The Sword of the LORD

"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 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."   (1 Peter 1:13-16). We often interpret this call to holiness as a commandment.   "You must be holy because I am!"   I see it as more of an invitation to excellence, however.   "Come, you are now able to be holy, because I am holy!"   It is because Christ has overcome that we can be overcomers.   It is because Christ is risen from the dead that we can know resurrection life.   He is the reason why we can be loving, patient, joyful, peaceful, gentle, wise, virtuous, kind, or temperate.   None of these things grow naturally in us.   We must be tapped into the Vine from w

It is that time of year again when all of us avid gardeners are spending a good bit of our time pulling weeds.   As I was in my garden this morning, I began thinking of how God uses this mundane task to teach us some pretty important life-lessons. When my children were young, I would have them help with the gardening.   I instructed them how to pull the weed carefully from the base so that the roots would be removed along with the plant.   Being children, and being in a hurry to get this unpleasant job over with quickly, they would just rip the tops off the plants so that it looked like they had done a good job when they really had just taken a shortcut.   It was soon very apparent what they had done, however, because the weeds would begin to grow again quickly from the bit of root that they had left.   They would just have to deal with the same weeds over again. This is much like those who only make a pretense of dealing with sin in their lives.   They are very careful to

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.   Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it."   (1 Thessalonians 5:23,24). God's salvation is perfect and all-encompassing.   Christ is able to save completely (or as the King James says, "to the uttermost") those who come to God through Him.   (Hebrews 7:25).   Saint Paul's prayer and desire for the Christians in Thessalonica - and for you and me as well - was that we be sanctified wholly , and that our whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until Jesus returned.   Many Christians are living far below their potential, however.   They are besieged by habitual sins that keep them in a state of guilt, anxiety, frustration, and doubt.   They find themselves overcome by the very things that Christ came to save them from.   Lust, drunkenness, anger, bitterness, gree