Christian Holiness Journal

a record of struggle and victory to know the mind of Christ

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Search in posts
Search in pages
Filter by Categories
angels
balance
best of
Bible reading
Christology
church benevolence
cross
Daily Walk with Christ
deliverance
discipline
Easter
eden
failure
Faith
Fear
Fear Not
freedom
heaven
hell
history
Holiness
Holy Spirit
hymn
joy
leadership
Life of Jesus
love
marriage
mercy
nazarene
news link
One Life
Peace
perfect love
persecution
praise
prayer
quiet
repentance
salvation
sanctification
sin
small group study
Son of Man
The Church
The Quest
trinity
Uncategorized
what we believe
whosoever will
work
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Q&A

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Archives for failure

Fear Not 365 – For He Chose Us

May 15, 2017 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

With a father who was 53 when I was born, I know for certain that I was unplanned. My parents were weary from struggling to raise my four older siblings. After I came along, my dad started drinking to excess, which led to their separation. Dad died when I was six, and I blamed myself. As a teenager, I pushed Mom over the edge. She didn’t know how to handle me. She had never planned for a problem child.

Not only was I unplanned, I turned out to be a disappointment to my mother. Mom died before I was 28. I lived in another state by then, but I hurried home when I got the call. I was there for her final 12 hours in this world. I am not sure if she knew I was there. I am not sure she would have cared. After Mom’s funeral my brother told me that Mom had written down some thoughts about each of her children. He refused to show it to me. It would be painful, he said. That confirmed her disappointment in me.

As sad as that sounds, my regret is not that she was disappointed in me, rather my regret is that I gave her bountiful reason to be disappointed.

I have a parent, though, whom I can never disappoint. My Heavenly Father knows my ending from my beginning. Before He spun the world like a top, He knew every sin I would ever commit. He knew every time I would go astray. He knew before I took my first breath when and where I would breathe my last. God cannot be disappointed in me because He knew exactly what I was when He invited me to follow Him.

That ledger that God keeps, with my name on the top, with two or three good things in the right column and thousands of bad things in the left column… It lists every sin I ever committed and ever will commit. Lately, though, that list has disappeared. It’s gone. No one can find it. The ink faded away. The paper burned up. In its place, God wrote my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

A few years ago, I surrendered to Jesus as my Lord. I committed to live like Him. I can never make up for disappointing Mom, but I have a proud Father that I can never disappoint.  He killed the “fatted calf” when I came home. I tell Him I’m sorry when I sin. He says, “That’s covered by the blood of the Lamb – and has been before the foundation of the world.”

Fear Not for God knows all and loves us anyway. We will never disappoint Him.

Filed Under: Daily Walk with Christ, Fear Not Tagged With: dad, disappointment, failure, fear, lambs book of life, mom, regret, sin

Mercy Walked In

September 5, 2016 by ChristianHolinessDaily Leave a Comment

More than any other man I know, I have been shown mercy. I have received mercy in unprecedented proportions. God is a gracious and merciful God. I am continually amazed that He can love and care for a worm like me. 

I was introduced to Christ as a toddler. I possess a photo of my mother holding me inside a Sunday school room at that age. I accepted Christ as my Savior at about seven years old. Pastor Gary Phipps, a fiery Pentecostal preacher who seldom took a full breath between sentences (only by the power of God did he not hyperventilate while preaching), preached a sermon on heaven and hell. He finished by looking me in the eye and saying that, even if I was the only person who had ever been born, Christ would have died for me. I figured that I should give my heart to Him in return. 

I have since backslidden and repented thousands of time. There could be no one on earth who has stumbled and fallen more than I. Yet, His mercies never fail. He is always waiting for me with open arms when I return, so long I am truly repentant. 

A man I know did something terrible and it landed him in federal court. He couldn’t afford a lawyer, and the public defender’s office didn’t show up for the arraignment. My friend, not understanding that the system did not allow a guilty plea at that point, plead guilty. The judge looked at him and said, “No, son, at this point, you are not guilty.”

“But, I did it, your honor.”

“But, right now, in the eyes of the law, you are innocent … until proven guilty…”

With God, we are not “innocent until proven guilty,” we are, “guilty, but forgiven because Jesus has already served your sentence.”

That doesn’t give us a free pass to keep sinning, but because God loves us, He has forgiven all our sins, past and future. His mercies are greater than our sins. 

What Paul is telling us in this verse, Romans 12:1, that in light of God’s mercies, we should give Him our unending love and devotion. 

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Thank you, God, for your never-ending mercies, because I am just an ever-fallible human. 

I stood in the court room the judge turned my way. 

It looks like you’re guilty now what do you say?

I spoke up, “Your honor, I have no defense.”

But that’s when mercy walked in. 

Mercy walked in and pleaded my case. 

Called to the stand God’s saving grace

The blood was presented that covered my sin. 

Forgiven, when mercy walked in. 

Praise the lord.

Mercy Walked In

By Gordon Mote and Sheri Easter

Filed Under: Daily Walk with Christ Tagged With: failure, forgiveness, grace, mercy

Recent Articles

  • The Test
  • The Abundance of God’s Creation
  • Adam’s Rib
  • Teaching Through Songs and Hymns
  • There’s Power in the Blood
Signup to receive updates