The Christian Journal - March 2007
16 pages
Published by
The Christian Journal
Copyright :
Callahan’s Fire Article
Page 8
Newsboys
Jason Allred
FCA Banquet
Page 16
African American
Holy Ghost Conference
Page 16
Bad Day Turnaround
The Biblical Test.
.
.
By Sandy Cathcart
Holiness Or Pharisaism?
Continued on Page 3
By Fred...
[More]
Callahan’s Fire Article
Page 8
Newsboys
Jason Allred
FCA Banquet
Page 16
African American
Holy Ghost Conference
Page 16
Bad Day Turnaround
The Biblical Test.
.
.
By Sandy Cathcart
Holiness Or Pharisaism?
Continued on Page 3
By Fred Wikoff
Holiness
“You were shown these things so that you
might know that the Lord is God; besides him
there is no other.
”
Deuteronomy 4:35 (NIV)
Ever have a bad day?
I certainly have.
You know the kind…
where you crawl out of bed to discover
there’s no hot water for a shower.
Then
reaching into the refrigerator for some
breakfast items, you spill the entire carton of
eggs on the floor.
While grabbing the broom
to clean up the mess, you rip your blouse and
discover that all your clean ones are still in
the wash.
So you don a wet one and head
off to work, but then…where are those car
keys? Finally, after retrieving the keys from
behind the microwave, you jump in the car.
Nothing but a sick er-er sound meets your
ears.
You suddenly realize you might as well
have stayed in bed.
The above scenario has actually happened
to me, but the one thing I left out was my
reaction.
Normally,Iwouldhavebeensobbing
half way through my morning, but this time
was different.
I had an agenda, a Biblical
test of sorts.
Instead of looking at all the
bad things happening around me and crying
in my soup,
I decided to
reverse things
- to focus on
the good and
rejoice, because
Jesus has
overcome the
world.
So, when the
eggs fell to the
floor, I simply
reached for
paper towels
and started cleaning up the mess.
I admit that
by the time I discovered the car wouldn’t
run my Biblical test nearly failed.
Sniffing
back a tear and straightening my shoulders, I
walked back in the house, made a few phone
calls, and decided to write instead.
Life went
on.
God had a different plan for me than I
had for myself.
This Biblical test gets more difficult
when REALLY
bad things happen.
Even Jesus
wept when He
discovered His
friend Lazarus
had died.
At such
times, the rejoicing
is simply over
the fact that God
understands our
tears and pain.
He’s been there
too.
But in those
day-to-day moments when Murphy’s Law
seems to rule, I’ve discovered freedom in
focusing on remembering the good things
God has done in my life.
There are sooooo
“The proof of spiritual maturity is not
how ‘pure’ you are but awareness of your
impurity.
”
This quotation from Philip Yancey’s book
What’s so Amazing About Grace? sits on a
shelf in my study.
I keep it there to remind
me that no matter how “good” I am, I can
never attain the pureness necessary to stand
before God.
Only the crucified Christ can
do that for me.
Yet, in spite of knowing better, there is
still a temptation to become overly pleased
with myself for at least trying to lead a
pure and honorable Christian life.
We pray,
study, teach and tithe; and our feelings of
self-importance grow.
We might even start
to think we are more deserving and closer
to God than others because of our diligent
service.
The Pharisees had similar thoughts and
we all know what Christ told them about the
impurity in their “good” lives.
He compared
them to whitewashed tombs, and called them
blind guides and hypocrites.
(See Matthew
23:1-28)
Of course we vow not to be like the
Pharisees.
Yet all too often we slip into
the same trap of thinking that diligent
commitment to God’s work, and keeping
his commandments has a bearing on our
righteousness.
When this happens we are
lured into thinking we have attained a degree
of holiness or spiritual maturity, when just
the opposite is true.
It has been said: “no man is so ignorant as
he who knows nothing and knows not that
he knows nothing.
No man is so sick as he
who has a fatal disease and is not aware of
it.
No man is so poor as he who is destitute
and yet thinks he is rich.
”
It is this very feeling of thinking we are
rich in “good works” that condemns us, and
reveals the Pharisaisim in us.
Unless we
realize we are spiritually destitute regardless
of our so-called “goodness” we are on
dangerous ground: “For I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners.
” Matthew 9:13
God has no place in his kingdom for the
self-righteous.
If
we base our holiness
on our own wellintentioned efforts
we will always fail.
Isaiah says: “.
.
.
all
our righteous acts
are like filthy rags .
.
.
and our iniquities,
like the wind, take us
away.
” Isaiah 64:6
And Paul reminds us:
“None is righteous,
no, not one.
” Romans
3:10
The need to fully
perceive this is vital if
wearetogrowtowards
spiritual maturity.
Yes, pureness and
righteousness may be
obtained, but only as
an outright gift from God: “.
.
.
God shows
his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us.
” Romans 5:8
He died “.
.
.
in order to present us holy and
blameless and irreproachable before him.
”
Colossians: 1-22
Consequently, personal holiness is always
a result of God’s grace, not the cause of it.
It will never be our good works, but only
Christ’s blood that makes us pure in God’s
eyes; and possible for him to dwell within
us.
(See John 14:23) When this recognition
takes place in our minds and hearts we
open the door for Christ to do exciting and
wonderful things through us.
Oswald Chambers said: “A saint is never
consciously a saint .
.
.
a saint is consciously
dependent on God.
”
(Oswald Chambers in
his devotional book,
My Utmost for His
Highest)
As we learn to
completely yield
ourselves to God, I
believe that spiritual
maturity is produced
in our lives on the
unconscious level until
we are often not even
aware of being used
by Him.
When this
happens we become
holy without even
realizing it: “For
God’s temple is holy
and that temple you
are.
” I Corinthians
3:17
“Therefore be
imitators of God, as beloved children.
And
walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave
himself up for us, a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God.
” Ephesians 5:1-2
Fred Wikoff writes from Eugene, Oregon.
EugeneSpud@msn.
com
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