HOLINESS OF HEART

HOLINESS OF HEART

I Thess. 5:23-24  Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.  God, who calls you, is faithful; he will do this.  NLT

      Anyone who knows me at all knows that holiness is my passion.  I cannot read God's Word without seeing God's holiness everywhere.  He is holy and commands us to be holy.  No one will be in heaven who is not holy in heart.  In heaven, there is perfect holiness. 

      It is my heart's desire that everyone reading this today will be made holy in every way.  I long to see God's children live like they are holy.  I long to hear things coming from their mouths that would not make me question their holiness.  I long to see them treat others out of holy love.  I long to see people in the church be a people who are truly after God's own heart.

       Sadly, it is common amongst us to see those who are not blameless.  We often let down our guards and fall into sin.  It is not unusual for us to see church leaders make the news because they have failed to live up to their profession of godliness.  Moral failure is everywhere.  Actions and attitudes often betray our witness.  We don't live blameless lives like we should.  We will never be perfectly blameless on earth, but we certainly can come a whole lot closer to it than we normally do. 

      It is alarming to find out that pastors are forced to leave the ministry because of moral failure.  It should concern us that polls tell us that over half of our pastors are addicted to pornography and view it in their offices.  It should concern us when the divorce rate in the church parallels that of society.  We have a real problem amongst us and it is not our being too holy for the world to relate to us. 

      Jesus is coming back for His church and we should be striving to be found blameless when He comes.  How can we do that?  By our own willpower and strength, we can't.  The only way we will be found blameless before God when Jesus comes is for us to live daily, moment-by-moment in Christ.  We must invest our time and energy into living holy lives.  We must adequately feed our souls and spend time alone with Him consistently.  We must live humbly and obediently before Him.  We must always strive to let the Lord have His way in us and through us.  God is faithful and will keep us blameless if we do our part and remain faithful to our pursuit of holiness in Him.