| Back to Home Page | Back to
Book Index |
Holiness
Intergrity
Holiness
Many trees appear to be
healthy when we see them in summer. But
in the winter
after their leaves have
all fallen off
we sometimes find that hidden underneath the lush green of the
summer foliage was a parasitic plant called mistletoe
which had been slowly
sucking away some of the tree’s vitality.
We
as Christians sometimes have hidden sins
which-like the mistletoe-slowly suck
away our spiritual vitality. Although not always evident in times of outward
spiritual health and fruitfulness
we must always examine ourselves for those
small
often unseen
parasites of sinful habits that will sap our vitality. And
we must also remember that just because they are not apparent now does not mean
that in another season of our life God will not reveal them for all to see.
Holiness
What do we mean when we say
a thing is holy? Look at your Bible and it says
“Holy Bible.” What makes it
holy? The
Holiness
The great missionary David
Brainerd
who spent his brief life (he died before the age of thirty)
ministering to American Indians
wrote in his journal these words: “I never got
away from Jesus and him crucified. When my people were gripped by this great evangelical
doctrine of Christ and him crucified
I had no need to give them instructions
about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of
the other.”
He
also said this in another place: “I find my Indians begin to put on the garments
of holiness and their common life begins to be sanctified even in small matters
when they are possessed by the doctrine of Christ and him crucified.”
What
Brainerd was saying was this: when a Christian realizes who Christ is and what
Christ has done for him so graciously
as we have been seeing
it tends to have
a dramatic effect on this life
not only in salvation but in holiness.
Holiness
”One day as I was reading
the second chapter of I John
I realized that my personal life’s objective
regarding holiness was less than that of John’s. He was saying
in effect
‘Make it your aim not to sin.’ As I thought about this
I realized that deep
within my heart my real aim was not to sin ‘very much’-Can you imagine a
soldier going into battle with the aim of ‘not getting hit very much?’”—Jerry
Bridges
Holiness
Howard Hendricks wisely
observed
“It is foolish to build a chicken coop on the foundation of a
skyscraper.” The Christian who fails to live a holy life is failing to utilize
the foundation for his life that Christ has given him.
Holiness
C. S. Lewis once commented
to an American friend
“How little people know who think that holiness is dull.
When one meets the real thing
…it is irresistible. If even 10% of the world’s
population had it
would not the whole world be converted and happy before a
year’s end?”
Holiness
”A surgeon who selects a
scalpel in the operating room rejects a scalpel with a minute spot of
defilement on it as readily as one that was severely defiled
because even the
smallest spot means the scalpel is defiled and cannot be used in surgery. The
degree of defilement is inconsequential. The fact of defilement is what matters
to the surgeon. A thing is sterile or defiled
clean or unclean. A person is
holy or unholy. God is not concerned with degrees
only with the absolute.”—J.
D. Pentecost
Guilt
”It seems that I know evil
more intimately than I know goodness and that’s not a good thing either. I want
to get even
to be made even
whole
my debts paid (Whatever it may take!)
to
have no blemish
no reason to feel guilt or fear…I’d like to stand in the sight
of God. To know that I’m just and right and clean. When you’re this way
you
know it. And when you’re not
you know that
too. It’s all inside of us
each
of us.” – Gary Gilmore
Guilt
The story is told of a time
when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle decided to play a practical joke on twelve of his
friends. He sent them each a telegram that read
“Flee at once…all is
discovered.” Within twenty-four hours
all twelve had left the country.
Guilt
Bruce Narramore has
described the two kinds of remorse:
“Two
people are chatting over coffee. Reaching for the sugar
one of them
accidentally knocks his cup in the other’s lap. A typical guilt reaction would
be
‘How stupid of me. I should have known better. Look at the mess I’ve made.
I’m sorry.’ The offender continues to berate himself and his misdeed.
Constructive sorrow is very different. The offender might say
‘I’m so sorry.
Here are some napkins. I’ll get the table cleaned up.’ And later he might offer
to pay the cleaning bill.”
Godly
sorrow is constructive.
Universal Guilt
”It is indeed amazing that
in as fundamentally an irreligious culture as ours
the sense of guilt should
be so widespread and deep-rooted as it is.” – Erich Fromm
Saints
A little boy attended a
church that had beautiful
stained-glass windows. He was told that the windows contained pictures of Saint
Matthew
Saint Mark
Saint Luke
Saints
The word saint has come far
from its original New Testament meaning. When we think of a “saint
” we think
of some stylized human figure depicted in stained glass
or of a person long dead
who has been officially declared as an ecclesiastical relic. However
one of
the clearest definitions is “A saint is a dead sinner
revised and edited.”
Integrity
In ancient China
the
people desired security from the barbaric hordes to the north. So they built
the
The
only problem was that during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence
How
then did they get into
Integrity
A pastor preached a sermon
on honesty one Sunday. On Monday morning he took the bus to get to his office.
He paid the fare
and the bus driver gave him back too much change. During the
rest of the journey
the pastor was rationalizing how God had provided him with
some extra money he needed for the week. But he just could not live with himself
and before he got off the bus he said to the driver
“You have made a mistake.
You’ve given me too much change.” And he proceeded to give him back the extra
money. The driver smiled and said
“There was no mistake. I was at your church
yesterday and heard you preach on honesty. So I decided to put you to a test
this morning.”
Integrity
”Sen. Sam Not Convinced”
read the headline. Former Senator Sam Ervin
who had presided over the Senate
Watergate Committee
took note of H. R. Haldeman’s perjury conviction in
commenting on the former White House aide’s book 《The Ends of Power》： “A man that would commit
perjury under oath might possibly be tempted to commit it when he is not under
oath…I would say that before I would accept his book as credible
I would want
it corroborated by all the apostles
except Judas.”—
Integrity
In 1959
40-year-old Ted
Williams of the Boston Red Sox was suffering from a pinched nerve in his neck.
“It was so bad that I could hardly turn my head to look at the pitcher
” he
said. For the first time in his remarkable career
he batted under .300
hitting just .254 and only ten home runs. Williams was the highest salaried
player in sports that year
making $125
000. The next year
the Red Sox offered
him the same contract. “I told them I wouldn’t sign it until they gave me the
full pay cut allowed
28 percent. My feeling was that I was always treated
fairly by the Red Sox. They were offering me a contract I didn’t deserve.”
Williams cut his own salary by $35
000!
Holiness
Many trees appear to be healthy when
we see them in summer. But
in the winter
after their leaves have all fallen
off
we sometimes find that hidden underneath the lush green of the summer
foliage was a parasitic plant called mistletoe
which had been slowly sucking
away some of the tree’s vitality.
We as Christians sometimes have hidden
sins
which-like the mistletoe-slowly suck away our spiritual vitality.
Although not always evident in times of outward spiritual health and fruitfulness
we must always examine ourselves for those small
often unseen
parasites of
sinful habits that will sap our vitality. And we must also remember that just
because they are not apparent now does not mean that in another season of our
life God will not reveal them for all to see. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Holiness
What do we mean when we say a thing is
holy? Look at your Bible and it says
“Holy Bible.” What makes it holy? The
Holiness
The great missionary David Brainerd
who spent his brief life (he died before the age of thirty) ministering to
American Indians
wrote in his journal these words: “I never got away from Jesus
and him crucified. When my people were gripped by this great evangelical
doctrine of Christ and him crucified
I had no need to give them instructions
about morality. I found that one followed as the sure and inevitable fruit of
the other.”
He also said this in another place: “I
find my Indians begin to put on the garments of holiness and their common life
begins to be sanctified even in small matters when they are possessed by the
doctrine of Christ and him crucified.”
What Brainerd was saying was this:
when a Christian realizes who Christ is and what Christ has done for him so
graciously
as we have been seeing
it tends to have a dramatic effect on this
life
not only in salvation but in holiness. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Holiness
”One day as I was reading the second
chapter of I John
I realized that my personal life’s objective regarding
holiness was less than that of John’s. He was saying
in effect
‘Make it your
aim not to sin.’ As I thought about this
I realized that deep within my heart
my real aim was not to sin ‘very much’-Can you imagine a soldier going into
battle with the aim of ‘not getting hit very much?’”— Jerry Bridges
Holiness
Howard Hendricks wisely observed
“It
is foolish to build a chicken coop on the foundation of a skyscraper.” The
Christian who fails to live a holy life is failing to utilize the foundation
for his life that Christ has given him. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Holiness
C. S. Lewis once commented to an
American friend
“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When
one meets the real thing
…it is irresistible. If even 10% of the world’s population
had it
would not the whole world be converted and happy before a year’s end?” ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Holiness
”A surgeon who selects a scalpel in
the operating room rejects a scalpel with a minute spot of defilement on it as
readily as one that was severely defiled
because even the smallest spot means
the scalpel is defiled and cannot be used in surgery. The degree of defilement
is inconsequential. The fact of defilement is what matters to the surgeon. A
thing is sterile or defiled
clean or unclean. A person is holy or unholy. God
is not concerned with degrees
only with the absolute.”— J. D. Pentecost
Guilt
”It seems that I know evil more
intimately than I know goodness and that’s not a good thing either. I want to
get even
to be made even
whole
my debts paid (Whatever it may take!)
to
have no blemish
no reason to feel guilt or fear…I’d like to stand in the sight
of God. To know that I’m just and right and clean. When you’re this way
you
know it. And when you’re not
you know that
too. It’s all inside of us
each
of us.” – Gary Gilmore
Guilt
The story is told of a time when Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle decided to play a practical joke on twelve of his friends.
He sent them each a telegram that read
“Flee at once…all is discovered.”
Within twenty-four hours
all twelve had left the country. ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations
for Biblical Preaching》
Guilt
Bruce Narramore has described the two
kinds of remorse:
“Two people are chatting over coffee.
Reaching for the sugar
one of them accidentally knocks his cup in the other’s
lap. A typical guilt reaction would be
‘How stupid of me. I should have known
better. Look at the mess I’ve made. I’m sorry.’ The offender continues to
berate himself and his misdeed. Constructive sorrow is very different. The
offender might say
‘I’m so sorry. Here are some napkins. I’ll get the table
cleaned up.’ And later he might offer to pay the cleaning bill.”
Godly sorrow is constructive. ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
Universal Guilt
”It is indeed amazing that in as
fundamentally an irreligious culture as ours
the sense of guilt should be so
widespread and deep-rooted as it is.” – Erich Fromm
Saints
A little boy attended a church that had beautiful stained-glass
windows. He was told that the windows contained pictures of Saint Matthew
Saint Mark
Saint Luke
Saints
The word saint has come far from its
original New Testament meaning. When we think of a “saint
” we think of some
stylized human figure depicted in stained glass
or of a person long dead who
has been officially declared as an ecclesiastical relic. However
one of the
clearest definitions is “A saint is a dead sinner
revised and edited.” ──
Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical Preaching》
We can supplement our
accountability to others by reading slowly through literature designed to
challenge our Christian maturity. Consider
as an example
these questions
related to sexual purity that I had to read carefully as I read Kent Hughes' Liberating
Ministry from the Success Syndrome:
1. Are we being
desensitized by the present evil world? Do things that once shocked us now pass
us by with little notice? Have our sexual ethics slackened?
2. Where do our minds
wander when we have no duties to perform?
3. What are we reading?
Are there books or magazines or files in our libraries that we want no one else
to see?
4. What are we renting at
the local video stores? How many hours do we spend watching TV? How many
adulteries did we watch last week? How many murders? How many did we watch with
our children?
5. How many chapters of
the Bible did we read last week?
Paul Borthwick
Leading
the Way
Navpress
1989
pp. 120-121.
Robert Murray McCheyne
wrote to Dan Edwards after the latter's ordination as a missionary
"In
great measure
according to the purity and perfections of the instrument
will
be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness
to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God".
Paul Borthwick
Leading
the Way
Navpress
1989
pp. 65.
Two theological students
were walking along a street in the Whitechapel district of London
a section
where old and used clothing is sold. "What a fitting illustration all this
makes!" said one of the students as he pointed to a suit of clothes
hanging on a rack by a window. A sign on it read: SLIGHTLY SOILED -- GREATLY
REDUCED IN PRICE.
"That's it
exactly
" he continued. "We get soiled by gazing at a vulgar picture
reading a course book
or allowing ourselves a little indulgence in dishonest
or lustful thoughts; and so when the time comes for our character to be
appraised
we are greatly reduced in value. Our purity
our strength is gone.
We are just part and parcel of the general
shopworn stock of the world."
Yes
continual slight deviations from the path of right may greatly reduce our
usefulness to God and to our fellowman. In fact
these little secret sins can
weaken our character so that when we face a moral crisis
we cannot stand the
test. As a result
we go down in spiritual defeat because we have been careless
about little sins.
Source Unknown.
After a violent storm one
night
a large tree
which over the years had become a stately giant
was found
lying across the pathway in a park. Nothing but a splintered stump was left.
Closer examination showed that is was rotten at the core because thousands of
tiny insects had eaten away at its heart. The weakness of that tree was not
brought on by the sudden storm; it began the very moment the first insect
nested within its bark. With the Holy Spirit's help
let's be very careful to
guard our purity.
Our Daily Bread.
A farmer went each week to
the Farmers' Market to sell
among other things
the cottage cheese and apple
butter made on his farm. He carried these in two large tubs
from which he ladled
the cottage cheese or apple butter into smaller containers the customer
brought.
One day he got to market
and discovered he's forgotten one ladle. He felt he had no choice but to use
the one he had for both products.
Before long he couldn't
tell which was which.
That's the way it is when
we try to dispense the good news of Christ using hearts
minds
and tongues too
recently immersed in the coarseness and one-up-manship of the world. Nobody
gets any nourishment.
Beth Landers.