Living in a time like ours where laws have been created and amended to suit needs of the people (or so we would hope) or to protect the vulnerable and needy (again, we would hope), it seems appropriate to think about God’s law.

I read Psalm 19 one morning this week and it talks about law, statutes, precepts, commands and decrees. As you can imagine, I spent some time looking up the words in the dictionary – here we go: 1) law: the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by the imposition of penalties. 2) statutes: a written law passed by a legislative body; a rule of an organization or institution. 3) precepts: a general rule intended to regulate behaviour or thought; a writ or warrant. 4) commands: an authoritative order and finally 5) decrees: an official order that has the force of law. You guessed it – they are used as synonyms. What is remarkable about the verses in this Psalm is the way the Law of God reflects His character.

In verse 7 we see that “The law of the Lord is perfect”. We should not be surprised by this bold statement because God is perfect. His law is perfectly good, perfectly right, nothing needs to be added to it or taken away from it. It is given by a gracious God and is perfectly designed to bring us back to God, thus “refreshing the soul”. The verse continues: “The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy”. What an amazing assurance for those who trust the mighty God! We can be absolutely certain that what He has commanded is honest, sure, reliable and truthful because God is trustworthy. He cannot change. His character is the same from all eternity. We can rest knowing that what the Bible teaches us is a sure foundation for our living and for our hope thus “making wise the simple”. We can find wisdom by following God’s law.

It does not stop there. The psalmist carries on by saying in verse 8 “The precepts of the Lord are right” completely in harmony with God’s eternal will. They are right because God is holy and merciful and just. All He desires for those he created as image bearers is right and when we follow his commands we can see them “giving joy to the heart”. There is no hidden agenda, no selfish motives. All of what God designed for us is right. How amazing to think about God’s law in this way. David continues by saying “The commands of the Lord are radiant” because our God is radiant! There is no darkness in Him or blemish. His glory cannot be gazed upon. It reveals all to all. For those who embrace His commands, the Holy Spirit uses it by “giving light to the eyes”, and so we can see our misery and how much we need God in our lives.

Verse 9 starts like this “The fear of the Lord is pure”. This fear is the reverence and owe we are to have before God because of who He is. It is pure – clear and clean and when we revere God in the way He deserves it will cleanse us. It will help us focus on worshiping God alone. Many will say that these verses have application only for the people living in David’s time because of the ceremonial law and that now, because of Christ we do not have to revere/fear God in the same way. Well, this awe is something that culture and time will not change it will be “enduring forever”. This has definitely got me thinking about the way I act when talking about God. David concludes this part of the psalm saying “The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous”. This means they are established, penned, proclaimed, framed in God’s perfect and infinite wisdom. The law in all its entirety is good and worthy. There is no part that needs to be re-written, edited or updated. All of the commands are righteous.

These rules, were declared by God, given to us so we can know how to live our lives in a way that will glorify His Name. There is no error, no misjudgement, no bias. The men who create laws in our world are full of flaws, some with good intentions, some after self gain, but all are imperfect nevertheless. Our God is perfect and so is his law.

It seems a bit odd that I started the post discussing the middle verses of the Psalm first, but rest assured that David set the scene of this amazing psalm by first describing God and his glory and majesty which are revealed through His creation. Who has not marvelled at the starry sky and wondered about the power required to bring it to being and to sustain it? The order and the details of how the sun, the moon, the stars, and how the obey the design of the Creator are inexplicable. It is amazing and terrifying! David used the common things that people in his time and ours would take for granted and he points to the God who is Creator, powerful, good, merciful before he starts telling them about the law He has given us.

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. ³ They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. ⁴ Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. ⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. ⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.

At the end part of the psalm, David tells us that God’s law is more desirable that gold and sweeter than honey from the honeycomb. Again David uses the common things like wealth and senses to illustrate his point. Gold is only momentary, it gives pleasure only in this life. Its value fluctuates and the status it brings changes and even ceases. God’s law is richer and more desirable because it comes full of grace and it concerns our souls for eternity. As for the sweetness of honey, it gives nutrients to the body and quenches the hunger for a brief moment. But the law of God satisfies the soul and its nutrients help our faith grow. They are used by the Spirit to warn us and assure us of the great reward we already have in heaven waiting for those who follow God and obey His commands.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey,
 than honey from the honeycomb. ¹¹ By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Then David looks at his own heart and his sin and he pleads with God to free him from sinning and breaking the law he has just been talking about. He knows he cannot do it on his own. He knows that he needs God to help him. Do we? Do we recognise we cannot keep God’s law on our own?

¹² But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. ¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.

David finishes with the most famous verse in this psalm: He is praying that his words, the confession he has just uttered, the desperate need he had of his Saviour, would be pleasing to God.

¹⁴ May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

May we learn to see God in the way David did and may we seek his help to obey his law.

God bless.

_{Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash}

We live in a world where things change very rapidly. When we have information readily available to us on our phones 24/7 we can hardly keep up with the changes all over the world.

In 1991 I spent 6 months living in America and I remember writing letters (yes, letters!) to my family in Brazil and then having to wait for what seemed like an eternity (4 weeks) to get a reply. When I read their news it was already old news. I had to learn to be patient as I knew it would be a while until the postman brought those letters.

Oh how things have changed! The speed in which information changes is ridiculous and people are influenced by it and change their behaviour because of it. It is almost as if we are in a constant state of uncertainty: people pack their food in the morning only to find out they don’t really fancy that sandwich, so, they buy another one at lunch; couples choose their kids’ names and then give them nicknames or even other names because they changed their minds about the original given names. Men and women spend hours deciding what to wear to a party, only to change their minds a thousand times before leaving their front door. People pick and change even their gender depending on how they feel in the morning.

There are too many voices telling us that we must change or even telling us that we can’t change and that is ok, as long as we are happy.

As a Christian, I find it very comforting to know that our great God, our Creator and Redeemer does not change – ever! This is a good thing. We can trust Him and his promises. We can be certain that His plans and purposes are unfailing. God is not going to change His mind if He is in a good or bad mood. He is not going to go back on His word if we disobey Him. We know from the Bible that His life never changes as we can see in Psalm 102:23-28

²³ In the course of my life he broke my strength; he cut short my days. ²⁴ So I said: “Do not take me away, my God, in the midst of my days; your years go on through all generations. ²⁵ In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. ²⁷ But you remain the same, and your years will never end. ²⁸ The children of your servants will live in your presence; their descendants will be established before you.” (emphasis mine)

And in Malachi 3:6 we read:

⁶ “I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.” (emphasis mine)

In the book of Malachi we learn that the people of Israel had not repented from their sins and although they were now living in Jerusalem, after the Babylonian exile, they were still following their own hearts and desires and were not honouring their God and obeying Him. How comforting it is to hear that it is because God does not change that they were not destroyed.

It is very important for every Christian to know that God’s character never changes – His attributes will never improve or get worse. God is perfectly holy. He will never be holier or less holy because that would imply imperfection or a limit to his character. He will never improve his eternity or have it in a deteriorating state. Because God is perfect in His being, His character stays the same. This is what the Bible tells us in the book of James 1:17

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (emphasis mine)

Another thing we must hold on to is that God’s truth never changes – because God is infinite in knowledge and wisdom, there can be no error or oversight in his plan and his purpose. Since He is infinite in power, there can be no failure or frustration to accomplish his purpose. The Bible contains God’s truths, his word and his plan. Perhaps it is this point that many people, including Christians, struggle with. They see the Bible as outdated. They say “we moved on”. “we are modern people”. They try to accommodate the Bible into the world views and only look at what suits this view. Here are some verses from the Bible we can look at:

Psalm 33:10-11 “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations“ (emphasis mine)

Isaiah 14:24 “The LORD Almighty has sworn, ‘Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand’” (emphasis mine)

Isaiah 46:9-11 “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’ . . . I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it‘” (emphasis mine)

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails” (emphasis mine)

There are many other verses that show us that God does not change. We need Him to stay the same. The Gospel itself needs God to be unchangeable. Our hope for salvation depends on it. “As long as his infinite sameness endures, he will not change his mind about setting his love on us” (Jen Wilkin, None Like Him, page 85). This is an incredible thing: we are secure in Him because if God has pronounced us righteous, we are righteous because of the blood of His Son Jesus, shed for us on the cross. Romans 8: 35-38 is like a lighthouse in the middle of a storm, standing firm, reminding us that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”  ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (emphasis mine)

Next time you are feeling overwhelmed with all the changes around you, remember that we believe in a God who is unchanging, because of God’s character He cannot change. He is the same forever and He loves us and never changes His mind about loving us. Be encouraged – the sameness of God is a blessing to us all!

Have you ever been disappointed in your life? Perhaps you’ve saved money to buy that car you needed only to find out the last one was sold 10 minutes before you entered the shop and all they have left is a model you can’t afford. Or maybe, you were one mark, just one mark, short of passing that all important exam. You might have been waiting for that first date, and when it happened you realized he was not going to make the cut, as he was not the person he said he was on his Instagram or Facebook.

Other disappointments could be a diagnosis of a disease that was missed a few years previously and now it is too late to treat. It could also be that job interview that never happened or a promotion that was given to someone else. The house you were buying got taken off the market.

What do we do when we feel disappointed? Where do we go? Who do we speak to? What things do we allow our mind to be filled with during these times? Do we look at our cup and see it as half empty? How long do we allow the disappointment to linger in our hearts? Does it become the idol in our hearts?

Recently in a talk I delivered to the ladies in my church, I spoke of the discipline of conviction. Conviction being a belief that it is so strong that it changes the way we live our lives. This talk was part of a series on “Pursuing Holiness”. In our journey to become more Christ like we need to train ourselves to develop Bible based convictions.

The first thing we need is to believe the Bible is God’s word and the absolute truth. When we believe that it will be easier to understand that we need to live life based on the teachings God has given in His word.

You might be scratching your head asking: What does that have to do with disappointment? Bear with me. We will get there.

We also need to know that the Bible is a book about God. From the first page to the last it reveals to us His character and His will. It tells us that He is a God who is Sovereign, eternal, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, unchanging, self-existing, self-sufficient, infinite, incomprehensible, holy, loving, gracious, good, merciful, truthful, faithful, wise, just and righteous. These are only some of God’s attributes. This is the God we trust when we become Christians. The Bible tells us that He loves us so much that He initiated the greatest rescue plan – He sent His one and only Son to die for us on the cross.

Getting to know our Sovereign Lord through the pages of scriptures will help us to develop convictions which will change our behaviour. Even as I wrote the past sentence, I am thinking: I know God is Sovereign and his will is perfect (Romans 12:2), so my disappointment should not last. Right? I know that God will take care of my needs and that I should not worry (Matthew 6:25-34), so my disappointment should be momentary. Right?

Is my cup half empty? Why do I feel that I have been let down? Worse, I look at everybody else and think that their cup is half full. Have I sought God through the process preceding my disappointment? Have I brought my desires in line with what the Bible says I should pursue?

Often the problem is not that our cup is half empty or half full. The problem is that we have lost sight of the truths we learnt from the Bible and are not responding to the situation based on our convictions. We react to the situation based on our emotions alone. Don’t get me wrong. Feeling sad when a situation does not go the way we expected is not wrong. However, how we react to it might be.

We must be careful to put our trust completely in our Lord God when we feel disappointed. We may not understand why our situation has not gone according to what we expected but we must believe God has our best interest at heart. We must remember that God has redeemed us for Himself. He has brought us back to Him through Jesus and whatever situation we might be going through it is for our good (Romans 8:28).

If in our reaction to our disappointment we sinned, i.e. displayed an unjustified anger, or blamed God for what happened, or delighted in our misery too long until our hearts were full of bitterness, we must confess our sins before our God (I John 1:9).

Knowing our God more as we read the Scriptures will certainly help in developing convictions but we must trust Him. We must believe what we know about Him and most of all we must let the Holy Spirit teach us what we need to learn through all the situations we go through. God is still God and He is sovereign and good.

^{Photo by Joseph Greve on Unsplash}

Imagine for a minute that I do a lot of running (I don’t, just in case you didn’t know). Now consider these two scenarios: 1) I run long distances each day and get covered in sweat and mud. I go back home take off my dirty clothes and straight away put on my nice clean clothes and go to work. 2) I run long distances each day and get covered in sweat and mud. I go back home take off my dirty clothes, have a shower, put on my dirty clothes and go to work. You might be thinking “ew disgusting”. Who on earth would do that?

We have been considering the pursuit of holiness in my past 2 posts and today we will be considering that God’s grace teaches us to say yes to positive qualities of the Christian character. These are the qualities that we call the fruit of the Spirit. (Read Galatians 5:13-26) In order for us to be able to say yes to these, we need to consider what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4:22-24

²² You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; ²³ to be made new in the attitude of your minds; ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

In the process of striving to attain, pressing on in this journey of seeking holiness, we need to “put off” the old self and “put on” the new self. Lets consider my two scenarios: we think they are disgusting but very often as Christians we do exactly that. Consider scenario number 1. We might feel sorry for something we did, so we mumble a few words to God and put on our nice smile and go on our day trying our best to do the good things that will impress God. Now consider scenario number 2: we might genuinely repent and hate the sin we have committed against God, but we continue to let our self be in control of our desires and we go on living our day doing the same thing we did with no change.

There are problems with my two scenarios. If we take off the old clothes and put clean ones on without showering, all we are doing is making the clean clothes dirty and we are only concealing the mud and smell. If we shower and put the dirty clothes back on, all we are doing is making our body dirty all over again. The smell and the dirt will be transferred back to us. The perfect scenario would be to shower, get dry and put on the clean clothes before going to work. The process of getting clean and changing into clean clothes go together.

We need to do the same when it comes to pursuing holiness. We need to “put off” the old self and “put on” the new self. They go together. As we scrub the mud away, i.e. as we repent genuinely of the sins we cultivate or struggle with, we get dry and put on the nice clean clothes we have, i.e. we put on the new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This is where we strive, we persist, we press on to imitate centred on God’s grace and with the help of the Holy Spirit.

We must remember that the grace of God is sufficient and it must be in the centre of our pursuit. Lets consider Titus 2:11-12

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. ¹² It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.

Verse 12 presents us with the positive side of what grace teaches us: to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives. These 3 words Paul uses here relate to actions towards one self, neighbours and God. We need to be self-controlled in order to practice the restraint we need in order to focus on good things of life. We also need to deny all things clearly sinful. We need to learn to live upright lives. That means we must have the right actions and conduct towards other people. Godliness is having regard for God, his glory and will in every aspect of our lives. Small or big. We must do everything out of reverence, love and obedience to Him. These are our new, “clean clothes” so to speak.

What an amazing, wonderful, gracious God we have! Not only has He sent His Son to die on the cross for us as a perfect sacrifice, but He has also given us what we need in order to live holy lives. Let’s be encouraged. We have God’s grace and the Holy Spirit living in us. We also have God’s word. We need to train ourselves to open it up, read and study it so we can know God more and understand all of the wonderful things He wants to teach us. For now remember to put off the old self and put on the new one. We are new creations in Christ. To get back to my scenarios: get in the shower, scrub all the mud off and get dressed in your bright clean clothes.

Have a blessed week.

_{Photo by Ylanite Koppens from StockSnap}

It might surprise you to know that I am not a very disciplined person. Well, it does not come very naturally to me. I need to work hard on it each day. Be it in small or big things, training ourselves to change and commit to these changes take time, but we must do it. The bad habits we have can be small and seem insignificant when we look at them, but we must work on even the smallest changes that need to be made. For example, I very often set the alarm 15 minutes earlier with the intention of jumping out of bed with enough time to do my daily Bible reading and start all the little chores that need to be done before the kids are out of bed and we are off to school and work. What happens almost always is I push the snooze button, role over and sleep. Eventually when I get up time is short, I am frustrated with myself, but can’t control it and then end up getting the kids worked up and frustrated too. My pushing that snooze button, instead of getting up straight away, causes a cascade of “little sins” throughout those moments and makes me feel really bad all morning. Bad for shouting at the kids, for being angry with the traffic, but most of all for not even having had time to read my Bible. I am working on it. I need to change and with God’s help I will. I have a note saying NO SNOOZE BUTTON to remind myself when I turn my light off. Maybe I would be better off buying an old style alarm clock. I need to say no to this very bad habit that causes me to sin.

In our pursuit of holiness we must be rooted in the grace of God. Grace teaches us to say no to ungodly behaviour and worldly passions. In my studies and research in the past few months I realised I never really understood what the term ungodly means in a broader sense. I have always thought of ungodliness being the same as wickedness. I was always quick to think of Sodom and Gomorra, or maybe someone like Adolf Hitler, or the terrorist who flew the planes into the twin towers in New York in 2001. We might think of people who kidnap and traffic human beings all over the world, violent husbands that attack their wives and children, parents that neglect and murder their own children or children who murder their own parents so they can be “free” to do what they want. These things are wrong and evil and it would be right to think of them as ungodly. For a better understanding of how God views ungodliness see Romans 1:18-32.

In a broader sense the word ungodly means disregarding God, ignoring him and not taking him into account in our lives. You can imagine my shock when I realised that I have been so ungodly, so many times, that I would be ashamed to admit. The many times when I jump to conclusions, make decisions without praying, considering scriptures… The times I sit around with colleagues who are mocking God and I say nothing. It is the opposite of what we are commanded to do in Matthew 22: 37-39

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (emphasis mine)

The process of learning, of pursuing, of striving to attain holiness is not always easy because it means we need to examine our hearts, look deep inside, find those bad habits we have, those sins we cultivate and say no to them.

We must also learn to say no to worldly passions. What does that mean exactly? It means to have a love for things of this life such as possessions, money, prestige, power that grows inside and takes over our desires, attitudes and thoughts. It becomes what we consider the most important thing and it consumes us. Passion for things of this world start small in our lives, it might be a jealous thought about the house our neighbour has or the car they drive, the school they send their kids to and so on. It might be sparkled by a promotion at work and the desire for a bigger team of people to manage, more power, a corner office. Very often I find myself thinking I am immune to these kinds of thoughts, after all I am a follower of Jesus, I read my Bible, I pray, I go to church, I help other people and therefore, I couldn’t possibly, ever be someone who will love this world and the things of this world that much.

We must remember that we are now citizens of God’s kingdom. We are supposed to live as foreigners here. We are supposed to be thinking of our home in heaven where we will be for eternity with God. This is what we are encouraged to do in 1 Peter 2:11-12

¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. ¹² Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

God has given us his grace, his undeserved favour and this grace means that we are forgiven through Jesus. When He died, he paid the full price to satisfy God’s wrath and God accepted his payment and now we have His righteousness. (See Romans 3:19-26). Grace also reminds us that there is no more condemnation and sin has no dominion over us (See Romans 8:1). Because of God’s grace and with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us we can be disciplined/trained to say no to sin. We can stop pushing the snooze button, so to speak. We can examine our hearts, confess our sins and start the training each day knowing we are secure in Christ and his grace and his love will sustain us.

Have a blessed week.

_{Photo by Julian Hochgesang on Unsplash}

Have you ever tried to run a marathon? I haven’t. In fact, I haven’t tried to run any distance since I was a small child and used to be chased by geese at the park. I know quite a few people that enjoy running and have decided to run a marathon. I know that they are having to discipline themselves and adopt a regime of training that is quite strict. They have to change their diet, have all the right equipment and most of all they have to run, every day, no matter the weather conditions. I admire people with that kind of commitment. I guess, that is why I enjoy watching the Olympic games.

It fascinates me to listen to athlete’s stories of their dedication and focus. For some of us, mere mortals, it might seem a little over the top to spend all that time training just to get a medal around your neck. But I have to admit, as a Christian I have a lot to learn from the dedication, focus, commitment of an athlete and the discipline they have.

In our pursuit of holiness we must train ourselves, rooted in God’s grace to rid ourselves of all the bad habits, the sins we cultivate in our hearts in order that God be glorified in us. We must keep our focus on Jesus, after all, to be holy is to be like Jesus. As the runner keeps focused on crossing that finish line, so, we must focus on the giver and perfecter or our faith.

Hebrews 12:1-3 tells us:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (emphasis mine).

The preparation for a marathon is hard and long, and when you ask friends about it they will tell you of the many times they thought about giving up, but they didn’t. Either because they were running to remember a loved one, raise money for a good cause or just for personal satisfaction. They needed to do it. They had a goal.

God set the goal for each Christian: “Be holy, because I am holy”. That is what we need to remind ourselves each day. We are in a much better place than athletes though because God’s grace is being poured on us each day through Christ for our salvation and for our sanctification. The same grace that saves us is the one that disciplines us and helps us to pursue holiness. This is what Paul tells us in Philippians 1:6

“ being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

We have God’s grace and through his grace we also have the Holy Spirit working in us. In my next few posts I will be talking about this amazing grace and how it disciplines/trains us in this journey, pursuing holiness.

Have a blessed week.

^{Photo by Cameron Venti on Unsplash}

Do you have an image that comes to your mind when you hear the words “holy” or “holiness”? I grew up in Brazil as a catholic. I wasn’t a very good one, but I was made to attend mass every week because the Nuns in my school would make us. The pictures around the school were all of “holy” people. They all had the same expression: sad eyes, pale faces (looking quite unhealthy), looking helpless and some had a halo above their heads. Those images pop into my mind when I hear these words, this is not very helpful to me.

Perhaps you don’t have an image but you might think of people pointing fingers at other people telling them they are getting it all wrong. The “holier than thou” kind of people. Sentences like “You are not good enough” or “You are worse than I thought” or “I am glad I am not like you” might be what you think of. To a certain extent we think of “holiness” as something we should be scared of and never able to attain.

We might think of people like Mother Theresa, the Apostle Paul, some of the Puritans, great preachers like Charles Spurgeon and most recently John Piper, Timothy Keller when we are challenged to be holy. Maybe we think of a dear friend in church, we see how they live and we wish we could be like them.

The big question is what does holiness look like? How would I know for sure I am leading a life of holiness or not? Why is it important to be holy? Pursuing holiness should be the priority of every Christian because it is God’s will for our lives. This pursuit is not simply a rule keeping exercise, a checklist we have and tick as we go along. It is important to note though that Jesus said:

“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15)

Obeying God’s commands is very important to every Christian (we will see that below) but not as a mechanical tick on a list. We must all be very careful to search our hearts and our motives. So if we stay away from drugs, sexual impurity, alcohol we might think we are good at this business of being “separated”, “set apart”, but we have not been humble, kind, shown compassion or helped anyone in the last day or so. Keeping rules for the sake of keeping rules is not pursuing holiness. Remember the Pharisees? They were excellent in keeping “rules” but their hearts were far from God.

Pursuing holiness is not being “spiritual” as the world understands it. People will say they are spiritual because they are open to “mysteries” and show an interest in prayer, healing and finding inner peace. Sitting under a tree with your legs crossed and eyes shut, listening to the birds singing is not going to make you holy. Believing all sorts of stories and fables are not going to make us more inclined to study God’s word. Buying books about self-help is not the answer either. What we learn from the Scriptures is that we are spiritual because we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ each day.

Another thing holiness is not is being “true to oneself”. This is a very celebrated idea in our world today. Society will say that a truly good person is the one who is true to him/herself. Some believe that there isn’t a right or wrong way to do things. It will all be ok as long as you are true to yourself. This view causes all sorts of troubles. What if the way you see things is racist, violent, dishonest? If you are going to be true to yourself, many people along the way will be hurt and that will definitely not lead you to be holy, set apart, more like Jesus.

Pursuing holiness is not being friends with the world. By world I don’t mean the people around us but all who oppose the will of God. It is anything that makes sin look normal and righteousness look very out of place. The Bible tells us in 1 John 2:15:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” (emphasis mine)

We must remember that pursuing holiness comes with a cost. When we decide to apply Romans 12:1-2:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

We are swimming against the current all the time when it comes to the world’s view and expectation. If we save ourselves for marriage or decide to stay at home with our family instead of drinking ourselves silly on a Friday night, or if we decide to declare to the Inland Revenue all the things we own and earn in the year and pay the correct taxes, it is most likely people will distance themselves from us and think we are weird. The pattern of the world is not the path to holiness. This is what James tells us:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. (James 4:4) (emphasis mine)

Pursuing holiness is having God’s image made new in us. We know that God created Adam and Eve in his image and when they disobeyed God that image was distorted/broken. Imagine rubbing mud with bits of sand on a mirror, when you wash the mirror you can still see yourself but there are places where the image is distorted because of the scratches the sand left on the mirror. That is how God’s image is in us at the moment because of sin. We are still image bearers and we strive to be holy because we want God’s image in us to be renewed each day. This process takes time and we must continue to trust God and His grace as we walk by faith being transformed with the help of the Holy Spirit in us. See what 2 Corinthians 3:18 says:

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (emphasis mine)

The process of holiness looks at our character because we are to imitate God’s character. It goes much deeper than what we say and do. We need to get acquainted with our great God and His character more. He is holy, holy, holy and here are some of the virtues that should mark the lives of those who follow God and want to live for Him and for His glory alone: loving, patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not arrogant, not selfish, not rude, not irritable, not resentful, no joy in wrongdoing, rejoices with the truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. This list is not exhaustive. See 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. We get to know God and his character by studying his word deeply.

Obedience to God’s commands is another way pursuing holiness looks like for a Christian. We must remember that the Israelites were rescued from Egypt and then they were given the law to obey. They were not redeemed by observing/keeping the law, but they were redeemed so they might obey the law. In 1 John 2:3-6 we read:

“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. ⁴ Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. ⁵ But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” (emphasis mine)

God gives us his commands as a means of grace so we might grow in godliness and show that we love Him.

Finally and most important of all holiness is to be Christ like. The goal of our salvation is that we should be conformed to the image of God’s Son. Jesus is our perfect example of holiness and obedience. He is the image of the invisible God “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” (Colossians 1:15) and the exact imprint of God’s nature: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3)

To use the mirror illustration again, hopefully, as we become more like Jesus those scratches disappear and all that will be left is a true reflection of the perfect image of our Saviour in us. Remember we have all we need in the Bible. We need to be excited about getting to Know more about who Jesus is and we must, with God’s help, follow His example. God’s grace is being poured on us lavishly. Let us be encouraged as we open our Bibles and learn to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. May His Holy Spirit strengthen us each day for His glory alone.

God bless.

I have been preparing a talk for the ladies in my church coming up after Easter and the topic is pursuing holiness. It has been very challenging so far. Mainly because it has highlighted to me how much I still have to learn and how little I really rely on God’s grace in my day-to-day life.

It has been interesting to see how churches have changed their approach to “preaching the Gospel”. There would appear to be a desire to align with the world view in many cases. Importance being given to individuals feeling comfortable and feeling good about themselves. In many ways pastors, preachers and Bible teachers have become motivational speakers, sticking to some truth but trying to make the listener go home with a warm fuzzy feeling. There is a reluctance to challenge the “normal”. Difficult topics have been avoided or glossed over from the pulpit, Watering down important topics such as sin in all its sinfulness. A fear of losing members of the congregation has resulted in a lack of boldness in spurring each other on in their faith. For some, the entertainment, social activity and interaction seems to be the centre of every event including worship. As long as it is fun they will come back is a common view. At what cost!!!

What to say about the sermon? Many believe and demand it should be more like a thought for the day… no more than 5 minutes. The excuse for this seems to be, the lack of ability to concentrate. How so? The same people that demand the sermons are as short as possible are the same ones spending hours watching sports on TV or going to the cinema to see the latest blockbuster which is 3 hours long. Maybe not at the moment due to the pandemic, but this will soon return.

There are no more Sunday Schools like I remember… the teaching of doctrines has been abandoned and many Christians go to church all their lives and are fed milk. Their faith and walk with the Lord has become shallow and they are blown here and there following the best speaker and trusting wrong teaching, unable to discern truth, or question what is being taught for themselves.

What to make of a sentence like this: “If the Bible calls it sin, your opinion doesn’t matter.” I saw that on Facebook and it made me stop and think. If this sentence makes us feel outraged, there is a problem. We have started to think like the world thinks.

Of course it is not all doom and gloom. There are good churches out there fighting against the modern view of the Gospel, where all goes and we don’t tell people they are sinful and rebels. There are many Christians who are seeking to live holy lives because they understand we serve a holy God and that is His will for our lives that we are more like Christ.

As I read about the puritans, who were actually called that because they sought to follow God closely and live separated from the world in order to please God, I asked myself if people see in my life that kind of zeal for God’s truths and for how I serve him.

Are people attracted to our churches because they are just like any other place they go to or do they see something so different and beautiful that they want to find out more? Do people befriend me because they see Jesus in me or because I am just like each one of them? Are they impacted by the way I talk, dress myself, conduct myself? Are they intrigued and slightly uncomfortable by what I stand for and believe?

Easter is in a few days time and as I think about what Jesus endured on that cross in my place, what pain, what cost he paid, I can but wonder about this grace which I will never fully understand. Grace is underserved favour. I don’t deserve it. No one does. No one can live perfectly obeying God’s commands. We are all rebels and we all want to rule our own lives, our own way. It does not help that society, schools, businesses all tell us the same: “be the person you want to be”, “be diverse and inclusive”, “write your own destiny” they say, “you deserve to be happy”. It is much better to hear that, than to hear:

” for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23, emphasis mine) or ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in^[b] Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23, emphasis mine)

There is a problem called sin that has infected our hearts and broken the relationship between man and God and there is nothing we can do that will make it right. That is why God devised the most perfect rescue plan that could ever be conceived. He sent His only Son to live the perfect life (without sin, and perfect obedience) that we could never live and die the perfect death (which would appease His wrath and pay the penalty in full) that we deserve. This is what the Bible tells us in John 3:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. (verses 16-18)

Jesus died for us and he conquered death. He rose again. His resurrection has brought us hope of eternal life and a glorious future.

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. 

Here we should all be saying a big AMEN. What glorious truths to know and believe in. The Gospel that brings life and freedom from slavery to sin. We are forgiven and we stand righteous before God our Father not because we deserve, but because Christ died for us and rose again.

Job done. We can all go now, right? I believe in Jesus, I gave my life to Him and I recognise I need Him to be saved. I can go on living my life the way I want because Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so… goes the song. We need to pursue holiness because that is God’s will for our lives.

⁴ As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. ¹⁵ But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; ¹⁶ for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 14-16)

Most of the New Testament is written with instructions on how to live lives that will be pleasing to God. We are supposed to be a holy people, set apart and different from the world. Made holy by God for God. We hear people talking about revival and the old days when crowds were drawn to stadiums and many heard the Gospel and turned to Christ. What we need is to preach more of the same in greater depth. We need to study the Bible with enthusiasm and passion. We need to study the easy bit of the Bible and the harder parts. We need to remind ourselves of important doctrines which will help us feel equipped to fight the heresies and false teaching which are creeping into our churches and home. We need more of Christ and the Gospel because we are still sinners. Yes and God loves us and He wants us to bring glory to His name and reflect His image, not ours. It is about his glory, not ours.

As we think about Jesus and the cross and all its significance for us as Christians, may God help us understand through his Holy Spirit the words of the old hymn:

Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all. ( When I Survey The Wondrous Cross. Isaac Watts)

God bless.

I remember my parents threatening to wash my mouth out with soap when I was young because I used a bad word in my anger when I was speaking to one of my sisters. My dad took me to the sink and told me to look at all the dirty dishes and asked me what was needed to make them clean. “Soap” I said. “That is right”. I will wash your mouth out with soap if you ever use bad words again. My dad is a loving man, but he is very serious. If he said he would do something, you had to pay attention because he would do it. That was enough to make me stop every time a bad word was about to slip out of my lips, at least, when my dad was in the house.

Some people today, might think how barbaric, that a parent would even consider washing their child’s mouth out with soap, but my parents were concerned with the state of my heart more than they were with the words that made my mouth dirty. My mouth was using bad language because my heart is full of sin.

Jesus said in Matthew 15 verse 11:

“What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

This was his teaching to the crowd after the Pharisees questioned him about his disciples and the fact they were not obeying certain traditions and were “defiling” things. Jesus points out to them that their problem is with their hearts. That is true of each one of us too. When we use rotten language, bad words, we are just showing what is coming out of our hearts.

Sin is a serious business. We have become so used to hearing unwholesome talk that it does not offend us anymore. It has become a normal thing. Something that everybody does and it has crept into our homes and churches too. Maybe not in the formal gatherings for worship on Sundays, but when we meet socially and informally.

When teaching the Ephesians to live their lives in a Christian way, pursuing holiness the apostle Paul wrote:

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. (NIV)

The RSV translates it as “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths”, the ESV translates it as “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths”. It seems very clear to me that there is no room in the instructions given for getting used to the kind of language we hear in our day to day lives. It is all around us, at work, on TV, on the radio and in all the social media platforms. It is so common that it has become acceptable. There is no filter anymore. Well, at least that is what we think.

If we go back to Ephesians 4 and read verses 22 to 24 we see we need to put off the old self and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

We must live each day of our lives using the filter of God’s word. Sin has no dominion over us anymore. When Jesus redeemed us, by His blood shed on the cross, He freed us from the bondage of sin and death. He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us as we journey through life, bearing God’s image and becoming more like Jesus. How can we forget so easily that our choices and our actions grieve the Holy Spirit? We must stop using the excuse that this is just the way it is.

It is extremely important that we do not take God’s name in vain. We shouldn’t say  “God!” or “My God!” or “God Almighty!” or “Christ!” or “Jesus!” just because we are surprised, amazed or even angry. More so than not using this language, we shouldn’t tolerate it either. We hear it all the time. We might feel uncomfortable about it but we seldom challenge the people taking God’s name in vain. Sadly our silence might appear to others as if we don’t mind it. We should also avoid saying things like “What the hell” or “Hell, no!” or “Go to hell!” or “Damn it!” or “Damn right!” or “Holy cow!” or “Holy Mary and Joseph!”. We might ask ourselves, what is the harm in saying these things? Well, the tragic reality of hell and damnation should not be trivialized and what to say of using the word holy… Our mighty God is said to be holy, holy, holy. We should not misuse the word. Of course we should not use any kind of language that is mean and designed to hurt others. We should not use excuses such as “I was joking”, “I didn’t mean it that way”, or “I wasn’t thinking!”. We are not to let anything bad, evil, poisonous come out of our lips.

If this was the end of my post it would be quite discouraging, wouldn’t it? I want to finish by looking back at verse 29. Let’s shift our focus to the second half of Paul’s instructions to the church in Ephesus: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Our language, what comes out of our mouths, what comes out of our hearts needs to be an instrument of grace, used to help and build others. It should meet the need of others.  How extraordinary that this is the way we should speak! We are to reflect God’s character. We are image bearers. A friend once told me she uses a traffic light system: red light – stop and think “is what I am about to say helpful? Is it edifying? “Is it going to meet the needs of others?. Yellow – search the depths of our hearts, ask the Holy Spirit to change our attitude, take time to let Him work in us. Green – only say what will be helpful and ultimately bring glory to God. This might seem like a child like exercise but I thought it was a good suggestion.

We must live our lives in a way that will show those around us that we are different, separated by God and for God. Looking after the way we speak to one another is important. Searching what is in our hearts with the help of the Holy Spirit should be a daily exercise. Let us put on our new selves each day by God’s grace and for His glory.

God bless.

Last week was one of the most tiring weeks I can remember in a very long time. Work was incredibly busy with all the students returning to school after another lockdown. The normal things that happen around my house every week just seemed to require extra time and effort and by Wednesday it felt like Friday would never come. My mind wondered and worried about many different things and I found I could not sleep very well. I felt quite grumpy and short tempered. The worst thing about that is that it affects those I love the most.

As I stopped to think about what the week was like I remembered a verse from a Psalm, which I learned when I was a teenager:

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” Psalm 4:8

At first I thought it was quite strange that this particular verse would pop into my mind. I am not in any peril. David was facing a rebellion when he wrote this Psalm. I ignored it a bit and thought maybe it was just one of those days when you remember odd things. Who am I kidding? God uses the Holy Spirit to point us to His word that which He wants to teach us. So, I got my Bible out and went straight to Psalm 4 and I am glad I did.

David was praying to his God in full confidence. He calls to God to answer him. He is troubled and angry at the people who are turning away from God to follow the false gods of the nations that surrounded them. (See verses 1-2) David knew his God and he knew God had set those in covenant with him (the godly) apart. They were secure. (v 3)

When I read verses 4 and 5 I knew I needed to listen to God closely.

⁴ Be angry,^[b] and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah ⁵ Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

In the case of David, he was right to be angry because of the men who had turned their backs on God and had abandoned the teaching and the law to follow lies. But he says do not sin. David knew his heart and he knew he could very easily fall into the trap sin sets for all of us. That we stop focusing on God and focus on ourselves and our situations. I like the verb “ponder” translated in the ESV version used above. The NIV uses “search”. The idea is to consider deeply what is in our hearts. What is making me lose sleep and be so grumpy? Is it just the fact I am physically tired or is there more to it? What is taking the place of God in my heart? The verse carries on and says “be silent”. What? How can I be silent when I have so much to say? That is normally my first response to these words. So, I checked the NIV in the hope it would say something different, but no. “Be silent” it is. But what does it mean? When we are considering the depths of our hearts we need to be silent so we can hear God speaking to us. Stop the excuses and complaints. Listen to God’s voice. It was interesting as well to think about the time this was to happen: on your bed, as you lay your heads on your pillows (that is how it is translated in Portuguese). As I read that I thought of a verse in Ephesians 4 which says “do not let the sun go down on your anger”. Ponder, search your heart today. Be silent today. Do not wait until tomorrow. Approach the throne of grace with confidence at the end of the day. Do it today so that you will not sin.

Verse 5 then makes perfect sense, once you have done that “Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord”. Since Christ was the perfect sacrifice for us, an atonement for our sins once and for all, we don’t need to offer sacrifices as David did. We do not need to slaughter an animal to be forgiven. Christ has forgiven our sins because he took ours upon himself. So, what do we make of verse 5 then? We offer our hearts to God again, even as they are (we may not like what we find after we looked and searched our hearts), so He can be seated on the throne of our lives. That is God’s rightful place. We can come before Him in worship knowing that we need his grace each day to be transformed more into His likeness. We need to put our trust in God. Not on the other things or people that are around us.

At this point I had to really look back at the week and ponder and search for what was really in my heart. It was true that I was physically tired and needed to slow down a bit and have some rest but what is the meaning of rest? The dictionary presents us with these definitions: 1.cease work or movement in order to relax, sleep, or recover strength. 2.be based on; depend on (be grounded in, be founded on, be dependent on, rely on). So yes, I needed the sleep and relaxation, but I also needed to depend on and be grounded in God. I needed to trust HIM. There were moments in my week when I lost sight of the cross. My gaze had moved away from Jesus and landed on myself.

Going back to David, he called to God to shine his light on him because that is what brought joy to his heart (v6 and 7). Knowing God and having a relationship with Him is what should fill our hearts with joy. We have so much to be thankful for. God had poured blessing upon blessing on His people and on David himself and He was aware of that. God has given us His Son and He has brought salvation to us through his blood. We are forgiven and have Jesus’s righteousness. We are safe. We are more than safe, we are secure.

God is truly amazing. Here it is a Psalm that doesn’t speak of “rest” per say, but speaks of pondering, searching, placing the correct anger in the correct place and not sinning. It speaks of presenting the correct sacrifice to God and trusting in HIM. A Psalm that calls God to shine his face upon us (See Numbers 6:25-26).

I finally came to the verse that prompted me to look at the entire Psalm: In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. It is no surprise David said these words so boldly. He really did know God, but he also knew himself. David could literally lay down at night and fall asleep, even though he was facing a rebellion in his kingdom because he was secure in his God, he was safe in His arms. In the Portuguese version I learnt many years ago, the verb used is “you bring me rest” instead of “make me dwell” and that might be why I thought about it when I was so tired and feeling troubled. No. God really wanted me to be reminded that it is true. I can lay my head on the pillow, after I have pondered and considered the depths of my heart and presented it to HIM, after I reminded myself of His goodness and fall asleep deeply and soundly. In other words, I can find rest in Him today and forever because I am safe and secure in Him.

God bless.

Verses were from The Standard English Version (ESV)

^{Photo by Gregory Pappas}