Holiness

        I was sick last Sunday and so spent the morning listening to a sermon online from one of the local churches in my area. The Pastor spoke about the need for change in the lives of believers and basically said that we need to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ in all that we do. He compared our actions to those of the world at the beginning of almost every year. We look at different things that we want to do beginning on January 1^st in order to be a better person. For the world, they want to lose weight, exercise more, take up a new hobby and a host of other things for a better life. Pastor Hopkins focused in one on thing and it was personal holiness. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

         We may all have desires to improve in many different areas in our lives and they are all probably good and beneficial. If you had only one thing that you could do for the coming year, what would it be? Do you love the Word of God more than food? Pastor Hopkins developed his message by speaking about Job who at one point finally states that he loves the word of God even more than food. It doesn't take you too long even on the computer to find out that the world is full of people that hate almost everything around them. Now, I am speaking about professing believers and not the people of the world. You can expect unbelievers to be hateful, but certainly not from those of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. People have their own agenda and a list of things that they are going to fight for no matter what even though it damages other believers around them. So, what's the answer? Pastor Hopkins, using Job's desire for the Word of God more than food, went to the verse for today. This is one of my favorite verses as the word “transform” only occurs here and in Romans 12:1-2 and on the references for the transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ. If transformation is going to occur, how do we do it? Where can we possibly behold the glory of the Lord and thereby be changed? The answer is in the Word of God. Job loved the Word of God more than food. That meant that he wanted to know and live in the Word of God. It should be no different for us. As one preacher once said, we should love the word of God so much and be in the Word of God so much that when we are cut, we bleed Bible. If we are going to be more like the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are going to have to know Him and how He lived and how He responded. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Have you wept over your city? There was a prominent group around in my early life which had the motto: “To Know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same.” In order to “know Him” we are going to have to be in His Word. It is good that we want to exercise more, eat less, be kind to our fine feathered friends and such but the more important issue is to be holy which is to be separated from the things of the world and separated to God in all that we do. Peter made the statement in First Peter 1:15-16, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” We should perhaps be asking the question, “What do we want to improve on in the years to come?” Praise God today that He is in the life transforming business.