"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God..." (Colossian 1:9-10, NKJV)
I was challenged by a devotional reading from Truth for Life, the Bible-teaching ministry of Alistair Begg. He has revised and updated the class devotional Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon.
Speaking about the strict rules that Nazarites had to follow in order to avoid offending God or bring a reproach to Him, Begg writes, "Surely this is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones [all redeemed persons]...to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes but even its spirit and likeness." This lesson is much needed today when many Christians do the opposite: they try to pursue worldliness as far as they think they can without committing "big" sins rather than pursuing godliness or holiness.
Begg continues, "He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah." But, sadly many Christians could care less about this.
"Worldly conformity," Begg explains, "in any degree, is a snare to the soul and makes it more and more liable [read: susceptible] to presumptuous [or willful] sins." The Christian who waivers and yields to sin "cannot have a clear conscience but is constantly aware of his double standard." He claims the Word but lives for the world.
When I was a teenager, a wise Sunday School teacher offered me the adage "when in doubt, don't." It was wise counsel and I wish I'd followed it more consistently than I have. Begg expounds on that wisdom when he says that worldly things we have doubts about "we need not worry [or wonder] about; they are wrong for us. Tempting things we must not play with, but run from them speedily. Better to be sneered at as a Puritan than to be despised as a hypocrite."
To walk worthy of our Master, the Lord Jesus, we must heed the words of Paul who said in Ephesians 5:15-16, "...be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days."
FLM
"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God..." (Colossian 1:9-10, NKJV)
I was challenged by a devotional reading from Truth for Life, the Bible-teaching ministry of Alistair Begg. He has revised and updated the class devotional Morning and Evening by C.H. Spurgeon.
Speaking about the strict rules that Nazarites had to follow in order to avoid offending God or bring a reproach to Him, Begg writes, "Surely this is a lesson to the Lord's separated ones [all redeemed persons]...to come away from sin in every form, to avoid not merely its grosser shapes but even its spirit and likeness." This lesson is much needed today when many Christians do the opposite: they try to pursue worldliness as far as they think they can without committing "big" sins rather than pursuing godliness or holiness.
Begg continues, "He who yields a point or two to the world is in fearful peril; he who eats the grapes of Sodom will soon drink the wine of Gomorrah." But, sadly many Christians could care less about this.
"Worldly conformity," Begg explains, "in any degree, is a snare to the soul and makes it more and more liable [read: susceptible] to presumptuous [or willful] sins." The Christian who waivers and yields to sin "cannot have a clear conscience but is constantly aware of his double standard." He claims the Word but lives for the world.
When I was a teenager, a wise Sunday School teacher offered me the adage "when in doubt, don't." It was wise counsel and I wish I'd followed it more consistently than I have. Begg expounds on that wisdom when he says that worldly things we have doubts about "we need not worry [or wonder] about; they are wrong for us. Tempting things we must not play with, but run from them speedily. Better to be sneered at as a Puritan than to be despised as a hypocrite."
To walk worthy of our Master, the Lord Jesus, we must heed the words of Paul who said in Ephesians 5:15-16, "...be careful how you live. Don't live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days."
FLM