Wise Words

Wednesday Wisdom: What are we striving for?

Leave a Comment / August 29, 2012
My grandpa and me

 

My grandfather, Charles S. Good, was a pastor for many years.  He was a wonderful, wise man who loved God. He died some years back but before he died, he wrote a series of meditations and thoughts.  I would like to share one of them with you this morning.

GODLY CONTENTMENT

Hebrews 13:5 “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'”.

It would seem following this scriptural directive has never been easy.  Certainly at this time in America it appears to be very difficult.  I need to confess that, with my failing health, it has become increasingly difficult to be content with what I am able to do, as well as with what I have. However, I am finding God’s grace is sufficient.

If we study carefully the biblical context of contentment, we see a very interesting challenge develop. On the one hand, we are to be content with that which relates to the material and the physical. On the other hand, we are to strive for that which relates to the spiritual.

In regards to the physical we need to hear Paul in Philippians 4:11. “…I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.”  I Timothy 6:6-8 “…having food and raiment let us therewith be content.” There are many other verses which speak to the matter of being content with our material and physical condition.

In regards to the spiritual, we need to note verses as in Hebrews 12:1 “…let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” and Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” There are other biblical references which use such words as strive, covet earnestly, etc. that depict what our attitude should be toward our spiritual life.

In looking carefully at our text in Hebrews, it seems to me our trust in God can be measured by the degree of contentment we have towards material things. I am not suggesting it is okay to be lazy in regards to physical labor but to be careful in setting priorities in life. If in our lifetime we had kept a record of time and energy spent to minister to our physical desires, and had done the same in regards to our spiritual life, would we be pleased with what we find?

We need to be well aware of the fact that in our day the presence of peer pressure, media advertising, and easy credit make it very difficult to be contented. In fact, because these things appeal to the flesh, we are very prone to be discontented. In order to conquer this tendency we need to put forth special effort in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, if we would gain the victory in this regards, let’s keep in perspective James 4:14, “…life is but like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

As Christians may we strive for spiritual health and not for material wealth!

—Charles S. Good (July 1994)

Wednesday Wisdom #9: The Sin that No One Escapes

Leave a Comment / August 15, 2012

This past Sunday our pastor spoke on a subject that affects us all.  In fact, he said something like “if you don’t think you struggle with this, it means you probably do.”  He went on to share some very convicting and challenging points regarding this issue.  So this week’s wisdom comes from Pastor Wayne Burggraff and the subject?  Pride.  The sin that no one escapes at one time or other.

His sermon was based on the life of Joseph and he first gave multiple reasons why Joseph could have been proud.  Think about it.  He was shown special favoritism by his parents (with a multi-colored coat to prove it), he was made head of his master’s household in short order,  he was good-looking and desired by the master’s wife, he could interpret dreams and visions, and he ended up being second in command, second only to Pharaoh, in the great civilization of Egypt.  And yet, Joseph gave the glory to God and concentrated on serving Him (Genesis 39:4, 40:8, 41:16).

So how did Joseph manage to do this? How did he not get all caught up in how wonderful or powerful he was? Pastor Wayne gave six ways to keep this sin far from our lives. I would like to share them with you here, followed by a few comments of my own in italics regarding each point.

1.   Lean on the Lord (and not on yourself!) if we lean on the Lord, we never have to think how amazingly resourceful we are, because we know the truth: God can strike us dead at any moment. He can move men’s hearts. He is Sovereign and He is the one in control. We aren’t all that amazingly resourceful, after all.

2.  Lift up the Lord  (and not yourself!) Pastor put it this way: Deflect any credit to God.  I had never quite thought about that before. But any good thing we can do, anything in our lives of which we are proud, is only because of His gifts and by His grace. He should be praised!  

3.  Lift up others (not just yourself) Pastor made the observation that selfish people feel threatened by other people’s successes. You know, that’s true. If we are prideful and selfish, we don’t want good things to happen to other people. But someone who is genuinely concerned about others will be happy for their successes and sad at their losses — not the other way around.

4.  Labor hard at your job (instead of becoming slothful or lazy) There isn’t much time for pride and “self-esteem” conversations if you are laboring hard at your work and focusing on what you should be doing.  

5.  Let go of your past and its’ hurts (and its’ successes, too) The past is past. Yes, it has shaped us, it has molded us into who we are, but hanging on to it, whether looking back at the glory days or looking back at the hurtful days, is not beneficial to anyone, and least of all, to us.

6. Live a holy life.  Never assume that you can live as you like just because of your successes or position in life.  Many of us do this.  We think because we are such and such in the company or church, or because we are the star of the team or we are popular, that we deserve special treatment. But, no matter where we find ourselves, we need to be willing to serve others willingly and whole-heartedly.  No matter what position we have or how big our house, if we are focused on holiness, it helps us to remember that we are a sinner, saved by grace alone. Living a holy life keeps pride far from us.

I don’t know about you, but I found this message challenging. I wasn’t aware of just how much pride creeps -oh, so subtly- into my own life. As I listened, I spotted troubling areas that I need to confess and change. I wish I could play the whole message for you, but I guess the six points will have to do. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down all of the Bible verses that went with the points.  Most came from the story of Joseph in Genesis. If you are looking for something new for your devotions, his life is certainly worth reading again.  He is an amazing example of a godly man.  At any rate, I hope that some of you are challenged, just as I was, even though Pastor Wayne’s presentation was so much more thorough and better than mine!

Wednesday Wisdom #8: Thoughts on Church

Leave a Comment / August 8, 2012

 The Grace to You ministry has been so helpful to me through the years.  John MacArthur preaches the truth of the Bible without compromise and yet with so much love and humility.  I remember someone once told me that they think he is so “harsh”.  I find myself wondering if anyone who says that could have possibly ever listened to him?  Sure, he says things I don’t like, too, but he bases all he says on the Word of God.  His humility as he teaches the Word of God is unseen in many pastors.  The other day we were listening to a question and answer time with Phil Johnson and John MacArthur.  In this particular Q&A time, the discussion centered on the modern day church and all that’s going on there right now.  After we heard what I have written below, my husband remarked that every Christian should hear this.  Hence, my decision to share it with you all today.  We can never let down our guard when it comes to this matter of church.  

The whole interview would be so worth a few minutes of your precious time.  You can find it here, along with all of his other MP3s, which he provides on the Grace To You website for free.  Here is a brief excerpt of that interview:

First of all, you’ve been worshiping with us, right? For four days. What you experience in the way we worship here would have been exactly what you would have experienced if you had been here twenty years ago…or thirty years ago. You heard me preach. What you heard me say today and the last three days, you could have heard me do the very same thing thirty-five years ago. We pay absolutely no attention to the pop culture, we couldn’t care less. We don’t care what they’re doing.  It’s irrelevant. We have a fixed point of reference: the Word of God. And I don’t want to link arms with the culture. I want to link arms with the history of the church. I want to quote the great theologians. I want to sing the great hymns that generations of believers have sung and the reason we’re still singing them is because they were so good. I want to link arms with the past. I want people to know that we’re some…we’re a part of something that is multi…multi-national, multi-generational and multi-millennial. It goes back several thousand years. I don’t want people to think we just invented this.

I can tell you everything I need to know about a guy who says he’s a pastor by how much he gives honor to the work of Christ through faithful men through the history of the church and how much he wants to be among them and not an invention of his own. It’s just a problem.

I mean, look around at Grace Church, we’ve been taking in people, we often say this, I don’t know, what 75-80 new members a month for years and years and years and we think about 85 percent of them are thirties and under and have been for at least ten years. You know what? The Lord is reaching those people in a church that pays no attention to pop culture. We don’t drink beer openly, publicly. We’re not trying to play with the culture. We don’t want people to walk in here and say, “Wow, this is cool. This feels comfortable to me. It’s like a nightclub.”

We want people to walk in here and say, “What in the world is this? I’ve never experienced anything like this anywhere in my life.” We don’t want the world to come in, we want heaven to come down.

Wednesday Wisdom #7: For Our Children

Leave a Comment / August 1, 2012

Welcome to Wednesday Wisdom!  Amy Carmichael is one of my favorite missionaries.  As many of you know she served in India for many years, especially ministering to children, raising many of them as her own.  She was also a wonderful poet.  Many of her poems are compiled in a book called “Mountain Breezes”.  It is well worth the purchase.  Below is one of her beautiful poems on praying for our children.

For Our Children

Father, hear us, we are praying,
Hear the words our hearts are saying;
We are praying for our children.

Keep them from the powers of evil,
From the secret, hidden peril;
Father, hear us for our children.

From the whirlpool that would suck them,
From the treacherous quicksand, pluck them;
Father, hear us for our children.

From the worldling’s hollow gladness,
From the sting of faithless sadness,
Father, Father, keep our children.

Through life’s troubled waters steer them;
Through life’s bitter battle cheer them;
Father, Father, be Thou near them.

Read the language of our longing,
Read the wordless pleadings thronging,
Holy Father, for our children.

And wherever they may bide,
Lead them home at eventide.

WW #6: Simple Does Not Mean Easy

2 Comments / July 25, 2012
Today I am sharing some wise words from a friend of mine who is a missionary in Cambodia.  She is a wonderful writer and I know many of you will appreciate what she shared in her newsletter on Monday.  The analogy she makes is a great one.  Read on and see what I mean!
 

The heat here [Cambodia] makes it quite hard to want to get out and do anything, really, but I am glad to report I was up bright and early today for a riverside jog/walk. And I almost enjoyed it. Almost.

You’ll have to forgive me if a lot of my object lessons recently have been about exercise and the physical side of things. It is taking a bit of my focus and energy right now, as I am working toward some “before forty” goals. (The clock is ticking!) But I am beginning to see why many of the NT writers used athletics and sports allegories to make their points about the spiritual life. There are so many parallels!

A number of years ago, a doctor said to me that—unless your weight gain was due to medical reasons—all you had to do to lose weight was to eat less and move more. It’s that simple. It comes down basic math, really. If your calorie intake is consistently less than the number of calories you burn day after day, you will begin to lose weight. This is not rocket science, folks!

However, “simple” does not necessarily mean “easy”.

Anyone who has tried to lose weight knows how hard it is to change lifestyle rhythms or habits. It is soooo difficult to pass up that extra helping, or that tempting snack. It is exhausting to submit your body to rigorous exercise and grueling to stick to disciplined daily routines.

Weight loss might be simple on paper, but it certainly is not easy.

In the same way, salvation is basically simple. You have a debt of sin that you could never repay. Jesus has paid the price in full, and offers to clear your account. You simply have to accept His gift and His Lordship in your life.

But there is nothing easy about the Christian walk. The dying to self, the denial of fleshly desires, the breaking and bending of the will to the Spirit’s control. None of this comes naturally. But it must be done, intentionally and regularly. Besides that, the world will heap us with abuse once it sees we are trying to do things differently, not living by its norms and standards.

The basics of salvation might be simple to grasp, but living it out on a daily basis is probably one of the hardest things a person can do.

We do a great disservice, I fear, when we minimize the cost of following Christ. When we promise a primrose-strewn path, leading not only to future Glory, but also to heaven here on earth. We mislead others if we do not prepare them for the rocky road ahead.

Of course we do not walk this path alone. We need not strive and strain in our own strength. We have a Helper always available to us. In fact, He is eager to do most of the work if we will just submit to His control. It’s that simple. But not that easy.

–by Deborah Wise

Wednesday Wisdom #5: Only a Few Things Matter

Leave a Comment / July 18, 2012

The following is from the book “Born After Midnight”.  It is by A.W. Tozer, who many of you know is one of my favorite authors.  I hope you enjoy this very compelling and interesting excerpt.

It has been suggested here before that life, for all its apparent complexities, is at bottom very simple indeed if we could only realize it. Thank God, only a few things matter. The rest are incidental and unimportant.

Nothing that matters is new. “There is no new thing under the sun,” said Solomon, and he could hardly have meant that there had been no mechanical development or social or political changes under the sun, for he observed elsewhere that man has “sought out many inventions,” and he had himself instituted quite a number of changes in the royal routine. The city of Jerusalem he left behind him when he died was quite another city from the one he took over from his father David. External changes were numerous even in those days, but in nature and in man nothing was new; and it was of these that Solomon wrote.

Nothing is new that matters and nothing that matters can be modernized. One way to evaluate anything in the world around us is to check for possible modernization. If it can be modernized you may safely put it far down in the scale of human values. Only the unchanged and the unchanging should be accounted worthy of lasting consideration by beings made in the image of God.

Should some reader impatiently brush me off as hopelessly old-fashioned I shall not be offended. To escape the illusion of the temporal requires a free mind and a heart deeply engrossed in eternal thoughts and filled with immortal yearnings. And present-day Christianity simply does not produce that kind of mentality. Neither can we hope with Wordsworth “that mellower years will bring a riper mind and clearer insight,” for our direction is away from this and not toward it. Unless we have been enlightened deep in the Spirit of truth, the passing of time will not help us. Rather it may confirm us in our carnality. There is such a thing as spiritual senility. It is the natural result of failure over a prolonged period to live in the light of revealed truth; and any of us can slide into it unless we walk humbly and circumspectly.

Almost everything that men value today has been developed from some primitive archetype: the streamlined auto from the wheel, the skyscraper from the stone arch, the supersonic airplane from the kite, our highly complex monetary system from the cowrie shell or its equivalent, our extremely efficient methods of communication from hieroglyphics or the jungle drum. I think it would be possible to trace about 98 percent of the items that compose our modern civilized world back to their primitive originals. Yet I reassert with emphasis that nothing new matters and nothing that really matters can be modernized.

What really matters after all? My personal relation to God matters. That takes priority over everything else. A man may be born in a sanitary hospital, receive his education in progressive schools, ride in an air-conditioned car, sleep on a foam rubber mattress, wear synthetic clothing, eat vitamin-enriched food, read by fluorescent lights, speak across 12,000 miles of empty space to a friend on the other side of the world, lose his anxieties by taking tranquilizing pills, die without pain by the aid of some new drug and be laid to rest in a memorial park as lovely as a country garden; yet what will all this profit him if he must later rise to face in judgment a God who knows him not and whom he does not know? To come at last before the bar of eternal justice with no one to plead his cause and to be banished forever from the presence of the great Judge—is that man any better off than if he had died a naked savage in the hinterlands of Borneo?

No man can afford to live or die under the frowning displeasure of God. Yet, name one modem device that can save him from it. Where can a man find security? Can philosophy help him? or psychology? Or science? or “progress”? or atoms or wonder drugs or vitamins? No. Only Christ can help him, and His aid is as old as man’s sin and man’s need. The naked aborigine is as near to God (and as far from Him) as the Ph.D. Nothing new can save my soul; neither can saving grace be modernized. We must each come as Abel came, by atoning blood and faith demonstrated in repentance. No new way has been discovered. The old way is the true way and there is no new way. The Lamb of God was slain “before the foundation of the world.”

A few other things matter to be sure, but they begin there, go out from there and return there again. They are that we trust Christ completely, carry our cross daily, love God and our fellow men, walk in the light as God gives us to understand it; that we love mercy, and walk uprightly; that we fulfill our commission as ambassadors of Christ among men; that we grow in grace and in the knowledge of God and come at last to our end like a ripe shock of corn at harvest time.

These are the things that matter. These things are always critical, yet few recognize them as being so. It is all but impossible these days to get attention to the things that matter. Only as the servants of God veer away from these serious and eternal things to talk of politics or world events or sports or science will the nervous and distraught victims of time and space give them a hearing. Yet these eternal truths are all the Bible teaches and all we are authorized to proclaim.

—Born After Midnight

Wise Words #4: He Is With You

Leave a Comment / July 11, 2012

One of the songs that has meant so much to me during some very difficult times has been this song by Mandisa, entitled “He Is With You”.  I remember being in tears by the end of hearing it the first time.  God used this song to remind me that He is always with me.  Even when I feel lonely or frightened or hopeless, I am not alone.  God is with me always.  How blessed we are to have a supernatural source of comfort and strength if we are one of His children.  May we never forget it.  I have attached a link to listen to the song on YouTube after the lyrics.  It’s a great video, so I hope you take a moment to watch it.

There’s a time to live
And a time to die
There’s a time to laugh
And a time to cry
There’s a time for war
And a time for peace
There’s a hand to hold
In the worst of these
In the worst of these

Chorus:
He is with you when your faith is dead
And you can’t even get out of bed
Or your husband doesn’t kiss you anymore
He is with you when your baby’s gone
And your house is still and your heart’s a stone
Cryin’ God, what’d you do that for?
He is with you

There’s a time for yes
And a time for no
There’s a time to be angry
And a time to let it go
There’s a time to run
And a time to face it
There is love to see you
Through all of this

Chorus:
He is with you in the conference room
When the world is coming down on you
And your wife and kids don’t know you anymore
And he is with you in the ICU
When the doctors don’t know what to do
And it scares you to the core
He is with you

We may weep for a time
But joy will come in the morning
The morning light

Chorus:
He is with you when your kids are grown
When there’s too much space and you feel alone
And you’re worried if you got it right or wrong
Yes he is with you when you’ve given up
On ever finding your true love
Someone who feels like home
He is with you

When nothing else is left
And you take your final breath
He is with you

Watch on YouTube:  He is With You by Mandisa

Wise Words #3: America, the Beautiful…and Lost

Leave a Comment / July 3, 2012

My heart aches as I write this.  The other morning I did something I rarely do.  I watched the news.  I was dismayed, not only by the natural tragedies occurring in this country on an all too frequent basis, but also by an agenda that makes hard-working families pay the bills for those who aren’t willing to work, an agenda that is not based on democracy but instead on a totally different philosophy.  I am saddened by the debt-ridden, despicable place this nation is in financially. But I am most distraught by the clear and ever-growing bias against anything that has to do with morals, God, or conservatives, while pushing, shoving, and dumping leftist, liberal ideas and thoughts into our heads.  Sure, some mornings are worse than others.  I happened to pick a pretty rotten morning to watch.

The temptation is to throw our hands up in the air and give up.  But what good does that do?  I submit to you that we need to stand for what is right and true in our own homes. Let’s raise our kids to love God, work hard, and spend only what they make.  Let’s make sure they are not entertained by the filth that is called entertainment.  Let’s do our best to set a good example of integrity, so they do not go out into the world wishy-washy and easily moved.  And let’s make sure that they know that God created the world.

There is a battle going on for our families.  We need to put on our armor (Ephesians 6) and fight for them!  And, in so doing, give a crumbling country the bright hope of young people who love their God and their country.

If we can raise  moral, hard-working, God-fearing kids the results of that will trickle out into the nation.  Sure, it may be just in a small area of this great land…but isn’t that better than nothing?

I can’t help but wonder what the next years will hold for this great land of the brave and the free that seems to be so very lost.  But I still love my country!  I am still thankful to be in a country that is like no other.  We are still so very blessed to live here…at least for now.  Here are a few very applicable quotes for this July 4th, 2012:

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”  – George Washington, 1st U.S. President

“Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience…without God there is a coarsening of the society; without God democracy will not and cannot long endure…If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.”        – Ronald Reagan

“It is necessary for the welfare of the nation that men’s lives be based on the principles of the Bible. No man, educated or uneducated, can afford to be ignorant of the Bible.”  – Theodore Roosevelt

“The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”  – George Washington, 1789

Wednesday Wisdom #2: Holiness and Grace

2 Comments / November 1, 2012

In the recent years (and perhaps always), there have been many men who have decided they are going to define God how they think He should be, instead of how scripture portrays Him.  This is a dangerous business, as most of these men write and preach and otherwise espouse their heresies to a world that wants to hear things about God that will make them feel warm and fuzzy inside.  But scripture makes it clear that God is not only love and mercy, but also holy and just.

Last Christmas my brother gave me a list of books that he has found helpful in his own Christian walk with God.  One of those books was The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink.  I usually have a hard time reading through books that contain such old-fashioned language, but this one was so helpful in helping me understand who God is, that I worked my way through it without hesitation.  This book is included on my Favorite Books page, which you can  find here. But I give you fair warning:  Not everything you read in it will be what you want to hear.  This is not a book to tickle your ears.  Some of it was really convicting for me.  But all of it was backed clearly by scripture.  If you want to learn about the God of the Holy Bible and who He is according to Scripture, this is a great resource.  Of course, the Bible itself is the best resource!

I have chosen to share a passage with you today regarding God’s holiness and how it has been so distorted by both Non-Christians and Christians alike.  In fact, if we had a proper view of God’s holiness, I would venture to say that we would be appalled by our lack of sensitivity to sin.  I hope you enjoy this excerpt:

God’s holiness from a worldly perspective

The unregenerate do not really believe in the holiness of God. Their conception of His character is altogether one-sided. They fondly hope that His mercy will override everything else. “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether as thyself” (Psalm 50:21) is God’s charge against them. They think only of a “god” patterned after their own evil hearts. Hence their continuance in a course of mad folly. Such is the holiness ascribed to the divine nature and character in Scripture that it clearly demonstrates their superhuman origin. The character attributed to the “gods” of the ancients and of modern heathendom is the very reverse of that immaculate purity which pertains to the true God.

An ineffably holy God, who has the utmost abhorrence of all sin, was never invented by any of Adam’s fallen descendants! The fact is that nothing makes more manifest the terrible depravity of man’s heart and his enmity against the living God than to have set before him One who is infinitely and immutably holy. His own idea of sin is practically limited to what the world calls “crime.” Anything short of that, man palliates as “defects,” “mistakes,” “infirmities,” etc. And even where sin is owned at all, excuses and extenuations are made for it.

The “god” which the vast majority of professing Christians “love” is looked upon very much like an indulgent old man, who himself has no relish for folly, but leniently winks at the “indiscretions” of youth. But the Word says, “Thou hatest all workers of iniquity” (Psa 5:5). And again, “God is angry with the wicked every day” (Psa 7:11). But men refuse to believe in this God, and gnash their teeth when His hatred of sin is faithfully pressed upon their attention. No, sinful man was no more likely to devise a holy God than to create the Lake of Fire in which he will be tormented forever and ever.

Because God is holy, acceptance with Him on the ground of creature doings is utterly impossible. A fallen creature could sooner create a world than produce that which would meet the approval of infinite Purity. Can darkness dwell with Light? Can the Immaculate One take pleasure in “filthy rags” (Isa 64:6)? The best that sinful man brings forth is defiled. A corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit. God would deny Himself, vilify His perfections, were He to account as righteous and holy that which is not so in itself; and nothing is so which has the least stain upon it contrary to the nature of God.

But blessed be His name, that which His holiness demanded, His grace has provided in Christ Jesus our Lord. Every poor sinner who has fled to Him for refuge stands “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6). Hallelujah!

Pink, Arthur W. (2010-04-05). The Attributes of God (p. 44).  . Kindle Edition.

Our View of God, Our View of Man, and Why It Matters

Leave a Comment / October 2, 2016

Following is an abbreviated version of the talk I prepared for a Mom’s group this morning.  I thank them for having me and, as this is the second request to speak on this particular topic in a matter of months, I thought some of you might be interested in it, as well.

Holiness.  What is it?  And why does it matter?  Why has this word almost disappeared from mainstream Christianity?

I think it is in great part because we do not have a biblical definition of Who God is.  We like to read about a “god” who meets our every need, who helps us find our purpose, and who grants our wishes. We aren’t so thrilled about a God who requires us to live holy and pure lives. We fill our minds with books that tell us who we want God to be, instead of the biblical description of God. God is holy, all-knowing, supreme, and loving. He hates sin and cannot tolerate it in any form.  We need to get to know the God of the Bible in order to properly understand holiness. God doesn’t exist to give me purpose and He doesn’t exist to fulfill my every need. His wrath is mentioned in scripture more times than His love. We can’t fully understand holiness if we are trying to define God in a way that pleases our emotions.

I also believe that an unbiblical understanding of who we are as human beings is to blame. I heard a song on Christian radio a few months ago that says “Jesus help me understand that I was worth dying for.”  I turned it off immediately. That isn’t biblical at all. The Bible tells us we WEREN’T worth dying for. That is the amazing beauty of salvation. It is God’s free gift to us, even though we were without any merit whatsoever. Over and over, outside the church and inside the church, we hear the common theme of how beautiful we are to Jesus. But this is not a biblical theme. Only through Jesus do we become pure and white and beautiful.  Only through Him do we have any merit.

If we have a LOW view of God and a HIGH view of ourselves, it leads us to have a very LOW view of sin.  We start believing that sin isn’t important.  That God understands and will forgive.  We don’t care about pleasing Him…we are more concerned with receiving blessings from the big “genie” in the sky. We become wrapped up in our own selfish desires, rights, and concerns and expect God to meet us there…instead of bending ourselves to His will and purposes. Holiness isn’t about a list of do’s and don’ts (what many like to call “legalism”), but it is instead a desire to show our love and gratitude to the God who has made a way for me, a sinner, to be reconciled with Him through the amazing sacrifice of His Son.

And this idea should affect all areas of our lives. I like to use the word “peas” to help me remember some of these areas (I really wanted to think of a meaningful word–but, alas, “peas” is the only thing my mind could come up with!)

1. Presentation–how do we present ourselves?  What kind of language do we use?  Are we modest in our dress?  Do we complain all of the time?  What do our priorities show about what we view as important? Can people tell we love the Lord by how we present ourselves?

2.  Entertainment–what do we watch?  What do we listen to?  What do we read?  If we couldn’t invite Jesus to join us…if our choices are full of the things God hates…then we can be sure we shouldn’t be watching, listening to, or reading it.  I fail to understand the rationalization that goes on in this area on a consistent basis by believers. If God hates it, we shouldn’t want any part of it — in real life OR on a page, a screen, or our car radio.

3.  Attitude–Who are we at home?  Are we kind, loving, and patient, or do we only put that face on when we are at church or work?  How would our families describe us? Do we think of others and their needs? Do we have an attitude of graciousness and kindness or do others view us as selfish, unpleasant, or angry?

4.  Stewardship–How do we spend our money?  Do we live in constant debt? How do we treat the bodies we have been blessed with? Do we overeat or eat to comfort ourselves?  How about the hours of each day?  Do we waste hours on activities that have no eternal value whatsoever?

Each of us probably struggles in one area more than another, but we all struggle.  I, personally, REALLY struggle with some of the things I have just mentioned.  But all four of the things listed above aren’t options but should be an outpouring of the love we feel for our God.

You see, holiness is about pleasing the Lord with every area of our life.  Eric Ludy puts it this way: ” Anything that turns the mind to self instead of the heavenly is opposite of Jesus; if it will not serve the purposes of Jesus Christ it has no allowance to be there.”

You know in your heart today where you struggle.  You know what part of your life you are struggling to live in purity and holiness.  We are all different.  But we are all the same in this:  We battle against our flesh and selfish desires.

But let us remember this:

 “God is only truly known in the soul as we yield ourselves to Him, submit to His authority, and regulate all the details of our lives by His holy precepts and commandments.”  A.W. Pink

 May we never give up our quest to please our heavenly Father with our life and our choices.  May we keep Him and knowing Him as our priority. May we turn away from our rebellious hearts.  And may we be wise and discerning in what we allow in our minds and our lives.  And may we never forget that the Lord will be with us all of the way, to strengthen and guide us.  He is faithful forever.  What a great God we serve!

 

Resources:

The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink (book) I wish every Christian would read this book.  It has been invaluable in helping me understand who God is.

The Power of a Holy Life by John MacArthur (article) Excellent article on how Holy Living affects the world around us.

No More Games: Living and Breathing the Holiness of God by James MacDonald (sermon series) I haven’t heard this whole series but what I have heard is excellent!

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