The Pursuit of Holiness

"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." - Hebrews 12:14

In my quiet time this morning I picked up the classic work by Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness. I am one chapter in, but am already deeply impacted and excited for this read.

As a young man, holiness is a constant pursuit. It is a pursuit because it is attainable, but not easily. It can be elusive (even the definition of the word is somewhat elusive to me, let alone the expectations) and will certainly take a great deal of work to grab hold of and hold onto for the long run. Furthermore, holiness is not the only thing that we are urged to pursue. Paul twice gave the maturing leader, Timothy, lists of what he should set his sights on:

• "But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses." - 1 Timothy 6:11-12

• "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." - 2 Timothy 2:22

So, how is the pursuit going for you? Are you committed to opening the Word each day and seeing yourself as God sees you, being challenged, changed, and transformed? Do you maintain habits of openness and confession with other brothers and sisters, or are you hiding secret sin? Are you in touch with your sin, it's affects on God, and the power of the Cross to overcome it? I believe all of these would help us to attain the holiness God wants of us.

Bridges gives three reasons why we miss holiness, all of which were challenging to me:

1. Our attitude towards sin is more self-centered than God-centered (see explaination below).
2. We have misunderstood "living by faith." Meaning that we expect God to change our attitudes and behavior, but don't recognize or do our part to change.
3. We do not take some sin seriously. By treating some sins seriously and others loosely, in essence we create a sliding-scale of morality where God has simply said, "Be holy."

Most convicting to me was a self-centered attitude towards sin. Of our attitude he wrote, "God wants us to walk in obedience - not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self... This is not to say God doesn't want us to experience victory, but rather to emphasize that victory is a by-product of obedience."

May each of us be victorious in the pursuit of holiness and obedience!

About Inspiration

I was reading a piece in the Wall Street Journal on “my day off,” (an interesting concept for ministers, who tend to be torn between setting work/non-work boundaries and a sense of being a doctor always “on call”) critical of Democrat Barack Obama. The criticism was that his policy content was weak or unworkable while his personal appeal was “exhilarating” and “inspiring.” The article was also critical of a Seattle Times letter-to-the-editor-writer who said he had been waiting 46 years to be inspired (John Kennedy).

I won’t comment on Obama’s policy content—or any candidate’s—that’s for you to research and discern. But as a spiritual leader, I want to speak to what I think is an obtuseness on the Journal’s part regarding inspiration: people long to be inspired. Even if the journal is right about Obama’s policy content, they clearly don’t get it. For human beings, inspiration actually tends to trump content. We are idealistic and relationship-oriented. We want to believe in something or someone that can transcend bitterness, division, status quo, and banality. Inspiration really matters. This tends to emerge especially in young people, who are less jaded. Ask most young voters about Obama, Hillary, or McCain in terms of policy and I’ll bet they’ll struggle a bit to really explain the differences. But in that visceral, human world of connection and inspiration, they will be able to tell you how they feel about the candidates—and those feelings matter.

We live in a cynical world, Cameron Crowe once wrote. Seattle needs inspiration, and I hope the Christians can see they are holding all the God-given cards in that game.

Too Busy Not to Pray

*As part of our focus in the South Sound for 2008, we are committing ourselves to developing deeper prayer lives. To help, I am reading one different book per month on the topic of prayer, and then writing a review for the congregation. The following is the first of the year...

Prayer Series – Review #1
“We’ve looked at several important aspects of prayer: God’s gracious invitation to us to come to him as to a Father; his incredible power to do more than we ever dream of asking; the attitudes Jesus said we must cultivate in order to pray effectively; the categories we need to be sure to include in our prayers; the reasons our prayers are not always answered the way we wish. This information about prayer is important, but will do us no good if we never slow down long enough to pray. And most of us are far too busy for our spiritual health.” (page 97)
In Too Busy Not to Pray, Bill Hybels presents a compelling argument for us to rethink our prayer lives. Originally published in 1988, he addresses the problem head on: we ARE busy (a reality), but no matter how full our life as a Christian seems to get, we cannot afford for our prayer lives to diminish. I find it ironic that 20 years later technology has rapidly advanced, the pace of life has quickened, and our ability to stay connected to information has become amazingly efficient. As Hybels wrote this book, he probably typed it on a 486 DX computer, owned a pager, and made occasional calls on a cell phone that was roughly the width of a 2x4! Fast forward to today – let’s admit and embrace the opportunities and challenges that come with a busy life. However, let’s not allow it threaten our prayer lives – one of our lifelines in building an intimate relationship with God.
You will find this book incredibly practical. It is not a call to prayer that seems ancient, monastic, or medieval. His ideas are within reach for all of us. Also, he doesn’t employ convictions designed to help us feel guiltier about our lives. On the contrary, the book practically addresses the nature of God, the nature of prayer, how to talk to God, how to listen to Him, how to be a busy person who moves, shakes, gets things done, AND stays connected to our real source of strength: God our Father.
Daren Overstreet, January 2008