But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:15-16

That seems like an overwhelming command.  Be “holy” in every aspect of our lives (conversation).  “That is impossible” – true.  It is absolutely impossible for any of us to fulfill this command. 

So, does that mean God was being cruel in that he gave us an impossible standard?  Were we created for failure?

No, we were never designed to do it on our own.  In our finite abilities we could never satisfy the law, Old or New Testament.  The Law is a school master and only demonstrates to us that we cannot keep it, but, Glory to God, the law giver on the throne is also the law keeper within his saints. 

In our power we fail, in His Power we are more than conquers.  In our power we fall time and again, but in His power we are priests and Kings.  He has made us to be ambassadors and provided the resources to represent the Kingdom to His glory.

How do we tap into this victorious life?  It is only by faith in Christ and through His grace that we can accomplish anything for our King.  For without faith it is impossible to please Him.      

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: -  Colossians 2:6

I came across this quote from a song by Frances Ridley Havergal and it truly blessed me.

Holiness by faith in Jesus,
Not by effort of thine own,
Sin's dominion crushed and broken
By the power of grace alone,
Christ, the holiness within thee,
His own beauty on thy brow:
This shall be thy pilgrim brightness,
  This thy blessed portion now.

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We have, through the goodness of the Lord, been permitted to enter upon another year, and the minds of many among us will no doubt be occupied with plans for the future, and the various fears of our work and service for the Lord. If our lives are spared, we shall be engaged in many things--the welfare of our families, the prosperity of our business, and our work and service for Christ, which may be considered the most important matters to be attended to.

But according to my judgment, the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things, see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, and the Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last thirty-five years. For the first four years after my conversion, I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience, I especially commend this point to the notice of my younger brothers and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, and having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.

But in what way shall we attain to this settled happiness of soul? How shall we learn to enjoy God? How shall we obtain such an all-sufficient soul-satisfying portion in Him, as shall enable us to let go the things of this world as vain and worthless in comparison? I answer, This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ.

In the Scriptures, by the power of the Holy Ghost, He makes Himself known unto our souls. . . . Therefore the very earliest portion of the day we can command should be devoted to the meditation on Scriptures. Our souls should feed upon the Word. . . . This intimate experimental acquaintance with Him will make us truly happy. Nothing else will. In God our Father and the blessed Jesus, our souls have a rich, divine, imperishable, eternal treasure. Let us enter into practical possession of these true riches; yea, let the remaining days of our earthily pilgrimage be spent in an ever-increasing, devoted, earnest consecration of our souls to God.

- George Mueller

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Post Title. 05/27/2010
 
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Post Title. 05/27/2010
 
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Post Title. 04/15/2010
 
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Crossover Report 03/20/2010
 
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This is an except from a great article/sermon from David Gibbs, attorney for the Christian Law Association. It is highly appropriate to consider this in the day we live.

American Christians are faced today with a very frightening situation. More and more of them are being taken to court over matters relating to their Biblical faith. No longer may it be said that America as a nation encourages religious liberty; the country now only reluctantly tolerates it. Faithful Christians might as well become accustomed to the courtroom, because they are going to spend increased amounts of time there defending things that they have always taken for granted. Though religious freedoms have not been totally eliminated, they have been drastically reduced.

My desire is to reveal the standard that has been set by the Supreme Court to determine what are convictions and what are preferences. These are the rules that we are seeing used in courts, and the ones which you may someday be forced to use in the defense of your religious faith and matters relating to your faith. My prayer is that God will use this pamphlet to instill a new seriousness in each of us as to the importance of holding true convictions in our lives.

See, http://www.christianlaw.org/cla/index.php/who-we-are/conviction_v_preference
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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Ephesians 6:12 


In this passage God grants us some insight on who the enemy is and how to deal with him.  Basically, the verse informs us that the enemies are not of this world, but are spiritual in nature and therefore we must combat them with spiritual weapons and defenses.  In brief these weapons include: the girt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the preparation of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. See, Ephesians 6:13-17.      

This verse is effective when contending with the adversary to perform the work of the Kingdom; it assumes however that as believers that we would be “wrestling.”  I believe that most Christians, in most churches, would have little use of this verse because they are not participating in the match.  A true testimony of most believers is that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, neither do we wrestle against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, nor spiritual wickedness in high places, for we wrestle not at all.”  

We don’t wrestle because we are dead spiritually but living well physically.  We have starved our spirits into a coma.  Our spirits get no nourishment because we have not the time to seek out the basic spiritual provisions required.  Our time, and hence our lives, are consumed with fulfilling the desires of the flesh.  We worship the god of our comfort and chase down the idle of the dollar.  We feed our flesh off a full diet of Hollywood and the academic elite and must needs attend some event or activity.  An event that your Saviour cannot attend because of his righteousness and holiness.  Oh how we glutton ourselves on what the temporal world provides to the exclusion of anything spiritual.  Please believer, redeem the time for the days are evil.  There is so much that we need to accomplish, so much work to be done.  We must begin now to wrestle. 

It will not be a match without struggles for the advisory is cunning and cruel and we are fat and out of shape, but our Saviour will carry the load if we will allow Him to and His yoke is easy.  And if we but abide at his feet, we will produce much fruit.  

There is a blessing we are missing individually and as a church that will only be had by entering into the wrestling match, but if we are willing to toil through the night and let not go, we will be blessed as Jacob was and we will make good use of the tools God provided for our protection and profit.  

Let us pray!  We should pray that God would give us the desire to desire to know Him above all else; that we would want to spend time in prayer with our Abba Father as loving children.  Without that God given desire our hope is hopeless.  We must also pray that God would enable us to pray in faith for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit will intercede if we allow Him to.  Finally, we should pray for each other so that in the match, none of us will be without the aid of a brother.

Wrestle!              

palē

1) wrestling (a contest between two in which each endeavours to throw the other, and which is decided when the victor is able to hold his opponent down with his hand upon his neck)

a) the term is transferred to the Christian's struggle with the power of evil

 

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Gen 32:24-26
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