What Are We Living For?

Holiness is a realignment of or priorities and motives. According to John Wesley it is God's love perfected within us. It is the desire to love God above all else and our neighbor as ourselves. It is the same self-sacrificing love that Jesus Christ showed when He died on the cross to save us from (notice, I did not say "in") our sins. This is why Scripture teaches us to be like Christ. He came to emody holiness. He died so that we could also live such a life. So that we could live to serve our God. So that the greatest among us would be servants of the Almighty.

All of this brings us to a question that was asked by Leonard Ravenhill. In fact, the question was written on his tombstone. Even in death he challenges us by asking, "Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?" Every once in awhile this question will pop into my mind and haunt me for weeks. Not because I doubt that I am living for God, but because I wonder if we - as the church - are living for God. We spend hours and days and even years dealing with our thoughts (not that those are bad) and ideas while teaching holiness - a complete surrender to God.

I have no doubt that there are people who are living holy lives. I've witnessed it. Holiness, however, is a way of living. It is not a static characteristic. It is shown in the way that we interact with one another. It is shown in the things that we are "living for." How often do we get caught up in ourselves, and our ideas, and our wants and desires and forget what we are living for? Sometimes we seem to be reminded that our lives are not our own. If we are to be holy, we must be "sold out" to God. He must be the one for whom we live. I'll leave you to spend some time considering Ravenhill's question:

Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?

The Season of Lent

I was in a restaurant the other day and heard one of the women sitting at the booth behind me ask the other what she is giving up for lent. Prior to that I had not been listening to their conversation, but that caught my attention. Every year at this time we see people with ashes on their foreheads struggling to decide what they can give up for a season to show their allegiance to God. What are you giving up this year?

Many web sites of congregations that observe lent say something like this: "No one knows for sure where lent started, or why it was originally observed." You can check for yourself if you don't believe me. Every year people are fired up about giving up something that will show God they are worthy. First of all, we are not worthy regardless of what we go without for a few short weeks. Second, I've searched the scriptures and have yet to find anything to support giving up your favorite tv show for a couple of weeks to show God you care.

Despite the lack of biblical support for lent, I can find the call in the New Testament to make a sacrifice, but it is not simply for a month. GIVE UP SIN FOREVER! Jesus told those that He healed, "Go and sin no more." Paul asked the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" He emphatically answered the question, "God forbid!" The Bible tells us "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts (Gal. 5:24)." Throughout the New Testament the call rings out for us to stop living in sin. As we approach the season in which we commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ, I encourage you to forget about this idea of giving something for lent and give up one thing forever. Sin.