Holiness Archives - My Manna https://mymanna.org/category/holiness/ Daily Devotionals for Comfort and Counsel from the Bible Thu, 05 Jan 2017 22:00:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://i0.wp.com/mymanna.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-My-Manna-512-x-512.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Holiness Archives - My Manna https://mymanna.org/category/holiness/ 32 32 189112494 Pursue Holiness https://mymanna.org/pursue-holiness/ Thu, 05 Jan 2017 22:00:19 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=2493 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord  (Heb 12:14).  We cannot attain perfect holiness in this life, but we can pursue holiness.   Living a holy life is like waging war.  We war against sinful desires for sex, uncleanness, money, possessions, approval, popularity, carnal satisfaction, food, wine, pleasure (Gal 5:17-21).  We manipulate/fix people for our selfish happiness.  We fight with discouragement, low self-esteem, discontent, depression, disillusionment.  Every day, we battle with indwelling sin. ...

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Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord  (Heb 12:14). 
We cannot attain perfect holiness in this life, but we can pursue holiness.  
Living a holy life is like waging war. 
We war against sinful desires for sex, uncleanness, money, possessions, approval, popularity, carnal satisfaction, food, wine, pleasure (Gal 5:17-21). 
We manipulate/fix people for our selfish happiness. 
We fight with discouragement, low self-esteem, discontent, depression, disillusionment. 
Every day, we battle with indwelling sin. 
We take sin lightly.  When we feel bad about our sin, it is because we are sorry that we failed, or we become embarrassed that we failed, instead of grieving over the fact that we have offended a holy God. 
To pursue holiness, we yield ourselves to God.  We need to make up our mind that the knowledge of Christ excels all things (Phil 3:8). 
“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets real thing, it is irresistible” (C S Lewis). 
We depend on the Holy Spirit who lives in us (Rom 8:5). 
We develop the disciplines of living in God’s presence through prayer and praise.  Our souls are nourished by the Word of God. 
Pursue holiness, and we will see God.
(MT)
 

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I Am Afraid https://mymanna.org/i-am-afraid/ Sat, 27 Aug 2016 23:00:22 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=2163 “Exalt the Lord our God; bow in worship at His footstool. He is holy.” Psalm 99:5. “No one can know the true grace of God,” said the great Bible teacher A. W. Tozer, “who has not first known the fear of God.” He continued: “Always there was about any manifestation of God something that dismayed the onlookers, that daunted and overawed them…I do not believe any lasting good can come from religious activities that are not rooted in this fear....

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christian“Exalt the Lord our God; bow in worship at His footstool. He is holy.” Psalm 99:5.
“No one can know the true grace of God,” said the great Bible teacher A. W. Tozer, “who has not first known the fear of God.”
He continued: “Always there was about any manifestation of God something that dismayed the onlookers, that daunted and overawed them…I do not believe any lasting good can come from religious activities that are not rooted in this fear. Until we have been gripped by that nameless terror that results when an unholy creature is suddenly confronted by the One who is holiest of all, we are not likely to be affected by the doctrine of love and grace.”
There was a time when the nature and character of God was a constant theme-
– in Christian pulpits,
– but not any more.
Generally speaking, today’s preachers and writers tend to give people-
– what they want rather than
– what they need.
This is why we must stop every time we come across a reference to God’s character in our Bibles and pause to consider it.
No one has done anything mighty for God without a new vision of God’s holiness.
Ezekiel tells us of the “rims” in his vision that were “large and frightening.” Ezekiel 1:18.
And Jacob, rising from his sleep, said: “What an awesome place this is!” Genesis 28:17.
We will be of little use to God unless we know how to tremble before Him-
– for otherwise our own ideas and feelings of self-sufficiency will soon take over.
Have we lost the sense of awe when we come into God’s presence-
– which seemed to characterize the saints of the past?
I am afraid we have.

“God, I am afraid as I draw near to You. Nothing or no one can dissolve the fears that hinder me but You. Draw me closer, for in You and You alone lie both my salvation and sanctification.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

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Christian Wholeness https://mymanna.org/christian-wholeness/ Tue, 12 Jul 2016 22:30:30 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=2057 “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2). We have stacks of emails from readers from the East and the West who all want to know about yoga. Is it mere physical exercise or unavoidable participation in eastern spirituality? Can a Christian practice such things with roots in mysticism in good conscience? – there are two kinds of approaches to questionable practices in life. One I...

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pray1“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers” (3 John 2).
We have stacks of emails from readers from the East and the West who all want to know about yoga.
Is it mere physical exercise or unavoidable participation in eastern spirituality?
Can a Christian practice such things with roots in mysticism in good conscience?
– there are two kinds of approaches to questionable practices in life.
One I would call a minimalist. The other maximalist.
The typical question is, “Well, what is wrong with it?”
And the other approach is not to ask, “What is wrong with it?” mainly

but-

– “Will it make me more Christ like?
– Will it make me more devoted to Jesus?
– Will I be more powerful and full of the Holy Spirit?
– Will I be more effective in prayer because of it?
– Will it make me more bold in witness or weaken me?
– Will it help me be spiritually discerning of the ways of Satan in the world?
– Will it help me lay up treasures in heaven?
– Will it help me find joy in God and all that he is for me in Jesus?”
You can see that there are these two kinds of approaches to life.
I want to maximize my godliness and my holiness by drawing nearer and nearer to God.
And the other one is just trying to do as many things as you can do without being tripped up explicitly by sin.
So I don’t mean to suggest that every time you face a questionable activity, you will opt for renunciation, because you have weighed things that way.
I just want people to approach questions with the greatest passions for godliness and to not think minimalistically.
That is the first thing I would want to say.
Secondly, I would want to say that-
– both yoga and tai chi have their roots in eastern religions and are profoundly in those roots antithetical to a Christian understanding of God and the way he works in the world.
So yoga is to the body what mantra is to the mouth.

One explanation says that for the mantra, “One has to chant a word or a phrase until he or she transcends mind and emotions and in the process the superconscious is discovered and achieved.”
Note the use of “word” in that mantra-like way in order to move into the superconsciousness.
In other words, yoga exercises are a spillover from that kind of verbal repetition and philosophy of how one moves physically and emotionally and intellectually to this superconsciousness.
So yoga focuses on harmony between mind and body.
Yoga derives its philosophy from an Indian metaphysical belief.
And the word yoga comes from the Sanskrit language and means “merger” or “union.”
And the ultimate aim of that philosophy then is to strike a balance between mind and body and attain a kind of self-enlightenment through the use of mantra and through the use of certain kinds of physical exercises or meditative stances.
To achieve this state, yoga uses breath, posture, relaxation, and meditation in order to bring about a healthy, lively balanced approach to life.
Christians have a radically different worldview than either of these or the view shaped by yoga, the view shaped by tai chi.
Our approach towards history and towards God and towards well-being is radically different.
In Christianity progress toward wholeness moves from a God who communicates intelligibly-
– through language to be understood,
– through a person, Jesus Christ, who becomes fully human and speaks to be understood by the mind, not the  cancelling of the mind— through his death and resurrection objectively overcoming a real Satan and real  guilt before God through a real gospel message for us, once for all in history with historical events  behind it,
– through an understanding of that message in our minds consciously,
– through faith in Christ, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
– through the promises understood and believed,
– through joyful meditation on those objective promises,
– through the transformation of the Holy Spirit, through objective word understood as we meditate in  progressive likeness to Christ as we see his glory in the Word and in the gospel,
– through practical deeds that lead to help other people,
– and through a life of transformed godliness into eternal life where God is our joy forever.
That is Christianity.
And it is totally different than the kind of worldview that lies behind the meditative, physical and emotional and intellectual practices that flow out of yoga and tai chi.
So, consider Christian wholeness of the health and the body.
If you ask, “How does that relate to the body?
How does that relate to exercise and stuff you do with your body?”
I would say Christian wholeness of the health of the body is marked by these facts:
1. We are fallen and physically under a curse and emotionally and intellectually under a curse on the whole of creation. And, therefore, we will all die.
2. We will be raised from the dead if we have faith in Jesus, and this is the health we are ultimately aiming at mainly. We will be perfectly healthy — body, soul, and mind — in the new heavens and the new earth after resurrection, and that is our glory — that is our hope.
3. In the meantime, our outer nature is wasting away, bu our inner nature is being renewed day by day.2 Corinthians 4:16.
4. So bodily exercise is of a little value as Paul says in 1 Timothy 4:8. But spiritual exercise is of value in every way in the way I described it a minute ago.
5. We should not unnecessarily damage our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and we should seek their maximal usefulness in the goals that God has given us. So physical health is wonderful, but it is not the goal. It is a means to much greater goals and a qualified means at that, because there are more important means than having a body that is super fit.
6. We may accomplish our greatest goals by dying, by risking our lives and getting Ebola or malaria or river blindness in some missionary activity. We don’t strive for maximal physical well-being. That is a subordinate useful goal as a means to something greater. And it may be compromised intentionally by risking our lives for
the sake of somebody else.
7. So any physical regimen that begins to take the place of the pursuit of holiness and sacrificial service by which we may lay down our lives is starting, probably, to become a religion for us. And it seems to me that yoga and tai chi have already declared themselves by their very names on that score. They have run up the flag of the eastern religions by the very name yoga and tai chi.
As I assess maximizing rather than minimizing my pursuit of God’s goals and the flourishing of my own soul
– I would go another way and find another kind of exercise.

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Which way will you go? https://mymanna.org/which-way-will-you-go/ Sat, 25 Jun 2016 23:00:44 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=2018 “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do…” (Romans 12:2).  A flock of wild geese was flying south for the winter when one goose looked down and noticed a group of domestic geese by a little pond near a farm.  He noticed they had plenty of grain to eat.  So, he flew down and...

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“Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do…” (Romans 12:2). 
A flock of wild geese was flying south for the winter when one goose looked down and noticed a group of domestic geese by a little pond near a farm. 
He noticed they had plenty of grain to eat. 
So, he flew down and hung out with these geese until spring and enjoyed the food that was there. 
He decided that he would rejoin his flight of geese when they went north again. 
When spring came, he heard them overhead and flew up to join them, but he had grown a bit fat from all of the seed. 
Flying was difficult, so he decided to spend one more season on the farm and then rejoin the geese on their next winter migration. 
When the geese flew south the following fall, the goose flapped his wings a little, but he just kept eating his grain. 
He had simply lost interest. 
That is what happens in the subtle process of the world influencing our lives. 
It is not necessarily dramatic, nor does it usually happen overnight.
It is gradual, causing erosion in our lives as we begin to lower our standards. 
Soon, the things of God become less appealing-
– and the things of this world become more appealing. 
After awhile, we have no interest in the things of God. 
We have a choice!
Either we will be conformed to this world, or we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds. 
It is one or the other. 
The only question is-
Which way will you go? 
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2).

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But remember that! https://mymanna.org/but-remember-that/ Wed, 01 Jun 2016 23:00:02 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=1947 “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17). There’s a story about an old man who lived in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning, the grandfather would sit at the kitchen table and read from his worn-out Bible. Wanting to be just like his grandfather, the young boy would imitate him by reading his own Bible. One day the grandson asked, “Grandfather, I try to read the Bible just like you, but I don’t understand...

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Bible 4
“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
There’s a story about an old man who lived in the mountains with his young grandson.
Each morning, the grandfather would sit at the kitchen table and read from his worn-out Bible.
Wanting to be just like his grandfather, the young boy would imitate him by reading his own Bible.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandfather, I try to read the Bible just like you, but I don’t understand it. When I do understand it, I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bible do?”
The grandfather simply replied, “Son, take this old wicker coal basket down to the river and bring back a basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but the water leaked out of the basket before he could get back to the house.
The grandfather sent him back three more times and told him to move faster each time.
Every time, the frustrated boy returned with an empty basket.
Finally, out of breath, the young boy said to his grandfather, “See…it’s useless!”
The old man said:
“Look at the basket.
Instead of a dirty old wicker coal basket, it’s now clean.
Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bible.
You might not understand it or remember everything you read, but when you do, it will change you from the inside out.”
As believers in Christ in a fallen world-
– you and I must saturate our hearts and minds with the Word of God every day.
Just like the young boy above, it may seem that we can’t retain or comprehend everything we read.
But remember that!
God uses His Word to change us from the inside out!
Make a commitment to the Lord to study His Word faithfully each day.
And pray that He will use the Scripture to cleanse you and make you more like Jesus.

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They entice you into evil! https://mymanna.org/they-entice-you-into-evil/ Fri, 27 May 2016 22:30:12 +0000 http://mymanna.net/?p=1932 “The mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Setting your mind on something means- – opening your mind to regular input from that source. That’s great if the source is a good one- – like the Bible or uplifting music or the math facts you’re supposed to know by tomorrow. But what if you’re repeatedly subjecting your mind to something evil? The truth is, you will internalize whatever your...

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“The mind-set of the flesh is death, but the mind-set of the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6).
Setting your mind on something means-
– opening your mind to regular input from that source.
That’s great if the source is a good one-
– like the Bible or uplifting music or the math facts you’re supposed to know by tomorrow.
But what if you’re repeatedly subjecting your mind to something evil?
The truth is, you will internalize whatever your mind is taking in.
You’ll form values and attitudes based on the input you allow yourself to dwell on.
Our world thinks there’s no connection between the sinful practices we observe through literature, television, and movies and the resulting escalation in sinful lifestyles and crimes of violence.
That’s not only nonsense, it’s unbiblical!
The apostle Paul understood that there’s a connection between what we allow into our minds and the way we live.
He realized that it’s critical for Christians to focus on the right things.
Some things, he said, belong to the sinful nature, and others belong to the Spirit.
The category that dominates your thoughts will dominate your life.
Don’t be cavalier enough to assume that-
– it’s safe to dabble in sin without being affected.
Pornography, movies, and songs that elevate sexual deviance, crime, and violence…these do much more than entertain you.
They entice you into evil!
Be smart and take control of what’s going into your brain.
Set your mind on those things God’s Spirit desires.
How have you noticed your behaviour being affected by what you hear and see?

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