The Power of God's Love

July/Holiness

7 July 2010

What does the love of God accomplish in a person? It kills his desires, it cleanses his heart, it protects him, it swallows up his vices, it earns rewards, it prolongs his life, it washes his soul.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

- 1 John 4. 20

God's love exerts transforming power in our lives. I don't know how, but it does. There is a kind of spiritual persuasion that operates on our hearts, minds, and consciences when we bask in the love God has for us that takes away corrupt desires, foments new affections of love for our neighbors, and sets us on a course of behaviors more reflective of the life of Christ than our own lives.

God's love is mysterious but real, and really powerful to transform. That's why we need to spend more time meditating on God's love for us - all the innumerable ways His steadfast love sustains and blesses us throughout the day, and particularly the grand gesture of unfathomable grace which He demonstrated toward us in Jesus Christ.

The more we understand, sense, experience, and respond with gratitude for the love God shows to us, the more we, too, will be able to love our neighbors with that same love. Not with our love, which is much too selfish to make room for the concerns of others. But with the love of Jesus that works in and through us so that the glory of God comes to light in our relationships with others.

If you're having a little trouble ginning up love for someone in your life, you need to spend more time dwelling on God's love for you. Here you are, right there with me, about as wormy and despicable a creature ever to exist under the heavens, filled with wicked thoughts and a record of self-centered behaviors that would lead any responsible judge to throw the book at you. And here is God, loving and forgiving and embracing and renewing and bearing with and helping and sustaining and changing you and more and more and more. What unfathomable, incredible love!

In the safety and strength of that love, you can put aside all your anger and pain, and love even those who have done you wrong. And if you can love even those folks with the love that God has for you, what can you do for the people you actually like?

It will be fun to see, no?

July Exercise: Download "Called to Be Witnesses." For the first week (July 1-11), read this little brochure over several times each day. On several days during this period, rate yourself - 1 to 10 - on the two areas, A Way of Life and Empowered for Witness. Talk with the Lord about why you rated yourself the way you did, and look for ways to improve these two aspects of your call to be holy.

Today in ReVision: Muslims in Space - NASA in wonderland with our Cheshire President. Go figure.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Get it now, and start in the July exercise which will take on a new phase next week.

And visit our book store to see what all's available to encourage you in the Lord. We love you and thank you for your friendship and support.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Love the Church

July/Holiness

8 July 2010

He who lives in unity with the universal church, and reposes in the hope of heaven, and fulfills the commandments as they have been commanded, will have hundredfold rewards on earth and eternal life in heaven.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherises it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.

- Ephesians 5.29, 30

I have to watch myself sometimes because I can be awfully critical of the state of Christianity in America today. And that means I can be awfully critical of the Church and her leaders. I love the Church, the Body of Christ. All my work is concentrated on building up her members, however I can reach them, and, as a result, strengthening the Church in unity and maturity.

I can't help but notice that there are many things going on in churches today which don't strike me as having much to do with the Gospel of the Kingdom. This bothers me, and, when I'm bothered, I speak out. But I'm not criticizing the Church - the Bride of Christ, whom He is preparing for Himself and will one day come to claim. I'm only criticizing those who believe they can improve on God's idea of how we ought to "do church," if you know what I mean.

Love for the Church requires that we understand God's design for her, and that we abide by His prescriptions for how she is to be built. We might think that the worlds of marketing, entertainment, fun and games, business and entrepreneurship, education and perhaps even the military have hit on some pretty good ways to get stuff done. And we might think that postmodern philosophy or secular psychology are obviously the sort of thing many folks are "into" these days, so why shouldn't the Church?

Well, because Jesus is building His Church (Matt. 16.18), and He is building it His way - equipping the saints for works of ministry that reach the lost, make disciples of the saved, and cause the local church to grow in unity and maturity (Eph. 4.11-16). Making disciples through a shepherding model is what Jesus did (Jn. 10) and what, presumably, we should be doing as well.

But we aren't. And that's what causes me to rev up the pen and want to poke someone in the eye with it. If we love the Church should we not want for her what Jesus wants, and not what our entertainment-crazy postmodern age desires? Where are the pastors who will stand on the Word of God alone in building their churches?

And where are the church members who will insist they do?

July Exercise: Download "Called to Be Witnesses." For the first week (July 1-11), read this little brochure over several times each day. On several days during this period, rate yourself - 1 to 10 - on the two areas, A Way of Life and Empowered for Witness. Talk with the Lord about why you rated yourself the way you did, and look for ways to improve these two aspects of your call to be holy.

Today in ReVision: Muslims in Space - Well, not really, almost.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Get your free download of this and join us in this month's exercise, designed to help us grow in holiness.

Again, thanks to you who send gifts to support this ministry. Pray for our Board meeting tonight, as they approve our ministry plan and budget for the coming year.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Sheltered for Holiness

July/Holiness

9 July 2010

The body shelters the soul. The soul shelters the mind. The mind shelters the heart. The heart shelters faith. Faith shelters God. God shelters man.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

You, O LORD, will keep them; you will guard us from this generation forever.

- Psalm 12.7

What is there to be sheltered from? In Psalm 12, all the lies, flattery, deceit, and half-truths of an age that wants only to assert its autonomy ("our lips are our own; who is master over us?", v. 2). Those who espouse such views are quite outspoken and persuasive. The torrent of such views, wafting and blowing over us day by day, exerts a powerful effect on how we think and live.

We need the shelter of God's Word to keep us in the way of holiness, or we will surely be blown off course by this age in flight from God. God's words are pure words (v. 6), and they can make us pure in heart, mind, conscience, and life. But we must shelter in them, seek their protection against the storms of deception and unbelief, and feed on their truths to fortify us.

What does it mean to shelter in the Word of God? Daily reading, meditation, and study. Deep and searching reflection in order to discover how the Scriptures want us to live. Pleading with God for power to resist the steady winds of worldliness and walk uprightly in the path of righteousness. Encouragement from fellow believers. A disciplined self-watch and accompanying repentance and penance.

We will shelter somewhere in this life, and where we shelter - where we harbor - will shape our outlook and way of life. If you are not sheltering in God's Word, where then? What is shaping your mind, influencing your heart, determining your priorities, and validating your daily practices, if not the Word of God?

It's easy to shelter in the world's alluring shade. Sheltering in God's Word is rather more demanding. It is also, however, vastly more rewarding, in particular, for the progress of holiness.

 

July Exercise, Part 1: Download "Called to Be Witnesses." For the first week (July 1-11), read this little brochure over several times each day. On several days during this period, rate yourself - 1 to 10 - on the two areas, A Way of Life and Empowered for Witness. Talk with the Lord about why you rated yourself the way you did, and look for ways to improve these two aspects of your call to be holy.

Today in ReVision: Miami Bound - LeBron is off to the Heat, and pop culture is off the charts.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Here's a little guide to help you learn how to shelter more effectively in God's Word.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Truth Rising

July/Holiness

12 July 2010

As a lamp brings forth its light in a dark house, so truth rises in the midst of faith in a person's heart. When it rises there, it casts out four darknesses: the darkness of paganism, the darkness of ignorance, the darkness of doubt, the darkness of sin, so that there is no room for any of them there.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining...And the world is passing away along with its desires...

- 1 John 2.8, 17

Ask ten Christians whether things are getting better or worse in the world, whether the light of Truth us growing or the darkness of sin is increasing, and I feel quite certain more than half will point to the dark side.

And why should that be? After all, since the days of the Apostles, the Gospel has been growing and expanding, the faith of Christ has been increasing, so that there is hardly a place on earth where you're not reasonably close to a church. Further, the Bible - the best-selling book of all time, and every year - continues to exert formative influence on lives and cultures, and millions of people come to faith in Jesus.

The light of Truth is rising in the world as the Sun of Righteousness continues to spread His healing wings over the earth. Sure, there are pockets of stiff resistance, and we even experience times when, as the saints let down their guard, become distracted, or decide to rest on their laurels, the old demons regain a hill and cover the light with shrouds of wickedness and sin.

But they can't prevail. The world is a wheat field, not a weed field; when Jesus comes back He will gather a harvest of wheat out of a field decisively dominated by the crop He sowed. We are workers in that field, called to sow the Truth and show the Truth as one united Body of believers, so that the world will believe that the Father has sent Jesus for the salvation of men.

But if our outlook on life is not one of Truth rising, glowing, advancing, and prevailing - as John's was, in exile on Patmos - then we're probably going to hide the light of Truth under the bushels of fear because we've somehow persuaded ourselves that people aren't interested in the Gospel any more.

We would be wrong to think that, and even more wrong to live that way.

July Exercise Part 2: OK, you've been reading and doing some self-evaluation based on the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. Now, for July 12-18, sit down with some Christian friends and share the results of your first week of this exercise. Make a copy of the brochure for each of your friends and challenge them to begin this exercise as well.

Today in ReVision: A News Couch Potato? Are you one?

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses

As ever, friends, we appreciate your encouragement, welcome your feedback, and rejoice in your gifts to our ministry. You can support the work of The Fellowship of Ailbe by contributing online or sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 100 Lamplighter Ct., Hamilton, VA, 20158.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Foundations of Piety

July/Holiness

13 July 2010

The four foundations of piety: patience to withstand every desire, forbearance to withstand every wrong, asking pardon for every deception, forgiving every sin.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven."

- Matthew 18.21, 22

Colman's "Broom of Devotion" was intended as a kind of handbook on Christian piety, a quick and ready guide outlining the essentials of the life of faith. Key ideas are repeated at various places, using different meters and poetic forms, but always reinforcing one another so the critical components of the holy life could be easily remembered.

The foundations of piety which Colman outlines here reflect the life of our Lord Jesus Himself. He resisted every temptation, so that He was without sin. He bore up under every imaginable wrong, taking our scorn and judgment upon His own body. He sought pardon for every sin which you or I have or will commit, pleading His own blood on our behalf. And He forgives every sin of those who come to Him in faith, even if it's the 490th time they've committed that sin (or even more!).

Jesus is the Cornerstone of the Church (Eph. 2.20) and the Foundation of piety (1 Cor. 3.11). Rooted in Him, and being built-up into Him, we are being transformed into His very image, from glory to glory, as we follow in the path He walked, looking to His Word and drawing on the power of His Spirit (1 Cor. 3.12-18). To aspire to the life of piety is therefore to aspire to the life of Christ, to be like Jesus and to live out His grace and truth before all the people in our lives.

Do the people in your Personal Mission Field see in you a reflection of our Lord Jesus Christ? Do your speech and deeds toward them reflect His beauty, goodness, and truth? They can, and, as they do, others will truly see Christ in you, will wonder at the hope of glory you evidence, and will seek an explanation for what makes you so different from everyone else.

Is this what you aspire to in life? What could be more thrilling or glorious than showing Jesus to the world? Let us strive to be His witnesses in all piety and goodness, to the praise of the glory of His grace.

July Exercise Part 2: OK, you've been reading and doing some self-evaluation based on the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. Now, for July 12-18, sit down with some Christian friends and share the results of your first week of this exercise. Make a copy of the brochure for each of your friends and challenge them to begin this exercise as well.

Today in ReVision: A News Couch Potato? Also new at the website today, we begin our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought Captive features the next installment of Satan, Bound.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

At our book store are many resources to encourage and help you in your growth in the Lord. Hope you'll stop by.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Live Till You Die

July/Holiness

14 July 2010

Four teachings for which we should strive, even if we do not fulfill them: devotion to God, gentleness to men, good will to every person, expecting death each day.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

- Philippians 1.21

Colman's meditation seems a little morbid, I suppose. But it isn't, not really. His purpose seems to be to encourage us to live, really live, live the life of Christ until the Lord takes us home. And if we expect that homegoing every day, we'll live like we want to be found living when we show up before our King - faithful to the end.

We hear the echoes of love for God and love for our neighbors in this stanza of the "Broom of Devotion." Even if it's hard to attain this objective, we need to strive for it daily, deepening our relationship with God and being gentle and doing good to the people around us.

Death was a much more real prospect for Celtic Christians, especially death by martyrdom. But they didn't fear death; rather, they welcomed it, in God's timing, of course. They just wanted to make sure that, when they did die, they would be taken home doing the things God had put them on earth to do in the first place.

Hence the counsel: Live till you die. Love the Lord more each day. Reach out to your neighbors with the love of Christ. Grow in holiness. Rejoice in the knowledge that you belong to Jesus and nothing and no one can rip you out of His hand. And in that firm knowledge, focused on God and reaching out to your neighbor - live!

 

 

July Exercise Part 2: OK, you've been reading and doing some self-evaluation based on the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. Now, for July 12-18, sit down with some Christian friends and share the results of your first week of this exercise. Make a copy of the brochure for each of your friends and challenge them to begin this exercise as well.

Today in ReVision: Souls on the Mind - What was Paul Giamatti thinking?  Also new at the website today, we begin our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought Captive features the next installment of Satan, Bound.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Kingdom Seeking

July/Holiness

15 July 2010

Four things through which the kingdom of God may be sought: steadfastness and detachment from the world, devotion and constancy.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

- Matthew 6.33

Kingdom seeking is the Christian's calling in life. The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14.17). We are seeking the KIngdom when, in every aspect of our lives, we are striving to know and extend these virtues in the world. From us righteousness should make progress against sin and unbelief. From us peace should overcome fear and uncertainty. From us joy should supplant disappointment, sorrow, and distress.

Here is a call to steadfastness - daily persevering toward a Kingdom horizon in every area of our lives, refusing to allow ourselves to be distracted or deterred. Here is a call for detachment from the world, for we cannot advance the rule of Christ if we are slavishly holding on to the things of this life. Here is a call for devotion, for without a close and vital relationship with the living God, we have no strength for seeking the Kingdom. Here is a call for constancy: we must keep on keeping on even when we see little progress or reason to hope.

Kingdom seeking can become a way of life for us, and we can make a contribution to righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, when these four disciplines, mentioned by Colman, come to characterize our lives. Oh, but this is hard work, requiring constant attention and prayer without ceasing! Seeking the Kingdom is not just some pious phrase to affirm; it is a way of life to embrace, pursue, endure, and triumph in day by day by day.

Will today find you seeking the Kingdom as your first priority in every area of your life?

Join us tonight at 9:00 to pray for revival. Send me an email and I'll send you the prayer sheet and phone number to call.

July Exercise Part 2: OK, you've been reading and doing some self-evaluation based on the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. Now, for July 12-18, sit down with some Christian friends and share the results of your first week of this exercise. Make a copy of the brochure for each of your friends and challenge them to begin this exercise as well.

Today in ReVision: Souls on the Mind - What was Paul Giamatti thinking?  Also new at the website today, we begin our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought Captive features the next installment of Satan, Bound.

This Week's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Lazy Faith

July/Holiness

19 July 2010

What is best in religion? Simplicity and sincerity. A lazy religiosity, which avoids much hardship, will have much trial in the fire, will have little reward in heaven.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

- Ephesians 2.10

I like that thought of "lazy religiosity." True religion - real Christian faith - is not supposed to be easy. It's like fighting a war, running a marathon, being poured out on behalf of others, bearing a cross, and so forth. All the images of the New Testament which describe the life of faith intend us to believe that this is no easy road.

Fast forward to the present, and the easy road seems to be precisely what most Christians want to walk. Their faith costs them very little (not even the tithe!). The best time of their lives they invest in getting, spending, and mindless diversions, while they give but a portion of their remaining time to the Lord. We're lazy in the work of the Kingdom and frenzied about our material existence and comfort.

A simpler and more sincere approach to the life of faith might find us working harder at spiritual disciplines, being more involved in good works toward the people in our Personal Mission Field, and more consistent in bearing witness for Christ. We would be more diligent and thorough students of God's Word and more fervent and constant in prayer. Worship would be a way of life and not simply a Sunday morning diversion.

The Lord Jesus walked the hard road to give us real life, but He in no way encouraged us to believe that real life was an easy trip. It's a hard slog, but filled with joy and glory for all who undertake it by faith.

It's not too late to begin shrugging off and laying aside the garments of a lazy religiosity, so that we might be clothed anew each day with the wardrobe of discipline, service, witness, sharing, and joy which are the proper garments of all who name the Name of Jesus.

Friends, thanks again for those of you who are helping to support our ministry with your gifts. You can do so by contributing at the website or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 100 Lamplighter Ct., Hamilton, VA 20158.

July Exercise Part 2: OK, you've been reading and doing some self-evaluation based on the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. Now, for July 12-18, sit down with some Christian friends and share the results of your first week of this exercise. Make a copy of the brochure for each of your friends and challenge them to begin this exercise as well.

Today in ReVision: Held in Trust? - Who's watching over the precious heritage of Christian culture?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought Captive features the next installment of Satan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!).

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Mind of Christ

July/Holiness

What is best in a mind? Breadth and lowliness; for every good thing can find room in a broad and lowly mind.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

"For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

- 1 Corinthians 2.16

The mind of our Lord Jesus Christ is certainly broad and lowly. After all, He upholds the universe and all things in it by His Word of power (Heb. 1.3). Can't get broader than that. And He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself and became a lowly servant unto our salvation (Phil. 2.5-11). Can't get more humble than that.

Breadth and humility. That's a pretty good outline for thinking about developing the mind of Christ which has been given to us. We should ever be seeking to enlarge our understanding and to improve our ability to think clearly. Reading, study, conversation - these are ways to a broader mind.

But a more humble mind comes through prayer and service. Only the Lord can enable us to set aside our own interests and agendas so that we pay more attention to the needs of others, regard them as more important than our own, and conceive ways of serving people with the love of Christ.

What a powerful combination of notions! A broad mind has room for as much new knowledge as we might be willing to embrace, and a humble mind has room for every person in need whom we might encounter each day. When we are submitting to and exercising the mind of Christ, this kind of breadth and humility will increasingly come to characterize our own thoughts and plans.

Let it be, Lord.

July Exercise Part 3: Let's go to the next step in applying the teaching of the free the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. During the coming week, get together with the friends for whom you made a copy of this brochure, and work through the brochure, My Personal Mission Field, together.

Today in ReVision: Held in Trust? - Who's watching over the precious heritage of Christian culture?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought CaptiveSatan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!). features the next installment of

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Against Instability

July/Holiness

21 July 2010

Three things which drive out the spirit of instability, and make the mind steadfast: vigil, and prayer, and labour.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting...For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

- James 1.6-8

Double-minded people confess faith in Jesus Christ, thus, tacitly at least, admitting the existence of an unseen realm of glory and a Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, they continue to live in this world as though their material wants and needs were of primary importance.

They praise Jesus on Sunday as Lord of time and creation; then they used the vast bulk of their time and most of their creative energy in materialistic and frivolous pursuits. They protest to believe the Bible to be the Word of God, but then devote very little energy to reading, studying, and meditating in it. They say they believe in prayer, but pray very little.

Double-minded people insist that the story of Jesus is Good News, but then they seldom, if ever, venture to share that story with anyone else. They confess Jesus as Lord, but then try to enlist Him in their aid for all their wants and needs.

I'd add a fourth remedy against double-mindedness to those Colman recommends: sound doctrine, beginning with the Law of God (cf. 2 Pet. 3.17). Prayer, waiting on the Lord, working for the progress of the Kingdom, and grounding our lives in sound doctrine - these are, indeed, remedies against double-mindedness.

But in case you prefer double-mindedness to stability according to such remedies as these, just remember: you may expect nothing - nothing! - from the Lord.

July Exercise Part 3: Let's go to the next step in applying the teaching of the free the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. During the coming week, get together with the friends for whom you made a copy of this brochure, and work through the brochure, My Personal Mission Field, together.

Today in ReVision: Presidential Judgment - How wise is the President, really?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought CaptiveSatan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!). features the next installment of

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pressing on to Holiness

July/Holiness

22 July 2010

Anyone, then, who fears God, and loves Him, and does His will and keeps His commandments,will have honour among men here and blessedness with God beyond.

- Colman man Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

- 2 Corinthians 7.1

The promises to which Paul refers have to do with God's dwelling among us, walking with us, making us His people, being our God, and being our Father. There is nothing in us to provoke God to want to do this for us; it's all of His unfathomable grace.

In view of what God has promised, therefore, Paul exhorts us to bring holiness to completion in the fear of God. The promises are there to strive for; holiness is the means to gain the favor of God, both in this life and in the life to come.

We are not here talking about salvation, at least, not in the sense of justification. But we are talking about salvation as it relates to the continual pursuit of holiness (sanctification). God's grace is sufficient for this as well, which we discover as we give ourselves to the pursuit of holiness. This race is beyond our ability, but God meets us as we begin it anew each day, providing the desire and strength to lay aside every defilement of body and spirit and press on in holiness.

Fear God, love Him, and keep His commandments. This is the daily regimen for growing in holiness. To this we are called, and God promises that, as we pursue this, we will know more of His presence with us, engage more of His glory, and become more fully His sons and daughters, glorifying Him in all ways. And there is nothing more thrilling, more rewarding, or more completely satisfying in this life than this daily pursuit of holiness.

May we rise afresh to this challenge with each new day.

July Exercise Part 3: Let's go to the next step in applying the teaching of the free the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses. During the coming week, get together with the friends for whom you made a copy of this brochure, and work through the brochure, My Personal Mission Field, together.

Today in ReVision: Presidential Judgment - How wise is the President, really?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought CaptiveSatan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!). features the next installment of

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Self First

July/Holiness

26 July 2010

When is one capable of bearing witness on behalf of the souls of others? When he is capable first of bearing witness on behalf of his own. When is he capable of correcting others? When he can first correct himself.

- Colman mac Beognai, Aipgitir Chrabaid (Irish, 7th century)

Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

- Proverbs 4.26, 27

In the Christian life we are called to put others first. Except in this one area. Before we invest too much energy in commenting on or correcting the walk of others, we need to make sure our own walk is what it ought to be.

The Scriptures exhort us to a careful self-watch, as in Solomon's advice to his son. We need to pay attention to the way we use our time, conduct our conversations, carry out our duties, even enjoy our leisure. Are we seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness even in these? Or are certain parts of our lives "off limits" for Kingdom business?

To "ponder the path of your feet" is an ongoing responsibility. The KJV of Ephesians 5.15-17 calls us to "walk circumspectly," that is, paying attention to the whole horizon of your life, making sure that all you do is in order to advance the righteous and peacable and joyous reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a challenge!

We are called to be witnesses for the Lord at every moment of our lives, but we won't fulfill this high and holy calling if we aren't vigilant about seeking the Kingdom at every moment, in all our relationships, roles, and responsibilities. How do you carry out this exhortation to "ponder the path of your feet"? Do you have a soul friend to help you in this? Do you plan your time carefully and review it frequently?

If we offer the moments of our lives as offerings to the Lord, seeking His wisdom for how best to use our time (Ps. 90.12), we will be more likely to honor and glorify Him in all we do, and to bring His blessings to the people in our Personal Mission Field, day after day.

July Exercise Part 4: For the rest of this month let's work on developing a plan, following the free the brochure, Called to Be Witnesses and the My Personal Mission Field brochure, for pondering our paths more purposefully, and with greater Kingdom results.

Today in ReVision: On Being Still - Is this even possible?

Also at the website, we have begun our next Kingdom Civics series on the "Founding Documents" of the Kingdom, and Every Thought CaptiveSatan, Bound (soon to be a Waxed Tablet book!). features the next installment of

This Month's Download: Called to Be Witnesses - Give a copy to your friends and begin talking together about how you can become more serious about piety.

We hope you'll visit our book store and check out the resources available to help you live the Christian life. And let us hear from you.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.