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christian
Remember The Truth
Your salvation is in Christ.
Your right standing with God is in Christ.
Your total and complete acceptance is in Christ. 
Your merit is all in Christ.
Your wholeness is in Christ.
So what does this mean to you?
It means your imperfect obedience, lukewarm love, and stumblings are swallowed up in Christ’s perfect life of obedience.
Remember, his perfect record is yours.
God loves you because of him.
As believers, our default position is now the full and complete life of Jesus.
That’s pure joy!
Christians Are Human, Too
Have you had days when you feel despairing and without hope? You wallow in unbelief and self-pity accompanied by great heaving sobs? And to top things off, you know those thoughts don’t honor the character of God, which makes you feel even more wretched.
Does God still love you in times like these?
Did God love David, Job, Jeremiah, and countless others who poured out their feelings in times of crisis and suffering? Some, like Job, even took God to task.
The answer is a resounding YES! He does love you.
You know what? Christians are human, too.
Just read the Psalms. Every emotion is there. The ups and downs, the anger, the confusion, the despondency, the hurt and the suffering.
There isn’t a human emotion that isn’t recorded there. And aren’t you glad. You serve a God who isn’t turned off or shocked by your raw feelings.
And he still loves you.
Jesus understands. He faced it all. And he suffered perfectly, without sin. And that perfect record has been given to you!
“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (New Living Translation)
Whatever else you do while the going is rough, remember to run to Jesus, your sympathetic High Priest, and tell him how you feel, and he will comfort and give you grace.
How To Handle Being Single
There is a lot of advice out there for singles who are lonely and wish they had a spouse.
Some of it goes like this:
1. stop wanting to be married and then God will give it to you
2. devote yourself to God and you’ll be so exhausted doing kingdom work you won’t have time to think about it
3. lower your expectations of a perfect spouse
Have you noticed what’s missing?
The gospel.
How does the gospel apply to singleness?
In every way.
1. Jesus was single. He understands.
2. You are not alone. Jesus is closer to you than a husband.
3. You’re really not single. Romans 7:4 says you are married to Christ.
One day, in the resurrection, there will be the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now that’s a destination wedding if there ever was one!
And you are the bride!
So if you think you’re missing out, you’re not.
You will have a wedding. And a party that far exceeds your wildest imagination!
Look To Jesus and Nobody Else
by Octavius Winslow, 1856 (edited for
today’s reader by Larry E. Wilson, 2010)
Bible Verse
“Sanctify them in the truth; your Word is truth” (John 17:17).
Devotional
“How may I know that sin is being mortified in me?” is the anxious inquiry of many. We reply: by a weakening of its power.
When Christ subdues your iniquities, he does not eradicate them, but rather he weakens the strength of their root. The principle of sin remains, but it is impaired.
See it in the case of Peter. Before he fell, his easily besetting sin was self-confidence: “Even though they all fall away, I will not” (Mark 4:29). Behold him after his recovery, taking the low place at the feet of Jesus—and at the feet of the disciples too—meekly saying, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (John 21:17). No more self-praise, no more self-confidence—his sin was mortified by the Spirit and he became as a different man.
In this way, often the very outbreak of your sins may become the occasion of their deeper discovery and their more thorough subjection.
As well, do not overlook the power of the truth, by the instrumentality of which the Spirit mortifies sin in us: “Sanctify them in the truth.” The truth as it is in Jesus, revealed more clearly to the mind, and impressed more deeply on the heart, transforms the soul into its own divine and holy nature. Therefore, your spiritual and experiential acquaintance with the truth—especially with him who is essential Truth—will be the measure of the Spirit’s mortification of sin in your heart.
Is the Lord Jesus becoming increasingly precious to your soul? Are you growing in poverty of spirit? Are you growing in a deeper sense of your vileness, weakness, and unworthiness? Is your pride more abased? Is your self more crucified? Is God’s glory more simply sought? Does your heart more quickly shrink from sin? Is your conscience more sensitive to the touch of guilt? And do confession and cleansing become a more frequent habit? Are you growing in more love to all the saints—even to those who, though they do not adopt your entire creed, yet love and serve your Lord and Master? If so, then you may be assured that the Spirit is mortifying sin in you.
But oh, look away from everything to Jesus. Do not look within for sanctification; look up for it from Christ. He is as much your “sanctification” as he is your “righteousness” (1 Cor. 1:30). Your evidences, your comfort, your hope, do not spring from your fruitfulness, your mortification, or anything within you; they come solely and entirely from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Looking unto Jesus by faith is like removing the covering and opening the windows of a conservatory, to admit more freely the sun, beneath whose light and warmth the flowers and fruits expand and mature. Draw back the veil that conceals the Sun of Righteousness and let him shine in upon your soul. Then the mortification of all sin will follow, and the fruits of all holiness will abound.
Have You Repented Today?
Your biggest problem in life is not your suffering, but your sin.
The Christian life is one long repentance on your way to heaven. Real repentance goes down to the heart. It’s recognizes the depth of sin, the depravity of the heart, the unwillingness to bend to God’s will. Even as Christians.
True repentance confronts your idols. What are you really trusting in? Your earning power? Your youth? Your intellect? A good reputation? Your personality? Your body? Your talents?
Religion is about performance and performance is about changing bad behaviors.
Life in Christ is putting your hope in him. He is the changer of hearts. He is committed to your heart transplant. And the way to an intimate relationship with him is to keep short accounts. Repent often. Repent daily. And your love for God will increase.
Don’t settle for a cosmetic makeover.
Get Over Yourself
Quit looking at your sanctification to prove to yourself (and to others) that you are a Christian.
You are a Christian because of the gospel. God found you. God saved you. God changed you.
You are united to Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Everything that Jesus is you now are, too. Since Jesus is holy, so are you by virtue of your union in him. And it’s the Holy Spirit in you that continues to make you holy.
What did you do to accomplish that? Nothing. It’s a gift.
What are you doing now to sustain this? Nothing. It’s a gift.
What are you doing to insure your safe arrival in heaven? Nothing. It’s a gift.
You’re probably thinking by now, “But wait a minute, what about obedience?”
What about it?
Are you obeying God because you think it’s your way of working toward holiness? Are you obeying God because if you don’t you feel guilty? Are you obeying God because it’s your duty to do so, otherwise how can you call yourself a Christian?
You are a Christian because of what God has done to you. You are a Christian because you are in Christ. God put you there. And you are holy for the same reasons.
It’s out of this new relationship in Christ that we live out our holiness. How? By living a life of gratitude to God and loving our neighbor.
And lo and behold, we are obeying the two greatest commandments!
Quit taking your spiritual temperature. Look to Jesus who has done it all.
And relax.
How Do We Live?
According to 1 Peter 1, our futures are secure. We have an inheritance to end all inheritances. It’s in heaven, reserved for each one of us, and nobody can rob us of it. Not only that, but God guarantees our safe arrival so we can receive it. He preserves us by his power while we live out our lives here one earth. So knowing we are heirs to his kingdom, how do we live? You would think Peter would tell us to get out there and become missionaries, or get busy feeding the poor, or dedicate ourselves to endless hours of prayer or serving the church. He does none of that. Instead he says we are to intentionally live holy lives that reflect the character of God. How do we do that? It means a renewed mind in God’s Word, and a knowledge of Christ and his gospel, and an understanding of our justification and sanctification in Christ. It’s believing and rejoicing in the answer to question 60 from the Heidelberg Catechism (see below). Armed with those truths, we can refuse to conform to the culture of the day, we can struggle against sin and unbelief, and we can rouse ourselves in the Holy Spirit to be conscientious about our lives as Christians.
Enjoy Your Life
Q: If we’re sure to be bad Christians no matter how hard we try, why should we try at all? It all seems so pointless.
A: We ought to try hard to love God and serve our neighbor, but we don’t do these things to become better Christians in this world or brighter saints in the world to come. We do them because God deserves our love and our neighbors need our service. Unlike self-help programs, the Gospel frees us from ourselves, our failures, our successes, and best of all, from our performance reviews! Have you ever been on a diet? Oh, what a life! You become obsessed with results. Every morning you wake up worried about what the bathroom scale is going to read. If you’re down a pound or two, you’re giddy; if you’re the same, you’re disappointed; but if your weight is up, you fall into despair and turn to the fridge for comfort. The Christian life is not a diet, it’s a feast! What Christ has done for us is so good we don’t think about our enjoyment of it, but the thing itself, and in doing that, we truly enjoy it.
Do your best. Accept your failures. Trust the Lord. Enjoy your life.
Why Do You Call Yourselves ‘Bad Christians’?
We call ourselves ‘bad Christians’ because that’s what we are. By ‘Christians’ we mean people in relationship to Christ and other believers. By ‘bad’ we mean, we do plenty of nasty things and leave a lot of good things undone.
God took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. In other words, the life we have now is not something we produce or sustain; it is given to us for Christ’s sake and maintained by the gift and ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. Any applause we might receive for doing good belongs to God alone. It’s his mercy alone that keeps us. We need him to forgive us every second of every day, while the blood of Jesus keeps on cleaning us from all our filthiness.
Also as ‘bad Christians’ we need the community of other Christians, the preaching of God’s Word, communion, the prayers of God’s people, and the very needful help they can, and often do, give us.
We’ve tried the books, the counseling, and the retreats, but success alluded us. What progress we make as Christians comes as a gift from God. We have no idea how or why God gives it to us except for the fact it gives him pleasure.
The truth lies elsewhere: to live successfully as a Christian we need to recognize that no matter how hard we try to manage our sin, the oil-spill of our pollution continues to spread. That’s because we cannot remove the source. The problem will not be fixed until that day when God exchanges our corruption with the incorruptible. Meanwhile, we live by faith. Daily we seek forgiveness and strength by looking away from ourselves to our Savior. Our faith rests in his completed work and trusts God to make us holy as he sees fit.
Messy Christians 