He who called you is holy

1 Peter 1:15-16 (NKJV)

15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

The grace of God in calling a sinner is a powerful engagement to holiness. It is a great favour to be called effectually by divine grace out of a state of sin and misery into the possession of all the blessings of the new covenant; and great favours are strong obligations; they enable as well as oblige to be holy. [Matthew Henry]

Craig C. had been an alcoholic for more than a dozen years. He'd lost everything he had, including his wife and son, due to his selfishness and addiction. Things began to change after he gave his life to Christ, but he still fell regularly into his old habits. It didn't help that he'd lost his well-paying job and was clerking at a local grocery store that was well stocked with all his favorite drinks. After a few years of going back and forth between Christ and the bottle, he finally cut the ties, and, out of obedience to Christ, quit his job.

With no income and hope only in Christ, he was in desperate condition. After an interview with a sheet metal company down the street from his new church, he cried out to God. "God, if you give me this job I will give you my first paycheck." Surprisingly, he got the job.

He clearly remembers the day when he got his first paycheck. Stacks of bills needed to be paid. Penniless but determined, he endorsed it over to the church and walked it to the church office without waiting for the Sunday offering. That was the moment, he says, that changed his life because now he understood what it meant to trust God.

As of today, Craig has been sober for 25 years, he's a manager at that sheet metal company, and he serves as an elder at his local church. [Bill White, pastor of outreach at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California]

In Psalm 99:9, the psalmist says, “Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain in Jerusalem,    for the Lord our God is holy!”

Sometimes it takes a while for a Christian to grasp the meaning of being holy. On occasions it takes some a lifetime and for some there is an immediate noticeable transformation. Where ever we are in our Christian lives, let us remember to exalt The Lord our God for He is Holy! As we praise God for His holiness we become aware of the changes we may need in our lives.

Craig C. above realized what it meant to trust God for God is Holy and keeps His promises.  It was then he realized he needed to keep his own promises. It changed Craig C.’s life and realizing the holiness of God and Christ can change our lives too.

Where the heart is

Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV)

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Worldly-mindedness is as common and as fatal a symptom of hypocrisy as any other, for by no sin can Satan have a surer and faster hold of the soul, under the cloak of a visible and passable profession of religion, than by this; and therefore Christ, having warned us against coveting the praise of men, proceeds next to warn us against coveting the wealth of the world; in this also we must take heed, lest we be as the hypocrites are, and do as they do: the fundamental error that they are guilty of is, that they choose the world for their reward; we must therefore take heed of hypocrisy and worldly-mindedness, in the choice we make of our treasure, our end, and our masters. [Matthew Henry Commentary]

Integrity, whether at work or at home, is not the sort of thing you work on every now and then. You don't set aside one day a month to work on your integrity much like you might pay your bills. It's something we have to address almost 24/7 because of the insidious nature of dishonesty, which always presents us with small, seemingly insignificant openings. Few people actually decide to outright lie or cheat; rather, they find themselves taking shortcuts out of convenience. I read somewhere that according to a company that conducted 3.8 million background checks on people applying for jobs, more than half lied on their resumes. These aren't horrible people or chronic liars but ordinary citizens like you and me who think those little white lies are okay and will never be caught anyway. Unfortunately, even if they are never caught, they erode our standards and make it easier to make duplicity the norm.

In 1912, Leon Leonwood Bean started a mail order business in Greenwood, Maine, by selling a hunting boot with a money-back guarantee. However, defects in the design led to 90 percent of them being returned. Making good on the guarantee could ruin his fledgling business, but Leon kept his word, corrected the design, and continued selling the boots. L.L. Bean is now one of the largest mail-order companies in the United States, in large part because it has continued the tradition of treating its customers with integrity. [Louis Upkins Jr., Treat Me Like a Customer (Zondervan, 2009)]

The Apostle Paul provides a good summation in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10, “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”  Let your heart be with God in heaven that you may live according to His will.

Hate evil, love good

Amos 5:14-15 (NIV)

14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph.

This chapter of Amos is a calling to the people to prepare to meet God. They have lived under deplorable conditions and sin was the cause. Their joy would come from seeking God; for God was waiting for them. They were told to seek good while hating evil. They were to maintain justice in the light of injustice. Maybe then God would see their repentance and have mercy on them.

Lee Strobel, in his book The Case for Faith, quotes Peter John Kreeft saying:  On my door there's a cartoon of two turtles. One says, "Sometimes I'd like to ask why he (God) allows poverty, famine, and injustice when he could do something about it." The other turtle says, "I'm afraid God might ask me the same question."

We often want to point to God as the cause for allowing our problems, when actually we are the responsible ones. Imagine looking out of a restaurant while enjoying your meal and seeing a homeless man and thinking, “God why don’t you provide that man with food.” It might just be a little hypocritical of God when you could buy the man some food yourself.

Instead of blaming God for all the things that are wrong in this world we need to learn from Jesus who was an example of how we should live our lives tending to the needs of others. As you follow Jesus, also follow His actions. Hate the evil in this world and love to do what is good and just.

As children, be imitators of God

Ephesians 5:1 (NJKV)

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

The apostle calls us to be imitators of God. Children often imitate their parents, pick up their habits and even act as their parents do. As children adopted into God’s family we are called to do the same.

The following story appeared in a 2011 edition of the Indianapolis Star. The title read: "Small gesture on busy street alters view of police."

While walking back to the office after lunch, I noticed two burly Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers outside Circle Centre mall. Between them, sprawled on the hood of one of the patrol cars, his arms at his sides, was a shabbily dressed man in his late 50s. He was weak and shivering; next to him on the asphalt appeared to be his worldly possessions.

The older of the two officers was stooped over in front of the man. His partner stood watching intently. My initial take was that the older officer was frisking the man. Five steps closer, my cynicism turned to amazement. The officer wasn't patting the man down; he was bent over tying the man's boot laces because the [homeless man] was in such bad shape he couldn't do it himself. As the officer put one dirty boot on his own pant leg and then another, his young partner softly talked to the man, trying to determine what kind of help he needed.

At a time when a relative handful of cowboy cops often dominate the news and public opinion, officers of courage and character perform quiet, unnoticed acts of selflessness. [Ernie Reno, "Small gesture on busy street alters view of police,' Indianapolis Star (2-24-11)]

The Lord takes care of us in many ways that we do not understand or even see.  The Bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Enjoy the plans God has for you and enjoy being a part of His family by imitating Him.

God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God

Romans 8:28 (NLT)

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

This is a reminder and promise that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God; for we are all called upon to glorify God in our actions. Ephesians 1:14 says, “The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”

Titus 2:11-14 in The Bible tells us, “11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. 14 He gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds.”

As noted above we live in an evil world, a world that contains pain and sorrow. There are things happening around us each, such as death, pain, suffering, and hardships. I remember a movie where a man stands screaming after a tragic event, “Why God, why?”

It is at this these times that we must remember the evil world in which we live. Even when we live wisely and try to do what is right that does not mean we have immunity from the evil in this world. Because we love God and have given our lives to Him, God does watch over us, but there are times God allows us to encounter trials to test us, to strengthen us, and to use us for His Glory.

God can take things that were meant for evil and turn them to good. I have heard stories of someone committing a crime even though they knew The Lord. They weren't wise in their actions and maybe strayed off course, but while in jail they ministered to others. In some cases I have even heard where their testimony led another to know about Jesus Christ.

We are often faced with death and pain in our lives, but even that can be used for good to glorify God. For we learn we can endure those trials leaning on God for strength. Then when the same issues are experienced by another we can step in and say, “I have been there and while it may be painful, things will be alright. Again we glorify God from our own painful experiences.

Isaiah 40:5 tells us, “Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!” And while all we do is to give glory to The Lord, we too will share in the glory. For Colossians 3:4 tells us, “And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.”

Yes, we live in a troubling world, but God takes what was meant for evil and uses to His own God. While we may not immediately realize what God is doing in our lives, one day all of His glory will be revealed to us. Then we will finally see the reasons for the things that have happened through our lives.

Our lives are examples

Titus 2:11-13 (NLT)

11 For the grace of God has been revealed, bringing salvation to all people. 12 And we are instructed to turn from godless living and sinful pleasures. We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, 13 while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed.

The grace of God has provided salivation to all people through repentance of sin and faith in Jesus. You see one must first know and admit to being a sinner before they can accept the salvation from sin. It is that understanding that motivates one to live righteously, to live as an example and to live as Jesus would desire them to live.

According to Open Doors Ministry, Chinese government officials became so fed up with sky-high rates of crime, drug addiction, and sickness in the county of Lancan Lahu, Yunnan province, that in the mid 1990s they turned for help to the only model citizens in the area: the Christians.

"We had to admit that the Lahu people were a dead loss because of their addiction to opium," confessed an official who did not want to be named. "Their addiction made them weak and sick. Then they would go to one of their "priests," who required animal sacrifices of such extravagance that the people became poor. And because they were so poor, they stole from each other, and law and order deteriorated. It was a vicious cycle that no amount of government propaganda could break.

"We noticed, however, that in some villages in the county, the Lahu were prosperous and peace loving. There was no drug problem, or any stealing or social order problems. Households had a plentiful supply of pigs, oxen, and chickens. So we commissioned a survey to find out why these villages were different. To our astonishment and embarrassment, we discovered the key factor was that these villages had a majority of Christians."

Officials launched a daring experiment in 1998, the likes of which would have been unthinkable in China 10 years previous—they sponsored Christians to go into the troublesome villages and share their faith.

They started by picking out the worst village, which had 240 people, 107 of which were hopelessly addicted to opium. Christian Lahus were bussed into the village at government expense, and the villagers were herded together by the police and made to listen to the testimonies of the Christians.

A year later, there were 17 converts in the village, and they began to grow rich because they stopped spending money on drugs. Eight of the 17 converts even had enough to own sewing machines and start small businesses.

By early 2002, 83 of the villagers were Christians and the prosperity had spread. The government official said, "We are delighted with the results and have been extending the tactic to many other villages since then." [The Pastors Connection (Open Doors USA e-mail, August 2002); corroborated by Kelly Callaghan, prayer and courier coordinator, Open Doors USA; OpenDoors serves the persecuted church worldwide.]

Our lives are examples to others; live them well for the one who lived and died for us!

Grow wise in the New Year

Psalm 90:12 (NLT)

12 Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

This psalm was most likely penned by Moses. It was likely written upon Israel’s delivery out of Egypt. While written as a psalm, it was a prayer to the Almighty God. In this verse Moses prays that we realize how brief life is that we may use our lives wisely.

When Bill Clinton was appointed the Attorney General of Arkansas, he was just 30 years old. He was elected governor of Arkansas two years later, easily becoming the youngest person in the nation to hold that position. He was a youthful 44 when he was elected President of the United States, and still holds the distinction of being the youngest person ever to leave the office of President. In other words, the vast majority of Bill Clinton's life and accomplishments were characterized by youth.

But in August of 2006, while enduring a 60th birthday celebration, a melancholy Clinton reluctantly admitted that life had changed. No longer the youthful saxophonist wailing away on MTV, the white-haired former-President said: "For most of my working life, I was the youngest person doing what I was doing. Then one day I woke up, and I was the oldest person in every room. In just a few days, I will be 60 years old. I hate it, but it's true." [David Slagle, Atlanta, Georgia; source: "I'm 60 and I Hate It: Bill Clinton," Breitbart.com (8-15-06)]

Age sneaks up on us quickly. I remember when the year 2000 seemed so far away and now we are in 2014. Happy New Year to all and may God bless you through the year.

There is a sad truth in life; everyone is not given the same time to live. Some live to a comfortable old age, while there are those who pass away young.

“Life is wasted if we do not grasp the glory of the cross, cherish it for the treasure that it is, and cleave to it as the highest price of every pleasure and the deepest comfort in every pain. What was once foolishness to us—a crucified God—must become our wisdom and our power and our only boast in this world.” ― John Piper, Don't Waste Your Life