Holier Than Thou. Attitude or Commitment?

I think that we've all heard that a "holier than thou" attitude is not a good attitude to have. It might even tend to lose friends and win enemies.

But what exactly is a "holier than thou" attitude? Is is "I'm a more godly person than you so I'm better than you." That certainly wouldn't be a mark of humility, so according to my understanding of the Bible it wouldn't mean you were being holy, which is be like God.

Some "holier than thou" attitudes seem to involve keeping man made rules, like not watching any movies or TV shows unless they are specifically made by Christians. Or not eating certain foods banned in the Old Testament even if we're told in the New Testament that we're allowed to eat them now.

But if we are going to reject having a holier than thou attitude, does that that free us from seeking to be live a holy life?

Well, multiple times in Leviticus we are told to be holy. But what about in the New Testament.

"Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
(1 Pter 1:13-16) NKJV. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., 1982,

OK, here we have the command to be holy for God is holy. We're told to be sober. But we're not to depend on our own strength to become holy.

Our hope is to rest fully upon the grace that is brought to us when Jesus Christ is fully revealed to us. That started when we came to believe in Him, and will be completed when we see Him again.

From the time He became our Lord and Savior we are to be obedient children. When we were ignorant and didn't know Jesus, we lived out our lusts on a daily basis. No more. Now we are to be holy in all our conduct.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
(Romans 12:1-2 NKJV Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., (C)1982)

I agree we should do away with a "holier than thou" attitude. But we should seek by the grace of God that our conduct be as holy as God's holiness. We will, of course, need we'll need His help for that. It is help He is more than willing to give.

The Faith That Pleases God

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" Hebrews 11:6
(c) The New King James Version. Nashville : Thomas Nelson Publishers., 1982, S.

If you care at all about pleasing God, this verse is a good one to consider. From it we learn that if we don't have faith we can't please God. But what kind of faith is being written about in this passage?

This faith definitely has to do with coming to God. No one is going to come to a God if he doesn't believe a God exists. So the very start of the faith that can please God is one that believes there really is a God.

Believing God exists is a necessary beginning, but if that is where people stop they will one day day discover they fell far short of what pleases God. Satan believes there is a God but wants to replace Him as Lord of all creation. We can believe God is real but then only seek to have our own selves as lord of what we think, say, and do.

After we come to believe that God is real, we must then continue on to believe that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.

What do you suppose is the reward that people get for earnestly seeking God? Well, if I was one to seek after gold, the reward I would hope to get would be gold. If I'm going to fervently seek God then the reward I hope to get will be God Himself.

When I was pursuing a certain lady who used to live in California, getting to know her better, and learning what pleased her, my reward came when she became my wife. I still have that glorious reward of being married to her, and it keeps getting better.

How do we diligently seek God? Well, there's a book that helps us to know Him better. The Bible. There are also Bible study materials, and Bible teachers who can help us know God better.

If we can't be bothered with reading and studying the Bible, and if we fail to take advantage of what godly Bible teachers have to offer, then we are not diligently seeking God. So whatever faith we think we have may not be the faith that pleases God.

I want to please God. Therefore I want to seek Him not in a half-hearted way, but with all my heart. I pray you will do the same. When you think of it, please pray that I will follow through with my diligently seeking God every day.

Why Don't We Post About What We Believe?

Or is what we post on social networking sites what we truly believe in. When we're in church and Bible studies do we say we believe the Bible is the Word of God, but when we're out in public, like on places like FaceBook (TM)do we neglect to bring such things up for discussion.

In the adult Sunday school class I was at today the teacher wondered why so few comments were ever added when he or others posted about the Bible.

One friend from church sometimes just posts a Scripture quote on Facebook, and often nobody says anything about it.

I'm thinking that I'll make a point to write something if I read a post that either quotes the Bible or says something about God.

Maybe a few folks could do the same. After, we do believe the Bible is the Word of God, don't we. And that if we're believers we are His children, aren't we?

Awesome Day At Church

Today was our annual Missions Sunday at church. Our Missions' Committee has been preparing for it for months and it went very well indeed.

One of the missionaries who spoke to the combined adult Sunday School class works with Joni and Friends New England. One of the most touching things she shared was how at one church she met to pray with church members with cognitive disabilities who actually help lead the group. I was reminded how when we compare ourselves with God we all have cognitive disabilities.

The other missionary who shared in that class is a woman who has been serving in Japan where over 99% are non-Christian. She's now going to be working with Japanese who became Christians while out of their home country and are now returning to live and work. They are brothers and sisters in Christ and they need support to grow in their faith.

During the worship service three of the young people who went on the short term mission trip to Camden, N.J., gave testimonies. Then the director of Urban Promise Urban Trekkers spoke. He leads inner city kids on camping and boating trips. He also leads trips of teens from churches around the country to the inner city of Camden where they help both with vitally needed volunteer work projects and with coming alongside kids who live there in the midsts of serious hardships.

God wants us to share the good that He loves us so much that gives us life, that He sent is Son die for our sins, and that He wants us to love one another in tangible, real life ways. Today's Mission Sunday at Brookville Baptist Church in Holbrook, MA, expressed that quite clearly.

Husbands, Love Your Wives...

Today I'm thinking about Paul's exhortation in Ephesians for husbands to love their wives. I've been a husband for seven years, and I'm still learning how to love my wife.

Loving somebody isn't simply about having a certain pleasant feeling concerning that person. Loving somebody primarily is what we do.

What is the standard by which we husbands are to love our wives?

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her" (NKJV (C)Thomas Nelson Publishers 1982) Eph 5:25

So that is what I am pondering about today. How did Jesus love the church?

Well, He gave Himself for us, dying on the cross to pay for our sins. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves, redeeming us, paying the price we could not pay.

It is clear that Jesus can do things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Paying for our sins is one of those things. Blessing us in ways we couldn't even imagine. Preparing a place for us in eternity.

Jesus is clearly stronger than and greater than all of us put together. And He does so much for us that only He can do.

We husbands are to love our wives as Christ loves the church. Part of that involves honoring them as a weaker vessel in regards to those areas in which the husband may be stronger than his wife. Doing for her some things that his strength is better suited for handling.

My wife and I are both disabled, but I have more use of my hands, so I'm able to show love to her by helping her with the things my hands are, well, more handy for doing. This goes along with what Peter wrote:

"Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." (1 Peter 3:7)
(NKJV (c) Thomas Nelson Publishers., 1982

I like how Peter writes about living with our wives with understanding. Yes I am to honor my wife as a weaker vessel, helping her with those things I'm better suited for. But I'm not to do everything for her.

Jesus doesn't do everything for us. He is all powerful so He could do everything, but He doesn't because doing so wouldn't be right.

In Luke 7:36-50 we read about the time when Jesus accepted the invitation to eat at the home of a Pharisee. While He was there a woman who was a sinner came and washed his feet with her tears.

The Pharisee hadn't washed the dust off Jesus' feet. He hadn't even directed somebody else to do it.

Jesus was the one who could walk on water, calm a storm, multiply loaves and fishes, and heal the sick. Jesus could have made the dust on his feet vanish in an instant. But He didn't.

Jesus let the woman wash His feet. He let the woman do what she could do for Him. She could wash his feet. She could kiss his feet.

Peter wrote that we husbands are to deal with our wives with understanding? The Pharisee would have liked to have thrown the woman out of his house because she was a sinner. Jesus, knowing full well that she was a sinner, let her wash His feet. And Jesus did what she needed done. He forgave her.

We husbands need to love our wives as Christ loves the church. Sometimes that means forgiving our wives when they need forgiveness. It may mean doing more than our fair share of working, or praying, or giving, or keeping quiet and listening attentively. Other times loving our wives is letting them do what they are able to do.

We husbands need to remember that we are in need of help in a great many areas of our lives. We need to try to be just as gracious in accepting the help from our wives as Jesus was in accepting the washing of His feet that the woman gave Him.

My wife blesses me so greatly I won't ever be able to thank God enough for her. She is helping me be a better husband, and a more godly man.

I hope I can get better at loving my wife the way Christ loves the church. Let us pray that all of us husbands can become better at loving our wives.

Are We Courageously Persistent In Prayer?

Col 4:2-4 "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak."
NKJV Copyright 1982 Thomas Nelson Publishers

Do we spend enough time each day praying? When we do pray, do we do so as earnestly as God wants us to pray?

I see here that Paul didn't ask the Christians in Colosse to start praying. He told them to continue in prayer, and to do so earnestly. The Greek text conveys the meaning of “to be courageously persistent” or “to hold fast and not let go."

Paul wanted Christians to be courageously persistent that a door would be open to the Word, and that he and others would speak it to others.

I am sure that is the kind of praying that God wants all followers of Christ to be actively engaged in.

We should want the glorious mystery of Christ, that He would sacrifice His life to save sinners like us, to be spoken everywhere.

Let's pray earnestly for one another that we share the Word of God with others. That's what God want us to do. Let's settle for nothing less than what God wants.

Whatever We Do

Colossians 3:17

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica

When we do something in the name of somebody else it certainly should be what that other person wants us to do.

I'm also inclined to think that how I say or do something will matter to the person in whose name I act.

Am I sloppy or haphazard in my endeavors and what I communicate?

Take for example this blog. This is only the second post, and only the first for this month. I could make excuses. Or I could ponder about it.

My thinking is that I should either do this blog with the kind of effort that doing it for the Lord Jesus should warrant. Or I shouldn't bother with it.

The same should go for other things, such the work that I do to earn some extra money. If I'm going to work I should do it as best I can, since even that should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus.

And of course I should seek to be the best husband I can be to my wife. Therefore I'll stop writing and go have supper with her.