Holiness Part 1

So I was at another sale yesterday and picked up a book called "the Pursiut of Holiness" by Jerry Bridges. I've got a real problem when it comes to books.....particularly cheap ones. Anyway, I got this and began reading it on the way home in the van as my husband drove.

I've made it about half way through the book. The theme is holiness and how we as Christians slack in doing our part to be holy.

All over the Bible we are commanded things by God......
Love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, strength.
Obey his commands.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Be holy because He is holy.

What is holiness? Well....from what I gather is to be "set apart". We are to be set apart from the world in how we live, act, speak, etc. We aren't to be conformed to the likeness or image of our surroundings if we are to be holy, as God is holy. According to the author of this book, "to be holy is to be morally blameless". It is to be separated from the ways of this world and living in a way that lines up with the Bible only. God himself is holy and because he is holy we need to be as well.

The reason we as Christians have a hard time living holy is because we are concerned with sin being focused on self instead of God. What I mean is we tend to look at our sins as not only separating us from God, but we want victory over them. Victory over a sin is making the sin struggle about us and not about obedience to God. When we become more concerned about victory over our sin and not about how God is grieved when we sin, that's where the problem lies. We get prideful and again make our life, including our sin patterns, about us and not about how we are hurting our God. This doesn't
mean we can't have victory over our sin, but it does mean we have to learn to be obedient to God
despite our sin nature. Choosing obedience is a daily choice we have to make. We have to acknowledge our sin and realize we are still sinners and will continue to sin until we are in eternity with our savior.

We tend to look at sin in terms of "big or small"....prison time for it or not...or.....little white lies don't hurt anyone. Thing is our sin when God sees it is offensive and there are no "degrees" of sin to him. It's all the same. He cannot and will not overlook sin in our life. To be holy is to realize we sin and to realize also we cannot ever become holy without our God. We cannot take care of our sin problem on our own. We cannot serve a holy God or live Him properly with sin in the way. He doesn't tempt us.

Once we come to Christ, the Bible tells us, the old has gone and the new has come. This means the old nature we have to sin and enjoy it and live in it, is gone. Our new nature in Jesus is taking over our life through the Holy Spirit. This does not mean we will never sin again, it means we
acknowledge we are sinners in need of restoration and repentance of the sin that separates us from
our father. We are no longer known by our sinful lifestyle, but our new life in Jesus. However, this sinful nature we were all born with never goes away.....it's just not powerful in our life as it used to be. So......Ive read before and shared before that we all have that one sin we just can't seem to get away from or have victory over. We all struggle with sin in general, but that one this just keeps coming back over and over. We are not tempered by God.....we are tempted by our own flesh. And at that moment we have a choice. To follow our temptation and give in to the sin, or to fight and say "no". Back when I was a kid that was a big slogan in the 1980s for drug use......"just say no". We got told this so often in school that I'm sure it's imbetted in every 40+ year old still today. But this applies to any temptation we get hammered with. We have a choice and we sin because we want to. No ifs, and, or buts about it....we sin because we choose to.

The author of this book has a great point....."indwelling sin works largely through our desires". Meaning our desires stem from our deceitful hearts. Our hearts get us into trouble more times than
they should, but we allow them. I know I am constantly doing things I don't want to do. My heart
takes over and I mess up and fall.
Another great point by the author...."the next time you face one of your typical temptations, watch for the struggle between your desire and your reason. If you give in to temptations, it will be because desire has overcome reason in the struggle to influence your will."

We need to pray for holiness......be obedient to God......ask Him for help......confess and repent when we fall into our temptations if we choose to let them have their way. This does not mean we can do what we want when we want to. Obedience is key. We can't know what's expected of us if we never open His word. Jesus came and won so we Can be made right with a holy God.

I'm only half way though this little book, but it's jam packed with great wisdom. I'll continue with the rest of it as I keep reading.

One thing to add in.....I am comforted to know I am not alone in how sin affects me or how it doesn't
have to control me. The author and Gods word  makes it clear that none of us are exempt from temptations or have an excuse not to live a holy life.