Tag: Holiness

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, Firm Foundation, From the Insideout, God is good, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, LGG Study, Quiet Time

Love Is Essential

Posted on by

based on the LGG Study, Firm Foundation, w1/d4

Scripture and Observation

Read: 1 John 4:7-10 and John 3:16-17 / SOAP: 1 John 4:8 and John 3:1

But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:81

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Love is essential to Christian living because it is an essential part of God’s identity.

bibleref.com/1 Jn 4:8

Fresh off of yesterday’s journey exploring God’s call on our life to be holy as He is holy we are now met with the measure of His love and what it means if we do not love. I’m not sure which is harder to embrace: the act of being holy as God is holy or the act of loving others the way God loves us, and what it says about us if we don’t. Both callings are acts that God has called us to and equipped us for, but both can seem impossible to carry out. Actually, in and of ourselves, they are impossible. Holiness and love require the presence of God in us, and His presence is only received when we place our faith in Jesus – the second person of the Trinity – who Himself is holy and loved us enough to leave heaven’s splendor and die for our sins on a cross of shame. Now, this is love!

I don’t know about you but throughout the course of my life there have been some people that have been particularly hard for me to like, let alone love. So when I read our passages today, particularly 1 John 4:8 and the inference that if we do not love then then we do not love God – I knew I had to look a little deeper into the meaning behind it. I found the commentary from bibleref.com to be the most helpful:

To “know” God requires a person to have a relationship with Him … Love comes from God, so those who demonstrate love show they have fellowship with Him. The inverse is also true. The person who does not demonstrate love does not know (or is not walking in fellowship with)* God.

Bibleref.com/1 John 4:8

If we are walking close to God His love will naturally flow through us – even toward those who we don’t really care for. For this holiness and love to be seen and heard in us we must be in fellowship with God. To “know” God requires a person to have a relationship with Him, Love comes from God, so those who demonstrate love show they have fellowship with Him. 

This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

1 John 4:10

When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, we are filled with His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Triune God, who teaches, guides, and empowers us to live as God called us to live.2 Paul teaches us that believers are not only sealed with the Spirit but we are filled with and controlled by the Spirit. He also teaches that when we let the Holy Spirit guide our lives, we will be known by His fruit – which includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.3

But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

Romans 8:9

 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Ephesians 1:13-14

The bottom line is this: if we want to live out God’s calling on our lives of holiness and love, we must first believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.4 Following our salvation, we must choose for ourselves which nature will control us – the old sinful nature or the new spiritual nature. 5One leads us away from God, and the other leads us to a life of holiness filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

It seems fitting to close with these words of Joshua to the Israelites: “But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”6

Prayer of Response to the Journey

Father, Your love is indeed powerful – it saves and actively, lovingly pursues. Yours is a relentless love, or as David described it, a “love that follows us all the days of our lives…” and for this, I am most grateful. I pray for everyone who is on this journey with me that they might be building their lives on the truths of Your Word. I pray that they might find their feet firm on the foundation of Your Word and live out Your calling on their lives. I pray that we will choose to live by Your Spirit and not by our old sinful nature. I pray for anyone on this journey who does not know you to believe in Jesus and be saved that they too might know and share in the power and promise of Your Love – In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray and praise You – Amen!

*Emphasis mine

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, Firm Foundation, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, Know These Truths, LGG Study

A Holiness to Imitate

Posted on by

based on the Love God Greatly study, Firm Foundation/w1d3

Scripture and Observation

Isaiah 6:1-5 and 1 Peter 1;13-16/Soap: Isaiah 6:3 and 1 Peter 1:16

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
    The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Isaiah 6:3

For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16

God is holy, and He has called His people to be holy. So, if as God’s people, we are committed to living the holy life He has called us to, we must be wise and search the Scriptures to understand first…

  • What it means that God is holy.
    • There are plenty of explanations out there but I love this one from gotquestions.org:
      • “In Him, there is not even the faintest trace of evil He is impeccably pure, wholly without fault, and uncompromisingly just. He cannot lie. He cannot make wrong decisions. He is blameless, tireless, and sinless.
Application from the Journey

We must also ask ourselves:

  • Can we be holy, and if so, how?
    • Can we? Without a doubt – yes. You see, if God has called us to something He has equipped us to do it. One of the ways He has done this, is explained by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17, where he tells us that if anyone is in Christ they have a “new nature..” He says, “the old is gone the new is here.” As we learn in Romans this means we are no longer controlled by the law of sin and death.1 Instead, we have been given His Spirit, and as Paul wrote, “when we let the Spirit control our mind it leads us to life and peace.”2
      • On top of this, Peter told his readers that God has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. It is through these promises that He has given us His very great and precious promises
    • But how can we possibly be holy like God is? Thankfully, God didn’t just call us to be holy but He told us how in His Word:

Clearly, God did not call us to holiness without making a way to be holy and telling us how to be. if we want to live out God’s call for holiness we must choose a life of faith and heed the teaching of God in His Word – not to follow the world’s ways but to let God transform us into His image.

So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. Romans 8:6

Prayer of Response to the Journey

Father, thank You for equipping us to live as You have called us to live. Whether it is to live and love like Jesus, to be holy as You are holy, to forgive others, to obey Your commands, to go and make disciples, to be light and salt in this dark and corrupted world, to walk by faith and not by sight … or the myriad of other teachings we know that we can do all these things through Christ who strengthens us. Thank You for Your Spirit in us and for Your Word that is living and active, a light to our path and correction when we veer from that path. How blessed we are to be loved and called by You and to have Jesus, our King and Savior, as our example. Thank You for Your promised forgiveness when we fall short of Your glory and for this study about building our lives on the truths of Your Word, our Firm Foundation. – Strengthen us all to Your glory and honor – Amen and Amen!

The More We Know about the Journey
lovegodgreatly.com blog post
  1. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Romans 6:14 ↩︎
  2. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. Romans 8:6 ↩︎

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time, The Armor of God

Lay Aside the Old – Put on the New

Posted on by

based on the Love God Greatly Study, The Armor of God /w2d5

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-24; SOAP: Ephesians 4:22-24

You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.

Ephesians 4:22-24

At the beginning of chapter four Paul reminds those in the church of Ephesus that they have been called by God and should live accordingly – that is “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, putting up with one another in love, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” He goes on to tell them, and by extension – us, that they are no longer to live like the Gentiles. This is best explained by Bibleref.com and, for context, should be understood before digesting or soaping verse 22-24.

[In verse 17-19] Paul instructs the Ephesians not to share in the kind of immoral lifestyle which non-believers follow. The Ephesian Christians were mostly Gentiles, in the sense of being non-Jewish: they were not descendants of Israel. Symbolically, “the Gentiles” mentioned in this context are those people who are separated from God. They are the unsaved. As saved believers, the Ephesians were once “spiritual” Gentiles, but no longer. Paul’s point here is that believers cannot continue to live as unbelievers and expect to please God.

Verses 22-24 of chapter four are some of Paul’s best teaching as to Christian living – or living righteously. He reminds them of what they were taught and gives them word pictures in regard to both their former way of life and the new. As we have seen throughout week two of The Armor of God, living righteously requires more than God saving grace, it requires personal responsibilities on our part. We must be active in our faith – like putting off, or as Paul says here, “laying aside the old man … being renewed in our minds … and putting on the new man.” It is important not to miss the distinction between the two –

  • “The old man is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires.”
  • “The new man has been created in God’s image – in righteousness and holiness that come from ‘Truth.'”

Righteousness and Holiness come from TRUTH, God’s Word is TRUTH.

Do you want to live the righteous and holy life God has called you to? Surround yourself with God’s Word, fill yourself with it, and study it for yourself. Then we can say like the Psalmist who asked how he could keep his way pure. Answering his own question – he realizes that it is by living according to God’s word. He then acknowledges that he seeks [God] with all of his heart – and asks God not to let him stray from His commandments – and ends with the profession: I have hidden Your Word in my heart so that I might not sin against You” (119:9-11)

How can a young person maintain a pure life? By guarding it according to your instructions. 10 With all my heart I seek you. Do not allow me to stray from your commands. 11 In my heart I store up your words, so I might not sin against you.

Psalm 119:9-11

Reflection of the Journey

What does Romans 12:1-2 teach about the process of putting off the old self and putting on the new self? How does this process lead to a change in our behaviors and actions?

Going Further

Read Romans 12:1-2 for more about being renewed and not conformed to the ways of the world

Be sure and check out today’s Love God Greatly blog post –

Posted in Bible study, From the Insideout
Posted on by

Alienated From God

Day 2 of “Jesus I Need You, part 1” A study by Thistlebend Ministries, as posted on Youversion

Scripture Reading: Isaiah chapter 1 (focus verses 2-4); Ephesians 4:17-19

Listen, O heavens, pay attention, O earth!

For the Lord speaks:

“I raised children, I brought them up, but they have rebelled against me!

3 An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food;

but Israel does not recognize me, my people do not understand.”

4  Beware sinful nation, the people weighed down by evil deeds.

They are offspring who do wrong, children who do wicked things.

They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel.

They are alienated from him.

Isaiah 1:2-4 NET
Observations: What’s the Message?

The message in Isaiah chapter one is from the LORD, Himself. He is obviously offended, angered, and grieved over how His children do not even recognize Him and how they have chosen to live. Their choices have alienated them from God. Verses two through four paint the main part of the picture but reading the entire chapter is to more fully understand the perspective and emotion of God.

Paul’s message in Ephesians chapter 4, specifically verse 17-32, is about living in holiness. While we are focusing on verses 17-19, it is worth reading, and quite helpful, to read the larger passage. In doing so we realize not only the danger of living an unholy life like the Israelites were in Isaiah’s time, but we also gain a comprehensive look at the choices we should make in order to not alienate ourselves from God.

Application: How Then Should We Live?

Paul answers this question quite well with his instructions, actually His insistence, that the Ephesians [Christ Followers, like us] should “no longer live as the Gentiles do”. The description here in these verses is that the Gentiles were alienated from the “life of God”, their hearts had grown hardened to sin which caused ignorance in their choices and a callousness to the way they lived. Basically, Paul is telling the believers to make better choices. He paints a vivd picture and exhorts them not to allow their hearts to grow hardened toward sin and rebel against God, or lose sight of Him or His Word, but that they should, as we saw in our previous lesson from John 15:5, abide closely and stay familiar with Christ and His ways.

– no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

A description of the Gentiles, as described by Paul in Ephesians 4:17-19 NET

One other application we can and should make from both messages – is to Encourage others in this way. I believe this is the same message we find in Hebrews 3:13, where the writer tells the believers to encourage each other daily for the specific reference to not allowing themselves to be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 

But exhort one another each day, as long as it is called “Today,” that none of you may 
become hardened by sin’s deception.  Hebrews 3:13  NET
Prayer: Response to the Word

Father, set a watch upon our hearts, that we not lose sight of You. Keep us ever hungering and thirsting for Your Word and living and loving like Jesus. Help us to encourage one another daily so that none of us become callous to sin and it’s deceitfulness. These things I pray in Jesus’ name and power – Amen an Amen!

Want More?

Visit Thistlebend Ministries for their encouraging devotional – Be sure and check-out what comes after their devotional! It’s a great and profitable way to go deeper in the Word.

Posted in LGG Study

Jesus Our Everything: Week 6, Day 3

Posted on by

Question of the Day: According to Hebrews 12:14 why should we pursue peace and holiness?

Today’s Scripture: Hebrews 12:14-29 (S.O.A.P. Hebrews 12:14-15)

Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness,[a] for without it no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up[b] and causing trouble, and through it many become defiled. 16 And see to it that no one becomes[c] an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.[d] 17 For you know that[e] later when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no opportunity for repentance, although he sought the blessing[f] with tears. 18 For you have not come to something that can be touched,[g] to a burning fire and darkness and gloom and a whirlwind 19 and the blast of a trumpet and a voice uttering words[h] such that those who heard begged to hear no more.[i] 20 For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”[j] 21 In fact, the scene[k] was so terrifying that Moses said, “I shudder with fear.”[l] 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, the city[m] of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly 23 and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator[n] of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does.[o]

25 Take care not to refuse the one who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less shall we, if we reject the one who warns from heaven? 26 Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “I will once more shake not only the earth but heaven too.”[p] 27 Now this phrase “once more” indicates the removal of what is shaken, that is, of created things, so that what is unshaken may remain. 28 So since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us give thanks, and through this let us offer worship pleasing to God in devotion and awe. 29 For our God is indeed a devouring fire.[q]

LGG BLOG
Hebrews 12:14 Reference