God Cares More About Your Holiness Than Your Happiness

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Hebrews 12:3-4

Our pastor recently mentioned in his sermon that “God cares more about your holiness than He does your happiness.” This may come as a shock to some of us. Many people believe that a loving Creator would want His creatures to be happy. Well, He does. God does desire each man, woman, boy, and girl to have real joy. What’s the problem, then?

True, lasting joy is not the same as temporary happiness.

Our idea of happiness is “in-the-moment” and finite. God’s idea of happiness is eternal. True, lasting joy comes from doing exactly what God created us to do: worship. God, being our Creator, made us this way. and He knows that that is best for us. The only way for us to fulfill this purpose in our lives is to be holy, as God is holy (Leviticus 19:2). We find this holiness through the joy of knowing Jesus.

God clearly states that He “is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). This means that God wants you to know the joy of a relationship with Him by repenting of sin and trusting in Christ. Obviously, not everyone will come to know this joy, but for those who know Christ, joy and holiness go hand-in-hand.

We know that God cares so much about your personal holiness that He sent Christ to the cross for you. Jesus went to the point of death, even death on the cross because He wants you to be holy, as He is holy. This is how much Christ cares about your holiness. How much do you care about your own personal holiness? Is it to the point of “shedding your blood,” as the above passage mentions? Let us consider our own holiness, and be a penitent people before a holy God.

Stockholm Syndrome

I found the fourth Lexington artifact!! Two free tickets for me! Question is...who will I take? If you have no idea what this means, sorry, I can't tell you: instruction number seven prohibits it.

Self-control

Hello Church Family,
This month I’d like to share with you what the Lord has been teaching me. Just recently, I have been burdened by the fact that I have longed for, prayed for, and sought after the virtue of self-control for my whole Christian life. Being disciplined is a great aspiration, but I have never felt that I have totally mastered the art of self-control. I believe this is true for most of us. We long to use our time more wisely for the glory of God, and yet we are pulled in so many directions that it is hard to remain faithful to a regimented schedule. We long to be good stewards of our minds and thoughts by only thinking on things that are true, honorable, just, pure (Philippians 4:8), yet our minds are so easily distracted by the things of this world.

If you study the fruit of self-control in Scripture (yep…it’s a fruit! See Galatians 5:22-23 & II Timothy 1:7), you will see that it is a very popular topic of the New Testament. Pastors, older men, younger men, women, yes all Christians are commanded to be self-controlled. Proverbs 25:28 says “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” So how do we become more disciplined people?

Paul says in I Corinthians 9:25, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” Then again in I Timothy 4:7-8 he states, “train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

My encouragement is this: first, pray for God’s help. If self-control truly is a fruit of the Spirit, then you are going to need the Holy Spirit’s help.

Second, declare war on your sin. The fight for self-control in the Believer’s life is a fight against sin (remember, self-control is a command from God). Whether you are aware of it or not, there is a war going on in your body (Romans 7:23). Until we recognize that there is a battle going on and start fighting against sin, sin will continue to hold the front lines with temptation and evil thoughts.

I will leave you with this quote from my professor, Dr. Temple:

Our sensuality is the major battle supply line for our sinful struggle.

Fight the good fight,
Brian

Prayer Templates - Repentance

I find myself in need of repentance so often. Why I settle for the fleeting pleasures of sin when I have tasted the joy of knowing and savoring Christ, I don't know. But because I know that repentance is needed in all of our lives, I thought this post might be helpful. I did not invent this strategy, saints throughout the ages have been using it to know how to repent before a holy, righteous Father. It is Psalm 32. I can't tell you how many times I have prayed through this Psalm as a means of confession and repentance. Here is the text (ESV):

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,"
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah

Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD.
Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Freedom?!

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God…
- I Peter 2:16

This verse is about our freedom in Christ. Freedom is an interesting topic. People have preached about it, sang about it, wept over it, lectured on it, given it, taken it, used it, abused it, prayed for it, lost it, found it, loved it, and died for it. So how should we as Believers view freedom? The Bible teaches that everyone is a slave to something:

…you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness…
- Romans 6:16b

This is the same passage that tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But it also tells us that if you have trusted Christ as your Savior, “you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God.” When we were slaves to sin, the result was hell and damnation. Now that we are slaves to God, the result is sanctification and eternal life (Romans 6:22). So what does this mean for us? We should recognize that we, as humans, cannot be left to our own devices to do whatever we think right (Proverbs 21:2). We must entrust ourselves to God our Maker who knows what is best for us.

For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
- Romans 6:19b

When we do this, we understand that slavery to God is freedom. Freedom is not the ability to choose between good and evil. True freedom is to be set free from slavery to sin and set free to do what is pleasing in the sight of God.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
- John 8:36

Know this and live.

Ex Nihilio

2009 is the year of living by faith in our student ministries at church! One of the things we will be doing this year is studying the Hall of Faith from Hebrews chapter eleven. To give you a peek into this exciting study, I’d like to take you to the first example of faith in the Hall of Faith:

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

- Hebrews 11:3

This is the first character of the Hall of Faith, but it is not a typical character…it is us! The rest of the characters on the list are Old Testament saints who proved their faith by persevering to the end and keeping their eyes on the prize. So it is interesting that he begins with us. This faith that we have in God creating the universe follows the author’s definition of what faith is:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

- Hebrews 11:1

Notice that faith is the “conviction of things not seen” in verse one. And then in verse three, we understand that God, who is spirit (John 4:24), and cannot be seen, created everything that is seen simply by speaking words: “Let there be…”
All that is sprang into existence out of what is not. God created everything ex nihilio (latin=out of nothing). We have a Creator who is so powerful that a few words spoke us into being. We must learn to fear God for who he is and what he has done. If a few words are that powerful, imagine what he could do by snapping his fingers!

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

- Matthew 10:28

Baby Asher

Travis Asher Tyler

7 lbs. 3 oz.
19 in.

My pastor, mentor, and friend Travis and his wife Becki were just blessed with the arrival of their firstborn "Asher!"

This pic was taken on Asher's daddy's phone, sent to my phone, downloaded to my laptop, then uploaded here...I wish we had all this technology when my niece and nephews were born!

Top Ten Christian Cop-outs

10. I need to spend more time with my family.
9. If I do that I will be robbing another Christian of a blessing.
8. I don't know enough about the Bible.
7. I don't feel like God's leading me that direction.
6. I've got baseball practice.
5. The New Testament doesn't actually say 10%.
4. My child is sick, so the whole family stayed home.
3. I witness by my actions.
2. I can worship God in the woods.

And the number one Christian Cop-out of all time:

1. I'm praying about it.