Christian Holiness Journal | Page 51 | a record of struggle and victory to know the mind of Christ

Fear Not, Just Study

May 5, 2017 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

In my local church a couple of nights ago, the pastor gave a lesson on sharing your testimony. I was reminded that some folk are just not so willing to speak about Jesus as others. I know some extremely shy people, quiet as a church mouse. I know others who simply don’t want to be the subject of ridicule. I suppose that they are afraid that they will be seen as a “church lady,” a “Bible thumper,” or a “lunatic.” If that’s the case, then so be it. As for me, let folks think that I am a lunatic; I will not deny Jesus Christ, and I will not pass up an opportunity to share the Gospel with someone who needs to hear it.

I have heard all kinds of excuses for not sharing the Good News: “Well, I just didn’t feel led.” “There simply wasn’t time.” “They looked too busy.” “They seem like good people; they were probably already a Christian.”

It seems to me that Christians may not share the Good News of Jesus Christ because they have never been taught how, or because they don’t know how to intelligently speak of God’s Word.

Here’s the thing, many of the readers who contact me have called themselves Christians for most of their lives, but have never followed Jesus. If we want to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, we need to study God’s Word; we need to know it inside/out. We need to commit it to heart. If we “hide God’s Word in our hearts,” then we will be less likely to sin and more likely to share that Word when God steers someone to us.

Before we can share it, we must know it. The motto of the missionary Frank Laubach was “Each One Teach One.” That is a pretty good thing to put in practice. Are you afraid of sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Fear Not, Just Study.

Fear Not for He is Faithful

May 3, 2017 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. – 2 Timothy 2:13

This is one of the more controversial verses in the Bible. Many people believe it is a promise to believers that if we turn away, we still keep our salvation. Others believe that this verse means that God will not tolerate an unfaithful believer because He cannot be joined with that which is sinful. This begs the question, “Does God remain faithful even when we are faithless?”

Here is the verse in context:

This is a faithful saying:

For if we died with Him,
We shall also live with Him.
If we endure,
We shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him,
He also will deny us.
If we are faithless,
He remains faithful;
He cannot deny Himself.

I cannot answer that which theologians have been debating for two thousand years, but I will say this. The question is moot if we die with Him. Put to death the carnal nature by surrendering to Christ.

Brother Lawrence said this (paraphrased) –

“Now that I see God by faith, here is what comforts me: I feel what faith teaches us. I see what it teaches us. And, in that assurance… in that practice of faith, I will live and die with him.

Brother Lawrence taught that to have faith was to “live and die with Christ.” Continually. If he faltered for a brief moment, forgetting for just a while about his Savior, Jesus Christ, the he felt he had sinned and immediately confessed it to God. He puts it this way (paraphrased):

I know my weaknesses. I God let’s me alone for one moment, I would be the most wretched man alive. I don’t see how He could ever let me alone, though. Faith gives me as strong of a conviction as sense can do. I am convinced of this: He never forsakes us unless we first forsake Him.

We should fear to leave Him. We should always be with Him. We should live and die with Him, in His presence. You pray for me and I will pray for you.

Did you catch that? He never forsakes us unless we first forsake Him. I think that is what Paul is telling Timothy in the verses above. It fits right in:

If we die with Him, we will live with Him. If we deny Him, He will deny us. He will never forsake us unless we forsake Him.

Fear not, He will never forsake us unless we first forsake Him. Just keep the faith.

Fear Not 365 – For There Really Is Victory

May 3, 2017 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

When I was a boy, my grandpa and grandma had a dog named Mutt that had lived, I think, its entire life on a chain. I felt so sorry for it. My own dog, Taffy, the Cocker Spaniel that I had grown up with, had never spent a minute on a chain. Mutt was not so fortunate.

Mutt’s dog house was in the corner of the yard between the chicken coup and the barnyard. From fence to fence, for ten feet not a blade of grass could be found. That patch of mud – the result of paws and chain running back and forth over the same ground year after year – was the entire world where Mutt lived.

One summer day Grandpa told me that Mutt had spent so much time on that chain, and that the dog had become so used to his limitations, that if he were ever to be set free he wouldn’t step foot on the grass; the dog, said Grandpa, would simply stay put.

Many Christians are like Mutt. They are chained by sin. They spend their entire life repeating the same set of sins, traveling over the same familiar ground. Christ has removed the chain, but they refuse to leave their old stomping ground.

Ask most Christians what the Bible means when it says we are free indeed from sin, and they will tell you that Christ saves us from the punishment of hell.

Ask them about the power of the Holy Spirit to free us from sin, and they may tell you that when we die we will be like Jesus and – at last – be free from sin.

Few Christians – very few – will tell you that being free from sin means that sin and Satan has no power over you. Fewer still will tell you that through the power of the Holy Spirit, the discipline of prayer, and the study of God’s word we can overcome sin. Rarely will a Christian tell you about how the Spirit sanctifies us and makes us holy, slaves to righteousness.

Yet, the life freed from sin is integral to the theme of the Bible. Christ’s victory over Satan and sin is as fundamental to the Christianity as His victory over death.

Without the power to resist sin, there is no victory in the life of a Christian; the Christian only finds victory in death. If that is the way we live, then we may as well rip out chapter after chapter from the Bible, including most of the Psalms, much of the Gospels and all of the works of Paul.

That few ministers of the Church educate parishioners in the power of the Holy Spirit over sin explains why many local congregations are dying. That the church is no different than university campus coffee house is why fewer than 5% of Millennials go to church regularly. There is nothing of substance offered in most churches. Our churches entertain us by mimicking Hollywood. A significant number of worship leaders are performance artists and pastors try to be stand-up comics.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:1-5 NKJV)

The power of the Church is its Message not its marketing.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?There really is power in the blood of the Lamb.

By the way, when Mutt got loose, he took off and never looked back, another good lesson for us to learn.

Fear Not for there really is Victory in this life.