In Hot Pursuit (of holiness)

          Every now and then a book is published that is going to go down in history. It's a good book and everyone ought to read it. When I entered Washington Bible College, it was a common practice that everyone read “Balancing the Christian Life” by Charles Ryrie. In fact, there was a course on it and everyone had to take that course. I still have my copy along with a number of other books. A second book became high on my list and must have been viewed as important by others since it has been republished in several different formats. That book is “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. I think every believer who is trying to live the Christian life should read this book as it is very practical. Of course, the most important book to read in regard to holiness is the Bible, the Word of God. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:”

        The word “follow” in this verse has an interesting meaning. One book describes the word as, “to run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing, to run after.” The idea of this “chase” was brought home to me as I observed a Beagle dog chasing after a rabbit. If the rabbit dodged tot he left, the dog did too. If the rabbit jumped over a log and rant to the right, the dog did to. The eyes of the dog were steadfast upon that rabbit and nothing was going to stop the pursuit. This is how our own pursuit of holiness should be. Our eyes should not be taken off of the goal by anything and believe me, there will be plenty of interruptions to try to get you off the track. Remember that Satan does not want you to be holy and so will come up with as many roadblocks as possible in your Christian life. To be honest, I have never met a Christian who had the idea that they did not want to grow in Christ. I have never met one who wanted to remain where they were. Believers should have the goal of increasing in their spiritual life. We should be like the Beagle chasing the rabbit with our eyes steadfast upon the “holiness” that we want to achieve. Remember the three avenues of temptation that Satan used in the Garden of Eden and in the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan still uses them today and you will find one or all of them probably on your first day of your own pursuit of holiness. Perhaps you will walk out of your time with the Lord in His Word and prayer and praise to Him only to find yourself confronted with your first roadblock. You keep pressing forward though with your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, not looking to the right or to the left, but steadfastly on Him. When Satan through the temptations out to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord answered from the Word of God. One again, as we have mentioned so many times before, the Word is the answer and where we should be in our own pursuit of holiness. We should remember not to try to outrun the Lord, or that we should try to guess which way the Lord is going to lead us and try to get there on our own, but that we should be following after Him. As always, we are to turn to the Word of God and learn about holiness; of being separated from the world and being separated to God. Praise God today that we can see His plan for our holiness in His Word.