Keep the Holy Faith

 Jude 1:20,21
 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost…Keep yourselves in the love of God.

Whether it is the end days or the sunset days of our personal lives, we are constantly aware of mockers, who desire to bring division and twist the word of God to appease their own appetites for the sinful things of this world. The last times or in the last days will be similar to the days of Noah. The teachings of the world will seep into the church, and many will be deceived by the grain of truth that is embedded into the teaching. The admonition is to pray that the Holy Spirit will give us discernment to see what is truth and what is false. The center of truth is to stay in the love of God, be grounded in sound doctrine of the teachings of Jesus. His word is truth and our faith is holy because He is holy. We are to resist and denounce the works of the devil, and proclaim the gospel to all who will hear it. Many have turned from the truth and have become reprobates in their minds and hearts, and refuse to accept Jesus as God and the Savior of the world. We may not be able to successfully change the political climate and social perversion of our culture, but we can stand against the evil of the day, share the grace and love of God, show others the way to the cross and lift up Jesus in this messed up world.

God Hates Sin

Psalm 90:7,8
For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled…Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
The image of God given to us here is a God of judgment. A God that hates sin. It is impossible to hide our sins from Him, the light of his presence reveals our sinfulness. This is the picture and perception that many people have of God. A God ready to strike us down as soon as we do something that misses the mark. It is true that God is Holy, and hates sin and is displeased with those who commit sinful acts of rebellion. But He is also a God of love and mercy. He sees our humanity, and our inclinations to satisfy self. It is because of His love that He sent Jesus to provide a way to save us from our sinful condition. We are all judgment bound and will stand before Him. We can stand before Him with clean hands and a pure heart if we have by faith accepted His love of grace and our sins have been covered by the blood of Christ. We can be judged guiltless because Jesus is standing in our place as our advocate.

God Makes Everything Good

 Gen. 1:31

And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…

From the beginning, we were created in the image of God. In the likeness of his holiness. Not created to be a god, but to have a relationship with a holy God. We were made good and without sin. “Everything He made was very good”. Good turned to bad when Adam and Eve yielded to temptation. Satan deceived them, causing them to disobey what God forbidden them to do. God’s good creation fell from having a good heart to a sinful heart of unbelief. The sin was not in the fruit, but in their unbelief to trust God and obey his commandments. This is a sad story given to us in His word. But, the story does not end there. Christmas came, and Christ was born. Born to save us from our sins. Restoring the goodness that we lost when He died and paid the supreme sacrifice for our sins. Sin has been nailed to the cross. The blood of Christ has been shed that we may once again have pure fellowship with the God of creation. We who were born in sin, can be made good when we accept Christ as our Redeemer and Savior. God is so good, and He makes everything good.

Good Friday

Heb. 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

We are not made holy through any thing that we do. He commands us to abstain from all appearance of evil, yet it is not living a sinless life that make us holy. God says, “Be ye holy as I am Holy”. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. This standard of living is impossible for man to reach. We can only be made perfect through the cross. Jesus who offered up Himself as the supreme sacrifice for sin, took our sin, it was nailed to the cross and we bear it no longer. Through the blood of Christ we can now be made whole and sanctified. We are made clean and can now come boldly to the throne of God and make our request known to Him. Once and for all, the blood was shed, no need for any other sacrifice. Today is Good Friday, good because the price has been paid and we no longer have to sacrifice animals for sin offerings. Good because we now can be made holy and pure, not of any works we can do, but through faith in the cross that Jesus died for us to set us free from the bondage of sin and has written the law of God in our hearts. His commandments are still required, but they are not what makes us holy.

Christian Perfection

Matthew 5:48 “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in Heaven is perfect.”

What does it mean to “Be perfect” I read in a devotional this morning:

“it’s not possible to have perfect motives. We love the Lord and others, but our motives for how we live the Christian life are sometimes mixed with our desire to be valued or praised.”

This author’s opinion is that being perfect does not mean that we can always do things with a perfect motive. Jesus, the God-Man who walked this earth tells us that it is possible to be perfect. Is it possible to always make choices with the motive to please God? Can a Christian not always seek the Kingdom of God first in the way they behave, act, or react? As human beings, we live in a broken down human body that  are subject to the elements of this world. We make mistakes, our bodies grow weary and often our judgment in the choices we make our influences by the state of our mind when it reaches it’s limitation of handling stress. But is it not possible, when we have full control of our faculties to make choices with the intentions of always pleasing God? I believe that Christian perfection, the work of sanctification can give a person a heart that is always perfect toward God. Paul writes in the book of Romans to give yourself as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is our service to God. It is this consecration to God and the infilling of the Holy Spirit that allows a person to always make choices that are perfect in the sight of God. Let us asked ourselves, Why do I do the things I do? Let God examine our heart and determine weather they are perfect before Him.

He Alone is God

Psalm 86:10 “For Thou art great and doest wondrous things: Thou alone art God.”-

He alone is God. In all the earth there is none greater than the great three in one. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Holy, holy, holy is He and worthy of all our praise and worship. There is no God compared to Thee on God, no not one. The gods of this world appeal to our earthly flesh and passions to serve them, but God appeals to our soul and spirit. He works in ways that are beyond our imagination. He is God alone who is in control of world affairs and no matter who our world leaders are, He is greater and nothing that happens will change who He is and what He allows to happen. He alone is God and in Him alone will I put my trust.

He That Calls You

1 Thess 5:24 “Faithful is He that calleth you; He also will do it.”-

Called of God to be holy. To walk in the way of holiness. To be set apart and be made blameless. Not in our own strength, but in our willingness to let God do to us what He needs to make us ready for heaven. The process is not pleasant and it will probably require sacrifice on our part. But, the promise of God is true. He is faithful to make us what we ought to be. He wants us to live victorious lives and have motives that are pure and holy. Being sanctified does not make us perfect human beings. We are still subject to temptations and things that come from human desire. But He has promise us that even in times of temptation, we can give us the desire to live spotless and blameless in this present world. His second coming can happen at any time, our last day can be any day. He wants us to be ready for that day. May we be willing to submit our live to God, to be used of Him until His coming.

Enmity To God

Gen.3:15 “ And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.”- 

Sin and Satan are oppose to anything that is holy and right. Satan will do everything he can to destroy that which is good and wholesome. Living a holy life for God is incongruent with the carnal heart. It is in opposition to the will of God, and is not compatible to a Holy Spirit filled life. God sent His son in the form of a man to be the Seed that would bruise and defeat the plan of Satan. Satan thought he had destroyed the Seed when Jesus was nailed to the cross and put to death, but it was His death that crushed the head of Satan and provided a way for mankind to be saved from the destruction of sin and Satan. In order to live in harmony to the will of God, sin must be eliminated from our hearts. Yes, we were all born in sin and from birth are sinners, but the Seed of the women, Jesus dealt the death blow to sin, making it possible for us to live a life without sin. Not by our own righteousness, but by the grace of God that changes our life. We were once sinners, but now we have been redeemed, no longer sinners, but children of the most high God. Once (past tense) we were sinners, but now we have been set free from the bondage of sin. Our hearts are no longer in enmity to God, but made holy and subject to the will of God.  

Putting on Christ

Num. 15:38, 40 “Put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue....that ye may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God”- 

God does not want us to forget who brought us out of sin. Keeping Christ at the center and focus of our life will help us to remember who saved us from sin and that He desires that we follow Him and do His commandments. We are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we put on Christ it is our badge of identity. It reminds people who we are and who we belong to. Living a life of sin and putting on Christ are not compatible. We cannot say that Christ is living in us and through us when we live contrary to His commandments. When we are tempted to live in the flesh and fulfill the lust of the flesh, He is faithful and willing to deliver us. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us...” Being holy unto God is to be set apart and ready to be used by Him. To be holy does not mean that we live a perfect life without error, it means that our heart’s desires more to be like Jesus. Having put on Christ, we are reminded that in everything we do in life, it is done knowing that Christ is the center, and doing His will is the only things that really matters. “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Roman 13:14