A Lifestyle of Peace

Sunday, July 29, 2018

The Glorious Road Home: Learning to Suffer for Jesus

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, cc 2.0

Audio Message

Introduction
As we consider today the glorious road home, we can often feel confused, by the difficulties we face, the addictions, the sorrows, and the challenges. Sometimes we wonder, is this difficult way, really right? This brings to mind a poem by Rosalind Goforth, it goes like this:

“Is this the right road home, Lord? The clouds are dark and ominous,

The stony path is hard to walk, Each step brings fresh pain.

I thought the way would be brighter? And that the sun with warmth would glow,

And joyous songs from play overhead. Is this really the Right Road Home?

Yes my child, replied Jesus: This very path I trod, The clouds were dark for me,

The stony path was sharp and hard. I didn’t walk by sight, but by faith

That at the end, the sun shines bright, Forever, where there is no more night or pain,

And glad hearts rest from earth’s fierce fight, it is the Right road Home!” -Rosalind Goforth, in Sunday School Times (revised)

There is a road set before us. But it’s not like the other roads we see, and travel on. This is a spiritual road. It’s a difficult road. It means dogged fighting, it means intense spiritual warfare. It means denying yourself, and serving Jesus. This is the road I call you to today.

As a partner with God in ministry, I beg you to follow this road, 2 For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.

But I give you this warning: We will have to endure many difficulties along the way. Indeed, all of you are now struggling in various ways, to remain clean and sober, and to pursue a new life.

Trials

Now, at the beginning, will be the hardest time to stay clean and sober. Now will be the hardest time to follow Jesus. We must patiently endure trials, hardships, calamities. Each of these three are slightly different.

Trial – God is testing our faith through a difficulty, and when the difficulty passes, we find our faith purified like a fire purifies metal, and we’re more mature and joyful after the trial is over

Hardship – Hardship is something we have to endure, usually over time. Maybe our baby’s mother is just cruel to us, and won’t let us see our son or daughter. Or we’re afflicted with serious back pain for a season. Those are hardships. And all we can really do is endure them, and cry out to God for help in the difficulty.

Calamity – the dictionary definition of a calamity is ‘a great misfortune or disaster, as a flood or serious injury.’ As a Christian insane stuff will happen. And you’ll be amazed by what you’re having to go through. This is like, losing a family member. Or discovering we have cancer. Or we get fired from a great job. Calamity is a world shaking event.

Being Transformed
But there is another dynamic at work. Over time we begin to see a glorious, beautiful road of recovery open up before us. We see that Christ is slowly but surely transforming us into the likeness of God. And it’s so beautiful. There is peace, and serenity in our souls, after so many years of brokenness, and sorrows, and addictions.

But we have to walk the walk. We have to really live for Jesus, and prove it by how we live.

2nd Corinthians 6 indicates how we show ourselves to be true Christians.

Verse 6 says: “…by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, by the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love.

And verse 7 says “God’s power is at work in us.” There is actually God inside us, changing us. That’s amazing.

The World Doesn't Know Us
The people of the world around us don’t get It. It doesn’t make sense to them. They wonder why we don’t go indulge in sin with them, they think we’re superstitious fools. They don’t understand the mystery of Christ.

Which is why… verse 8 says: “We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.”

v.9: “We are ignored, even though we are well known.” The world doesn’t want to hear from us or listen to us. They mock us on television and in the news. They call us hypocrites, and take one example, like Westboro Baptist church, or a megachurch prosperity teacher and use it to slander every Christian in America. We’re called bigots because we don’t agree with certain lifestyles. They call us judgmental, because we live by the ethical standards of the Bible.

If you’re a new Christian today, welcome to the struggle. It isn’t easy. But we can still love these people, even if they hate us. We don’t ever have to hate them back. In fact, we return hate with love.

Struggles of this Fallen World
V.9 continues: “We live close to death, but we are still alive.” –All of us in this room know what it’s like to live on the edge of death. I mean, we were parked there. There was a little run down diner sitting on the edge of the earth, right at the face of a cliff and we got up each day and dared that abyss to eat us, when we were in addiction. Now it’s time to leave the diner of self-destruction.

When I was active in addiction I called it the halfway hotel, that little dump on the edge of destruction where I cut myself to pieces with drugs, day by day, piece by piece. One day I had to get up, and walk out that door forever. “We have been beaten, but we have not been killed.” The Center for Studies on New Religions found in a recent study that Christianity is the #1 most persecuted religion in the world. They found that in 2016 over 90,000 Christians were killed for their faith. Thankfully in the United States we still enjoy religious liberty. But for many in 50 countries, according to Open Doors USA, they can either be arrested for owning a Bible, or face deadly persecution if they profess Christ. Few of us have ever been beaten for being a Christian, like Paul talks about in 2nd Corinthians 6. But who knows what the future holds. Perhaps some of us may be lucky enough to suffer in that way for Christ.

And verse 10 says: “Our hearts ache, but we always have joy.” As a Christian my heart aches often in this world. I look upon the lostness and troubles in the world, and my heart aches. Yet at the same time I have this inexpressible joy in my heart, as I turn my eyes to Jesus. The Bible says that in the last days the love of many will grow cold. We must continue to have love. Instead of looking at the chaos in the world, return your eyes to the beauty and perfection of Jesus our King.

Having an Eternal Perspective
V.10“We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others.” Some of us were wealthy in the past. Some of us owned our own businesses, and some of us had houses, cars, and money. But all that wealth couldn’t stop the drugs from taking over. Wealth is fleeting in this life. And there is no way to take a single dollar with us into the next. We do 80 to 90s years at most in this life. It’s very short. So we have to fix our eyes on eternal things. Many of us put as our number one goal in life to get money, to try to get rich. And it’s a dumb goal because we all grow old and die. Better to focus on gathering wealth in heaven, by serving Jesus.

Do you think we’re just faking all this? Do you think we do this just for the fun of it? If I thought it was fake, and Jesus wasn’t really real, I’d be out there partying and doing whatever I want. Jesus Christ is really God and He is really alive, right now. And I know there are only two places I can go, heaven or hell. There is no 3rd option. So I serve Jesus today, because I want to live in paradise forever.

V.10“We own nothing, and yet we have everything.” Everything I have belongs to God. I have nothing. I didn’t join the Salvation Army to get rich, believe me, it doesn’t work like that. I joined the Salvation Army to do God’s will. I’m going to serve Jesus, and be very rich in the next life, in good deeds, and service to the lost. I’ve got a plan here. I’m following Jesus, because God is making a new heavens and a new Earth where we will be immortal.

Do you get that? It’s real. I’m telling you it’s real. I’ve experienced Christ. I’ve seen him change my life, from being near death, in and out of detox, jails, and hospitals, from living years in the blackest depression, addicted, enslaved, body collapsing, suicide always on my mind, and yet Jesus Christ heard me when I cried upon His name, and He saved me.

The Remaking of All Things
The City of God, the New Earth, it’s all real. There will be golden fields, and grassy meadows, and mansions for each of us to live in, God will be everywhere with us, Jesus will talk to us, and all knowledge will be available to us. We will sing, dance, and praise Jesus, and be filled joy, euphoria, with bliss. And it will never have to end, it will never have to break to suffering or pain. The joy and peace and love and happiness of the City of God will be endless. We will be there with Jesus. We will be conscious. I’ll still be me; you’ll still be you. And if you’ll give your life to Jesus, and turn from all your sins, and fight through the struggles of this life, you’ll be given a crown of glory when you arrive in paradise.

But the other is also quite real, hell. It will be blackest darkness. You will be conscious. You’ll know that being sent there was just of God, because of your sins. You’ll suffer because God is not in hell and fires of His judgment roar. There is only pain in hell, not the slightest good feeling, not even for a moment. And you’ll know, that there is no way out. You’ll know that it’s now too late to repent and believe in Jesus. The window of opportunity will have closed forever.

Which is why I say again: Today is the day of salvation! Today, if you feel the Spirit of Christ moving in you, respond to His voice and take up your place in His kingdom. He is calling you to be part of his holy temple, the body of Christ.

The Temple of God
2nd Corinthians 6:16-18 says, these are the words of God: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.[e]
17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord.
Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.[f]
18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Christ our Lord will make you part of his temple. He removes all of our sins. He causes us to be reborn, but not born of a mother and father, but born of God. Jesus can and will transform you completely. If you feel His grace urging you to call on Him, do so now: Call on the name of Jesus Christ. Believe ‘Jesus can help me!’ He is your Savior, your Redeemer, Your new birth, and your King forever. Turn away from sin and be holy set apart, and God himself will be your Father.

Conclusion
I see the road before us. It’s a high way, with light shining down through the tree tops. We see the road looks difficult and winding steadily upward toward heaven. And we see the other road, the easy road, that leads down into darkness. Come with me, on the road of sorrow and suffering, follow Jesus, onto the steady difficult road upward toward the light. Be brave my brothers, I know what you’ve been through, I know the deep dark sorrows of your hearts and how you’ve suffered in addiction. Now, come with me, as we follow Jesus, one so well acquainted with sorrow. You’ve suffered much in addiction, now suffer in a new way by suffering for Jesus. Follow Him, in joy, in struggle, in wins, in losses, in victories in defeats, in trials, afflictions, and battles, follow Jesus Christ, the one who suffered for us, and obey His call. Learn from Him, for He is the great holy redeemer, learn from the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords! Follow Him as we go, on this bitter-sweet journey home, trudging the road of happy destiny, all the way to the gates of the kingdom of heaven on Earth.

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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Twelve Steps and Jesus: Steps 10 through 12

Click here for post on Steps 1 through 5

Click here for post on Steps 6 through 9

So we’ve talked about the first 9 steps used in fellowships like AA, NA, GA, and so on. These steps work. And every single person in this room who is in this program needs to work those steps with a sponsor, because we need a psychological change to sustain true recovery. Showing up at church once a week, and hitting a meeting here and there isn’t enough. All the trauma, the hurt, the brokenness inside ourselves, and around ourselves that we’ve done to others is a cancer that eats away at us. And all that trauma causes us to give way to the impulse of self-destruction. We sabotage our own recovery, even when things are going well, we’ll go back out, because we’ve never faced our past, we’ve never cleaned up the wreckage, and gotten right with God. So that’s why we work those steps 1 through 9.

Now let’s talk about steps 10, 11, and 12.

Step 10 says: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Step 10 is essentially saying, as an addict in recovery it’s my job to continue to practice steps 4 through 9 on a daily basis. I’ve been given a simple spiritual toolkit. So I gotta crack it open and use it. Is something bothering me? Then use the step 4 tool, put it on paper, and then grab the step 5 tool, share what’s going on with someone. Is my crap behavior getting me in trouble again? Then pull out those step 6 and 7 tools, identify the character defect, selfishness, pride, ego, whatever it may be, and ask God to remove it. Did I hurt someone? Did I make someone angry? I go to my toolkit, pull out the step 8 and 9 tools, and I go directly to that person one on one, and I ask for forgiveness, and let them know it won’t happen again. Step 10 is making the steps my daily lifestyle.

Step 11 says: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God's will for us and the power to carry that out.

The problem with a lot of folks in AA is they don’t work this step, they don’t continue to grow in their understanding of who God is. This step is huge. This is how we learn to walk with Jesus our Savior.

The two great communication tools between God and man, prayer and meditation. I try to pray for an hour a day, I don’t always succeed, but pick a time that’s good for you, some are early risers, for me I prefer to pray late at night. And talk to God, praise Him, pray for others, pray for yourself. Then we got meditation. I like to lay down in bed with my Bible, and just invite God to speak to me through the scriptures. And I’ll just page through the word and see what He has for me.

And as we do that daily, we’re looking to improve our conscious contact with God. Conscious contact is like, being aware of God throughout the day, and a lot of times I’ll just talk to God throughout the day, in my mind. And God communicates back, through people, through looking out the window and seeing a beautiful sunny day, and through thoughts that come. But the best part of growing in conscious contact with God is feeling the joy of His presence.

Ultimately the goal with step 11 is to understand what God’s will is for us each day. We need knowledge of His will. Like for me, when I was sober about 18 months, I really wanted to become a Baptist minister. But every time I tried, it seems like the doors were closing in front of me. So I prayed God what is your will for me as far as a career? And boom, God led me into the salvation army. I didn’t choose the Salvation Army, in fact I wanted something more hip and cool, maybe some fancy college apologetics ministry, so I could seem important to the culture and all that, but God said nope, Salvation Army is where I want you. So I followed. We’ve got to pray and check our decisions on God’s will.

And finally, we seek power from God. That’s capital P power. Our problem has always been lack of power over dope and drink. It was our king and god. God gives us power to be free from addiction, if we do our part by following His will.

Lastly, Step 12 says: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The ultimate goal of the twelve steps is that you would have a spiritual awakening. The goal is that your attitudes, ideas, your mind and your whole approach to life would be transformed.

Now do you see why so many people will go to meetings for a few months, then relapse? They never worked the steps, they never had the psychic change, the spiritual awakening, so they sat there, trying to turn magically into a Ford F150 by sitting in the garage. But it never happened. So they got wasted again.

If you sober up a car thief, what do you get? A sober car thief. If you send a retail thief to college, they’ll come back and steal the company. We need to work the steps, duh. That’s what changes us internally. The meetings help us grow through that process and stick with the victory, but we need the steps.

So if we’ve had the spiritual awakening, we’ve worked the steps, then the goal is to share the message of recovery with others. We work with others. When a newcomer is looking for a sponsor, we go up to them and offer to take them through the steps. We go on 12 step calls with friends in the program to help someone who has relapsed. We visit people in the hospital. We do service work, pick a home group, and help out with that home group faithfully. And we look to practice all the principles, the various twelve steps in all areas of our lives. That’s the whole deal. And I’ve heard many old timers in recovery say: When nothing else helped me, and I was feeling miserable and wanting to drink or drug again, they went and worked with someone else, helped someone else, and that saved them, because they got their sick mind off themselves. So working with others is a big deal.

Those are the twelve steps, and they work. They were put together by drunks and junkies for the purpose of helping themselves, and then it spread across the world, because it works. So work those steps, and know the name of your higher power, which is Jesus Christ.

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Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Should a Christian fight in a War?

This is a very difficult question. Should a Christian fight in a war? Should a Christian serve in the military? And what about on a national level? Is it ever appropriate for nations to go to war from a Christian perspective?

I would've considered myself a pacifist back in 2012-2014. I held to a very libertarian viewpoint of war, that wars should only be fought defensively by a nation. And that a Christian should never, under any circumstances fight, even to defend him or herself.

Then I listened to a transcript from a C.S. Lewis book, which included one of his lesser known works called "Why I am Not a Pacifist." If was a transcript from a speech that C.S. Lewis gave to a pacifist society in Great Britain during World War II.

C.S. Lewis pointed to a simple question: When Jesus said turn the other cheek, could he really have been referring to every conceivable situation possible? Or can we have a wider view of things, and understand it from a greater vantage point?

Yes, we must. Because I realized that perched from my high, smug moral superiority on the issue of peace and war, that if I were prime minister of Great Britain, during World War II, faced by the scourge of Nazism, and the horrifying, precision of the death camps where Jews and Christians were being systematically exterminated, what then would my policy be?

Would I have been like Neville Chamberlain, meeting diplomatically with Hitler, and be so excited when I returned to Great Britain in 1938, to cry: "Peace in our time!" Only to find moments later, Hitler breaks his diplomatic promises and invades Poland anyway. Pacifists tried to cow Hitler, they tried to be diplomatic. I'm sure the media praised them, for being so diplomatic and so reasonable. But, they were wrong. They were fools. And their endless demands for diplomacy left Europe near helpless as Hitler marched through Poland and France and the Scandinavian nations.

I realized over time that C.S. Lewis was right. It's not as simple as pacifism. It's not as simple as anti-war. It's not a simple as 'never, ever fight back.' It's not as simple as 'turn the other cheek', surprisingly enough.

A certain part of me wants to cry out "Yes it is that simple!" I'm a black and white kind of guy. I don't see a lot of gray area. In fact it bothers me when people try to push this idea of "rays of sunlight shining through the glass" and "many ways to the summit" sort of crap. To me, it's dishonest and betrays a desire to shift the truth to fit our own desires. It's often a lot of fancy language and high sounding ideas that are a cover up for a simple desire to change what the word says, and change it to fit our preferences. I cannot abide it. But with this issue of war and the just war, it's not as black and white.

I realize there is no simple answer, in most situations. But it's not a question of personal convictions either. It's a question of God's word. That's the unmovable rock. Every stupid opinion is my head is sloshing back and forth, most of them wrong and dumb, always changing, susceptible to all kinds of biases, and nonsense. But the word of God says what it says. I may not be understanding it quite right, but I can always go back to studying verse after verse, chapter after chapter, attempting diligently to put each piece together, to understand what God is saying.

Should nations go to war? I think, yes, nations can go to war, if it's a defensive war. I would even say that a pre-emptive action is sometimes necessary, think of the Six Day War, when Israel was about to be invaded, and the Israeli Air Force destroyed their enemies air forces in a surprise attack. This leveled the field, so that when the Arab nations invaded, Israeli had a chance to win.

Should a nation invade a sovereign country for the purpose of conquest? No, I don't believe so. An offensive war, for the goal of military gain is not ethical.

Should Christians fight in the military? I think that Christians can certainly do that. In fact many Christians do just that. I think the only denomination/cult that teaches against military service are Jehovah's Witnesses. I recall in the scriptures that Roman soldiers came to John the Baptist and asked him, "What should we do?"

From Luke 3:14 (NIV) Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

John the Baptist, the second greatest man ever to live, who prepared the way for Jesus, was asked by soldiers, what they ought to do, in regard to repentance.

John could've said, "You need to leave the profession of soldiering, you need to give up your life of soldiering. You need to become a pacifist." John the Baptist didn't say that. Instead he gave instructions within their profession: "Don't extort money, and don't accuse people falsely, and be content with your pay."

Should Christians fight in the military? They may do so. I would not want to do so, unless I was serving as a military chaplain, or a medic. I strongly desire not to kill anyone, ever.

Now, should Christians serve in the military, in an evil army? Say, Nazis? I don't believe so. When people are being exterminated by the millions, a Christian must resist that.

These ethical situations are not simple. But they are navigable with God's word, and a discerning Spirit within.

This post was part of the July 2018 Synchroblog on the topic of Just War and Pacifism. Here are links to others who contributed this month. Go read them all!

K. W. Leslie – Just War: Vengeance Disguised as Righteousness
What God May Really Be Like – Is God a Warmonger or a Pacifist?
Layman Seeker – Disarmed and Harmonious
Tim Nichols – If you Love Sheep …
Scott Sloan – Holy War and Manifest Destiny in Light of the Cross
Done With Religion – For God and Country
Justin Steckbauer – Should Christians Fight in a War?
Jeremy Myers – It’s Not Personal; It’s Just War
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Saturday, July 21, 2018

The Missing Piece of the Puzzle in Evangelicalism: Holiness before the Lord

There is a missing element, a missing piece of the puzzle in modern day evangelicalism. I've always felt that. But I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought for a while that perhaps it was a missional attitude, an emphasis on evangelism. I was really, really sure for a while that it was zealous missional evangelism. But now I realize that I was way off. The missing piece of the puzzle was always right in front of me, actually. It was inscribed on the altar of every Salvation Army corps I attended, where it said: "Holiness unto the Lord."

I never understood what that meant. In fact I asked several people, and they didn't know what it meant either. Holiness preaching and teaching has largely left holiness movement churches. Very, very few pastors preach holiness anymore. It's a lost teaching. It's the missing piece of the puzzle. It's what I've been aching and yearning for in my spiritual life, day in and day out. I've wanted it so badly, but it's always seemed just out of reach. So what does it mean, to be holy to the Lord?

The scriptures say, 1 Peter 1:14-16 (ESV) "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”"

Holiness is the work of God in us, as we yield to the Spirit of Christ, who conforms the inclinations of our heart, and our outward conduct toward holy (set apart) living.

Too many Christians today are living in active, willful sin. And it needs to stop. This is not how the Christian life is to be lived. We must repent (turn away from evil) and stop sinning. God has called us to a holy life in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Christ has washed away our sins. But we must be careful not to dirty our robes (Revelation 3:4). Thankfully, even if we sin after having come to know Jesus, we can bring those sins before God, ask for forgiveness in Jesus, repent, and we are washed clean once again (1 John 1:9). So it's never too late to repent, as long as we're here on Earth, and still alive in the flesh. But once we stand before God, we will be judged according to how we lived (2 Cor 5:10). And for us pastors and teachers, we'll be judged with greater strictness (James 3:1).

So what are the common sins we struggle with today? Sexual sin is the big one, and the various layers of it: Top layer would be adultery (sleeping with another man's wife, or another woman's husband), fornication (having sex with your boyfriend or girlfriend before marriage), and masturbation. Repent of those first. And ask God for help in doing that, day and night. The next layer is pornography, get free from that. Finally, the last bastions are fantasizing (playing images through in your mind) and lusting in your heart (indulging in staring at a scantly clothed man or woman). Break free from those.

Sex really comes up first because it's the area most of us try to get away with, because the urges are so powerful. But honestly, if we live in sin like this, we're not going to be going to eternal life in heaven, we're going to be going to outer darkness. We'll be conscious there. And we'll know that we're never leaving. I'm not trying to use scare tactics. I'm just telling you what the word of God says. Take it seriously.

I know some teachers may have taught you that you can never lose your salvation. They lied to you, and that doctrine simply isn't in the word of God. The Bible talks again and again about falling away and shipwrecked faith, and we're urged constantly to "continue" in the faith and "abide" (remain) in Christ (1 Timothy 4:1, Rev 2:4-5, 2 Cor 11:3, 2 Peter 2:20-22, Romans 11:19-22, Matthew 24:10-13, John 15:1-8).

Other sins that are fairly common are stealing, lying, mistreating parents, being a lukewarm Christian, watching certain R-rated movies, smoking cigarettes, using drugs, drinking to get drunk, manipulation of others, cussing, idolatry (putting something before God), envy, divisions/dissensions, fits of anger, and so on (Galatians 5:19-21).

As it says in the scriptures, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (ESV) "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

We often avoid these lists of sins like the plague. Why do we do that? It's in the word of God. We shouldn't be afraid of it. It's the truth. And if it bothers the church body, so be it, maybe we need to be bothered a bit more.

God has called us to holiness. So we must be holy, as He is holy. That does not mean generating our own holiness through human effort. Not at all! We've been gifted with the righteous, perfect holiness of Christ. We wear it like a garment, like a robe around us each day. We simply must walk in a way that we aren't smearing the mud of sin all over the righteous robe.

We've been adopted by God, and grafted into the body of Christ. We call God daddy! So if we've really received these promises, we should walk in beautiful, humble, meek holiness. As it is written, 2 Corinthians 7:1 (ESV) "Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."

The fear of God has been the greatest strength and weapon toward holiness in my life thus far. And yes, the fear of the Lord is widely mentioned in the New Testament, as well as the Old (Luke 12:4-5, Matthew 10:28, 1 Peter 1:17, 2 Cor 5:11, Acts 10:35, Hebrews 11:7). The fear of the Lord, and the trembling before God, realizing God can send me to heaven or to hell, that has sent me fleeing toward holiness.

For those of you who think God was a consuming fire in the Old Testament, but that he really mellowed out in the New Testament, quick question, have you read Revelation? Yeah, the part where God sends fiery judgments and utterly destroys the world for it's wickedness? (Revelation 15) God hasn't changed. We've changed, we've become provincial, concerned with what people think, and we want to twist the message of the Bible. But it doesn't need to be twisted. It needs to be preached as it's written.

Holiness is a gift from God. Cry out in prayer for true holiness. Fast and pray for holiness once or twice a week. Invite a mindfulness of God, recognize God's presence with you throughout the day, as brother Lawrence did, and allow that presence to transform your conduct. Pray and then take action. Seek out resources, support groups, accountability partners, Christian counseling, and whatever God may lead you to, to have victory over sin, and receive holiness from God.

Holiness is perfect love, a transformation of our heart, the inclinations of our attitudes toward a great, overcoming desire to do the right and live in the right and walk closely with Jesus, to love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors deeply, with real love. Holiness is ultimately about true, perfect love. A godly love, for God and the people we serve.

Be patient with this process of holiness. Allow months, and years for it's growth. But do not procrastinate either. Allow God to transform you. Fight for holiness, by yielding to God. Surrender to the filling of God, and invite Him to save you from yourself. Give your whole heart to God, and He will transform you in all holiness to completeness in sanctification. By this, when you stand before God, and your judged or rewarded, based on how you lived, you can be confident to know that God will see you in robes that are unsoiled, and pure, because of our great glorious savior Jesus Christ.