly cling.

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

• Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

• Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

• Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

• Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

• Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

• Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

How does one accomplish such “beautiful attitudes?” By prayerful and determinedly seeking the heart and mind of Jesus Christ.

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Father, I will, I do repent,

Humbly accept my punishment;

Ah, do not Thou the sinner leave,

Who chastening at Thy hands receive:

Instructed by Thy rod, I mourn,

Till Thou in pardoning love return,

And take the cause of grief away.

And with my soul forever stay.

Give me thus Thy death to see, 

Till my soul is all like Thee, 

Meet to live the life above, 

Swallowed up in praise and love.

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I love the sentiment from this Catholic prayer of contrition. It indirectly points to the Good News: We don’t have to die rather than sin again. Jesus has died for us, paid the price, and won victory over death. Because of His sacrifice, God forgives us of our sin, all of it. Our only duties are to repent and believe in (put our trust in) Jesus Christ, God will forgive us of all sin and unrighteousness. And, He will give us the power to find victory over sin so that we do not have to live as a slave bound in darkness. We are free indeed.

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While most churches will tell you they do not have the capacity to deal with these situations – and that is likely true, given the shrinking size of the median Evangelical Church – they can be on the lookout to protect their flock from tragedy.

No, pastors don’t have to be trained psychologist and lay leaders need not be qualified counselors, but there is one sure sign that the clergy and lay person can watch for. This sign applies to every part of the body of Christ, and especially the sick, the poor, the widowed, those who are dying, and the imprisoned… And, those who may be dealing with conditions in their lives that are so tragic that they are considering suicide. Here it is. Here’s what you can do:

Watch for those who have withdrawn from the church body either emotionally or physically. It is they who need you most. Reach out to them. Call on them. Love them. Pray with them. Stay by their side. Help them before you lose them.

A smile and a hug coupled with the love of Christ may be the first step to healing.

Suicide Statistics in the U.S.

While in the most of the world, suicide rates are in decline, suicides in the U.S. have increased. While not nearly as prevalent in the U.S. as in Eastern Europe, Russia, or East Asia, the number of people who in the U.S. who take their own lives is still far too great.

The U.S. is listed as 27th, with 15.3 people out of every 100,000 committing suicide. Lithuania (31.9 per 100k), Russia, Guyana, South Korea, and Belarus are the top 5.

• On average, 129 Americans commit suicide daily.
• In 2017, 1.4 million Americans attempted suicide. For every completed suicide, there are 25 attempts.
• 90% of those who die by suicide had a diagnosable mental health problem.
• Men die by suicide 3.5 times as often as women.
• Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
• Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death in Americans age 15-34.
• Suicide is the 4th leading cause of death in Americans age 35-54.
• Suicide rates are 1.5 times higher for veterans than for those who never served in the military.
• The U.S. State with the highest suicide rate is Montana (28.89 per 100k), followed by Alaska and Wyoming.
• The lowest rate in the U.S. is in District of Columbia, with 6.35 per 100k, followed by New York and New Jersey.
• Suicide rates have risen in the past 20 years in every state but Nevada.
• White males accounted for nearly 78% of all suicide deaths in 2017.
• According to an article on Charisma News in 2013, 3.7% of American adults have thought about suicide.
• According to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry in December 2004, attempted suicides among those who are not affiliated with a religious body was significantly higher than those who endorsed religious affiliation.
• Dr. Sterling C. Hilton showed in a 2002 study published by the American Journal of Epidemiology that suicide rates among those who belonged to one particular denomination were dramatically less than the general population. In this case, the suicide rate in the general population was 7 times that of this religious group.
• More than half of pastors have counseled people with mental illness, and 23% report that they suffer from mental illness themselves.
• In a 2015 study by the Shaeffer Institute, 58% of pastors said they have no true and good friends. 52% felt their church had unrealistic expectations for them. 34% battled discouragement or depression. 35% felt inadequate.

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In a world where the person who has the most outrageous content on social media is considered the most successful, and where our political leaders have no filters, and where the grossest of all violence equates with the highest video ratings, it is easy to assume that loud means strong, and quiet means weak. The Bible, though, tells us just the opposite.

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus quietly endured six trials. He faced three religious trials: He stood before Annas, the High Priest Emeritus; He faced Caiaphas, the High Priest; and, He was taken before the entire Sanhedrin.

Jesus also endured three civil trials: He was presented to Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Once Pilate realized that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to be tried before Herod Antipas, the Governor of Galilee, who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time. Herod could find no guilt in Jesus and returned Him to Pilate. Pilate had Jesus scourged, hoping to satisfy the Jews, but the people demanded His death.

During this entire time, Jesus – the Son of God – remained quiet. He did not raise His voice. He did not threaten. He did not smirk. He did not swear. He did not call 10,000 angels to rescue Him. He submitted to the will of His Father. To all who looked on, Jesus seemed weak.

They confused meekness with weakness. In His meekness rests redemption for the entire world. Because of His submission to the will of His Father, the nails that secured His hands and feet to the cross also secured our salvation. Our sins – all of them – died on the cross with Jesus. Our lives were resurrected with Him the following Sunday.

Jesus said few words at His trials, but it is what He said at His crucifixion that I most cherish. These 10 words:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

When the world looks at you, do they see Jesus? Do they see meekness, love, and forgiveness?

Father, I pray that when the world looks at me, they instead see the character of your Son.

Zechariah chapter 13:7 (NIV)

“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the LORD Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered”

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We must remember: God’s love is perfect; His timing is impeccable. His ways are above our ways, and we cannot comprehend.

Only Trust Him.

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Now let’s pretend that not only your church building loses electricity but your pastor’s house, too. Would your pastor be able to prepare a sermon without Internet? Would he or she have any stories to tell or illustrations to relate without searching online? Could your pastor speak from the heart or would he or she be lost with no light to read from a manuscript?

I imagine a church full of people wandering around in the dark, not knowing when to start the service because the countdown is not projected on the viewscreen. I imagine a congregation That cannot worship because they don’t have music and lights to manipulate their emotions, and because they have never been alone with God.

I remember attending church before viewscreens, before endless choruses, before the Internet, before Bible apps on smart phones, and before dark, cavernous multi-purpose meeting halls with manipulative lights, mood-affecting music, and polished performers.

I remember when we had a pastor to whom we could speak when we had a need, but that was before senior pastors, teaching pastors, youth pastors, children’s pastors, senior pastors, and church CEOs. I remember when we had to learn the books of the Bible and their order. I remember when we committed Scripture to memory. I remember when we were guided by the Spirit instead manipulated by the worship service .

And, I remember when we measured the success of a church not by the number of attendees but by the number of people whose lives were changed.

Why is the Church in the West dying? Because churches are social clubs doing “good works” based on social justice and humanistic principles, reaching out to people based on psychological precepts, marketing themselves like the newest trendy nightclubs, and presenting the prettiest, most talented, and charismatic musicians leading the newest music on a high-dollar sound system.

The dying Church in the West preaches “I can do all things through He that strengthens me,” and “I know the plans I have for you.” The dying Church preaches living “life abundantly.” It preaches giving with a “joyful heart.” But it forgets repentance and deliverance from sin, transformed lives, and freedom from the Law.

I long to find a church where the pastor preaches true Victory in Jesus because he has experienced it himself, not because he finds it in a Bible app. I pray for a church where the congregation is full of humble sinners whose lives are redeemed and transformed by the blood of the Lamb, and who are willing to reach out and lift others from the muck and mire of sin. I long for a church whose musicians play and sing to God’s glory, and not their own. I long for a song leader who doesn’t care if he or she is a little pitchy, because he or she is led by the Spirit and not the latest trends.

I pray let THE CHURCH BE THE CHURCH.

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There are many obstacles to pursuing holiness in the Western Church of the 21st Century. Two of the most impeding are polar opposites.

The first is the idea that if you don’t pray enough, read your Bible enough, or go to church enough, God will be angry at you or love you less. This is legalism and it is absolutely wrong. You didn’t do a thing to earn God’s love, so how can you lose it? His love is unconditional. He loves us because His Son loves us so much that He laid down His life for us.

The second obstacle is, as I said, just the opposite. It is the idea that, because Grace is not conditional, we can then do whatever we want… abuse alcohol, indulge in sexual perversion, and abandon Christian ethics, and that none of that matters because we are, after all, simply human and frail. After all, according to this line of thought, we didn’t earn our salvation, so we cannot lose it. This is lawlessness, or Antinomianism. It is wrong because Christ asks us to walk with Him. He expects us to share His yoke. He compels us to pick up our own cross and follow Him.

Either of these two extremes, lawlessness or legalism, leads to bondage. The one who is truly saved realizes that his (or her) salvation depends on faith alone. The one who has truly been rescued by God from sin does not continue to live in depravity because that one is so full of God’s love (and love for others) that there is no room for debauchery. We love Him so much that we dare not again step away into a life of sin.

We find freedom only when we first acknowledge that our very breath is dependent upon Him, and then walk beside Him, holding the hand of the one who would guide us. Only then may we find rest.

From Steve Hager, The Quest for the Mind of Christ.  

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You have most likely heard the Native American legend about every person having two wolves living within them, one good and one bad. The Apostle Paul expressed something similar in Romans 7. He speaks of a constant struggle between his carnal self and his spiritual self, and it is one that has upset him beyond description. In fact, he finds himself tongue-tied trying to describe it. Paul is known for eloquence in writing. He was a master of the Greek language, and likely spoke Aramaic as well. In Romans 7, however, he talks in circles. Considering the problem on which he elucidates, talking in circles may be the only way to describe it. It is the problem of two natures battling within one mind. We are talking about What We Believe. Today, We believe in Sanctification, on Christian Holiness Daily.

Here are part of his words from Romans 7, as translated in the ESV Bible:

What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”⁸ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. ¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. ²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.²⁴ Wretched man that I am!

Many people skip right over this section because they cannot understand it. Here it is in a nutshell: Because of my sinful nature – “my flesh” – I always do what is wrong. Why? Because there is nothing good within me. My spiritual nature wants to do right, but is too weak.

He then calls himself wretched.

In the next verse, he asks himself, “Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Who can help Paul? Only Jesus.

Ask any addict – whether addicted to pornography, drugs, tobacco, alcohol, or video games, and they will tell you that they cannot overcome it without help. According to the popular school of thought, alcoholics are never free of the addiction, and even a single drink can hook them again. We are weak, and must rely on a higher power. Even Christians cannot easily overcome their addictions.

What we speak of, though, is not just addictions. We speak of the bondage of sin. Satan puts us in chains and never lets us go. The vast majority of Christians go through life, still struggling against the chains by which Satan had bound them. The sad part is, it is not necessary. Christ stands with his hand outstretched, and in his nail-scarred hands, He holds the key to your chains. He is ready to free you. All you must do is allow Him.

To be clear, I speak of Christians who are still bound by sin. The reason so many Christians still live a carnal existence is that they have believed on Jesus enough to accept Jesus as Savior but refuse to believe enough to accept Him as Lord. Do you hear how silly that is? We believe that He can bring us back to life after we die, but He cannot free us from sin while we live. That is a sad statement.

He can, though. He can free us of sin. After salvation there comes a point where we must submit our will to Him, and follow Him with all our heart and mind and strength. Once we submit, He will infill us with His Spirit and free us from our sin nature. We then will have within us the nature of Christ, not the nature of sin. We call this sanctification. We are not, then, perfect, as some think. But we do become filled with His perfect love. This is called sanctification, and what I prefer to call perfect love.  More on this on tomorrow’s Christian Holiness Daily.

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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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In part one, we gave an overview of our beliefs. In part two, we proclaimed that we believe in one God in three persons of the Trinity. In part three, we spoke about our belief in the Divine inspiration of Scripture. In part 4, we covered our belief in the fallen nature of man and original sin. Yesterday, we declared that, in spite of popular belief, we still believe in eternal damnation for those who do not trust in Christ. Today, we will proclaim our belief that salvation is available to all who call on the name of the Lord, in an episode titled, Whosoever Will…

We begin with a look at the Sadducees and the Pharisees, two political parties in the 2nd Temple Period of Israel, one conservative and one liberal. The Sadducees were the conservative of the two, and by conservative, I mean that they wanted things the way they were in the days of Moses. They were against change. The Torah was the Law, and it was to be the ultimate authority, even if it no longer made sense. The Pharisees were the liberals. Though they recognized the Law, they also recognized oral tradition, and looked at enforcement of the law from the lens of what made sense in its modern context. At the time of Christ, the Sadducees were the party of the High Priest, and those loyal to Him, while the Pharisees were comprised of scholars, laymen, priests, and scribes (scribes being experts in the law because they had published it by hand for many years.  Finally, the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection, and the Pharisees did. To cast a broad net, both parties challenged the authority of Jesus. A few, though, a very few men of these parties, became disciples of Jesus.

It was while speaking to one of these Pharisees that we learn the most about who Jesus had come to save. We begin in the Gospel of John, chapter 3.  A Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to Jesus on the down low, not wanting anyone to see him conversing with the controversial rabbi named Jesus. Like most Bible authors, John adds no insight into the motives or thoughts of the characters whose stories he retells. Instead, he just writes what he knows: the bare facts and the words spoken. What I see when I read the story is a typical politician, who begins by trying to flatter Jesus. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Whatever the motive, Christ seems to have ignored the opening words of Nicodemus. Instead, He says gives the Pharisee a riddle of sorts. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus was puzzled. “How can a man be born when he is old?” I imagine there was a slight chuckle in his voice when he said, “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Maybe he shouldn’t have sneaked in to see Jesus at night, he thought. The other Pharisees would have laughed at that.

Jesus didn’t. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Now, Nicodemus rubbed his chin and began to pace. Water and Spirit? Spiritual rebirth? What did that mean? Kingdom of God? This man is as radical as they claim. He plans on overthrowing the Roman government! What had he gotten himself into! He cannot be seen with a revolutionary. I must find a way to bow out gracefully.

As he thought all these things, Jesus kept speaking. Some of it sunk in. It was beginning to make sense to the scholar. Nicodemus paused, and raised a hand as if to pause Jesus. He was going to make the rabbi back up and start over. Jesus, though, didn’t stop.

“We speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how, then, can you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Jesus turned his back and began to walk away. Nicodemus followed. The rabbi was right. Now, he wanted to hear more.

Jesus stopped and spun on his heal. Nose to nose, they stood. The rabbi’s eyes penetrated to the very soul of the Pharisee. “No one,” he said in a whisper, “has gone up into heaven except he who first descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”

Nicodemus had been told that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. Now he knows it is true; the rabbi implies that he comes from heaven. Jesus said something that captured his attention. Then Jesus mentioned Moses, and an incident of which the Pharisee had rarely heard spoken, lifting up the image of a serpent made of copper. The rabbi understood, he thought. He is as wise as they claim, this Jesus. He knows it is not the snake that healed, but the fact that when Moses lifted it up into the air, one must look towards God.

What Jesus said next made the Pharisee’s heart melt. So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

“Eternal life…” Nicodemus repeated under his breath. He was certain that there must be something more to this life, otherwise why would it be worth the struggle?

Jesus continued: For God so love the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life…

A tear welled in Nicodemus’s left eye.

“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned…”

Jesus said much more, but Nicodemus’s heart paused on the fact that God did not condemn him. He deserved condemnation, that he knew. If God knew the things he had done… If anyone knew the things I have done… I am so sorry. 

He wiped tears from his eyes and looked up at the rabbi. “For God so loves the world?” the Pharisee asked. “All the world?”

Jesus nodded. “Yes. He knows. My Father knows the things you have done. And he loves you anyway.”

Jesus reached out and touched the Pharisee’s shoulder. Nicodemus collapsed into His arms. “You are the Son of God?”

“Do you believe it?” asked Jesus.

“Yes, I do,” said Nicodemus. “What do you mean that you must be lifted up?”

“Follow me, and you will learn much.”

Pharisee. Thief on the cross. Prostitute. Woman with many husbands. Rough and tough fishermen. Lepers. Outcasts. Rich. Poor. Even Murderers. The offer of salvation is made to one and all. No one is beyond the grip of God’s grace.

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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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The book of Matthew is divided into five discourses, the first one being The Sermon on the Mount, which is also the longest sermon that Jesus gave, rather the longest one recorded. To hear ministers talk about it, one would think that it is solely a message of love, mercy, and grace. Within that sermon one finds the beatitudes, which are guidelines for those who would be counted among the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. One also finds the analogies of salt and light, the illustration of a lamp hidden under a bushel basket, the mote and beam in the eye, and the wise and foolish builder. The Sermon on the Mount, though, is a well-balanced message, one that can give pause to the reader.

Interspersed with Christ’s message of the Kingdom of Heaven is a warning about the realm of hell. If you take advantage of your brother and call him a fool, you risk the fires of hell. If your eye causes you to lust, then rip it out; better to lose an eye now and enter the Kingdom of Heaven than to go to hell with both eyes. Later in Matthew, Jesus repeats this message using the hand and foot as examples.

Narrow is the gate that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven, but the gates to hell are broad and in constant use. Hell, according to Christ, is real.

Not every Christian agrees with that position. Not every Evangelical Christian believes in that position. For generations some churches have taught universalism, the belief that Christ will, in the end, show mercy to all, and no one will go to hell. A newer and rapidly growing belief is annihilationism, which teaches that God will show mercy to those in hell and, instead of allowing the list to suffer eternal fire and torture, He will destroy them once and for all, or annihilate them. Proponents of both theories can offer verses to back them up, but to accept either, one must dismiss the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:8 where he describes eternal fire.

The messages of Universalism and Annihilationism are warm and inviting, and help fill pews on Sunday mornings. The messages do not, however, fill the altars. One need not repent if there is no eternal consequences of sin. The lack of repentance and confession walls off the hearts of believers and denies them a relationship with their Creator. They then construct their own gods of love and acceptance, who lacks mercy for there is no sin over which they may show mercy.

Yahweh is indeed living and merciful but He is righteous and just. Without hell, sin is positional and fluid. Wrong becomes right and right becomes wrong for no one wishes to offend another. Without hell the Church have no power for they cannot repent of that which is no longer sin. Without hell, average church buildings are community centers and mega churches are social clubs. The Spirit is unwelcome and stifled by sin, so He is replaced by emotions. Without hell, one has no fear of the Lord.

The Bible makes clear that those who do not repent of their sins and put their trust in Jesus Christ will go to hell, eternally. I wish Universalism were true; I wish no one to suffer in hell. Even Annihilationism would be preferable to eternal hell fire, but I cannot believe it, for it makes Jesus out a liar.

Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41 ESV
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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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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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Having premised these two particulars,

I now proceed to show in what sense we are really to understand the words, that we must be converted and become like little children. The Evangelist tell us, “that the disciples at this time came unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” These disciples had imbibed the common prevailing notion, that the Lord Jesus Christ was to be a temporal prince; they dreamed of nothing but being ministers of state, of sitting on Christ’ right hand in his kingdom, and lording it over God’s people; they thought themselves qualified for state offices, as generally ignorant people are apt to conceive of themselves. Well, say they, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” Which of us shall have the chief management of public affairs? A pretty question for a few poor fishermen, who scarcely knew how to drag their nets to shore, much less how to govern a kingdom. Our Lord, therefore, in the 2nd verse, to mortify them, calls a little child, and sets him in the midst of them. This action was as much as if our Lord had said, “Poor creatures! Your imaginations are very towering; you dispute who shall be greatest in the kingdom of heaven; I will make this little child preach to you, or I will preach to you by him. Verily I say unto you, (I who am truth itself, I know in what manner my subjects are to enter into my kingdom; I say unto you, ye are so far from being in a right temper for my kingdom, that) except ye be converted, and become as this little child, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, (unless ye are, comparatively speaking, as loose to the world, as loose to crowns, scepters, and kingdoms, and earthly things, as this poor little child I have in my hand) ye shall not enter into my kingdom.” So that what our Lord is speaking of, is not the innocency of little children, if you consider the relation they stand in to God, and as they are in themselves, when brought into the world; but what our Lord means is, that as to ambition and lust after the world, we must in this sense become as little children. Is there never a little boy or girl in this congregation? Ask a poor little child, that can just speak, about a crown, scepter, or kingdom, the poor creature has no notion about it: give a little boy or girl a small thing to play with, it will leave the world to other people. Now in this sense we must be converted, and become as little children; that is, we must be as loose to the world, comparatively speaking, as a little child.

Do not mistake me, I am not going to persuade you to shut up your shops, or leave your business; I am not going to persuade you, that if ye will be Christians, ye must turn hermits, and retire out of the world; ye cannot leave your wicked hearts behind you, when you leave the world; for I find when I am alone, my wicked heart has followed me, go where I will. No, the religion of Jesus is a social religion. But though Jesus Christ does not call us to go out of the world, shut up our shops, and leave our children to be provided for by miracles; yet this must be said to the honor Christianity, if we are really converted, we shall be loose from the world.

Though we are engaged in it, and are obliged to work for our children; though we are obliged to follow trades and merchandise, and to be serviceable to the commonwealth, yet if we are real Christians, we shall be loose to the world; though I will not pretend to say that all real Christians have attained to the same degree of spiritual-mindedness. This is the primary meaning of these words, that we must be converted and become as little children; nevertheless, I suppose the words are to be understood in other senses.

When our Lord says, we must be converted and become as little children, I suppose he means also, that we must be sensible of our weakness, comparatively speaking, as a little child. Every one looks upon a little child, as a poor weak creature; as one that ought to go to school and learn some new lesson every day; and as simple and artless; one without guile, having not learned the abominable art, called dissimulation. Now in all these senses, I believe we are to understand the words of the text. ÷ Are little children sensible of their weakness? Must they be led by the hand? Must we take hold of them or they will fall? So, if we are converted, if the grace of God be really in our hearts, my dear friends, however we may have thought of ourselves once, whatever were our former high exalted imaginations; yet we shall now be sensible of our weakness; we shall no more say, “We are rich and increased with goods, and lack nothing;” we shall be inwardly poor; we shall feel “that we are poor, miserable, blind, and naked.” And as a little child gives up its hand to be guided by a parent or a nurse, so those who are truly converted, and are real Christians, will give up the heart, their understandings, their wills, their affections, to be guided by the word, providence, and the Spirit of the Lord. Hence it is, that the Apostle, speaking of the sons of God, says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are (and to be sure he means they only are) the sons of God.”

And as little children look upon themselves to be ignorant creatures, so those that are converted, do look upon themselves as ignorant too. Hence it is, that John, speaking to Christians, calls them little children; “I have written unto you, little children.” And Christ’s flock is called a little flock, not only because little in number, but also because those who are members of his flock, are indeed little in their own eyes. Hence that great man, that great apostle of the Gentiles, that spiritual father of so many thousands of souls, that man, who in the opinion of Dr. Goodwin, “fits nearest the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, in glory,” that chosen vessel, the Apostle Paul, when he speaks of himself, says, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Perhaps some of you, when you read these words, will be apt to think that Paul did not speak true, that he did not really feel what he said; because you judge Paul’s heart by your own proud hearts: but the more ye get of the grace of God, and the more ye are partakers of the divine life, the more will ye see your own meanness and vileness, and be less in your own eyes. Hence it is, that Mr. Flavel, in his book called, HUSBANDRY SPIRITUALIZED, compares young Christians to green corn; which before it is ripe, shoots up very high, but there is little solidity in it: whereas, an old Christian is like ripe corn; it doth not lift up its head so much, but then it is more weighty, and fit to be cut down, and put into the farmer’s barn. Young Christians are also like little rivulets; ye know rivulets are shallow, yet make great noise; but an old Christian, he makes not much noise, he goes on sweetly, like a deep river sliding into the ocean.
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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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We believe in the divine inspiration of Scripture in its original form, as found in the Old and New Testaments, and that they contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.

So, yes we do believe that all Scripture is God-breathed. Though some of the writers of the 66 various books that comprise our Bible lived as much as hundreds of years apart, they had one thing in common. They were all inspired by the Holy Spirit. I believe that the transcripts, in their original languages, every jot and tittle of every letter of every word of the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

That is not to say that the Holy Spirit dictated to the writers, nor does it mean that the writers did nothing more than transcribe. It means that the writers drew inspiration from the still small voice of God. Yet, each book is distinct and told in the unique voice of its author, its human author, the writer, prophet, or apostle who wrote it at the urging of God. Because it was penned by humans, each with their own perspective and each with their own human flaws, we receive 66 very different books. We have histories, biographies, poetry, prose, letters, each one written for a different purpose, and each one serving its own purpose today. As example, we have four very different views of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Different because each were written by a different person, and each from different perspectives, and each with a different audience in mind, and each with a different purpose. Each book was written by mere humans, but because the Scriptures were inspired by God, we find no contradictions in the Bible when taken in context.

Now, by in context, I mean a few different things. First, it doesn’t due to take a passage that is not meant to stand on its own two feet, pull it from the Bible and teach on it. As example, one shouldn’t teach parts of the book of Job, for not all of Job is representative of God’s word, for parts of it express the doubts, fear and frustration of Job’s friends, and their words may not necessarily reflect God’s heart. But, that is not all I mean when I say that the Bible should be read in context. It means that we should do our best to figure out the times in which the writer lived. What was his social context? Was he a slave or a servant of the King? Was he a prophet or a doctor? Was he a national leader or an outcast? The answers may lend insight to his words. We should also bear in mind the audience to which he wrote. Let’s take another look at the Gospels: one of the writers wrote for a primarily Jewish audience while another wrote for a primarily Greek audience. Still another wrote for posterity. With what purpose did the writer pen his book. Was it to make a point or to teach a lesson? If so, then don’t expect events told in the book to necessarily be in chronological order. That book, though, that wondrous book, is full of the power of God to the one who studies it carefully and prayerfully.

We believe that God has preserved his Holy Word So that modern translations. Some translations attempt to be more literal than others, like the NASB, and so are more difficult to read. Some strive only to be easy-to-read and are not so concerned with accurate translations, like the New Living Translation. Others strive to find the middle ground, fairly reliable translations that read smoothly when read aloud, like the NIV or the NKJV. Others attempt to bear in mind the contexts that we discussed and come up with an accurate translation and one that takes into account the original recipient of the texts. Such is the ESV and Lexham English Bible. So which ones reflect the Holy Word of God as written thousands of years ago? That would be the NASB, the ESV, and the Lexham. The latter two use the most recently discovered, older textual fragments, including parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, along with the texts that Bible publishers have relied on for years and they consider the times and cultures of the writers and recipient to translate the original language into appropriate English words and phrases.

The remarkable thing is that after thousands of years, we have – by the power of God – the unblemished Word of God through which we may find salvation and live like Christ.
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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.

Source

In Old Testament Judaism there is no commandment more important than these: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one” and “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” There is but one true God, Yahweh. He is one. Which begs the question, if He is one, what do Christians mean when they speak of the Trinity.

Person of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

First, the word Trinity is not found anywhere in the Bible, but the concept of the Trinity is found throughout Scripture. In Genesis 1, we see the Spirit of God move upon the waters. Later, David pleas with God not to take His Holy Spirit from him (Psalms 51:11-13). Isaiah writes in 63:10 that the Nation of Israel grieved the Holy Spirit and made God their enemy. In 48:16, Isaiah announces that he is endowed with the Holy Spirit.

The Person of Jesus in the Old Testament

We see God appear as a man to Abraham. This, according to many theologians, is a a theophany, pre-incarnation visit of Jesus on earth. Psalms 33:4-7 (ESV) personifies the Word of God:

For the word of the Lord is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;

he puts the deeps in storehouses.

The Apostle John makes it clear that the Word is Jesus.

Indeed, when three men who appear to Abraham, one of them is Jesus. The visit is considered by many as a foreshadowing of the entire Trinity.

Some believe that passages where the name of the Lord is repeated three times, like Numbers 6:24-26, is an indication of the Trinity.

The Trinity in Second Temple Judaism?

With so much evidence of the Trinity to be found in the Old Testament, why was there no theology of a Trinity to be found in Judaism? In fact, according to Dr. Michael Heiser, by the Second Temple Period, many Jews believed that Yahweh was actually Two in One, Yahweh Above and Yahweh Below, or God in Heaven and God who appears in the form of man. There was, apparently, no thought given to the Spirit of God as a distinct person.

The Trinity in the New Testament

In the New Testament, we see the Trinity manifested at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus, fully God and fully man, is in the Jordan River. The Holy Spirit descends on Him like a dove. The Father’s voice is heard to say, “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.”

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, we read the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Not only does Jesus name all three members of the Trinity here, but He implies the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Revelation 1:18, Christ calls Himself the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End.

Again, John, who earlier named Jesus as the Word of God, teaches (in 1 John 5:6-10) about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Here are His words:

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony.

John, however, was not the only apostle to develop the idea of the Trinity. Paul takes it for granted as he closes 2 Corinthians (13:14).

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

How May Three be One?

It is difficult to understand how three may be one. A pastor I met recently believes that there are not 3 persons in one, rather he believes that the one God shows Himself in three distinct ways. This pastor – and the denomination to which he belongs – is in the minority of Christians. Most Christians believe that God is both three distinct people in one, all at the same time.

Yet, if that be true, how are we, mere humans, supposed to understand it? I don’t know that we are. Maybe the Trinity is a faith thing. As a child, I fully accepted the various illustrations of the Trinity, as three sides of a triangle, if the lobes of a leaf of clover, as – to paraphrase C.S. Lewis – faces on a cube, yet none of them are adequate to explain the profound beauty and complexity of our God and the way in which He had chosen to reveal Himself to His creation.

As an adult and a prolific reader, I can better relate to the Trinity as I can to the imaginative alien creations of science fiction novelists, but that too leaves me with inadequate understanding. That, though, may be a little sacrilegious.

So it is by faith that we – or I – accept that God is three in one, knowing that it is through faith in Jesus Christ, Who proclaimed that He and the Father are One, that we find salvation. Through the mercy of God we are saved and one day, when we see Him gave to face, we may understand who God is.

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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.

Source

There is in the Western World a great falling away of Christians. Fewer people claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. At the same time, there is a rise in spiritualism. It is, it seems, easier to find people who believe that man was planted on this earth by space aliens than created by God. It is easier to find believers in ghosts haunting an old building than someone who believes in a biblical hell. It is easier to find someone who believes that all well-intentioned religions lead to eternal life than it is to find someone who believes that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. So, we begin a 10-part series called, What We Believe on Christian Holiness Daily.

1. We believe in one God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. We believe in divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures as found in their original form in the Old and New Testaments and that they contain all truth necessary to faith and Christian living.
3. We believe that man is born with a fallen nature and is, therefore, inclined to evil and that continually.
4. We believe that the final impenitent are hopelessly and eternally lost.
5. We believe that Christ’s atonement for sin is universal and freely given to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Those who are saved are free from condemnation and dominion of sin and death.
6. We believe that believers are to be sanctified wholly subsequent to salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ.
7. We believe the Holy Spirit bears witness to justification by faith and to the sanctification of believers.
8. We believe in the return of our Lord, the resurrection of the dead, final judgement, hell, a new heaven and new earth.

Each of these core beliefs stand on their own two feet with a foundation of Scripture. And we will, over the next couple weeks, discuss each of them in some detail on Christian Holiness Daily.

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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.

Source

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.

Source

FIRST, I shall endeavor to show you in what respects we are to understand this assertion of our Lord’s, “that we must be converted and become like little children.” I shall then, 

SECONDLY, Speak to those who profess a little of this child-like temper, 

And LASTLY, shall speak to you, who have no reason to think that this change has ever past upon your souls. And I shall endeavor to show you, what we are to understand by our Lord’s saying, “Except ye be converted and become as little children.” But I think, before I speak to this point, it may be proper to premise one or two particulars. 

     I think, that the words plainly imply, that before you or I can have any well-grounded, scriptural hope, of being happy in a future state, there must be some great, some notable, and amazing change pass upon our souls. I believe, there is not one adult person in the congregation, but will readily confess, that a great change hath past upon their bodies, since they came first into the world, and were infants dandled upon their mother’s knees. It is true, ye have no more members than ye had then, but how are these altered! Though you are in one respect the same ye were, for the number of your limbs, and as to the shape of your body, yet if a person that knew you when ye were in your cradle, had been absent from you for some years, and saw you when grown up, then thousand to one if he would know you at all, ye are so altered, so different from what ye were, when ye were little ones. And as the words plainly imply, that there has a great change past upon our bodies since we were children, so before we can go to heaven, there must as great a change pass upon our souls. Our souls considered in a physical sense are still the same, there is to be no philosophical change wrought on them. But then, as for our temper, habit and conduct, we must be so changed and altered, that those who knew us the other day, when in a state of sin, and before we knew Christ, and are acquainted with us now, must see such an alteration, that they may stand as much amazed at it, as a person at the alteration wrought on any person he has not seen for twenty years from his infancy.      But I think it proper to premise something farther, because this text is the grand strong-hold of Arminians, and others. They learn of the devil to bring texts to propagate bad principles: when the devil had a mind to tempt Jesus Christ, because Christ quoted scripture, therefore Satan did so too. And such persons, that their doctrine and bad principles may go down the better, would fain persuade unwary and unstable souls, that they are founded upon the word of God. Though the doctrine of original sin, is a doctrine written in such legible characters in the word of God, that he who runs may read it; and though, I think, everything without us, and everything within us, plainly proclaims that we are fallen creatures; though the very heathens, who had no other light, but the dim light of unassisted reason, complained of this, for they felt the wound, and discovered the disease, but were ignorant of the cause of it; yet there are too many persons of those who have been baptized in the name of Christ, that dare to speak against the doctrine of original sin, and are angry with those ill-natured ministers, who paint man in such black colors. Say they, “It cannot be that children come into the world with the guild of Adam’s sin lying upon them.” Why? Desire them to prove it from Scripture, and they will urge this very text, our Lord tells us, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Now their argument runs thus, “It is implied in the words of the text, that little children are innocent, and that they come into the world like a mere blank piece of white paper, otherwise our Lord must argue absurdly, for he could never pretend to say, that we must be converted, and be made like wicked creatures; that would be no conversion.” But, my dear friends, this is to make Jesus Christ speak what he never intended, and what cannot be deduced from his words. That little children are guilty, I mean, that they are conceived and born in sin, is plain from the whole tenor of the book of God. David was a man after God’s own heart, yet, says he, “I was conceived in sin.” Jeremiah speaking of every one’s heart, says, “the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” God’s servants unanimously declare, (and Paul cites it from one of them) “that we are altogether now become abominable, altogether gone out of the way of original righteousness, there is not one of us that doeth good (by nature), no not one.” And I appeal to any of you that are mothers and fathers, if ye do not discern original sin or corruption in your children, as soon as they come into the world; and as they grow up, if ye do not discover self-will, and an aversion to goodness. What is the reason your children are so averse to instruction, but because they bring enmity into the world with them, against a good and gracious God? So then, it is plain from scripture and fact, that children are born in sin, and consequently that they are children of wrath. And for my part, I think, that the death of every child is a plain proof of original sin; sickness and death came into the world by sin, and it seems not consistent with God’s goodness and justice, to let a little child be sick or die, unless Adam’s first sin was imputed to him. If any charge God with injustice for imputing Adam’s sin to a little child, behold we have gotten a second Adam, to bring our children to him. Therefore, when our Lord says, “unless ye are converted, and become as little children,” we are not to understand, as though our Lord would insinuate, that little children are perfectly innocent; but in a comparative, and as I shall show you by and by, in a rational sense. Little children are innocent, compare them with grown people; but take them as they are, and as they come into the world, they have hearts that are sensual, and minds which are carnal. And I mention this with the greatest concern, because I verily believe, unless parents are convinced of this, they will never take proper care of their children’s education. If parents were convinced, that children’s hearts were so bad as they are, you would never be fond of letting them go to balls, assemblies, and plays, the natural tendency of which is to debauch their minds, and make them the children of the devil. If parents were convinced of this, I believe they would pray more, when they bring their children to be baptized, and would not make it a mere matter of form. And I believe, if they really were convinced, that their children were conceived in sin, they would always put up that petition, before their children came into the world, which I have heard that a good woman always did put up, “Lord Jesus, let me never bear a child for hell or the devil.” O! is it not to be feared, that thousands of children will appear, at the great day, before God, and in presence of angels and men will say, Father and mother, next to the wickedness of mine own heart, I owe my damnation to your bad education of me.

We will continue this message from George Whitefield next Sunday, on Christian Holiness Sunday.

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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.

Source

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32

We are continuing a study this week about how a person’s life is changed when they accept Christ as their Savior. One thing that should occur is that the believe is exposed to or taught that Christ is absolute Truth. We are looking at truth and relativism today on Christian Holiness Daily.

Ravi Zacharias is perhaps the world’s greatest defender of the Christian faith. He speaks much about Absolute Truth. True freedom, he says, comes from knowing the truth. What is the source of that truth, if it is not God, Himself?

It is the demise of the belief in absolute truth that has sent the world as we know it into destruction. If nothing is true then all things are relative. If all things are relative, then they’re only value is perceived, a matter of perspective. If I assign no value to the life of the unborn, then what is the harm in killing them. If I assign no value to the life of an infant, then could I not abort them as well? Believe it or not but that is the question being asked on many college campuses. Why do mass shootings occur? One possible answer is because, for many people, there is no absolute truth on which to build our lives. People are of no value in such a society because no one has told them the absolute truth about the intrinsic value of life, and no one has taught the masses about God’s love for each and every one of them.

A similar problem exists in our churches today. Because there is no absolute truth, there can be no such thing as sin. Therefore, many pastors no longer preach about sin. As a result, many young people believe they can live any way they want and God is okay with it. Many adults – who know better – have become calloused to their conscience and choose to ignore the truth. Because sin, like truth, has fallen by the wayside, the church no longer resembles the church of yesteryear. The Old Testament and large portions of the New are never preached. Parishioners are never disciplined. Churches that were once considered radical for housing a coffee shop are now meeting in breweries. Sexual perversion and other unspeakable sins now rule the lives of church leaders. What was once wrong is right. What was once right is wrong.

All because we believe God is too loving and kind to hold people accountable to right and wrong.

There is yet another result of relativism that few people perceive or discuss and if you miss this, you miss the entire point of this essay:

Many people look at the Church and wonder how they can act so hateful and narrow-minded. Why are Christians who claim to believe in a God of love so quick to hate?

Because they have never experienced grace. Follow me here.

• They have never been taught truth
• They have never been told that they are living in sin.
• As a result they have never repented of sin.
• And therefore, have never found forgiveness.
• And never experienced the grace of God.
• So they cannot share the grace of God with others.
• Healing in the church will not occur until the full Gospel is preached far and wide.
• Can the truth set us free? Yes it can and will, and if your read that verse in its context, you will understand how.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

• Abide in Word.

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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.

Source

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.” – Luke 6:22-23.

The church to which I belong is part of the Holiness Movement, which at one time was dubbed “holy rollers” because of the emotion expressed in worship services. Please don’t get this confused with Pentecostals who practice speaking in tongues. The holiness churches of yesteryear dressed conservatively, worshiped liberally (with shouting, praising, marching, and much weeping). Churches within holiness denominations grew like wildfire a century ago because they were sincere, prayerful, loving, ministered to the poor, and they were bold in their praise of God.

While certainly not true of every church in the holiness movement, pastors would walk the aisles, preach at a shout, point fingers, raise their hands and emphasize the second work of grace, emphasize holy living, and emphasize “praying through.” Those who attended such services could rarely remain quiet. Shouts of “glory, praise be, amen, and hallelujah!” abounded.

Those upon whom the Spirit fell could be seen marching around the sanctuary like the children of Israel around Jericho, weeping at the altar for hours on end, and leaping for joy.

To cast a wide net, I assert that one would be hard pressed to identify a holiness church by the clothing of its congregation, the message of its pastor or the actions of those on attendance on Sunday mornings.

Today, many – though certainly not all – pastors give uplifting inspirational messages that rarely mention the holiness doctrines. Pastors are too sophisticated to walk the aisles and shout. They rarely get emotional. Experts teach them that things are not done that way today. Such behavior, according to the experts, turn people away. Preachers, then become lecturers, motivational speakers, and resist the leading of God.

Those in attendance rarely voice an amen or hallelujah for fear that others will stare and judge.

Yet, Christ tells us in the Beatitudes that if we follow him we will be persecuted. If we are persecuted, He continues, we should leap for joy, because we will be rewarded in heaven.

When was the last time you leaped for joy? I’m not talking about bouncing during a mind-numbing praise song, rather when did you last shout or leap for joy at the delivery of the Gospel.

I am not one to advocate emotions over worship, but Christ tells us to praise Him, so I encourage you to rejoice over all He has done for you. And if the Spirit moves, shout and leap for joy. Let them call us holy rollers.
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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.

Source

Marks of a True Conversion

I suppose I may take it for granted, that all of you, among whom I am now about to preach the kingdom of God, are fully convinced, that it is appointed for all men once to die, and that ye all really believe that after death comes the judgment, and that the consequences of that judgment will be, that ye must be doomed to dwell in the blackness of darkness, or ascend to dwell with the blessed God, for ever and ever.

I may take it for granted also, that whatever your practice in common life may be, there is not one, though ever so profligate and abandoned, but hopes to go to that place, which the scriptures call Heaven, when he dies. And, I think, if I know any thing of mine own heart,
my heart’s desire, as well as my prayer to God, for you all, is, that I may see you sitting down in the kingdom of our heavenly Father. But then, though we all hope to go to heaven when we die, yet, if we may judge by people’s lives, and our Lord says, “that by their fruits we may know them,” I am afraid it will be found, that thousands, and ten thousands, who hope to go to this blessed place after death, are not now in the way to it while they live.

Though we call ourselves Christians, and would consider it as an affront put upon us, for any one to doubt whether we were Christians or not; yet there are a great many, who bear the name of Christ, that yet do not so much as know what real Christianity is. Hence it is, that if you ask a great many, upon what their hopes of heaven are founded, they will tell you, that they belong to this, or that, or the other denomination, and part of Christians, into which Christendom is now unhappily divided.

If you ask others, upon what foundation they have built their hope of heaven, they will tell you, that they have been baptized, that their fathers and mothers, presented them to the Lord Jesus Christ in their infancy; and though, instead of fighting under Christ’s banner, they have been fighting against him, almost ever since they were baptized, yet because they have been admitted to church, and their names are in the register book of the parish, therefore they will make us believe, that their names are also written in the book of life. But a great many, who will not build their hopes of salvation upon such a sorry rotten foundation as this, yet if they are, what we generally call, negatively good people; if they live so as their neighbors cannot say that they do anybody harm, they do not doubt but they shall
be happy when they die; nay, I have found many such die, as the scripture speaks, “without any hands in their death.”

And if a person is what the world calls an honest moral man, if he does justly, and, what the world calls, love a little mercy, is not and then good-natured, reacheth out his hand to the poor, receives the sacrament once or twice a year, and is outwardly sober and honest; the world looks upon such an one as a Christian indeed, and doubtless we are to judge charitably of every such person. There are many likewise, who go on in a round of duties, a model of performances, that think they shall go to heaven; but if you examine them, though they have a Christ in their heads, they have no Christ in their hearts.

The Lord Jesus Christ knew this full well; he knew how desperately wicked and deceitful men’s hearts were; he knew very well how many would go to hell even by the very gates of heaven, how many would climb up even to the door, and go so near as to knock at it, and yet after all be dismissed with a “verily I know you not.” The Lord, therefore, plainly tells us, what great change must be wrought in us, and what must be done for us, before we can have any well-grounded hopes of entering into the kingdom of heaven. Hence, he tells Nicodemus, “that unless a man be  born again, and from above, and unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And of all the solemn declarations of our Lord, I mean with respect to this, perhaps the words of the text are one of the most solemn, “except, (says Christ) ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

The words, if you look back to the context, are plainly directed to the disciples; for we are told, “that at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus.” And I think it is plain from many parts of Scripture, that these disciples, to whom our Lord addressed himself at this time, were in some degree converted before. If we take the words strictly, they are applicable only to those, that have already gotten some, though but weak, faith in Christ. Our Lord means, that though they had already tasted the grace of God, yet there was so much of the old man, so much indwelling sin, and corruption, yet remaining in their hearts, that unless they were more converted than they were, unless a greater change past upon their souls, and sanctification was still carried on, they could give but very little evidence of their belonging to his kingdom, which was not to be set up in outward grandeur, as they supposed, but was to be a spiritual kingdom, begun here, but completed in the kingdom of God hereafter. But though the words had a peculiar reference to our Lord’s disciples; yet as our Lord makes such a declaration as this in other places of Scripture, especially in the discourse to Nicodemus, I believe the words may be justly applied to saints and sinners; and as I suppose there are two sorts of people here, some who know Christ, and some of you that do not know him, some that are converted, and some that are strangers to conversion, I shall endeavor so to speak, that if God shall be pleased to assist me, and to give you an hearing ear and an obedient heart, both saints and sinners may have their portion.

Source

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.

Source

The oldest business in the USA is not the Hartford Courant Newspaper, established in 1764, 254 years ago. It is not the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, Roller Mill in, established 293 years ago in 1725. The oldest business in the USA is not even White House Tavern established in 1673 in Newport, Rhode Island. 345 years old. The oldest business in the US is found in Charles City, Virginia.

Established in 1613, the Shirley Plantation has been run for 405 years by the same family. The beautiful farm, the childhood home of Robert E Lee’s mother, is today an National Historic Landmark. The bottom floor of the home is used only for tours. The Hill Carter family occupies the upper floors.

We are discussing the word established today on Christian Holiness Daily.

This week and next we are looking at salvation and how Good changes the lives of those who are saved. We’ve been drilling down into Colossians 2:6-7, which reads

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

We’ve talked about being rooted, deep and wide, like a tree. We’ve talked about being renovated or built up. Today we look at the word “established.” Established in the faith.

What does it means to be established? Notice I’m not asking how one goes about establishing something – a business, for example. To establish something is the active sense of the word. The Greek word translated established here in Colossians – like the words translated rooted and built – is a passive word. We were established. It is something imparted to us.

It is saying, “The Hartford Courant was established in 1764” as opposed to saying, Thomas Green established the Hartford Courant.

Paul, a gifted Greek writer choose three tenses for this verse, something we would normally not catch. If it was important to Paul, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to choose three tenses, then we should try to figure out why. The first clause, “As you received Christ Jesus the Lord is past perfect tense. It is done. It is a fact. It is over. We received Him, the Lord. It was a one-time event that need not redoing because He never leaves us or forsakes us.

As I said already, the words rooted, built up, and established are passive, and they speak to us about sanctification. Because they are passive, we know that Paul does not imply that the Colossians Church rooted themselves. They did not build themselves up. They did not establish themselves. Rather God rooted the in faith. God built them up. God established them in faith. And He established us, roots us, and builds us up in Christ, as He explains that it is God who established us in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22.

So what does the Greek word mean that is translated here as established? It can also mean to be attested.

So, God has given us Jesus as Lord. He had rooted us so that we may not be toppeled or fall. He has built us up, perfecting our love and our faith. And he has established us, attesting that we are His.

Do you see a trend. These verses speak to our salvation and the sanctification that follows, but it is all about Him. Our job is only to allow Him to work in us.

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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.

Source

Beverly Sinclair was a spinster heiress who lived in a mansion of enormous size during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is the main character in a short story I wrote a few years ago. She was considered eccentric by folks who knew her, a spooky old witch by children, and foolish by most. Foolish because she – who never married and had no close family – lived with her three cats alone in a 42-room palatial home.

What made her eccentric was that the home wasn’t always so big. When she inherited her fortune from her father, the home was a impressive Victorian-style home with five bedrooms, a parlor, kitchen, dining room, basement, and three bathrooms. Over the years, she added two more wings to the home, including a gymnasium, indoor pool, sunroom, library, two additional kitchens, three formal dining rooms, two more parlors, ten more bedrooms and eleven bathrooms. She would build something one year and tear it down the next. She was never happy with the work, and always improving on it.

It was said that old lady Sinclair, as she was known, kept the same general contractor employed her entire life and that she would never hire anyone else to do the work. She hired him first in 1889 and he was still working on the place when she died in 1943.

Long after she died a girl from the local historical society discovered in her journals that Sinclair had been in love with the contractor but had never told him because she was married. He was the reason she had never married. Hiring him to renovate the home was the only way she could see him. Renovations continued until the day she died.

I did not write the story as an analogy of the Christian life, but when I read Colossians 2:6 and thought of the word built this story came to mind. Our walk with Christ is much the same as this story. When Christ saves us he goes to work on us, tearing out the old and building the new, adding a room here and testing down a room there. He loves us too much to allow us to live a dark, putrid life and we love Him enough to let Him enough to keep working.

Colossians 2:6 reads this way:

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith

The word built in that verse is passive, we do not go build ourselves. Christ builds us and perfects us and does not stop working on us until death. Why? He is building and perfecting His body, His home, die He dwells in us, according to Acts 17:24. We are the temple not built by human hands. What then are we to do in this whole process? Allow Him to continue to work in us. Do not quench the Spirit of God (1 Thessalonians 5:19, Ephesians 6:30).

Besides, how can we, mere humans, expect to improve on what God builds?
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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.

Source

When my children were young I would often find extra work to supplement the income of my full-time job. One weekend, I agreed to clean leaves out of a yard, which led to a job the next weekend at the same location. I would be taking down a tree.

I had never cut down a tree by myself but I managed it pretty well. A few days later, the same people asked me to remove the tree stump. How hard could that be? I agreed.

I spent the next two or three weekends digging and cutting and chopping, until, at last, I was ready to tie the stump to a rope and pull it from the ground with my little Ford Courier pickup.

That did not go well. I tugged and pulled, smoking my tires, and straining my clutch, until something gave. It wasn’t the stump that I felt give. It was the rope snapping, the end of which whipped across the truck and shattered the back sliding window.

I never got that stump removed. Instead I cut it off at ground level. A few years later, shoots of green sporting fourth from that stump and began to grow. What the homeowners had thought dead was rooted so deep and so wide that it could not be removed, and it could not be killed.

Those who trust in God for their salvation are given a measure of faith that leads to discipline, compelling us to walk hand-in-hand with our Lord. Consequently, we are rooted in His love, built-up in His grace, and established in the faith. Once we understand that, we cannot help but give Him all thanks and all praise.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.” – Colossians 2:6-7 ESV

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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.

Source

Blessed are the Meek.

Meek – We are to find the term by its application to character. We find there is no one thing that is so exalted and so insisted upon, or so held up as the crowning glory of Christian life as meekness. Perhaps it is because it is not simply one thing but a blending of many things.

Jesus Christ applies it to Himself as making up much of His character, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.” Paul in writing to the Corinthians said, “Now, I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” and in writing to Titus, He makes a very touching appeal to the church. There were many things they should not do, and many things they should do, in the trying condition in which they were placed, the sum of which was that they should show of all meekness and to all men.

One of the elements of meekness is humility. Humility is essentially a Christian virtue. It is not simply an absence of pride and arrogance, but an adjustment of our feelings toward others which comes from having been made a partaker of the Spirit of Him a who regards every human being as of infinite value.

Humility is not an underestimate of self. No one who properly values others can fail to feel and be thankful for his own relation to God, and for God’s thoughts of him. He realizes his own infinite value in the site of God, that he is one of this great family, all of whom he knows are anxious to serve Jesus.

Gentleness is also an element of meekness. That sweetness of spirit, of touch, that reverence for established usages, a readiness for every good work, speaking the evil of no man.

Meekness is the ability to bear and to endure. That great passive quality by which a man pursues his way regardless of difficulties. It receives the opposition of the enemies without becoming their enemy. It receives the blows of this world without resentment. This does not mean that a meek person is never to contend against the wrong, nor that he is never to resist personal violence. It means that back of all is faith in God, and love to all men.

Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. The earth here means “land” and as reference to the promised land. What the land was to Israel, what it prefigured to the Church of God, is the meaning of this promise. The histories of the Old Testament or full are spiritual lessons for the New. In all of them there is a meaning far deeper into other than what appears on the surface. God has intended that it should be so. He has intended that that these histories should be types of human life and that through them He should be able to pour the light of His love.

Have you ever looked with earnest longing into the Word of God to see if there was a better way? Have you heard the clear statement of God’s Word in reference to the hear being mad holy and even commanded to be holy? Have you heard, “For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Do you wait in the attitude of desire and expectancy? Can you say, with Charles Wesley:

Lord, I believe a rest remains

To all Thy people known,

A rest where pure enjoyment reigns,

And Thou are loved alone.”

Does the hope looking up in you as you wait sing out with these words:

Oh glorious hope of perfect love!

It lifts me up to things above,

It bears on eagles’ wings;

It gives my ravished soul a taste,

And makes me for some moments feast

With Jesus’ priests and kings.

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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.

Source

 1. Christian holiness is not the following of the Ten Commandments. While I truly believe that the Ten Commandments are the basis of good government and holy living, I don’t believe that following those commandments make one holy. Obedience to those commandments may make one morally strong, it will not make one pure. Holiness is not a life full of “Thou Shalts” and “Thou Shalt Nots,” rather such commandments serve to chain us, enslave us.

2. Christian holiness is not about obeying church bylaws. Rules and regulations within the church are fluid, changing from denomination to denomination, from generation to generation. As a boy, I visited a revival service where the evangelist preached that if we had not spoken in tongues today, we had likely lost our salvation. I can list dozens of rules that were once written in church manuals that have now fallen by the wayside. I realize now that what passed for Christian holiness then was nothing more than a struggle to maintain cultural norms in a changing society.

3. Christian holiness is not about church attendance. I understand wanting to be at church at every opportunity. Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night services once were the norm for a Christian in American culture. But, being in church every time the door is open does not make one holy.

4. Christian holiness is not about serving or tithing. I believe in giving of both my money and my time, but neither of those make one holy. One cannot be holy by what one does. Holiness is not about service, actions, church attendance, tithing, or keeping the rules.

Face it, it is impossible for sinful, fallible humans live a life of Christian holiness. You may as well give up and stop trying.

It is simply impossible for a human to be holy. There is only one who is holy: Jesus Christ. It seems a paradox, but the first step to Christian holiness is the realization that you can never achieve it. The second step is the absolute surrender of your will to Christ. The next step is building a relationship with the one who created you, died for you, and was raised from the dead for you. Only an active, ongoing, daily walk with Christ can lead to holiness. Do you want to live the life of Christ? Then spend every moment that you can in prayer. Do you want others to see Christ through you? Then praise Him with every breath you take. Do you want to know what it means to really be Christ-like? Then devote your life to God’s Word.

Christ says in Luke 10.27 there are only two commandments that matter: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”

Those two commandments will be the focus of this blog.
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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.

Source

We have looked, this week, at some incredibly difficult passages of scripture where we find people who have presented themselves to Christ only to hear words of warning from Jesus about the cost of following Him. From those passages, we have learned that salvation does not mean saying a certain prayer and then go on like nothing has changed. If we truly believe in Jesus, we will follow Him. Believing in Him means we give ourselves to Him even into the point of death, if it comes to that. Jesus tells us there is a cost to salvation beyond the price that He paid. Now we address the question, “Why would we want to offer our lives to Jesus?” Today on Christian Holiness Daily.

Why should anyone follow Christ? Because the alternative is eternal separation from His love. Because the alternative is eternal separation from all love. Because without Christ we will be eternally separated from all that is good, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is comforting.

I follow Christ because He loved me before He even set the earth spinning on its axis. Because He died for me even though I am a filthy sinner. I love God because He first loved me.

Before I gave myself to God, I lived a life of sin, but i believed I was a Christian. I had said the sinners prayer. I believed in Christian. I believed in Jesus. I knew He is God made flesh, born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven. I believed all that, but I still lived a life of filthy sin. I was on the path that C. S. Lewis called the “safest road to hell.” It is the gradual road, never too steep. It has no road signs that identify it. But the end of the road is eternal hellfire.

After I gave myself to Christ, if I strayed from the path I discovered all kinds of road signs; there was no doubt that I had strayed. God loves His children too much to allow them to wander too far before calling them back to His side.

A couple weeks ago, I talked about Hebrews 6 and said that so long as a Christian does not turn his or her back on God and stop believing, they cannot lose salvation. This is true. Now, today, I am saying that if one believes he or she will follow Christ with total surrender, counting everything else as loss. How, you may wonder do I justify that? How can both be true, you may wonder.

I think here is where we need to define what it means to believe. If one truly believes, one will follow Christ. If one then follows Christ, they get to know their Creator, walk with Him, talk with Him, then they cannot help but change. They cannot avoid being filled with His love. That doesn’t mean they cannot sin. That doesn’t mean they cannot turn back. It does mean that if they do sin, their sin is already forgiven. If they do turn back, the Holy Spirit will hunt them down and call them back home.

I willingly surrender my life to God no matter what the cost because He is a loving Father who wants to spend time with me, His son.

Monday we begin a conversation about how salvation changes our lives. Don’t miss The Best of Christian Holiness Daily tomorrow. And tune in to Christian Holiness Sunday for classic works of old time holiness preachers and writers.
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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.

Source

Eritrea is called the North Korea of Africa. Cut out of the north end of Ethiopia, it is squeezed between Sudan and Djibouti on the Red Sea. It began its struggle to break away from Ethiopia in the 1960s and spent most of the next 50 years at war with that nation. The tiny nation has seen so much war that, for two years, it was responsible for the majority of refugees entering Europe. Even though the country has known peace in the past few years, its government – like that of North Korea – is so repressive, over 3% of its population has fled country.

Like most authoritarian nations, the elite grow obscenely wealthy, the masses starve, and the a dictator wrestles for control of freedoms, including freedom of religion. In Eritrea, about half the people are Islamic and the other half are Christian, but only three Christian churches are recognized: The Catholic Church, the Orthodox (Coptic) Church, and the Lutherans. All others are illegal.

Other churches may register with the government, but registration is such a complicated, lengthy, and invasive processes that the independent church registration has ground to a halt.

Many churches, then, meet in secret, illegally.

The Voice of the Martyrs just released the story of a worship leader in Eritrea – Helen Bethany – who was arrested for her participation in an outlawed church. She was imprisoned for 10 months, kept locked in a shipping container with a severely mentally handicapped woman. The woman physically abused her.

In spite of her imprisonment in such harsh conditions, Helen sang and prayed throughout the ordeal, even when guards beat her for it. She explains why she sang in this quote from The Voice of the Martyrs News, August 14, 2018:

When I was in prison just worshiping, [it] just kind of gave me strength. Also when you sing, it’s a heavy stone on the head of Satan, because he put you in these kind of things and when you start worshiping he is shocked. People don’t understand when something happen they close their door and cry … so he comes with other kind of [trials] or you repeat the same exam.

But when you start worshiping God … it is totally no space for Satan to attack you again and again.

What does following Jesus cost you? Your very life. Jesus tells us to consider the cost before we commit to Him, for we must give Him that which we love most: everything that we are, everything that we do, and everything that we ever hope to be. The cost is the commitment of our entire life. Our life is His to use as He pleases or to take as He wishes, for only He sees it from the unique perspective of the all-knowing creator of life. It is His breath in these lungs that I so foolishly consider my own. Who am I to argue with the very essence of life? All that I am is His.

My Tribute – by Andre’ Crouch

How can I say thanks for the things

You have done for me?

Things so undeserved yet You gave

To prove Your love for me

The voices of a million angels

Could not express my gratitude

All that I am, and ever hope to be

I owe it all to Thee

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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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Look at this verse:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:27

What are we to make of that? Those are pretty strong words? What of the ABCs of salvation? Accept Christ into your heart. Believe in the name of Jesus. Confess your sins. Where is Hate your family in the ABCs?

Now, before we go further I want to state up front – as I have in previous episodes that I am not advocating salvation by works. You and I can do nothing to make our sinful souls and mortal bodies worthy of heaven. Only by relying on the virgin birth, sinless life, sacrificial death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ may we find eternal life. I am simply telling you the old 20th century teaching of “Freely Given, Freely Received” is wrong. There is a cost to you and I if we wish to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

What is that cost? That’s not for me to say. It is different for each and every believer. Yet, Jesus tells us to plan for it. In the next breath, immediately telling us we need to hate our family to be worthy of following Him, he tells us to count the cost.

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him… Luke 14:28-29.

He uses another analogy as well:

…what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

So, let me lay out what serve learned so far. There is a cost to salvation, a great cost it would seem, a tremendous cost. But we don’t know what it is up front because it may be different for every believer. Yet, Jesus warns His followers to be prepared to pay for it. To count the costs before following Him. What are we missing?

Maybe, we may hope, there is a difference between simply finding salvation and following Christ? In other words, I just want to be counted in for the part of the plan where I go to heaven, but I don’t want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, not if it means such a high price to pay. I’m sorry… I don’t see that option in the Bible.

Jesus told the lame man whom he found in the Temple, “Go and sin no more.” He told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more.” He told the rich man, “sell everything you own and give it to the poor.” He told the scribe, essentially, “Give up your cushy bed in your luxurious home.” What is he telling you?

What does it cost you to follow Christ? He tells us the answer in Luke. 14:27 reads:

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

What does the cross represent? It represents death. The cost of flirting Christ is your life. Don’t believe it? Jump down to the end of that chapter and read verse 33:

So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What price are you willing to pay, and why would we? We’ll look at those questions yet this week on Christian Holiness Daily.

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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.

Source

Yet salvation does have a price. Of course we know that Jesus Himself paid the price, because nothing short of the death, burial, and resurrection of God could pay the price for the sins of the entire world …Because nothing we could do could ever earn our way into heaven.

Yet, Christ speaks of a cost. Think of the story of the Rich Young Ruler as it is found in the synoptic gospels (MT 19:16-30; MK10:17-31; LK18:18-30). The young man asks Jesus what must he do to attain eternal life. Jesus answers that he must keep all of the commandments.

The young man answers that he has done exactly that. Jesus then tells him, “Sell everything you own and give the money to the poor and the come and follow me.” The young man considers the cost and declines, going away sad. Why did he decline? The Bible tells us that he declined because he was very wealthy.

Why did Jesus answer this way? Well many Bible commentaries tell us that Jesus was talking about two different things: eternal life on the one hand and the Kingdom of God in the other. I don’t buy that because Christ does not trifle with one’s soul. If the man had not understood, Christ would have clarified.

Other commentators tell us that the passage is hyperbole. That Jesus didn’t really expect the man to sell everything and give it to the poor to be worthy to follow after Him. He only needed, some claim, to stop loving his material goods more than he loves Jesus. He could’ve, in reality, they say, continue to possess his goods and followed Jesus anyway.

Others tell us that we miss the entire point when Christ tells us that it is impossible with man, but all things are possible with God. And here we get closer to the truth.

Now we know that neither selling everything we own and giving it to the poor nor keeping the commandments is enough to get you into heaven. Nor does Christ tell us that everyone must give all they own to the poor.

Let’s take a look at other passages that speak of the price of salvation. At one point a scribe – a scholar dedicated to accurately copying Scripture – tells Jesus that he will follow Him as His disciple. Christ replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

The Bible doesn’t directly state this but implies that the scribe, like the Rich Young Ruler, left disappointed.

Another follower asked to leave Jesus to go to his father’s funeral. Jesus answered, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

That seems harsh, but Jesus never once said it would be easy to follow Him.

And with that last sentence I just lost half my audience. Many of those who remain are saying “What about John 3:16?”

Well let’s take a look at John 3:16 in the larger context of the entire chapter. We have lived so long with the term “born again” that we fail to recognize it’s significance. Sure, Christ says that everyone who believes will be saved, but how many of those who follow the prescriptive ABC of salvation really believe? I fear not many, for few can live up to the expectations of the full context of the discourse in John 3. Take a look at verses 19-21.

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

How many who consider themselves Christians actually change their direction? How many of them repent?

Christ tells us that we must be born again but he also tells us that we must die to self. In Luke 9:23, he says, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me”

The cross is not a symbol of hardship, like I heard growing up in church (a man I knew speaking of his life as a single father after his wife abandoned him years ago always ended the discussion with the words, “that’s just my cross to bear”). Not at all. The cross is not a symbol of hardship it is a symbol of death. When Jesus said to take up our cross and follow Him, he added a clause to the beginning: “deny yourselves, take up your cross daily and follow me!”

If we are to be born again we must also die to our own self. Christ does not tolerate a double-minded person; you should be either hot or cold but not lukewarm.

I have had preachers warn me about this message, the message of repentance. They tell me that, were they me, they would be scared of turning away seekers from the altar. I preached at a church three Sundays ago and preached on repentance. Another preacher was in the congregation that morning. He was scheduled to preach the following Sunday. When he did preach, he looked me in the eye from the pulpit and said that it is enough that people accept Jesus, believe in their hearts, and confess their sins. It is up to God to convict them enough to repent. I worry that preachers like him are convincing many sinners they are saved because they said a solitary prayer but never really repent and trust in Christ. Their lives show no fruit of the Spirit.

What does it cost to follow Christ? Just our very self.

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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.

Source

NOT everything happens in the world just as God wishes. When people say, “Whatever is, is best,” they cannot really mean what they say, or they mean it with certain conditions and reservations which filch the literal meaning from the words. 

The writer met a friend one day, a minister, returning from a funeral. Even allowing for the sad errand which had occupied his mind, he seemed peculiarly low-spirited. “I have just buried a child,” he said, “and the child’s father is under arrest for manslaughter. Last Saturday evening, it seems, he came home drunk, clambered into the bed where his wife and the little one were asleep, and in his fuddled condition pushed the baby out of bed. It fell and, as it fell, the child’s head struck the fender. In the gray light of the next morning they found the little body cold and dead upon the floor. The police were called, of course, and the father is in prison awaiting his trial. 

“But that wasn’t the whole of it,” my friend went on. “After the interment, one of the mourners, trying to make a little pious talk in the parson’s presence, said, ‘Ah well! It can’t be helped, I suppose. It was the will of God.’ “The will of God?” said my friend bitterly. “That wasn’t the will of God. God could never have wished that that dear child be pushed to death by a drunken brute. It was a horrible travesty of all that God would have wished for the little one.” 

As we parted, I turned the old problem over in my mind again. What happens to the guidance of God when calamity comes? Calamity isn’t always the outcome of obvious sin. It overtakes the saints. Untimely death has nipped the life of the noblest souls, and not death merely, but death through agonizing pain. Disaster, like the rain, falls on the just and the unjust. The horror of it strikes one dumb, and when speech returns, a tempest of questions rises to the lips. Does God guide us? Is there knowledge in the Most High? Does he lead us to the lip of a calamity and leave us to fall in? The problem demands an attempt at an answer because any day might thrust it on our notice again and because it challenges faith. If anguish comes, can doubt be far behind? 

God’s will, we believe, for his children, is the perfection of their characters and their ultimate bliss, but the cast of our inherited nature and the conditions of a sin-spoiled world do not allow an easy path to that great end. God therefore permits the woes of life to press upon us; the consequences of our own sin, and sometimes the sin of others; the consequences of our carelessness and ignorance, and the carelessness and ignorance of others. The loss of the Titanic was due to reckless racing through an ice-field, and the death-roll was lengthened by the fact that she only carried boat accommodation for 1,200 people, though the passengers and crew totaled 2,293. It was a compound of pride and criminal folly. But W. T. Stead was among the passengers, going to America in the interests of world peace and to take part in the “Men and Religion Forward Movement.” He was drowned. 

Yet God meets us in every situation, hears the cry which our bleeding hearts fling to him, and bears with us when, in bitterness, we question his restraint, deny his love, and doubt his existence. Granted a willing and responsive heart in us, he can so turn tragedy to triumph, and loss to gain, that men have even believed that he sent the pain and devised the disaster, so marvelously does he bring good out of evil. Think how closely joy and pain are interwoven in the fabric of our human lives. Our achievements in love measure our capacity for pain. Before I knew my friend or cared for him, his doings were of no account to me. He could pass me in the street with a frozen stare, I did not mind. He did not sympathize with me in my trouble, and I did not miss his sympathy. When success came to me, he sent no congratulations, but it did not make me grave. We were outside each other’s circle and we had no sense of lack. But when I learned to love my friend, I armed him with the power to wound me deeply. I put a weapon in his hand and exposed my heart to its bare point. The more I loved, the more he could wound. If he ignores me now, I am hurt. If he denies his sympathy, I miss it. If he lapses into sin, I share the shame. Love has made me vulnerable, it has exposed me to pain, because pain and love are inextricably interwoven in the only kind of life we know. 

When calamity has us in its grip, even this strong thought is not enough of itself. We look the ugly intruder in the face, feel its power to steal the joy from half our life, and cast our querulous inquiries at God, demanding to know why it had to be. In that hour the safeguarding of our freedom doesn’t seem enough. In our bewilderment we feel that a loving God would find effective discipline some easier way. We look at him through mists of tears and wonder if, in his greatness, he really feels our woe. Then it is that our Lord comes and shows us his feet, his hands, his side, and if there were a tongue in every wound of Jesus, we know what it would say: “/ have suffered!” Then it is that we feel with ‘Emerson how nigh is grandeur to our dust, how near is God to man. He has suffered. He does not simply reign in some far-off splendor, untroubled by our woe. 

“Jesus knows all about our struggles. 
He will guide till the day is done.” 

The whole story of the Passion is rich in its power to bless. We go with Him into Gethsemane and feel, even when our own sorrow is most vivid to our thought, that we have not drunk the cup of bitterness so deep as this. In all the dark mystery of it, the shadows seem never so dark as they do in Gethsemane. The word “agony” is used of our Lord only in the Garden. He was master of himself from the kiss of Judas till he cried with a loud voice and gave up his spirit. But in the garden….agony…the bloody sweat…the pleading prayer. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” So he prays, “first on his feet: and then on his knees: and then on his face.” He knows it all: deeper, further than any of us. Beside his agony, our own seems to shrink. “And every cross grows light beneath the shadow, Lord, of thine.” 

Then the voices through the trees and the gleaming lanterns. Judas and his leprous kiss. Poor Peter dragging the sword from beneath his garment and taking a blow at the nearest. He meant it for his head but it only got his ear. The shouts, the trampled undergrowth, the scared disciples, and the inquisitive mob. 

But Jesus is master of the situation again. His will is perfectly attuned with the Father’s. He is going right on by way of the cross. Turning on Peter, he ordered the sword back into its sheath and broke their last hopes of spectacular conquest. He would not appeal to force. “Thinkest thou that I cannot beseech my Father, and he shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels?” But he would not call them. He was taking the long way, but the only possible way, the way of love, and no pain would turn him back. Never had his Father broken the rule of the ages and bludgeoned his way into the unwilling hearts of men. Jesus would not ask him to do it now. There was no discord in these wills so perfectly attuned. He would conquer sin with love. He would make the cross a throne. He would use the shame and pain and humiliation of it to expose the very heart of God, and sin would not triumph : it would be but a dark background revealing, by contrast, the wonder of that love. So he takes the cross, not of compulsion, not by mere submission or resignation, but willingly. 

And when we see him there, we have our greatest aid to understanding how the calamities of life can be wrested to our soul’s use, and the use of others. He takes it willingly. His arms are not merely stretched upon it: they are wound around it. He holds it to him. He does not merely suffer it, he employs it. And so the symbol of shame becomes the focus point of glory. 

In that same willing spirit he desires that we meet, and use, the calamities of life that overtake us. An evil that can be put right must be resisted. The call of a situation that can be corrected is not easy acquiescence but spirited opposition. But those are not the problems we are considering now. There is a finality about bereavement, an amputated limb, an incurable disease, a lost fortune. The real crosses of life have to be borne. Can you bear the cross willingly? That will change it from a weight into wings: it cannot crush you: you rise by it. 

“So by my woes to be Nearer, my God, to thee, 
Nearer to thee!” 

Through the shadows he guides still and converts the loss into gain, working out of our folly and mistakes something which will be worthy of the price pain has paid. 

So we believe. They shall be made, by the wisdom of God, the basis on which he will build blessings. Our sins and our mistakes! Even the saddest of our mistakes : the ones we made when we listened for his guiding voice but did not quite succeed in disentangling it from the voice of self-love. He will build a blessing on it, and in the light of heaven the mysteries will be solved, the gains of our losses made clear, and fullest scope be found for the disciplined abilities we have developed on earth. 

“Then shall I see and hear and know 
All I desired and wished below, 
And every power find sweet employ 
In that eternal world of joy.” 

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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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Levitical law separated the leper from the rest of society; lepers lived at a distance, never again to touch their loved ones, or to speak with them intimately. Never again could they hug their children or kiss their spouse.

Leprosy is highly contagious, and is spread by skin contact and through water droplets, like a cough or sneeze or a runny nose. Leprosy attacks the central nervous system, but its symptoms appear as tumors and disfigurement of the flesh and bone. Fingers twist in unnatural ways; hands become claws, and arms and legs become useless over time. The life of a leper is a painful and sad.

Lepers suffered so greatly that people in the time of Jesus naturally assumed that the afflicted must be paying for some terrible sin. And, why wouldn’t they think that? Two thousand years later, many of us still believe that way, to some extent.

It was near the end of His ministry when Jesus, passing through an unnamed village between Samaria and Jerusalem, was called on by ten such lepers. In keeping with the Law, they called from a distance.  “Master, have mercy on us!”

His answer may seem strange to us, but that is only because we don’t live under the Law. “Go, and show yourselves to the priests.” Before a leper could rejoin society, he or she must have been certified to be free of the disease by a priest.

The Bible doesn’t say for sure, but I imagine an expression or two of doubt on the faces of the lepers, and perhaps a few questions among them. Still, they obeyed Him.

And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

– Luke 17:19

The healing must have been slow and progressive, rather than instantaneous. Before the lepers arrived at the Temple or synagogue, they found themselves healed. One of them – just one – was so grateful that he turned back to thank Jesus before he had made it to see the priest.

So grateful was he that he fell at the Master’s feet and worshiped Him.

“Didn’t I heal 10 people?” said Jesus. Of course, He knew the answer. “Where are the other 9? Only one has found it in his heart to return and praise God, and He is a Samaritan.” Christ once again reminded His followers that their prejudice against their neighbors is simply wrong.

“Get up, He tells the Samaritan. “Arise and go your way. Your faith has made you whole.”

The leper’s mission had changed. Before turning around to express his gratitude to Jesus, his mission had been to go see the priests. Now, healed and made whole, he received new inductions from Christ… to go his own way.

“You are made whole.”

And, here’s my point. Those who experience a real encounter with Christ are made whole, spiritually whole; theirs lives are renewed and made complete and they simply cannot continue to go on living like they once had. They are compelled to follow Jesus. Their missions change. Christ directs them in a different direction. They receive a change of plans. Theirs hearts have changed. Their entire lives change.

Have you been made whole? If not, you only need ask. Fall at His feet and praise Jesus. Ask Him to change Your heart. Your life will change. Forever.

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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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Grant never sought command over the armed forces Union. He sought only a role commensurate with his West Point training and experience. He was certainly not pro-slavery, but had never taken a stand against it prior to the war. He had – in fact – worked his Missouri farm using slaves that were given to him by his father-in-law. Early in the war, though, he was compelled to take a radical stand. Long before Lincoln freed the slaves, General Grant declared that the nation could remain united only if all men were free. He sought only to lead his troops, but because of his dogged determination and brilliant mind, he soon led the North into new hope and onward toward victory.

Even before Grant defeated Lee, he became a hero. The press followed him everywhere. His likeness appeared on front pages from Washington to Maine. Both Democrats and Republicans talked of nominating him for President in 1864. Congress reinstituted the rank of Lieutenant General to honor him, a rank that was retired after George Washington died. Abraham Lincoln, who had ascertained that Grant abhorred the idea of running for president, concurred with Congress and made Grant General of the Army of the United States. If Grant did not seek greatness, it was certainly thrust upon him.

Though his life is largely forgotten by generations of Americans who can barely describe the Civil War or identify Lincoln, and though his life has been misrepresented in the media, I have to wonder what made him great. Why was Grant a hero and hailed as our country’s savior before he had even set upon the task of vanquishing the Confederate Army in the East?

While one can hardly reduce his appeal to one aspect, the man did possess one quality that stands out in every biography, good or bad, old or new. Even those histories that wrongly portray him as a drunkard mention this one quality as a key to his success. He never gave up.

In the Battle of the Wilderness, in early 1864, Grant – for the first time – faces off in battle against Robert E. Lee. Lee, as brilliant and cunning and determined as Grant, has the advantage of fighting at home. He knows the country, and the terrain. The people of Virginia are Lee’s family and neighbors. They support him. Grant is the invader, far from home, unfamiliar with the country, and faces odds that seem insurmountable. Lesser men than Grant would have fallen back. In fact, other Generals had encountered Lee had previously won victories in the same part of Virginia. Many Union Generals were wary of Lee; all of them respected him. Grant, though, was determined. It was his determination that at him apart from all others and accounted for much of his mass appeal.

Sure, other Union generals were determined, but Grant never faltered, even when the cards were stacked against him. One incident in the Wilderness Campaign illustrates that point. Grants armies were facing off against Lee’s in what is better described as a jungle than a wilderness. Old growth trees, impenetrable undergrowth, unfamiliarity with the lay of the land, fog and smoke were as much an ememy to Union troops as the Confederate soldiers. After initial setbacks, Grant regrouped and began again.

Grant had purposefully been silent, telling Lincoln little about the progress of the battle. One day, though, he discovered a reporter had decided to sneak through the lines to Washington to file a story. Grant called him aside and, in a hushed tone, said, “If you see the President, tell him for me, that whatever happens, there will be no turning back.”

That determined attitude, the short that resolves “No Turning Back,” is one thing missing in the lives of many Christians today. Determination… Discipline… And Faith are all a part of the walk with Christ. If we truly seek the heart and mind of Christ, we must first repent of our sins, trust in Jesus, allow His Spirit to live through us, allow Him to discipline us, and finally determine to follow Him. No turning back.

Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

An old hymn is worth recalling:

I have decided to follow Jesus;

I have decided to follow Jesus;

I have decided to follow Jesus;

No turning back, no turning back.

Tho’ none go with me, still I will follow,

Tho’ none go with me still I will follow,

Tho’ none go with me, still I will follow;

No turning back, no turning back.

My cross I’ll carry, till I see Jesus;

My cross I’ll carry till I see Jesus,

My cross I’ll carry till I see Jesus;

No turning back, no turning back.

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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.

Source

I heard all these euphemisms for death and dying when I was a boy, especially in old movies. I don’t hear so many of them today, or maybe I simply avoid the topic of death. One that I could identify with was the last one, “circling the drain.”

As a child, my brothers and I loved to swim in the Finley River which meandered through the farm where we grew up. Sometimes we would go upstream to Riverdale, an old mill and dam, and float back to our farm. On the way back, we would stop at Blue Hole and swim, for even when waters were shallow, Blue Hole always had enough water to dive and swim. It was inevitable that somewhere along the float trip, conversation would turn to whirlpools.

Whole floating we would sometimes pass a whirlpool, but never the life-threatening sink holes that one found on the James River, the larger stream that lay a few miles down from our farm. The James, it was said, was full of whirlpools that would suck swimmers and boaters to the bottom and drown them. Every year, we heard stories of new drownings.

Turns out the stories are based on facts. There were significant numbers of drownings on the rivers of Southwest Missouri when I was a kid. The whirlpools – the deadly kind – were not just turbulent eddies, but sink holes that opened into underground rivers and caverns. Get near one of those, and it would suck a swimmer straight to the bottom.

Sin acts the same way, for those Christians who are weak in their faith and still flirt with sin, it takes little temptation to lead them into sin. Sin, without fail, leads to eventual death. Sin sucks got right in and – once it has you – there is no escape. It is a bottomless pit that leads to death, a whirlpool from which the is no escape. Sin, when it claps is wicked hands around your throat, does not easily turn loose.

Only Christ can compel sin to loosen is grip on your heart. Only Christ can toss you a life saver.

At a local amusement park in Branson Missouri, there was -in the 1960s – a ride called The Float Trip. On one turn was an artificially constructed whirlpool with a manikan perpetually circling it, as if condemned to an eternity of drowning. The ride has been transformed and renamed. The lifelike dummy is gone now, but the whirlpool remains. Temptation always remains, but Christ can transform you so that you no longer dive into it.

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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.

Source

I had done so much wrong in my life that I was convinced God could never forgive me. I had been such a wicked sinner I had feared that I had crossed a bridge too far. After all, I had been saved, I knew right from wrong, I knew what God expected. I just found that I didn’t want to do what was right. Doing right involved sacrifice, and I didn’t want to sacrifice. It involved giving up control, and I liked being in control. Because I couldn’t see anyway to fix my life, I could not understand how God could fix it. I had no faith. I had no self-discipline. I had no comprehension of the power of God. And I had no grasp of the depth of God’s love.

Here is what I thought I understand. I knew that Hebrews 6 talked about those who sin too much and lose their salvation, or that’s what I believed. I knew that Romans 1 spoke of those who sin so much that God gives them over to a “reprobate mind.” I had read, in Acts 7, the sermon by my namesake, Stephen, that God had once given up on the nation of Israel and turned them over to worship false gods. And, I knew that the psalmist had spoken of that same event in Psalm 81:12.

It was in the Bible. Those people had gone too far, and God had given up on them, turned His back on them, and let them reap the rewards of their sins. I feared I was in the same place as the People of Israel. I didn’t worship a golden calf, but I did worship the idol known as self. God was, I was convinced, angry at me.

Here are the two points that we will be looking at as we continue our study on bondage to sin and freedom from sin through the power of the Holy Spirit.

First, sin is a frightful thing. Its grip on the life of an unbeliever or a weak believer is nothing less than a Vulcan death grip. Sin latches on to your heart and your soul and squeezes you, harder, and harder, and harder, and is not happy until you collapse, dead. If you manage to resist and break the grip, it stalks you, and doesn’t give up until it possesses you once again. It never gives up. Paul describes the wages of sin in Romans 1 as a depraved mind. God – knowing that the people of Israel would not repent – turned them over to the wages of sin, to live with their own bad decisions and willful disobedience, and as a result their minds and souls grew dark, and filled with muck, and the only word to describe them is depraved.

It didn’t have to be that way, though. They had plenty of chances to repent.I had once been convinced that Hebrews 6 tells us that we can lose our salvation by sinning too much. A closer reading reveals that that is not at all the case. Instead it says that we may lose our salvation if we stop believing in Christ the Messiah. I had done many, many things wrong, but I had never stopped believing in Christ, and I had never once thought that there is any other route to heaven but through Him. He is the Way and the Truth and the life. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV).

Sin can take you down. But it is only if you stop believing that your salvation may be in jeopardy. Your good works didn’t earn you salvation (salvation is by faith), so your bad deeds will not lose it for you. Sorry, you are not more powerful than the grace of God.

That Vulcan death grip was a farce. It didn’t work. Dr. McCoy saved the day. Jim wasn’t really dead. Spock showed emotion at the recovery of his captain. And, guess what. There is a cure for the death grip that sin has on your life, too. Confess your sins. Repent of them. And trust in God. It is NOT TOO LATE. 

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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.

Source

While I was thinning corn and preaching to Bud Robinson I could hear my brothers a few hundred yards away as they were plowing cotton. I could hear the rattle of their cultivators, the braying of the mules and the boys driving the teams. But as long as I heard anything that was going on I did not get the blessing. I finally knelt and offered prayer. I tried to consecrate soul, spirit and body. I remember that I stood up and the last thing that I turned loose was my hoe handle. I saw everything I had: my farm, my mules wagons and plows, and the crib of corn, the ricks of hay, and the pen of black hogs, and everything else floating off on the clouds.

I had begun to seek this blessing in 1886 and this was now the second day of June, 1890. There were four years that I had struggled trying to get perfect victory. I had often consecrated all that I had; I would put my mules, cows, hogs, corn and barn, and everything else on the altar and climb up on the pile and ask God to take us all, but that did not bring the victory. Beloved, the blessed old Book says, “Whatsoever touches the altar is made holy,” and I had not touched the altar. There was a stack of hay, and a corn crib, and several big mules between me and the altar, but when I saw everything I had drift away and I was left alone with God in the cornfield it seemed to me I could hear the Lord say, “I will bring everything back and leave it here with you and I will go; or, if everything else goes then I will stay with you.” I said, “Lord, let everything else go.” Then I had that strange, peculiar feeling that God was so close to me that my soul trembled in God’s presence and it seemed that God kindled up a fire in the very bottom of my heart.

The only way that I can describe the feeling is that anger boiled up, and God skimmed it off, and pride boiled up, and God skimmed it off, and jealousy boiled up and God skimmed it off, and envy boiled up and God skimmed it off, until it seemed to me that my heart was perfectly empty. I said, “Lord, there won’t be anything left of me.” God seemed to say, “There will not be much left, but what little there is will be clean.”

When my heart was emptied, then it seemed that a river of peace broke loose in the clouds. It was as sweet as honey and the honeycomb. It flowed into my empty heart until a few minutes later my heart was full and overflowing and the waves of heaven became so great and grand and glorious that it seemed to me that I would die if God did not stay His hand. How little we know about the fullness of God and the greatness of God’s power. Not half an hour before God cleansed me and filled me I had told the Lord that I wanted Him to come with all the power that He had and sanctify me. Then I had told the Lord that very morning that I had read in His Book that if I would bring all the tithes into the storehouse and prove Him He would open the windows of heaven and pour me out a blessing that there would not be room enough to receive it. Out of a hungry heart I had said, “O Lord, you cannot satisfy me with the windows of heaven; you will have to open the doors of heaven to pour out a blessing big enough to satisfy my hungry heart and soul;” but beloved, I did not know how large God’s windows were and how small my heart was. God had never used that language but one time before and at that time God opened windows, of heaven and poured out a flood on the earth. If God’s windows are so large that He can pour out a flood through them, then you can see at a glance that God’s windows are large enough, to pour out a blessing into the heart of one of His believing children to the extent that he cannot receive but little of it. As the waves of heaven rolled over my soul I finally got down on the ground and stretched out and as wave after wave of glory rolled over me, told the Lord that if He didn’t hold up a bit there would be a dead man in the cornfield.
From that day to this I have been convinced that God can kill a man with His glory just as quick as He could kill him with lightning. On one occasion Moses said to the Lord, “Show me thy glory,” and the Lord said, “You cannot see my face and live.” That proves to me that to behold the glory of God would be to look upon His face and no man in the flesh could behold God’s face and His glory and live. Therefore, in order to keep company with God, we will have to be glorified and this mortal will have to put on immortality.
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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.

Source

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.

Source

We’re discussing bondage to sin and freedom from sin this week on Christian Holiness Daily.

The master’s son takes mercy on the slave and purchases him. Upon the slave’s return, the son grants him his freedom and tells him that he has also purchased the freedom of his family.

We learned yesterday that – according to the words of Christ as recorded in John 8:34 – everyone who practices sin is a slave to it.

The Son, though, has purchased our freedom – the Son of God – paid for with His own blood, His own death, and sealed with His resurrection. He has paid the price to set us free from the bondage of sin.

The story is not a perfect analogy, but take a look at the next two verses in John 8, verses 35and 36 (ESV):

The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed

If we are living as slaves to sin, it is because we have not accepted the gift that the Son is offering us, freedom from sin.

If you’re faith in Christ is not sufficient to believe that you can be free of the bonds of sin, do you think it is really sufficient to believe you can be free from the bonds of death?

We believe, God. We believe in the gift Jesus has given us. We believe the Son of God died to pay the price for our sins, that we may be free from sin and death. Lord, help us to 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.

Source

We are continuing our conversation on sin and freedom from sin, on Christian Holiness Daily…

The Morning After (1974 – ABC TV from the novel by Jack B. Weiner, adapted for TV by the legendary Richard Matheson) was an amazing movie, and the first one that presented alcoholism as a real problem, and not simply a comic prop. It is still shown today in rehab centers worldwide. It starred Dick Van Dyke as an alcoholic who could not admit he had a problem. Van Dyke, for those of you too young to remember, was everyone’s favorite TV husband, dad, chimney sweep, and funnyman. When he made The Morning After, no one could accept him – this wholesome TV comic – as an alcoholic. When it became known that he took the role because he closely identified with the character, no one could believe it. I, myself, was devastated, for I had admired the actor tremendously (rather, I admired the characters for which he was known).

The movie portrayed Van Dyke as a businessman who repeatedly drank to excess, picked himself up, promised to never repeat his actions, promised to live on the straight and narrow, and once again falls into the same routine. Get drunk. Hurt those you love. Sober up. Apologize. Stay on the straight and narrow for a few days. Get drunk again. Over and over and over again. From the outside, he looked okay, but those who knew him, saw his problem, and realized that every time he failed, he fell a little harder and a little farther into a black hole from which – someday – he would eventually never return.

Alcoholism, like sexual addiction, gluttony, and a myriad of other sins is just a vicious circle. Alcoholics feel like they are a slave to the drink; they cannot – of their own power – resist the temptation. Jesus characterizes sin well when he says, “Those who practice sin are slaves to it.” Likewise, those who are slaves to sin can do nothing but practice it. According to Jesus, in John 8:34, everyone  who practices sin is a slave to sin. As one who struggled for decades with the same old sins, the same old temptations, the same old struggles, and as one who has rarely won a battle against temptation, I know what it is to be a slave to sin. It is like being bound hand and foot and chained to a chair, to be at the mercy of a diabolical master. It is like one of those movies where a maniacal bad guy threatens to kill the good guy’s family unless he does “exactly as I say.” Living as a slave to sin is watching your perfect Van Dyke-esque life shattering all around you and you can do nothing to stop it.

Only Christ can free us from the sin that imprisons us.

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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.

Source

We are talking this week about bondage to sin and freedom from sin through the Holy Spirit on Christian Holiness Daily.

Of course, I did not suffocate. While the cell was stifling, I had an adequate supply of oxygen. I try not to think about such things when I look back on life, and, at the same time, I don’t want to forget them.

That cell, and the year that I spent locked up after that day, represent to me a life in bondage to sin. There was no humanly way to break free from that cell, just like there was no humanly way to break free from the sins that placed me inside it.

Yet, that year, while locked up, I discovered incredible freedom. I surrendered my life to Christ, learned to pray, and determined to pray continuously. I learned to love God so much that temptation withered away, unable to grow in the bright light of the Son.

Only years later, while sick with cancer, I experienced very much the same thing. It is when we are at our weakest that we are strongest because it is then that Christ fills us with the power of His perfect love.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. If we ask Him to fill us with His Spirit, then we will be free from sin. Free indeed.

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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.

Source

I have received a few messages, though, from people asking how I could say that they are not a good Christian just because they didn’t choose the path of full-time ministry.

I am sorry that I did not make myself clear. You should not go away from here thinking that I don’t believe that Christians should do any work besides preaching or being a missionary. That is not what I am saying, at all. What I am saying is this: Christians cannot separate the sacred from the secular. We are all called to be missionaries to the lost around us. We are all called to be the pastors of our home. We are called to be teachers to our children. We are called to be deacons to the poor, orphaned, and widowed. We cannot separate who we are at work from who we are at church from who we are at home. We have one life to live, and it is to be lived as the living image of God 24/7, not just from 9 to noon on Sunday.

God Understands that Even His Children Must Work

God understands that even His children must work. Peter, James, and John fished to support themselves. Paul was a tentmaker, even while he was a missionary. Even Jesus worked as a carpenter. God knows that we must work for it was part of His divine plan from creation. Adam’s job was to tend the garden and have dominion over the earth.

From the minute we wake up in the morning until the last thought in our sleepy nighttime brains, our mission is to live out Christ’s life, even at work. Do you see work as a necessary evil or an opportunity to spread the Good News? You understand, don’t you, that this is not just true of work; Everywhere we go and everything do is an opportunity to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. And it is our mission to do just that.

How do we spread the Good News of Christ? Through our love. Every one of us have the capacity to love. Allowing the love of Christ to flow out of us and reach others is how we win others to the Kingdom of God. Most of us love ourselves. Most of us love our families. Many of us love our neighbors. Few of us love our enemies. Yet, Christ commands us to love, just as He loves us. How did He love us? While we were His enemies, while we were living in the filth and shame of sin, while we hated Him, while we were denying His deity, His very existence, or hoping in our sin that He did not exist, He loved us, and died for us. In that same way, we are to love others. “A new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you.” While we were stuck in sin, God said, “I love you, man.” In that way, through His love, you can be a missionary wherever God has placed you.

You may not think that your part in the Kingdom or God is important. You may not believe that your prayers matter, that your testimony at your workplace is significant, but it is. Is the missionary who preaches the Gospel in the tribal villages of Papua New Guinea any less important to the work of God than the doctor who treats and heals the sick in the name of Jesus in India? Is the doctor in India more important to the Kingdom of God than the volunteer who feeds the hungry in the name of Jesus in Somalia? Is the volunteer in Somalia more important to the Kingdom of God than the usher at the theater who greets people with the love of Christ? Is the Christian usher more important than the widow who faithfully prays for her church, friends, and family? We all have a job to do, and it is all the same job: wherever God has put us to work, we are to work for the glory of God. 1 Corinthian 10:31

CONCLUSION –

What does it take to live out the Mission of the Church? Let’s take a look at the Great Commission and see exactly what it says:

1. Believe in the Lordship, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus – “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day,
2. Repent of your sins and ask forgiveness – and repentance for the forgiveness of sins
3. Share the Good News of Jesus Christ wherever you go, whatever you do – will be preached in his name to all nations,
4. Starting at Home – beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  I am going to send you what my Father has promised;
5. Camp Out at this altar until you are filled with the Holy Spirit – but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

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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.

Source

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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?

Source

The Mission Field begins 2’ outside the church door.

Just as we compartmentalize our lives into the sacred and the secular, we have relegated missions to missionaries. Maybe we entertain one missionary a year. Maybe we talk about missions in our Sunday service twice a year. Maybe we have a WMS program three times a year. Some of us might actually read a mission book. But do you see the problem? We think of missions as a department, for people who are called to that duty. And, those of us who have a burden for missions, we may even spend our vacation on a work and witness trip. But we forget that the mission field begins two feet outside the church door.

The Mission of the Church is not just missions. Missions is only part of the mission of the Church.

We are the Messengers of Jesus Christ

Chris Wright, in his book, The Mission of God’s People, asks this question: What kind of person is your mail carrier? Is he a good man? Or is he a bad man? Does he go to church? Does he cheat on his wife? Does he rob his favorite magazines from the mail? Does he follow children through the park? You don’t know because it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters to you about your mail carrier is what should matter: does he or she deliver the mail safely, faithfully, and on time. He is simply a messenger and can be replaced easily by a mail server and two computers. The same cannot be said about you and me. We are the messenger who delivers the Good News of Jesus Christ. For us to be most effective, we must surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and allow Him to make us Holy and Pure.

How many people do you know that are pure and holy? How many Nazarenes do you know that are pure and holy? How many people do know in the Nazarene Church that even believe they can live a holy life? That believe in Entire Sanctification? That even believe in REPENTANCE?

Source

Here are some interesting facts: according to Barna, 20% of Americans claim no faith (no religion). 1% were not sure if they had faith or not. 6% were something other than Christian. 73% identified as Christian Faith. Out of those who identified as Christian, only 31% claim to be “practicing Christians.” The question is, how can you be a non-practicing Christian?

I don’t know, but reaching non-practicing Christians should be a part of the mission of the Church.

Here is the mission statement from the Nazarene World Headquarters website.

The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to make Christlike disciples in the nations

I.                   What is the Church and What is our purpose?

The best place to find the purpose of the church is to look in the Bible. If we look at the book of Acts, chapter 1, verses 6-9:

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

                One can see the semblance between these verses and the mission statement of the Church of the Nazarene. The Nazarene Church doesn’t mention Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria, but does mention the nations.

I could simply say that those verses are the mission of the Church and dismiss us. But that is not sufficient. The tension in the church today rests not in the mission, but in how it is implemented. Let me give you an example: At Christian colleges and universities, there are three routes that students can follow: 1) Study Theology and History of Theology; 2) Study to work in the mission field, whether at home and abroad; 3) Study arts or sciences and take only the required minimum number of religious courses. Why is that a problem?

Because nowhere in the Bible does God say that the Mission of the Church should only apply to a CHOICE few.

If so, Acts would read like this:

Then they gathered around him and the Simon called Peter asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority, so why don’t you stick to just leading the church and leave the prophesying to John. John, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and so I want you to be a theologian who specializes in eschatology; Matthias, Andrew, Nathaniel, Stephen, you guys just don’t have what it takes to be a preacher and don’t have the capacity that John does, so you will work secular jobs and be my witnesses by the way you act. Oh, and if anyone asks you why you act differently, then feel free to tell them about me. But only if you are not imposing, and only IF they ask first. And whatever you do, don’t sound preachy.”

After he said this, he was taken up a cloud and within a few years they wondered if what they had seen was real or a mass delusion.

The problem doesn’t lie solely in Christian Colleges. Theologians rarely think about how to spread the Gospel. Missionaries and pastors in the field rarely think deeply about theology. The rest of us, don’t realize – or don’t want to admit – that we too are supposed to carry out the Mission of the Church. Yet, a theologian who doesn’t care about missions is about as useful as the G in Lasagna. A missionary or a pastor with no theological grounding is nothing more than a community organizer.

That is a little of the problem with the way the Mission of the Church is carried out. We will look deeper into the situation tomorrow.

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I once went on a job interview and one of the questions asked me was if I had ever read the company’s mission statement. As a matter of fact, I had, for I had just researched that company, soaking up everything I could learn. When asked what I thought of it, I did not want to tell him that I frankly thought it was gobbly-gook because it had little to do with the company’s true mission. Here is that mission statement: see if you can figure out what type of company it is:

Collectively, we are proud and passionate about providing the world’s best customer experience. This vision aligns with our mission — that we are earnest about achieving superior results. Our associates are inspired by their belief in the motivating principles of the Dynamic Organization and are determined to deliver an outstanding customer experience.  – This is from a cellular phone company.

Here are a few more mission statements from the world’s top companies. See if you can identify the company:

1. “To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” – Facebook
2. “To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information, using its portfolio of brands to differentiate its content, services and consumer products.” – Disney
3. “Dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.” – Southwest Airlines
4. OUR MISSION GREATLY EXCEEDS OUR GUESTS EXPECTATIONS

• We Shine in Everything We Do by exhibiting God’s love in every interaction with guests and team members.
• We Keep our Guests Safe by…
• • Loving one another as we do ourselves.
  • Thoroughly training every member of our team.
  • Thoroughly training each and every guest.
• We Achieve Excellence through…
• • Teamwork.
  • Constantly encouraging and rewarding team members.
  • Recognizing team members who go above and beyond.
  • By doing all things in a manner consistent with the values and morals exhibited by Jesus Christ.
• We Constantly Improve by…
• • Encouraging ideas from our team members and guests.
  • By reading online reviews of our guests and learning from them.
  • By managing safety and cleanliness.
  • By presenting a clean, family-friendly, and safe environment.
  • By setting the example for others both on the job and off.
• The last statement is one I created for a business I manage.

So today, I ask you, “What is the mission statement of the church?” What do you think?

Here is the mission statement from the Nazarene World Headquarters website.

The mission of the Church of the Nazarene is to make Christlike disciples in the nations.

We’re studying the mission of the Church this week

on Christian Holiness Daily.

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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).

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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.

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The Apostle Paul told the Timothy that elders of the Church should be paid, especially those who preach and teach. Indeed, close reading of that passage shows that Paul felt pastors should be paid double the normal salary. “Workmen,” he said, “are worthy to be hired.”

On the other hand, Paul valued his churches so much that it seems he never took payment. Instead, he earned his keep across the Mediterranean and Europe by working as a tent maker, a skill he had learned as a boy in Tarsus.

As we continue to look at 1 Thessalonians 4, we see that Paul links work – specifically working with one’s hands – to living a sanctified life. Work, in this passage, is also closely connected to living a quiet life.

The question is: why? Why does Paul link sanctification, which is an act of the Holy Spirit, to work, which is commonly considered an act of our own strength?

Here’s the thing, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit that rids the believe of the carnal (sinful) nature and replaces it with the nature of Christ). In return, we are so full of the love of God that we want God to be in control of every aspect of our lives. We want Him to clean the muck out of even the darkest corners and replace it with the light of His love. As a result, we even give Him our work, our labor, our jobs.

Those of us who accept Jesus as our Savior but never make Him Lord of our lives… those of us who ask Him to save us but never let him have dominion over our hearts and minds… those of us who are saved, but never allow His Holy Spirit to fill us with His love, will find that we soon burn out, soon wear out, and soon return to our old habits and old ways.

By the way, I have not forgotten about the part of the verse that reads, “Mind your own business.” Well look at that, and the connection between work and peace later.

According to Apostle Paul in Thessalonians chapter 4, if we have been sanctified, then we will turn away from sexual immorality, love one another more and more, find peace and quiet in our lives, mind our own business, and earn our keep.

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In an earlier devotion on Christian Holiness Daily, we learned that it is God’s will that we be sanctified, or filled with the Holy Spirit (1 Thessalonians 4:3). After Paul proclaims this to his readers, he expounds on what is expected out of those whom Christ sanctifies.

• Abstain from sexual immorality
• Love one another
• In verse 11 of that same chapter, he says that we are to live a quiet life. What does Paul mean, though, when he uses the word quiet?
• Paul’s life seemed to be anything but quiet. He traveled from town-to-town preaching first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles, bringing a new message – and one that few wanted to accept – and stirred up so much trouble that he found himself often in jail, stoned and left for dead, beaten, and eventually martyred. Ask and the definition of quiet life, I doubt any of the items on that list are mentioned.
• When I think of a quiet life, I think of a cabin in the woods, off grid, and a room full of books.
• Others may think of a sailboat on a calm sea, or a fishing boat on a still lake. Some might picture a horseback ride or a cross-country trip on a Harley. Though peaceful, I doubt any of those images are what Paul had in mind when he wrote of the quiet life. Paul’s idea of quiet can be determined from his other epistles.

• The first clue that we find about Paul’s definition of quiet is Romans 12:18, where he gives similar advise:

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. – ESV

Peace and quiet are synonymous. In this passage Paul ads a qualifying clause, If possible…

In Paul’s life, peace and quiet wasn’t always possible, for it wasn’t always up to him whether he lived at peace.

• Galatians 5:22 tells us the same thing that Paul tells us here in 1 Thessalonians 4, but it is more succinct: the fruit of the Spirit is peace.
• In Philippians 4:7, he urges us to allow our hearts to be guided by the peace that comes through the Holy Spirit.
• In Romans 14:19, he urges us to make every effort to bring peace into our lives.
• As with every aspect of sanctification, living in peace or living a quiet life is only possible if we allow the Holy Spirit to rule (take charge) in our lives daily.
• If He is not the King of our hearts, then the best that we can hope for is brief calm often followed by a ferocious storm.
• If we allow the Holy Spirit to reign, then we too can say (like Paul),

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

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In 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul speaks to Christians – those who have believed on and followed in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He tells them they need to be sanctified. They need to live a holy life. He emphasizes that they should turn away from sexual immorality. Today, we see that he encourages them to love one another (and others) more and more.

You see, love is what sets Christians apart from the rest of the world. For mortal man, it may be difficult to love someone outside our immediate family (sometimes, it is not easy to love those within our immediate family). For Christians, love – even love for others and love for our enemies – should come as natural as love for our own children.

If loving others does not come natural, then you should prayerfully and persistently seek sanctification. Ask God to rid you of worldly love, lust, selfishness, pride, and hatred, and fill you with His Holy Spirit. He will. He will perfect His love within your life. When one is filled with the Holy Spirit, one is surprised by love… a deeper love than you thought possible.

We seem to be living near the end of days and Satan has begun one final offensive in the battle against the saints of God. As a result, many Christians have ducked for cover, and are not reaching out to others in love as they should; instead many are looking out only for themselves and their closest loved ones.

We must resist fear. We must stand up to evil and call it by name. We must look evil in the eye and expel it in the name of Jesus. And we must do it all in love.

Remember, Christ sacrificed His life for the sins of the world, not just for you and me (and not just those who agree with our viewpoint). That person that we think is so evil… that one who is causing so many problems in the world…he or she may be the next Saul who finds Christ on the road to Damascus and becomes the next Apostle Paul.

We must love our enemies. Pray for those who threaten us, abuse us, and persecute us. Remember, they, too, need to know God and His love.

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I do, though, often ask to spend time with her. Though we work different hours, we manage to eat dinner together often, go to see a good movie occasionally or watch a TV show when we can. I love spending time with her. I want to be with her and I want her to be proud of me. Why? Because I know she loves me and also wants to be with me.

Isn’t that why we want to walk with Jesus? Don’t we want to be like Jesus because we love and admire Him? And, one reason we love and admire Him because He first loved us? Didn’t He demonstrate that love for us by rescuing us from sin and death through the sacrifice of His own life?

1 Thessalonians 4, Paul urges us to live in a manner that pleases God. Then he mentions specifics. Let’s read it together. 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8 (NKJV):

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister. The Lord will punish all those who commit such sins, as we told you and warned you before. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Paul is writing to the Christian Church; he calls them brothers and sisters. He distinguishes their behavior from that of the pagans, and tells them that God expects them to be different. The pagans are sexually immoral, depraved, and are ruled by passion and lust. He encourages Christians to control their bodies and to be act with honor, to be holy.

It is God’s will that we be sanctified, Paul says. God called us to be holy, not impure.

So what does God mean when He tells us to avoid sexual immorality? The Greek word used to express sexual immorality is porneia, which is from where we drive the terms pornography and fornication. While the term pornography likely needs no definition, many may be unfamiliar with the word fornication. Fornication means two people who are not married to each other sharing sexual relations.

So, is that the definition of sanctification? Does it mean giving up certain sexual practices that are sinful? No. There is much more to it than that. Sexual immorality is what Paul wished to address, but it is simply one small part of living a holy life.

Is we love God, we will want to please Him, and turning away from sexual immorality is just one of many things that Paul mentions in this book.

That, though, is not the real point is this devotion. I am not here to create an updated list of thou shalt nots.

I am here to tell you that God loves you and doesn’t want to see you hurt, and sexual immorality leads to destruction.

Avoid destruction and let Him rid you of sexual perversion and lust and fill you instead with His love.

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“He’s only eleven years old,” Russell’s mother sobbed. She hid her face in her hands and cried.

Her husband squeezed her shoulder and said, “I’ll be back when I find him.” He tried to sound reassuring, but he didn’t believe that they would ever find him, not really.

Russell and his parents had been driving across the mountains when a blizzard struck the mountain pass. Dad had heard the forecast, but convinced himself that he could beat the weather. When they became stuck, they stayed with the car; that’s always best. After three days trapped in the car and no hope of being found soon, though, Dad decided to try to walk for help. A few days later, he returned with help.

He found his wife in the car where he left her, but his son had vanished. The boy had gotten out of the car to look for his dad, but never returned.

Mom had begged him to stay in the car and later frantically searched for him, but his tracks had been covered with fresh snow. He was nowhere to be found.

Now Dad joined a rescue team that would search the entire area. “I got to be honest with you,” said Captain Lourdes, in charge of the search party. The odds of finding your son alive are slim.”

“I have to try. I just can’t do nothing. He needs me.” Dad wept.

Lourdes nodded.

When they found him, Russell clung to an ice covered rock, perched on the side of the mountain. Hundreds of feet below him was a snow field that slanted into a deep mountain valley. How he made it through the past couple days and nights alive, no one knew.

“Daddy’s gotcha, Rusty.” Dad’s voice quivered as he watched the firemen hook his son to a secure line.

Once they had him off the side of the mountain and into their truck, Dad thanked Caitain Lourdes and turn embraced the boy. “I love you, Rusty.” The boy was too cold and too much in shock to speak.

“We’re only 14 miles up the mountain from the Ranger Station. It’s all downhill from here. There are lots of hills and curves and bumps in the road, but you’ll make it. The station is just across the river, but be careful,” said Lourdes, “crossing the river can be tricky, especially in the winter.” He tossed Rusty a book. “This book will answer all your questions. It’s a good book. You should read it every day. It will keep you safe. Once you cross the river, a chopper will pick you up and take you home.”

Rusty’s jaw dropped as the Captain pushed him out of the truck.

“I can’t wait until I catch that chopper someday,” said Dad as he climbed into the truck. “Don’t you worry, Rusty. Captain Lourdes and I will be waiting for you at the station. Now that you’re saved, you can follow the road with no problem.”

“Well, maybe a few problems,” said the captain.

“A few, agreed Dad. “But just read the book. You’ll know what to do.”

The men all piled into the truck and headed down the mountain.

Rusty, watched the truck drive away. Still in shock, still bitter cold, still starving, he pulled off his gloves and looked at the thin black book in his hand. “Gospel of John,” it read. Rusty read the first two chapters, stuck it in his pocket, and trudged down the road.

It began to snow again making it difficult to follow the path of the truck. Rusty never felt the little book fall from his pocket. Just after dark, he left the road for the shelter of some nearby trees. He wondered if he would ever make it to the Ranger Station.

“Found him,” Dad said to Mom when he returned to the station. “We put him on the right road. He’ll be home someday soon.”

“Oh, thank you,” Mom cried.

—–

Silly analogy, I know. Unfortunately, Rusty’s experience is very much the way that many Christians teach our walk with God: we wander far from home, Our Lord goes looking for us. We are saved. So far so good. But, here is where some Christian teaching goes wrong. Salvation doesn’t mean saying a prayer and then continuing on the same path you’ve been on. It doesn’t mean your are saved and then left to find your way through life alone. It doesn’t mean reading a few pages of the Bible and then magically conquering all of life’s challenges.

Salvation is the beginning of a journey home, hand in hand with God through the power of The Holy Spirit. The One Who rescues you, also guides you home. He is with us every step of the way. He will help us understand the guide book. He will help us discern between correct teaching and unsound teaching. He will teach us right from wrong. And He will speak to us when we need guidance or when we are afraid. He is with us when we feel all alone.

Aren’t you glad that when our Father saves us, He doesn’t leave us alone like Rusty?

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The church sat in the countryside, but there happened to be two homes directly across the road. One of the families who lived across the road attended regularly – or, I should say, the wife and kids did. The man of the house bragged that his life was such a mess that, if he ever walked through the church doors, the roof would cave in.

So one winter day, when services were being held in the older, smaller, and not-so-well maintained sanctuary, the man crossed the street to join his wife and children at church. The very second he walked into the foyer, the false ceiling collapsed on his head.

No one was hurt, and everyone got a good laugh, and he did stay for the entire service. I am unsure, though, if he ever felt compelled to give his heart to Christ.

Here is what people fail to understand about God’s love. He loves you as you are. You don’t have to clean up your life before you give it to God. Christ says in Luke 5:32:

“I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (NIV).

Are you addicted to porn? Christ is calling you.

Are you a liar and thief? Christ is calling you.

Do you have an uncontrollable temper? Christ is calling you.

Are you hated by everyone who knows you? Christ knows you better than anyone and He loves you. He’s calling you.

Are you drowning in an alternative lifestyle? Christ is calling you.

Christ loves us as we are. He proves it in this way: even while we are full of filthy sin, He died for us… to rescue us from that sin… and from death (Roman’s 5:8, paraphrased).

Worried that the roof will cave in if you step inside a church? Don’t worry. Come anyway. Come as you are, and give all your sins and worries to God.

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. – Revelation 22:17 NIV

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Reading the Bible alone, though, is not enough if you are seeking a deeper relationship with God. There needs to be equal parts Bible study and prayer. You see, that relationship – like any other – is a two way street.

Prayer, carrying on a conversation with God, allows you to get to know His heart. Prayer is also instrumental in allowing God to search your heart.

Learning God’s Word helps you understand the nature of God and His deepest desires for your life. The Bible is more than just a guideline for life. It is a standard by which to judge your own actions, thoughts, and dreams.

More than prayer and Bible study there is an even deeper practice: Christian meditation. Read a passage from the Bible every morning (use the same passage for multiple days if you wish), and every second that you spend idle – between tasks at work, while driving, while going to sleep, while taking a walk, or whenever you have a few seconds or a few minutes down time – ponder that passage or verse. If you cannot memorize verses, or even commit it to short-term memory, then write it down or put it in your phone, or text it to yourself. Read it, reread it, and reread it again. Pray on it, and remember: God is with you. There is no leaving Him behind.

Pray, read the Bible, mediate, and remember God is with you always. Take a walk with God. Hang on to His hand. Only He can keep you from falling.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. – Jude 24-25 NIV

 

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So, when I first read this passage in 1 Peter (at about the age of 13), I thought I had figured out my place in this world:

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own peculiar* people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. – 1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV *the word peculiar is used in the KJV

I was convinced that the Gospel was for losers, and that this loser was made for spreading the Gospel.

I was, however, mistaken about the meaning of these verses. While God does choose messengers and workers based on qualities that may not be evident to others, this paragraph from 1 Peter does not address that issue.

In context, Peter tells us that the holiness of Christ trips up most people, those who can neither fathom or duplicate the example that Christ sets. We, though, are not chosen because we are peculiar. We, Christians, are to be peculiar because they are chosen.

What makes us peculiar?

We are peculiar because we are chosen. That is especially true of our generation, Early 21st Century Christians. No generation has ever had so easy and ready access to God’s Word and study material (we can never claim we don’t know God because His Word was not available).

We are to be a royal priesthood, witnessing to the lost, interceding for our nation, and living as an example to one and all.

We are peculiar in that He has set us aside to be holy vessels filed with His love… because He calls us His own. We are God’s children, His people, nomenclature that once applied only to the Jews.

Because He has chosen us – me and you – we should surrender all that we are and all that we have to Him in love.

Because He has chosen us…

– before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1:4-6 NKJV

Now we can have…

redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace – Ephesians 1:7 NKJV

In return – out of love for Christ -we should…

abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:11-12 NKJV

No one has ever accused me of being holy, or perfect, because I am not. Sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship – living like Christ – is something we do because our heart is filled with the love of Christ.

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In the Bible water is often synonymous with chaos, sin, or evil. In the beginning, the earth was formless, void, and full of darkness… Chaotic.

When the nation of Israel escapes Egypt, God not only defeats Pharaoh, he defeats the waters. For Christians, the next generation crossing of the Jordan symbolizes the passing of life and entering life eternal.

Baptism took on new meaning for us with the resurrection of Christ. It came to symbolize our death and burial with He who saves us and our subsequent resurrection.

In the psalms, water represents our enemies, physical or spiritual. In the Psalm 69, the enemy is represented as deep waters, mire or muck, a raging flood, and an abyss. David has come to an end of himself. He is helpless, powerless, outnumbered, accused, and (vs. 19) guilty.

We too must come to the end of ourselves before God may act in His fullness. Paul says it best in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Do you feel like you are drowning, like you are ready to die? Give it up. Surrender to Christ, and He will make you alive. For when you are weak, He will be strong for you.

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While missteps and straying from the path may happen. Christ warns that the entire journey will be hazardous.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of following Christ is that He tells us to deny ourselves, and take up our crosses and follow Him.

We cannot imagine the gut-wrenching terror of this statement. Even if we put it into a modern context, we cannot fully fathom it.

To even attempt to follow and appreciate this statement, we must stop thinking about the cross as a gold emblem to be worn around our necks or wrists. We cannot think of it as two 4×4 posts fit together to easily hoist on the shoulder. We must think of the cross as first-century readers thought of it.

So here is just a little context. Public executions were common in the Roman empire, nearly a daily event. Many crimes warranted execution by crucifixion, including theft, rape, and murder. Crosses were little higher than eye-level, so the one dying could easily hear and see those who mocked him, which often included close relatives and associates who betrayed the convicted for fear of being the next condemned.

A sign attached to the top of the cross announced the name of the condemned and his crime. The cross was low enough that the sign could be easily read.

The Roman’s were expert executioners who knew exactly how to beat the condemned to within an inch of his life (to beat the condemned to death when he had been sentenced to die by crucifixion was itself a crime). The executioner could tell you at exactly what time they expected the condemned to die and they knew how to prolong or hasten the death accordingly.

It was uncommon but not unheard of to find a road lined with crosses of the condemned. Jesus was, Himself, crucified near a road, “outside the gate.”

The Greeks used crucifixion before Rome was an empire. When Alexander seized Tyre, to the north of Israel, in 332 BC, he crucified 2000 people.

Crucifixion, to people conquered by Caesar, was the means by which Rome instilled fear and maintained control.

For Jesus to tell those who would follow Him to “take up their cross,” was to strike fear in their heart.

I can think of two modern parallels, and both fall short in striking fear. To compare the cross to the electric chair fails because the electric chair is not used to intimidate (it is carried out behind closed doors) so much as the cross was. To compare beheading to crucifixion fails because it too is uncommon, although that may be changing.

Why did Jesus tell us this? It makes for a lousy recruitment poster. What was He thinking? It speaks to easy-believism. Is it enough for us to simply say a prayer like reading a magic spell and then consider ourselves “saved?” Even if we exhibit no remorse for our sinful life? Even if we do not repent? Is it enough to simply say a prayer?

Taking up or cross is not a burden we must bear. It is not living with human frailty. It is following Jesus no matter where the path leads, even if it leads to job loss because we read our Bible on lunch break. Even if we are sued for refusing to bake a cake. Even if we are jailed for what we peach. Even if we lose friends because we don’t hang like they do. Even if we are targeted by terrorists for being Christian. We must follow in His footprints.

It means denying our human impulse for fun, thrill, and pleasure, and praying for God to replace it with His love. It is denying yourself – dying to self – daily.

We must follow Him.

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In an episode of M*A*S*H, a soldier tells how he was wounded. He had gingerly followed the footprints of other soldiers across a snow-covered minefield. So long as he could see their tracks, he knew he would not set off a mine. Problem was, half way across the field, the tracks disappeared. He stood contemplating his fate for what seemed like hours, and finally resigned himself to follow his instincts. He took one step and triggered a mine.

Today, we will discuss following footsteps that never fade away.

Here is something that I find remarkable about the American culture: the more we try to separate our society from Christ and Judeo-Christian Values (now there is a term you never hear – look it up), the more alternative spiritual systems pop up to take the place of Christianity.

• One can follow any number of thousands of God and be accepted by society, so long as one doesn’t follow the God, Yahweh, or His son, Jesus Christ.
• One can follow the Golden Rule, so long as they don’t quote the Bible.
• One can worship Mother Nature.
• One can follow any number of sages, so long as they don’t seek the wisdom of the Bible.
• One can follow Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, The Bahai Faith, Jainism, Hinduism, American World Patriarchs, The Grail Movement, The Order of the Golden Dawn, or any of a thousand other religions, and our “secular” society doesn’t care, so long as you don’t follow Jesus Christ.

Considering what Jesus has done for us, I don’t see a choice but to follow Him. He has filled our hearts with love, so how can we not follow Him?

In our study of holiness we have learned that only God can sanctify us, and that by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

We have also learned that discipleship is our response to God’s sanctification. Once He fills is with His Holy Spirit, we want nothing more than to follow in the footprints of Christ.

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21 ESV

Why do we love Christ? Because He first loved us.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:22-25 ESV

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2 ESV

God makes sanctifies us holy, and only He can do that, but – because of the love He has poured out for us – we should want to follow in the steps of Jesus. It is when we follow any one of these other paths – or a path of our own choosing – that we step on a land mine.

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Worf replies with a scowl, “What do you mean little?”

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The word “by” is a tough, little word. It is powerful. When unpacked, it is found to mean:

• Identifying the agent performing an action.
• The means by which something is achieved.
• To go past or along.

This word, by, is perhaps the crux of today’s devotional, which is built around Galatians 5:16. If we don’t properly understand its meaning, we miss the point entirely.

Let’s take a look at the verse from the ESV:

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

I have read that verse many times and, until recently, never gave it proper consideration.

My first thoughts are of a walk in a dark forest and being led by a beam of sunlight filtered through the canopy. That is not right, for that indicates that while I am walking, that light guides me. While that may be a nice thought, it is not, in this case, correct. It is more than guidance.

To understand the word by, we must take a look at the Greek word that is translated in to the English word. The word by is added to the translation to account for a variant of the word pneuma. That word is Greek for spirit, which -in this verse – means Spirit of God.

The word as found in this verse is pneumati, the ending indicates it is connected to another object or person; here the Spirit is connected to the one walking. The question is, how is the Spirit connected to the walker.

By example, we see the same word used in a few different ways:

Matthew 5:3 “poor in spirit…”

Mark 1:8 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit…”

Ephesians 1:13 “sealed by the Spirit.”

Throughout the New Testament, we see that the first two English variations of the word, by, apply most often: the acting agent or the means by which action is taken. It is also fair to say that the word can also mean, “along side” or “together with.”

So let’s take a look at the Galatians 5:16 again with a better understanding of those definitions:

But I say, the Spirit is walking for you and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

But I say, allow the Spirit to power your walk, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

But I say, walk alongside the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

But I say, walk together with the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Any one of these alternative definitions give us a more complete understanding of holiness. It may only be achieved through the might of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

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I’ll be working my way back to you, babe, with a burning love inside

Yeah, I’m working my way back to you, babe, and the happiness that died

I let it get away

That old hit (written by Denny Randall and Sandy Linzer) could easily be made into a Christian song, but it would be so wrong. In the song, released by the Spinners in late 1979, the story teller boasts to his love that, even though he has cheated and emotionally abused her, he begs her forgiveness and will be “working my way back to you.”

Too often, Christians feel the same way. We promise God that we love Him and will never go back to our habitual sins (this that we love so much). Then, when we fall into the same old trap and sin again, we set out to work our way back into His favor.

The thing is, that doesn’t work for God. When Christ died for us, His sacrifice was for all our sin, past or future. Neither salvation nor sanctification is based on our merit. We can earn neither.

Then how does one become sanctified? Through faith, just like salvation. Read Hebrews 10:10:

And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We have been sanctified. Notice that the word “sanctified” is passive. We are not sanctifying ourselves; rather, God has sanctified us.

Because we are human, stuck in bodies, with imperfect minds, and fragile emotions, we are no more able to live a holy life than we are able to save ourselves from hell.

Why, then, so most Christians get hung up on how we live? Because we often confuse sanctification and holiness with discipleship. Nothing we do will get us into heaven. Nothing we do will make God love us more.

Likewise, so long as we are believers in Jesus Christ, nothing we do will lose is our spot in heaven, and nothing we do will cause God to live is less.

This may sound radical to many in A holiness church, but it is true. There is a place for holy living and Good sites call us to separate ourselves from the world, but we are unable to do either.

We cannot live a holy life. We can only have faith that Christ can live His life through me. Only He can sanctify me and only He can live a holy life through me.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

 

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“But, three or four people have died trying,” said Bobby. His brother nodded in agreement.

“If no one has ever been able to reach it, then how do you know it’s there?” I asked.

“It just is. We know,” they said.

We drove a couple hours south of town before turning off into the wilds of the Ozark Mountains. Squeezed between two hillsides, the opening was barely wide enough to slither through on my belly. Inside, though, one could sit up. In a lower cavern, I was able to stand up. The sound of distant rushing waters could be heard from below. We crawled through an even deeper passage into a large cavern. The room was cold and damp. At the far end, an underground river rushed beneath a ten-foot drop. A rope that had been tied from the top led into the river and disappeared beneath the black water.

“There it is,” said Mike, stripping down to his shorts. He plunged in, flashlight in hand.

I was frightened. The two other boys followed. I was the last one to dive in. I was afraid of being pulled under by the current and sucked into the rocks where the river again disappeared. I was more afraid, though, of being called chicken. Eventually, I, too, dove in. When I hit the water, my flashlight went out.

The boys, dived underwater. I was left in the dark. They followed the rope underwater and beneath a fallen stalactite. They came up just out of sight on the right of me. I could see the glow of their lights but, around a corner. I was left in the dark. They taunted me, and told me to follow them, but I had no idea how to get there, and no light to guide me. I could make out where they were, but just barely.

At last, I could take no more of their name-calling and dove under the water into icy darkness. I followed the curve of the slimy stalactite, eventually finding the rope, and came up some twenty feet away beyond a large rock. The little mud beach on which they sat was covered with old beer cans and the remains of several campfires. We were not the first ones to make this journey, as we had supposed. This had been a party spot for years.

I have often looked back at that day, and the many summer days after it that the four of us visited that cave with girls whom we wished to impress, and wondered why it is so easy to follow the taunts of peer pressure and so hard to follow the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Why is it so easy to fulfill the desires of the body, and so hard to even hear the leading of the Spirit? Why is it so important to us to please the ego, while we neglect pleasing God?

That summer was all about answering the call of the cave. I learned the hard way that it is not always best to give into peer pressure. Several weeks and several visits later, some of us went back to the cave with girlfriends. The girl I was with lost hold of the rope and was swept away into the rocks before she was able to come up for air. She had a gash on her forehead and was barely able to make the swim out of the water and climb up the rope and out of the cave. Nearly an hour later, when we finally exited the cave, she was covered with blood from her head. The cut took several stitches. It was all her dad could do to keep from pummeling me. I deserved it and would have felt better had he done it.

God eventually took me to the place where I begged Him to fill me with His Holy Spirit and keep me from such temptations, but it took many more near-tragedies and many more years before I heeded His call. The cave has since been block off. The pile of rocks in front of it remind me that God no longer lets me go down to such depths. Instead, He protects me; by filling me with His Spirit, He has given me the strength to… well to live; for what I called living before, was really no life at all.

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“Awww… Why do I have to take a bath?” Nancy complained as her dad called her into the house. “Yeah,” agreed her little brother, Billy. “We already washed!”

Their dad tried his best to suppress his grin, but didn’t quite succeed. Mother, on the other hand, was not amused in the least. She gently swatted at Nancy’s bottom as she came in the house. “Take a bath, now, young lady.” Turning to Billy with folded arms, she said, “and you, too, young man.” The children avoided Mom’s eyes and marched into the bathroom.

Billy, four, just could not understand why he needed a bath, for – after all – they had been playing in the rain. The rain is clean, isn’t it? When he climbed up on a step and looked in the mirror, he saw was a clean face and a bright smile. He licked his finger and smoothed his curly black hair. “But, Mom!” he called. “I don’t need a bath!”

“You did it now,” said Nancy, who had already crawled into the waiting bubble bath, and was dutifully scrubbing away mud and grime.

“Get in the tub,” Mom said, grabbing Billy by the ear with just a little less force than a bulldozer. She led him to the tub and made him crawl in. “WASH,” she commanded. She stormed out of the room.

“Now look, you made her angry at us,” said Nancy.

“Did not.”

“Did, too.”‘

“It’s your fault. If you hadn’t already started taking a bath…”

“It’s not my fault,” insisted Nancy.

Dad came in and sat down by the tub. Wash cloth in hand, he checked behind their ears, and rewashed their necks. “Now,” he said. “Good as new. Now, get dressed for bed.”

Billy climbed up to the mirror again. “I don’t look any different than before.”

“You still look like a wild pig,” said Nancy, laughing at her little brother.

“You don’t think the bath did any good?” Dad asked Billy.

“Nope,” replied the boy. “I had already washed outside in the puddles.”

Dad nodded at the slow-draining tub. “Then where did all this dirt come from?”

Billy and Nancy peered into the tub of dirty water. Their jaws dropped.

“It’s all from her, Dad. I was already clean,” said Billy.

Sometimes, even when we think we are clean, our Father knows better.

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There comes a time in every Christian’s life when God allows us to reap what we’ve sown. Specifically, immature Christians often see the wages of sin, especially sin from which we have not repented. I have.

I found myself flat on my back, having sunk lower than I could have ever imagined. I had nowhere else to turn… No one else to turn to, but to God.

Actually, that has happened a few times in my life. Call me a slow learner. Each low, after that first one, was more of a plateau. As a result, each crisis led to an ever closer relationship with God.

That’s our topic today: the life crisis that leads to surrender.

While the experiences that have led me to a deeper walk with Christ are certainly unique, the crisis experience itself is not. Most people endure at least two such experiences in their spiritual journey.

The first such crisis is the one through which God worked to lead us to salvation. Since I can rightfully assume that most of my readers and listeners are Christian, I won’t expound upon it.

The second crisis is the one that God uses to sanctify us. It is at that point that He fills us with His Holy spirit. It is that point that we realize that God is cleaning house, revealing to us or wicked hearts and asking us to repent of sins big and small. He sweeps those sins out the door and fills us with more of His love.

The great holiness preacher of the early 20th century, Buddy Robinson, described sanctification as a boiling pot in which sin rises to the top, and is skimmed away by God. At one point, he thought that if God didn’t turn down the fire, there would be nothing left to skim.

It is not a fair analogy to compare the journey of an Old Testament prophet to a Christian journey, but the parallel is so close, that I cannot resist it.

We read 1 Kings 19 where Elijah is exhausted. He’s flat on his back and tells God that he’s ready to die. He hit bottom. Here’s the lesson:

It wasn’t until Elijah told God that he was ready to die that God gave him the strength to live.

There is the parallel. Take a look at Ephesians 2. I urge you to read the entire chapter. Even will focus on verses 4 and 5 from the NIV.

…because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you have been saved.

This – described in Ephesians 2 – is the crisis experience that leads to salvation.

1 Thessalonians 4:3 ESV – For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality;

I encourage you to read Roman’s chapters 6-8. This describes the crisis experience and a before and after picture of sanctification. Here are some key verses: Romans 6:11-14 NIV

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

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What is your favorite sin? Come on. I know your have one. All but the most mature Christians always have a favorite sin, one that is always in the back of our minds, waiting until we are physically tired, spiritually weak, or in emotional turmoil to pounce and take control of our lives.

For many, it is uncontrollable anger or rage. For others it is sexual perversion or pornography. For some it is overeating. For some it is out-of-control spending. For someone else, it may be abusing drugs or alcohol. For a few it may be a combination of some of these or all of these things.

Truth be told Christians still struggle with sin – correction: most Christians still struggle with sin. But, why? Christ came to rescue us from sin and death, not just death! Why, then do we struggle? Is it because we have never been taught that Christ conquers sin? Is it because we have never heard of anyone overcoming sin?

We cannot fathom eternal life. Yet, we accept God at His word that we will live in His presence eternally. If we can believe that, then why can we not believe that He will presently free us from sin?

Holiness is perhaps the most difficult concept for a Christian to comprehend. It is a paradox. On the surface it is at once an

While we will NEVER be perfect while in this life, God will help us to overcome sin and fill us with His perfect love.

act of faith and an act of discipline. Our sins flee from the presence of God never to return, but then God reveals to us sins that are rooted even deeper in our lives and gives us the power to overcome even those. And He does this again and again. Holiness is not a goal to be reached only upon death, rather it is a journey that begins on the day of salvation and ends only at the foot of His throne.

Holiness is an act of mutual love. God loves us even in our sin, and he beckons us to come to Him. He loves us too much to let us continue wallowing in the filth of our sins. He demonstrates to us that we must fully abandon or sins.

Once we acknowledge those sins and ask Christ to rid us of them, then He will empower us with the power and love of His Holy Spirit, so that we may overcome those sins. As a result, we love Him too much to continue in sin. That is sanctification. It is at once an act of surrender: we surrender our life to God and lay down our sins on the altar of the cross. And it is an act of the Holy Spirit: He fills us with His love and gives us the power to walk away from those sins, never to return.

And it is a journey of discipline, for God’s Spirit moves into our lives. Daily we surrender our will to Him and ask that His love continue to empower us; we die daily.

We have God’s promise, though: He that began the good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He will never give up on you. So never give up on Him.

If the struggle you’re facing

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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.

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