Posts
If you have been keeping up with our blog, you would have seen that we met Margaret a while ago. She has a son who has a mental illness and is having a hard time with it. He is not a Christian and neither is she. Tonight I went to Tim Horton's. I drove to my usual one and it was packed - not the restaurant, but the parking lot. It's playoffs and people will park anywhere close to see the Tigers win. So I went to Tim Horton's downtown. I over heard two men talking about being born again, church, the problems with church and so on - so I decided to join them.
It turns out that they are both Believers that have the same mental illness that Margaret's son has. They both go to church, but they are really interested in coming to a Bible Study at Rick's house tomorrow.
Even though, Margaret is not yet coming to Bible study, my prayer is that we can get these two gentlemen in touch with her son seeing that all three of them have something in common. I thank God for working in ways that I could never imagine Him doing and putting people in my path the only way He can.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Caleb
I get to preach in Lethbridge this Sunday. I am pretty excited. My friend, Scott, who is the pastor at A Place Called Hope will be on vacation and asked me to preach for him. So I will be preaching on Caleb. Caleb is quite an interesting character of the Old Testament, especially when you dig deep and find stuff out about his family and who they were.
Caleb's story is one about an underdog who was successful in life because He believed not only in his head, but with his whole being, that God could do what He said He could do, and then he acted upon it.
Many of us are living what we think is the ordinary Christian life and when we see God working through other believers like missionaries and evangelists, preachers and healers and so forth, we tend to think that they are super-Christians who are above normal Christianity. That is quite the contrary. They are the normal Christians, and most of us (at least in North America) are the ones who are far below the line of normality. We are below the line of normality because we think we believe that God can do what He says He can do, but most of us don't act upon it.
Do yourself a favour and study the life of Caleb. Start in the book of Numbers, and then go to Deuteronomy, then read about him in Joshua and also in Judges.
I pray that when you start to study the life of Caleb, you will see that believing in God is not just a head thing, but it is a life thing; it is not internal, but rather it is external. Faith in God is action, anybody can sit in a pew and complain about the Sunday sermon, it takes a real man (or woman) to step out on faith and say, "God said it, so I'm going to do it, and if He is with me, there will be success."
You may say, "Jason, how can I go out on that kind of limb if I'm not sure if God is going to show up?" That's what faith is all about - trusting God. You're not really trusting Him if you are not acting upon what He says.
I remember we were studying the life of Noah last year in youth group and I asked one of our youth what he learned about God, and he said, "The boat floated." Noah only had one chance. He didn't build a prototype, he didn't do tests on the ark, he built it the way God said and then he went in. The boat floated.
Just like Caleb and Noah, God wants you to put all of your eggs in one basket - Jesus Christ - and trust Him (do what He says). I hope that's just a litte bit to chew on for the day.
Caleb's story is one about an underdog who was successful in life because He believed not only in his head, but with his whole being, that God could do what He said He could do, and then he acted upon it.
Many of us are living what we think is the ordinary Christian life and when we see God working through other believers like missionaries and evangelists, preachers and healers and so forth, we tend to think that they are super-Christians who are above normal Christianity. That is quite the contrary. They are the normal Christians, and most of us (at least in North America) are the ones who are far below the line of normality. We are below the line of normality because we think we believe that God can do what He says He can do, but most of us don't act upon it.
Do yourself a favour and study the life of Caleb. Start in the book of Numbers, and then go to Deuteronomy, then read about him in Joshua and also in Judges.
I pray that when you start to study the life of Caleb, you will see that believing in God is not just a head thing, but it is a life thing; it is not internal, but rather it is external. Faith in God is action, anybody can sit in a pew and complain about the Sunday sermon, it takes a real man (or woman) to step out on faith and say, "God said it, so I'm going to do it, and if He is with me, there will be success."
You may say, "Jason, how can I go out on that kind of limb if I'm not sure if God is going to show up?" That's what faith is all about - trusting God. You're not really trusting Him if you are not acting upon what He says.
I remember we were studying the life of Noah last year in youth group and I asked one of our youth what he learned about God, and he said, "The boat floated." Noah only had one chance. He didn't build a prototype, he didn't do tests on the ark, he built it the way God said and then he went in. The boat floated.
Just like Caleb and Noah, God wants you to put all of your eggs in one basket - Jesus Christ - and trust Him (do what He says). I hope that's just a litte bit to chew on for the day.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Easter
We started this blog last Easter. It has almost been a year since we started blogging, and I have found that it is a great way to see how God is working in our lives. When I get discouraged I will review the blog from day one and see what God has done. It is very obvious that God is interacting in our lives.
So, tomorrow is Easter. For my first seventeen years on this celestial ball Easter was a second class Christmas. Like, come on what do you really get? A few chocolates from a bunny and a good meal with family and maybe a few Easter presents. Christmas seemed so much better because we snacked all day and played with our new toys and wore our new clothes.
When I was 18, I realized that we wouldn't have Christmas without Easter. Easter is not a second rate Christmas, Easter is the Stanley Cup of human history. Yes, I know that Christmas is the celebration on Christ's birth, but if He wouldn't have died on Good Friday and then came back to life on Easter then we wouldn't have any reason to celebrate Christmas. Easter is where Christ fulfilled His calling. He claimed that He came to seek and save that which was lost. He acted upon God the Father's heart and lived a sinless life in order to die. His whole mission was to die. His whole mission was to pay my penalty and your penalty for our sins because we could not pay them ourselves. And why would God want our sins to be paid? Because He created us to be in an intimate relationship with Him and as law breakers we could not do that. So Jesus paid our penalty in order for us to be in a relationship with the God who created us. The only catch is - God loves us so much that He will not force a relationship upon us. We need to choose it. In order to choose it we need to stop living life our way and start living His way and put our faith and trust into Jesus Christ.
That's the Easter story. Jesus died for us so we could have a relationship with God Almighty.
If Jesus didn't die for our sins then we wouldn't celebrate Christmas because we would have been celebrating the birth of a lunatic - a person who claimed to be God but wasn't.
So that brings us to the tough question. Who is Jesus Christ? Was He a lunatic, a liar, or truly the Son of God who came to seek and to save that which was lost. I have come to my conclusion that Jesus is truly the Son of God. Who is He to you?
So, tomorrow is Easter. For my first seventeen years on this celestial ball Easter was a second class Christmas. Like, come on what do you really get? A few chocolates from a bunny and a good meal with family and maybe a few Easter presents. Christmas seemed so much better because we snacked all day and played with our new toys and wore our new clothes.
When I was 18, I realized that we wouldn't have Christmas without Easter. Easter is not a second rate Christmas, Easter is the Stanley Cup of human history. Yes, I know that Christmas is the celebration on Christ's birth, but if He wouldn't have died on Good Friday and then came back to life on Easter then we wouldn't have any reason to celebrate Christmas. Easter is where Christ fulfilled His calling. He claimed that He came to seek and save that which was lost. He acted upon God the Father's heart and lived a sinless life in order to die. His whole mission was to die. His whole mission was to pay my penalty and your penalty for our sins because we could not pay them ourselves. And why would God want our sins to be paid? Because He created us to be in an intimate relationship with Him and as law breakers we could not do that. So Jesus paid our penalty in order for us to be in a relationship with the God who created us. The only catch is - God loves us so much that He will not force a relationship upon us. We need to choose it. In order to choose it we need to stop living life our way and start living His way and put our faith and trust into Jesus Christ.
That's the Easter story. Jesus died for us so we could have a relationship with God Almighty.
If Jesus didn't die for our sins then we wouldn't celebrate Christmas because we would have been celebrating the birth of a lunatic - a person who claimed to be God but wasn't.
So that brings us to the tough question. Who is Jesus Christ? Was He a lunatic, a liar, or truly the Son of God who came to seek and to save that which was lost. I have come to my conclusion that Jesus is truly the Son of God. Who is He to you?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Our Mission Team
Our mission team left back to Grangerland, TX this morning, and they will be missed. They have helped us to see where we need to be working in Medicine Hat and they loved on us greatly. They blessed us with a great blessing yesterday. They took care of our kids and paid for us to have a night out by ourselves. We haven't had that in months. Being on the mission field is a blast, and I wouldn't change it for anything, but being on the mission field is hard work and many times your family feels it. So thank you guys for letting us have a night out. The steak, and calamari were great! One thing that was said by the whole mission team yesterday was that after prayer walking the whole city, we all saw God most at work right around our house. Praise God for He knows exactly what He is doing. Here are some pics of our Grangerland Mission team.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
God Showed Up
Let me just say that our mission team from Grangerland, TX has been more than a blessing to us. They have loved us, served us, and have a genuine love for the people of Medicine Hat.
We started our day off yesterday at the Tim Horton's by our house at 9:00 am. There was an older couple that were very interested in our missionaries, and they wanted information on our brand new church. They never heard the Gospel before. Then we went and prayer walked Crescent Heights, a newer subdivision on the north side of the river, and came back to our place for lunch.
My wife can cook and we had a great lunch, then we went on a short walk (about 2 hours) down part of the trail system by our house. We even got pictures of some of the mission team standing on the snow covered river bank right by the South Saskatchewan River. It was good, and they loved it.
Everybody we have been talking to says that there is nothing for our young people in Medicine Hat, or at least nothing centrally localized. As we got back from our walk there came a group of about 8 youth walking right passed my house. As I talked with them, they were telling me that there is nothing for them here especially in the summer time that is cost effective for them. I asked them if they would be open to doing some of the rec stuff we did at preteen camp, and as I described it, their eyes bugged out they all said they would be there. I told them why I want to do this and all of them minus one were Christians that don't go to church and whose parents would be very interested in a Bible study also. I told the one who didn't believe in God to tell me about the god he didn't believe in and I let him know that I probably didn't believe in him either. It totally stumped him and it sounds like he is open for a Bible study too. Most of them took brochures on the church.
Then I went to go and pick up some pizzas for supper and got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early I talked with two girls behind the counter. One was 17 and had a nose ring, a tongue ring, and a lip ring, and the other was a 15 year old blonde girl. I asked them the same question about the rec stuff we did a preteen camp, and they are all in on it. Then I told them why I would do that. Rosie, the 17 year old heard that Jesus Christ died for her sins only one time in her life, but has never gone to church. The 15 year old blonde girl has never heard that before and has never been to church. I got to share my testimony with both of them.
The pizza place is also part of a bar. It is now against the law to smoke in any building except your own home in Alberta, so there was a husband and wife outside having a cigarette at the pizza place and he was about half cut already at 5:00. I struck up a conversation with them. His name is Brian and hers is Judy. Brian was excited because he got to see his 19 year old son for the first time. Brian's son, Brian, just moved here from Houston. Cha Ching! There is a huge God thing type of connection there. We just moved back from Houston in August. I told Bryan to give his son our brochure and maybe we could get together sometime - especially if he needed to talk to somebody from Houston. It turns out that Brian (at the bar) accepted Jesus Christ a long time ago, but was never baptized and is looking to get back into church. I asked him if I could pray for him, and he asked me to pray that God would give him a better life. He was almost in tears and wants to come to Bible Study! I am still pretty pumped! Continue to pray for us today. This is the last full day we have our missionaries from Texas and we will miss them desperately. We will be going to Cypress Hills today and then prayer walking another town near by. Since I am the Church Planting Coordinator for the Medicine Hat area, one of my responsibilities is to facilitate another church plant in the area before the year is out. We will be prayer walking Elk Water on Hwy 3. Grangerland has committed to do for Elk Water what West Rome has done for Medicine Hat. That is to love the town and serve the town in order to share Jesus Christ with them. God is moving in Medicine Hat!
We started our day off yesterday at the Tim Horton's by our house at 9:00 am. There was an older couple that were very interested in our missionaries, and they wanted information on our brand new church. They never heard the Gospel before. Then we went and prayer walked Crescent Heights, a newer subdivision on the north side of the river, and came back to our place for lunch.
My wife can cook and we had a great lunch, then we went on a short walk (about 2 hours) down part of the trail system by our house. We even got pictures of some of the mission team standing on the snow covered river bank right by the South Saskatchewan River. It was good, and they loved it.
Everybody we have been talking to says that there is nothing for our young people in Medicine Hat, or at least nothing centrally localized. As we got back from our walk there came a group of about 8 youth walking right passed my house. As I talked with them, they were telling me that there is nothing for them here especially in the summer time that is cost effective for them. I asked them if they would be open to doing some of the rec stuff we did at preteen camp, and as I described it, their eyes bugged out they all said they would be there. I told them why I want to do this and all of them minus one were Christians that don't go to church and whose parents would be very interested in a Bible study also. I told the one who didn't believe in God to tell me about the god he didn't believe in and I let him know that I probably didn't believe in him either. It totally stumped him and it sounds like he is open for a Bible study too. Most of them took brochures on the church.
Then I went to go and pick up some pizzas for supper and got to the restaurant about 15 minutes early I talked with two girls behind the counter. One was 17 and had a nose ring, a tongue ring, and a lip ring, and the other was a 15 year old blonde girl. I asked them the same question about the rec stuff we did a preteen camp, and they are all in on it. Then I told them why I would do that. Rosie, the 17 year old heard that Jesus Christ died for her sins only one time in her life, but has never gone to church. The 15 year old blonde girl has never heard that before and has never been to church. I got to share my testimony with both of them.
The pizza place is also part of a bar. It is now against the law to smoke in any building except your own home in Alberta, so there was a husband and wife outside having a cigarette at the pizza place and he was about half cut already at 5:00. I struck up a conversation with them. His name is Brian and hers is Judy. Brian was excited because he got to see his 19 year old son for the first time. Brian's son, Brian, just moved here from Houston. Cha Ching! There is a huge God thing type of connection there. We just moved back from Houston in August. I told Bryan to give his son our brochure and maybe we could get together sometime - especially if he needed to talk to somebody from Houston. It turns out that Brian (at the bar) accepted Jesus Christ a long time ago, but was never baptized and is looking to get back into church. I asked him if I could pray for him, and he asked me to pray that God would give him a better life. He was almost in tears and wants to come to Bible Study! I am still pretty pumped! Continue to pray for us today. This is the last full day we have our missionaries from Texas and we will miss them desperately. We will be going to Cypress Hills today and then prayer walking another town near by. Since I am the Church Planting Coordinator for the Medicine Hat area, one of my responsibilities is to facilitate another church plant in the area before the year is out. We will be prayer walking Elk Water on Hwy 3. Grangerland has committed to do for Elk Water what West Rome has done for Medicine Hat. That is to love the town and serve the town in order to share Jesus Christ with them. God is moving in Medicine Hat!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
WOW!
What a day we had today. God is doing some awesome things here in The Hat! One of our missionaries, Pam, had never seen snow before. There was no snow in the forecast at all and last night she prayed for snow and we got about 1/2 and inch this morning. She was in heaven!
We all went to church the Glenview Nazarene Church today. Our friend, Debi Stodolka, wrote a play a few years ago called "A Father's Heart" and it was performed today at her church. I don't think there was a dry eye in the building this morning. Before the play started, Pastor Dave welcomed our Southern Baptist missionaries to Medicine Hat by publicly praying for them and for the church plant here in Medicine Hat. It is quite humbling when another denomination prays for a different denomination to succeed in ministry. Thank you pastor Dave for praying for us.
We went to Smitty's for lunch today and we had a great lunch. Our waitress today was Cheryl and she thanked us for being such a great table. After we finished our lunch and left, Pam came back and asked Cheryl if she could pray for her. Cheryl had no clue why anybody would want to do something like that.
After that we walked throughout the mall and surveyed people. This is the main response that we got from people at the mall: There is nothing centrally localized for our youth and young adults. Jay MacIntosh also met somebody who goes to The Link, which is a new church that focuses on young families in the flats. I am to get together with the pastor there and find out some good things to do to reach some of those families.
After the mall, we came back down to The Flats and prayer walked the community. We had a great time and that's where we met Margaret. Margaret is one of my neighbours who lives across down the street from me. I've seen her before and said hi once or twice. She was coming back from the IGA with a bag of dog food and I asked if I could help her with it, since it looked heavy. Well, Pam took over from there. Thank God for Pam. She has been a blessing up here. Pam was telling Margaret how this was the first time she had ever seen snow, and Margaret heard her accent and asked where they were from and Pam said Texas. "Are you missionaries?" Asked Margaret. "Well, yes we are" said Pam, "but we only tell our good friends that. I guess that makes us good friends now doesn't it?" Margaret is searching for God and I told her where I live. She has a 32 year old son who has a mental illness who lives with her, and sometimes that wears on her. We prayed for with Margaret (who is not a believer) and I gave her a prayer card and a brochure and showed her where we live. Half an hour later she showed up to our house with her dog to make sure she knew where I house was, and we all talked some more. Please pray that Margaret and her son, Stephen, come to know the Lord. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.
We all went to church the Glenview Nazarene Church today. Our friend, Debi Stodolka, wrote a play a few years ago called "A Father's Heart" and it was performed today at her church. I don't think there was a dry eye in the building this morning. Before the play started, Pastor Dave welcomed our Southern Baptist missionaries to Medicine Hat by publicly praying for them and for the church plant here in Medicine Hat. It is quite humbling when another denomination prays for a different denomination to succeed in ministry. Thank you pastor Dave for praying for us.
We went to Smitty's for lunch today and we had a great lunch. Our waitress today was Cheryl and she thanked us for being such a great table. After we finished our lunch and left, Pam came back and asked Cheryl if she could pray for her. Cheryl had no clue why anybody would want to do something like that.
After that we walked throughout the mall and surveyed people. This is the main response that we got from people at the mall: There is nothing centrally localized for our youth and young adults. Jay MacIntosh also met somebody who goes to The Link, which is a new church that focuses on young families in the flats. I am to get together with the pastor there and find out some good things to do to reach some of those families.
After the mall, we came back down to The Flats and prayer walked the community. We had a great time and that's where we met Margaret. Margaret is one of my neighbours who lives across down the street from me. I've seen her before and said hi once or twice. She was coming back from the IGA with a bag of dog food and I asked if I could help her with it, since it looked heavy. Well, Pam took over from there. Thank God for Pam. She has been a blessing up here. Pam was telling Margaret how this was the first time she had ever seen snow, and Margaret heard her accent and asked where they were from and Pam said Texas. "Are you missionaries?" Asked Margaret. "Well, yes we are" said Pam, "but we only tell our good friends that. I guess that makes us good friends now doesn't it?" Margaret is searching for God and I told her where I live. She has a 32 year old son who has a mental illness who lives with her, and sometimes that wears on her. We prayed for with Margaret (who is not a believer) and I gave her a prayer card and a brochure and showed her where we live. Half an hour later she showed up to our house with her dog to make sure she knew where I house was, and we all talked some more. Please pray that Margaret and her son, Stephen, come to know the Lord. Tomorrow is going to be another busy day.
Great First Day
Our mission team arrived safely last night and we had a great time of food, fun, and fellowship. David and Pam told me that all of Grangerland First Baptist wanted to come up to Canada. For those of you from Grangerland who are reading this blog, thank-you.
Garrett, I got the hello from you, and I miss you too brother.
I took the mission team to Debi and Glen's house last night. They run an awesome bed and breakfast and Sarah and Pam thanked me so much when they saw the inside of the house.
We will be worshiping at the Nazarene Church this morning. Today is a special day for me, because it was 12 years ago today that I gave my life to my Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason why today is special is because Debi wrote a play a few years ago that has been performed all over North America. It seems that every time this play is performed, many people get saved. So today will be the first day her play has been performed in her church.
After church we are going to go to Smitty's and have some breakfast. Pray that Melissa is working and that we can have a chance to minister to her. Then we are going to walk around the mall and just talk with people. My goal by the end of this mission trip is that we talk with about 300 people in the community. This will give us a good idea on what needs to be done to bring the Gospel to Medicine Hat.
It is almost time for me to go to church. Have a blessed day.
Oh, and Randy Doleman - Everybody says that you need to keep your blogsite up. Why is that people go and get married, then their blogsite suffers? It's almost like you have better things to do now than blog.
Garrett, I got the hello from you, and I miss you too brother.
I took the mission team to Debi and Glen's house last night. They run an awesome bed and breakfast and Sarah and Pam thanked me so much when they saw the inside of the house.
We will be worshiping at the Nazarene Church this morning. Today is a special day for me, because it was 12 years ago today that I gave my life to my Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason why today is special is because Debi wrote a play a few years ago that has been performed all over North America. It seems that every time this play is performed, many people get saved. So today will be the first day her play has been performed in her church.
After church we are going to go to Smitty's and have some breakfast. Pray that Melissa is working and that we can have a chance to minister to her. Then we are going to walk around the mall and just talk with people. My goal by the end of this mission trip is that we talk with about 300 people in the community. This will give us a good idea on what needs to be done to bring the Gospel to Medicine Hat.
It is almost time for me to go to church. Have a blessed day.
Oh, and Randy Doleman - Everybody says that you need to keep your blogsite up. Why is that people go and get married, then their blogsite suffers? It's almost like you have better things to do now than blog.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Mission Team Tomorrow
Our first mission team from Grangerland, TX comes tomorrow. We are so excited. Please pray that God will honour their hard work in Medicine Hat.
We also got the church website up. You can check it out at www.pathway-medicinehat.com
We also got the church website up. You can check it out at www.pathway-medicinehat.com
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Things We Learned Today
We went to Temple Baptist Church again today. The pastor officially resigned so one of the head guys from the North American Baptist Association preached today. He is a church planter also, and this is what we learned:
1. 85% of the churches in Canada are in decline. (remember Canada has an evangelical population of 4-8%)
2. 14% of the churches are growing from transfer growth - meaning they are not reaching un-churched people.
3. 1% of the churches in Canada are growing through conversion growth. Only one percent of our churches are reaching the unchurched. Does anybody see a problem with that?
Today, we took Rick and Margaret out for lunch. Many of you are praying for Rick and his daughter to reconcile. Rick and Margaret gave their lives to the Lord earlier in February. As we were talking with our waitress, Melissa, we found out that she has been living with her boyfriend for 4 years and are looking at buying their first house. I asked if I could pray for them to find a new house. Her exact words were, "Praying isn't my thing, but if you want to go ahead. Actually, what am I supposed to do when I pray?" I bet Melissa isn't even 25 and she is totally unchurched. We talked for a bit and I saw her outside later as she was on her smoke break, and she thanked me for praying for them. Please pray that we can start a trust relationship with Melissa and her boyfriend.
1. 85% of the churches in Canada are in decline. (remember Canada has an evangelical population of 4-8%)
2. 14% of the churches are growing from transfer growth - meaning they are not reaching un-churched people.
3. 1% of the churches in Canada are growing through conversion growth. Only one percent of our churches are reaching the unchurched. Does anybody see a problem with that?
Today, we took Rick and Margaret out for lunch. Many of you are praying for Rick and his daughter to reconcile. Rick and Margaret gave their lives to the Lord earlier in February. As we were talking with our waitress, Melissa, we found out that she has been living with her boyfriend for 4 years and are looking at buying their first house. I asked if I could pray for them to find a new house. Her exact words were, "Praying isn't my thing, but if you want to go ahead. Actually, what am I supposed to do when I pray?" I bet Melissa isn't even 25 and she is totally unchurched. We talked for a bit and I saw her outside later as she was on her smoke break, and she thanked me for praying for them. Please pray that we can start a trust relationship with Melissa and her boyfriend.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Medicine Hat Leisure Centre
Daddy and Riley went swimming at the Leisure Centre in Medicine Hat last night. Wow, did Riley ever have fun. He loved the wave pool and the giant water slide. There were so many kids his age swimming over there too! That means there were also a lot of young parents at the Leisure Centre also. This will be either a weekly or bi-weekly activity for our family to get out and meet more people in the community.
On Monday I am doing a presentation on Medicine Hat to 2 DOM's and 10 pastors from Wyoming. Please pray that everything goes well.
On Monday I am doing a presentation on Medicine Hat to 2 DOM's and 10 pastors from Wyoming. Please pray that everything goes well.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Holiness?
"Give the LORD - you heavenly beings - give the LORD glory due His name; worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness." - Psalm 29:1-2
One of God's greatest characteristics is His holiness. God values His holiness. In Revelation Chapter 4, the angels are crying out to Him, "Holy, Holy, Holy, who was, and is, and is to come." God is so holy that that the angels cry Holy, Holy, Holy.
God tells us time and time again in both the Old Testament and New Testament, "Be holy for I am holy," and, "Be holy for it is I who makes you holy."
So, what exactly is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? To be holy means to be set apart in whole for Jesus Christ. People should be able to tell, by our lifestyle and our character that we belong to Jesus Christ and no other. If holiness were a symbol, it would be a wedding band. A wedding ring shows that I am married and belong to someone else, that I am set apart for that one person. As a matter of fact, the church is described as the Bride of Christ throughout the Bible.
God values holiness above anything else. To be blunt, God values His holiness more than your life. This in not Jason flying off the handle, take a look at Joshua Chapter 7, also take a look at Acts Chapter 5. God is serious about His Holiness, and He wants us to be serious about ours.
God let Israel (His chosen people) be destroyed in 722 BC and Judah in 586 BC, because they were not holy. We find out from Romans 1:17 that the righteous will live by faith; let's take a look at how God desired His people to be holy but through their disobedience, they lost their homeland:
Jeremiah 3:6-13
"During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.
11 The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
" 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD,
'I will frown on you no longer,
for I am merciful,' declares the LORD,
'I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt—
you have rebelled against the LORD your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,' "
declares the LORD."
So what is God saying here? He is saying that He hates it when people who claim to be Christians with their mouths end up showing that they are not because of the way they act and where they put their allegiance. He says it would be better if you claimed that you didn't have any faith. There are too many Christians today who profess the name of Jesus and act nothing like how He commanded us to live. Many of us still live like we were never saved to begin with, but the good news is Jesus is ready to forgive us if we repent (stop doing things our way and start doing things God's way)
If you are looking for a true worship experience, strive for holiness and through that you may see God in all of His splendor.
One of God's greatest characteristics is His holiness. God values His holiness. In Revelation Chapter 4, the angels are crying out to Him, "Holy, Holy, Holy, who was, and is, and is to come." God is so holy that that the angels cry Holy, Holy, Holy.
God tells us time and time again in both the Old Testament and New Testament, "Be holy for I am holy," and, "Be holy for it is I who makes you holy."
So, what exactly is holiness? What does it mean to be holy? To be holy means to be set apart in whole for Jesus Christ. People should be able to tell, by our lifestyle and our character that we belong to Jesus Christ and no other. If holiness were a symbol, it would be a wedding band. A wedding ring shows that I am married and belong to someone else, that I am set apart for that one person. As a matter of fact, the church is described as the Bride of Christ throughout the Bible.
God values holiness above anything else. To be blunt, God values His holiness more than your life. This in not Jason flying off the handle, take a look at Joshua Chapter 7, also take a look at Acts Chapter 5. God is serious about His Holiness, and He wants us to be serious about ours.
God let Israel (His chosen people) be destroyed in 722 BC and Judah in 586 BC, because they were not holy. We find out from Romans 1:17 that the righteous will live by faith; let's take a look at how God desired His people to be holy but through their disobedience, they lost their homeland:
Jeremiah 3:6-13
"During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8 I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9 Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. 10 In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense," declares the LORD.
11 The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north:
" 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the LORD,
'I will frown on you no longer,
for I am merciful,' declares the LORD,
'I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt—
you have rebelled against the LORD your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,' "
declares the LORD."
So what is God saying here? He is saying that He hates it when people who claim to be Christians with their mouths end up showing that they are not because of the way they act and where they put their allegiance. He says it would be better if you claimed that you didn't have any faith. There are too many Christians today who profess the name of Jesus and act nothing like how He commanded us to live. Many of us still live like we were never saved to begin with, but the good news is Jesus is ready to forgive us if we repent (stop doing things our way and start doing things God's way)
If you are looking for a true worship experience, strive for holiness and through that you may see God in all of His splendor.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)