Posts tagged ‘sanctification’
One Thing After Another…
It is difficult for us to admit we are needy, to admit that we need to go to God immediately, every time, instead of relying on Self, which is thoroughly opposed to God and His Word. Going to God is primary. Going to other believers asking for their help in prayer and support is secondary, but also important. Too often we refuse to do that because we don’t want to be seen as weak, ineffectual or lacking faith. In our Tuesday night Bible study group, we routinely share prayer requests and praises. It brings us together in reliance on others. Paul talks a great deal about this in his two letters to Corinthian believers.
Continue Reading December 2, 2025 at 11:48 AM Leave a comment
Fiery Trials Can Create Despair
We Christians are not islands. Our lives touch other people. What happens to us and how we react to situations speaks to other people – both Christians and non. We need to remember that God ultimately wants to be glorified in and through us. In order for that to happen, things must come into our lives that do not seem palatable at first. Even though our fist inclination is to try to push away from those things, God has important plans for them. He wants us to grow in our faith and exhibit greater trust in Him. We cannot do that without the downward pressures of unpalatable situations and our response to them. Will we allow what is initially perplexing to create despair/depression within us or will we do as the three men in Daniel 3 did? If we fail to focus on the hope we have in Christ Jesus, we can easily become despairing/depressed.
Continue Reading November 21, 2025 at 2:49 PM Leave a comment
Job’s Aha Moment
Doesn’t this remind you of Jesus’ words when He said, “…whoever hates his life will keep it for eternal life,” (John 12:25). It’s the same thing. Job came to the point of hating his own life because he saw such sin in it when compared to God and His holiness. This is what each and every authentic Christian needs to realize. Understanding the weight of our sin has a wonderful effect. It helps us realize just how much God gave that we might have life eternally. Without this growing realization, we will continue to cater to Self continually. With this growing understanding, humility will replace our self-centered satisfaction.
Sanctification: Memorizing Scripture
Paul is so good about getting to the heart of the issue, isn’t he? We can all relate to what he is stating. We want to do what is right, what pleases God, but we are too often bound by our sin nature. It seems to control us way too often. Yet, Paul, while pointing out how bad things can be for him within, looks to Jesus as the only true Redeemer. Jesus, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, will create within us truly clean hearts, hearts given to serving God, not our sin natures. But of course, our job is to actually go to Him during those times when we are torn and being dragged toward fulfilling the desires of our sin nature. It truly is a battle and the battle is won in our minds when we deliberately turn our backs on our sin natures and the temptations promoted by it, instead, looking to Jesus as our true Source of strength. He will overcome in our lives if we deliberately turn to Him. Sometimes, all we can do is plead with Him to help us and He will follow through.
Cooperating in Sanctification
The opposite of being disciplined is being lazy. There’s too much of that going around, even among Christians today. Paul could have just coasted. After all, he was saved, right? Why did he work so hard to bring about the change in his life that God wanted? By that I mean why did he make the strong effort to cooperate with God the Holy Spirit in order to become the person God wanted him to become? The answer is much more simple than the process itself. Paul did this because he wanted to bring glory to God and he understood that whatever he was going through, it was because God ordained it and in every situation, he wanted to respond in a way that pleased God. Because of that, he literally disciplined himself – his thoughts, his actions and his words – so that he relied heavily on the power of the Holy Spirit to create in him (Paul), what was good for edifying others and glorifying God. This meant constant growth and change for Paul.
Our Standing and Progress in the Faith: Justification
So what does this result in for the Christian? We know that God declares us righteous because we are justified in Him. We are justified not on our own merit but solely because of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf. God did it. We did nothing. We only came to exercise faith in what Jesus accomplished and then only when God “woke” us to that truth (John 6:44; cf also 14:6 and 2 Corinthians 5:21).
Discerning the Times: Truth for Christians
Ironside clearly enunciates the truth of Scripture and proves that while our lives should continually improve because of our standing and position before Christ and the progress that we are to make as we daily surrender to Him, the fact remains that those caught up in some form of holiness movement become either entirely hypocritical or have some type of breakdown and/or falling away from the faith. This belief that we can reach a state of absolute pure and consistent holiness without ever again sinning is not taught in Scripture and Ironside explains that very clearly.
What Does Work Out Your Salvation with Fear and Trembling Mean?
Can you imagine if someone bought you a house, gave you the key and said, “This is yours! All you have to do is make monthly payments on it!” What kind of a “gift” is that?! Sure, they put the down payment on it, but you are now left with coming up with the monthly mortgage! It wouldn’t be a gift at all, but a true burden. Now if someone gave you a house where you owed nothing on it (no monthly mortgage or taxes), that would actually be a free gift. Certainly, you might be expected to keep the home up so that it did not go into disrepair. However, even if you did allow that to happen, the house itself would still be yours. No one could take it away from you because it was completely paid for by someone else, leaving you with absolutely no debt on it.
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