1 CORINTHIANS 7:35 – And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction. THEME OF THE DAY. UNPLUGGED. Before we move on in today’s nugget, please go back and read the scripture and ponder the last five words particularly –…
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
Pleasing God, Making Disciples of Jesus Christ
New Testament
In this message Pastor Jim continues our study in the Prison Prayers of the Apostle Paul. This prayer contains two petitions and the second one is what defines the Christian life and experience – to know the love of Christ in its breadth, length, height, and depth. Should we pray and God answer this prayer, it will be the very essence of a revived church and Christian.
The chief aim in the life of a Christian is to glorify God by conforming more and more into His image and that of being holy. And our holiness is not measured by conduct foremost but by looking to our God who is holy, holy, holy. In this message Pastor Jim continues to look at the Lord Jesus Christ as the model of our holiness; through the glory of his incarnation. It is by beholding Him, we not only see holiness for what it truly is but are conformed more and more into His image by this beholding.
As one gets older, two things start to occur in our thinking. Now before I identify those two signs of aging, they are an inseparable marriage in the Christian who is passionate about leaving a mark for Christ in their life. However, they are poles apart in the non-Christian and lukewarm, backslidden Christians. In fact, the second sign of aging is absent in the non-Christian and never thought of by the lukewarm, backslidden Christian. So, what are the aging signs?
Our lives often are nice neat packages of projects, responsibilities, schedules, and tasks. And that works in a lot of things but not when it comes to obeying the command of our Lord to “love one another.” He doesn’t give us a nice little handbook to follow. Nor does He gives us a pamphlet of three easy instructions to implement. No, like all things in the Christian life, He brings us to Himself. He is the “handbook”. He is the sheet of instructions. The simple words “just as I have loved you” force us to do two things, if we are to obey it.
The chief aim in the life of a Christian is to glorify God by conforming more and more into His image and that of being holy. And we can begin to understand what holiness looks like by looking to our Lord Jesus as a model of holiness. In this message Pastor Jim begins to look at how the various facets of the Glory of Christ are expressions of His holiness; starting with His eternal glory.