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Beware false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing (Matt 7:15) Father, grant us your Spirit to discern our hearts and the hearts of others.  Christians are new creatures in Christ, sanctified and made clean through our Savior. Yet Christians still struggle with sin. We do not always find it easy to live out our identity in Christ. The past several weeks I have given some principles to help us in our fight for holiness. I now want to address a related question. If Christians still sin, how do we tell the difference between a genuine Christian wrestling with…

Fight the good fight of the faith (I Tim 6:12) Father, take my mind off of this world and put it squarely on your precious Word. We are victorious in Christ. But we must fight. We are holy and clean in the Beloved. But we struggle to live out our holiness. So far I have been giving principles for the fight. 1. Understand that we are sinful and weak on our own. 2. Rest in the work of Christ in us. 3. Walk by faith, not by sight. Today, let’s add a couple new principles for fighting the fight of…

Fight the good fight of the faith. (I Tim 6:12) Lord, grant me a greater faith to hold onto your precious promises. We have been talking about the fact that the Christian life is a fight for holiness. In the last blog I discussed two principles that help us in this fight: 1) Understand that apart from Christ we are sinful and weak. 2) Rest in the work of Christ in us. Today I will focus on a principle that helps us do number 2. Walk by faith, not by sight (II Cor 5:7). The Christian life is a life…

I have fought the good fight . . . (II Tim 3:7) May I fight, O Lord, your fight — the fight for holiness. Last week I discussed the fact that Christians are holy but mentioned as well that we still sin. Such talk may raise an eyebrow or two, for how exactly can holy people sin? Doesn’t holiness mean we don’t sin? To address this question, I want you to think of a bride at a wedding.   When she says, “I do,” she becomes a wife, and her identity changes for the rest of her life. At the wedding, she…

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (I Cor 6:9-11)  Lord, you have made me new. Praise to your name. Now, by your grace, may I live new….