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Why is it that "holiness" gets a bad rap?—Why is it when you mention "holiness" so many people in the Church look strange at you? I feel that the "Church" has slipped into a "let’s fit in with the world" mind set. We have stained garments and no one seems to notice. We go along with what ever comes our way, as long as it isn’t "way out there", so we can fit in, not realizing that we are becoming what we are trying to reach, rather than reaching them with Jesus!!
I remember years ago, in the Church I was attending at that time, I was ushering and my partner usher was an "elder" in this particular church. *-Remember I said an elder, not a new Christian, this man was a leader. Before service we would share and talk with one another, well he had mentioned a movie he and his wife had seen over the week-end. It was a very popular movie at that time. You know, the one where we just have to go and see it. (not) But anyway, he was so excited about this movie, and sharing with everyone about it. Well, I knew there was some nudity in the movie. Prior to that week-end I had done some research on this particular movie. I Just wanted to see what all the excitement was about. (On-line, there are Christian sites that break down the movies; they list all the pro’s and con’s from a Biblical perspective…imagine that. A good one is http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ ) So I mentioned to the this "elder" usher guy, "Wasn’t there nudity in this movie?"—His reply was "Yeah- but it wasn’t that bad". "It wasn’t that bad?". His reply got me wondering how much nudity would be too bad? Soft porn ok..but hard-core porn is a no-no? – I mean really, since when is a little sin OK? – How much leaven dose it take to leaven the whole batch? Jesus answered it "just a little" How much arsenic dose it take to kill you?..just a little –Don’t you ever forget it.
You see, I’m talking about living with convictions. Living to please Jesus! Living in obedience. Living like the Bible says. Just in case some may have forgotten the bible still says: "Friendship with the world is hatred toward God!" (James 4:4) We are people who are to be different! Were to be separate. I’m not giving God’s money (its all His) to some secular God mocking Hollywood movie…No way! I’m not interested in cozening up to the sin-pleasure-seeking world. Were to be different! To be honest, most movies are a stench to God. Filled with worldliness and compromise, violence, sex & sexual innuendoes. I’m not interested in that mess!! You don’t reach the world by being like them, you reach them by them by living the Gospel in front of them. They need to see Jesus living in you!
So many times I hear: "I just need to get away from all the stress and go unwind and the movies help me." – I wonder sometimes in our "un-winding" how we must be like sitting ducks for the devil to fill us up with his trash.
Also, let me say this: "Living by the Bible and serving Jesus and abstaining from the impurities of this world is not legalism!" So many times I hear people get all huffy and make comments about living holy and set apart to Jesus, they say that it is a "religious spirit" or that it is being a "legalist." Please listen, Living HOLY and living set-apart for JESUS is NOT legalism. I’d rather please the Lord with my lifestyle than fall into a loosy-goosy –greasy grace lifestyle any day. So, all you reading this who feel like it this is legalism – or a religious spirit, I plead with you to read your Bible. Quit listening to the contemporaries- Quit listening to the luke-warm people pleasing speakers. Ask God to reveal truth. It’s the truth that will set us free!! I’m not interested in being the "happening dude" or the guy who’s "free" to live anyway he wants. – Yes, I want freedom but I want freedom from the bondage of the flesh (that old man- the sin nature). But I am a "Bond-slave" to Christ! I choose to beat my body and make it subject to the Spirit of God. I choose to "count the cost"! I am not my own I am bought with a price. My life my body is not my own. I choose to say No to ungodliness! I say NO to compromise!- I say NO to luke-warm living and thinking its OK because everyone else is doing it. Everyone my be on their way to Hell! I choose to follow JESUS. And if following Jesus makes me a legalist- so be it. I’ll take that over a compromising walk wit the devil any day of the week… Amen!!
Now let’s look at some definitions of "Holiness". Holiness means to be "spiritually pure" and "set apart for God’s purposes." Holiness carries the thought of being separate from the ungodly ways of the world and set apart for love, service, and worship toward God.
Were to be Christ-like. Jesus is holy.
There are many-many scriptures that speak to us on being holy and set apart to God.
Below are listed just a few:
Ephesians 1:3-4 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Paul also said:" Imitate me just as I imitate Christ." (1 cor 11:1)
In 1 Peter 1:15-16 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Titus 2:11-12 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
1 Cor. 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
1 John 2: 15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
I choose to follow the word of God and live "Holy". If that means I will be labeled "self- righteous" a "legalist" –"holier than thou"- a "fanatic" or what ever then that’s just the way it will have to be.
I want to end this article with a short quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church". I totally agree.
Let’s purpose to not let the world influence us. Let's purpose to seek God and have His heart and attitude. Lets turn from compromising and lets make a determined effort to please the Lord to remind ourselves that this world is not our home and that are plan on earth is to do His will! Amen?…
-Igy
I remember years ago, in the Church I was attending at that time, I was ushering and my partner usher was an "elder" in this particular church. *-Remember I said an elder, not a new Christian, this man was a leader. Before service we would share and talk with one another, well he had mentioned a movie he and his wife had seen over the week-end. It was a very popular movie at that time. You know, the one where we just have to go and see it. (not) But anyway, he was so excited about this movie, and sharing with everyone about it. Well, I knew there was some nudity in the movie. Prior to that week-end I had done some research on this particular movie. I Just wanted to see what all the excitement was about. (On-line, there are Christian sites that break down the movies; they list all the pro’s and con’s from a Biblical perspective…imagine that. A good one is http://www.pluggedinonline.com/ ) So I mentioned to the this "elder" usher guy, "Wasn’t there nudity in this movie?"—His reply was "Yeah- but it wasn’t that bad". "It wasn’t that bad?". His reply got me wondering how much nudity would be too bad? Soft porn ok..but hard-core porn is a no-no? – I mean really, since when is a little sin OK? – How much leaven dose it take to leaven the whole batch? Jesus answered it "just a little" How much arsenic dose it take to kill you?..just a little –Don’t you ever forget it.
You see, I’m talking about living with convictions. Living to please Jesus! Living in obedience. Living like the Bible says. Just in case some may have forgotten the bible still says: "Friendship with the world is hatred toward God!" (James 4:4) We are people who are to be different! Were to be separate. I’m not giving God’s money (its all His) to some secular God mocking Hollywood movie…No way! I’m not interested in cozening up to the sin-pleasure-seeking world. Were to be different! To be honest, most movies are a stench to God. Filled with worldliness and compromise, violence, sex & sexual innuendoes. I’m not interested in that mess!! You don’t reach the world by being like them, you reach them by them by living the Gospel in front of them. They need to see Jesus living in you!
So many times I hear: "I just need to get away from all the stress and go unwind and the movies help me." – I wonder sometimes in our "un-winding" how we must be like sitting ducks for the devil to fill us up with his trash.
Also, let me say this: "Living by the Bible and serving Jesus and abstaining from the impurities of this world is not legalism!" So many times I hear people get all huffy and make comments about living holy and set apart to Jesus, they say that it is a "religious spirit" or that it is being a "legalist." Please listen, Living HOLY and living set-apart for JESUS is NOT legalism. I’d rather please the Lord with my lifestyle than fall into a loosy-goosy –greasy grace lifestyle any day. So, all you reading this who feel like it this is legalism – or a religious spirit, I plead with you to read your Bible. Quit listening to the contemporaries- Quit listening to the luke-warm people pleasing speakers. Ask God to reveal truth. It’s the truth that will set us free!! I’m not interested in being the "happening dude" or the guy who’s "free" to live anyway he wants. – Yes, I want freedom but I want freedom from the bondage of the flesh (that old man- the sin nature). But I am a "Bond-slave" to Christ! I choose to beat my body and make it subject to the Spirit of God. I choose to "count the cost"! I am not my own I am bought with a price. My life my body is not my own. I choose to say No to ungodliness! I say NO to compromise!- I say NO to luke-warm living and thinking its OK because everyone else is doing it. Everyone my be on their way to Hell! I choose to follow JESUS. And if following Jesus makes me a legalist- so be it. I’ll take that over a compromising walk wit the devil any day of the week… Amen!!
Now let’s look at some definitions of "Holiness". Holiness means to be "spiritually pure" and "set apart for God’s purposes." Holiness carries the thought of being separate from the ungodly ways of the world and set apart for love, service, and worship toward God.
Were to be Christ-like. Jesus is holy.
There are many-many scriptures that speak to us on being holy and set apart to God.
Below are listed just a few:
Ephesians 1:3-4 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Paul also said:" Imitate me just as I imitate Christ." (1 cor 11:1)
In 1 Peter 1:15-16 15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.
Titus 2:11-12 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
1 Cor. 3:16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
1 John 2: 15-17
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
I choose to follow the word of God and live "Holy". If that means I will be labeled "self- righteous" a "legalist" –"holier than thou"- a "fanatic" or what ever then that’s just the way it will have to be.
I want to end this article with a short quote by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: "Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church". I totally agree.
Let’s purpose to not let the world influence us. Let's purpose to seek God and have His heart and attitude. Lets turn from compromising and lets make a determined effort to please the Lord to remind ourselves that this world is not our home and that are plan on earth is to do His will! Amen?…
-Igy
2 comments:
very well put Iggy; I couldn't agree with you more and am very blessed to have met another one of my brothers in the Lord. Lukewarm does not set one free...TRUTH "makes" us free!
The Lord bless you!
Praise Jesus for people who will speak for Him in truth His truth.
Thanks igy.
Blessings,
debbi
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