Cogitations by Brad

What is “radical holiness?” To be holy means to be set apart. I take it as, to not be used up by sin, or, pure and blameless. Radical can mean extreme, or drastic. So radical holiness is taking drastic measures to be free from sin.

As Christians we’re called to be holy (1 Peter 5:13-16). That seems to suggest that it’s not ok just to live as though grace is going to fix it all no matter what I do. Some Christians seem to have the mindset that living a life that’s extremely good is too much to be expected. They justify sin because perfection cannot be reached, so why even try.

So how do we implement extreme holiness? I’ve been contemplating this for a while now, and it’s not easy to make decisions that proclaim radical holiness. Maybe it’s the shows on TV that we watch that show just enough to be legal, or music that uses cussing. I’d even suggest that maybe to achieve radical holiness, we shouldn’t even listen to music, TV, or radio that uses suggestive language. How about in our clothing, how much skin is too much skin to show? How far is too far to go with a boyfriend or girlfriend? How fast is too fast when I’m speeding?

It’s tough to cope with all the pressures in the culture we live in. High schools break their own school dress codes by giving cheerleaders skimpy outfits, and then they expect everyone else to follow the guidelines. A lot of people want to tag the name “hypocrite” to Christians, but anywhere there are humans, hypocrisy exists.

“Flee from sexual immorality,” Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:18. Colossians 3 tells us to “Set [our] minds on things above, not on earthly things,” (v. 1) and “Put to death… your earthly nature” (v. 5). “Rid yourselves of… anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language” (v. 8).

He follows up Colossians 3:12 by saying, “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Watching Family Guy isn’t going to clothe us with kindness and compassion. Listening to System of a Down is not going to give us gentleness or patience. But will listening to the newest music that’s suggestive, or watching a show that’s a bit risqué send us to Hell? If that’s the case, we’ve got a lot of people in trouble. I don’t think that our motivation not to do these things should be because of Hell, but because we want to live a life that is worthy of the calling of Christ.

In Romans 6:1-2, Paul says that by no means should we continue to sin! Being baptized is not an insurance policy. We were baptized to “live a new life” (Romans 6:4). In verse 5, Paul states that “if we have been united with him in a death like his,” which means we can no longer continue to live in sin, we have to become radically holy, then “we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

We have been promised a place in Heaven, but that doesn’t let us off the hook. Let us strive daily to be a people that are radically holy!

Divisions have been a long running problem for Churches. Where you have people, problems will arise, and there’s no way to avoid that unless we have the mind of Christ.

In Phillipians 2:1-2, Paul tells the church in Phillipi to be “like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.” As Christians, we are called to live above bickering that plagues the world. In verse 3 he continues in saying “Do nothing out of vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. How many of us have taken 10 minutes out of a day to do something for someone else without expecting anything in return?

Paul again says in 1 Corinthians to “agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” As Christians, our common ground is that we admit that we are sinners and we have accepted the gift of grace from Christ, our Lord. I see a lot of people picking out favorite people to be around, and when we pick favorites, cliques start to develop, and people are excluded. I’m personally not the best at making new people feel welcome, but we all need to work at making sure everyone feels like they are a part of the church.

Unity is very important. Jesus prayed that we might be one on the night of his arrest (John 17). We have a common goal to preach the word to the rest of the world, but unless we stop fighting, we’ll never achieve what we as a church are to be doing.

The new year has begun for all of continental USA. Personally, I’ve got two computer jobs that pay well enough that I could quit school and make a nice living (even though I won’t), no foreseeable romance, and a shaky relationship with Jesus. At least one thing is going well.

I don’t know what the secret is to remaining strong in my Christian walk. I can do everything right, but I still don’t feel right, but I start to slip up eventually. I’ve never tried to fake it, and only spend as much time in my Christianity as my heart is into, which is probably my whole downfall. Maybe I just need to gut it out and try even when I don’t feel like it. I don’t enjoy song leading so much when my heart’s not in it. I’m starting to face it finally though, so I’ll be back in action soon enough.

I want to go back to Lubbock soon, but since I’m stuck here with one car with my brother, looks like I’m out of luck. One of the people I thought to be my best friend isn’t making an effort to see me. This boredom makes me anxious to get back to life. The next time I’m home for more a while, I’m definitely bringing my own car.

Happy new year to all!

Forgiveness is all about perspective. Sounds good, right. It popped into my head, and now I’m going to explain to you, and myself, why it makes sense.

Well, I know that right and wrong is all about perspective. When you’re committing the act, it’s not so bad. You may not even feel bad after the fact until someone explains it to you from outside eyes.

Forgiveness is the other way around. When someone does you wrong, you can’t really know exactly what was going on, but you have to understand that there were some circumstances that may have caused the wrongdoing. It’s not always easy, and sometimes, the act makes absolutely no sense at all. I guess that’s where other people come in. You talk to them, and some people may say, “Yeah, you’re right to be mad, that person totally did you wrong!” Does that help though? I would say it only fuels the fire. It’s the person who says, “Well, think about it this way… and… then… … now tell me you would do differently if given the circumstances.” They give you a perspective into the eyes of the other person that you may not have seen before. The person who doesn’t want to forgive won’t be happy with your answer, but the person who does will be willing to let the person off the hook and to forgive.

Christ commands us to forgive 70×7 times, which, even if you take it literally, someone is probably not going to sin against you that many times, so I would say there’s no limit. Forgive as Christ forgives.

So we had LCU’s Best Friends come and sing for our college group tonight. They all had good voices, and did a good job performing, but one thing I have a huge problem with is getting “worship” confused with “entertainment.”

First of all, I’m going to define worship. From what I’ve seen in the bible, worship can mean one of two things. One can live a life of worship. Also, a group of people can worship together in song, or in the old testament worship was through sacrifice. Worship can be displeasing as in the case of Cain, Nadab and Abihu, Saul, and the many other times. It’s easy for worship to become unacceptable to God as we see in these cases.

I used to sing a group, and at times I struggled with whether it was acceptable to God to do so. We were not a praise team, and we never said we were up there in order to “worship.”

I have come to the conclusion that any performances, by singing groups or choirs, are to be considered as entertainment. Entertainment is not worship, because worship is for God, not for man.

You can’t believe everything about anything, with the exception of God and His Word. I think that’s a big problem with people and religion. It’s easier just to take everything we hear, and all the traditions we have, and except them as right.

In Hezekiah’s day, there were high places, which were places of worship. As my teacher in class told us today, tradition is what you’ve experienced, and for all we know, it may not have been tradition before us. The high places had always been there for the Israelites during the time of Hezekiah, and so when he tore them down, he tore down their tradition.

Jesus did similar things to the Pharisees. He stood up to what would be the preachers and elders of the day, and told them their religion was fake. I’ve seen a lot of parallels in Christianity today and what the Pharisees were doing. If we are just Christians with words, but no actions, we are no better than the Pharisees.

I don’t think we should be full-time skeptics, but if we believe everything that’s stated in the pulpit and everything that’s “tradition” to us, we won’t be doing the full will of God, which is written in His Word.

Just something to chew on.

Just recently, I went on a camping trip, and I was in the sun so much that I came home with a sunburn. I’ve been thinking a lot about Christ’s humanity, and how as a full human being He was able to be so close to God, and to know God so well. It seems to me that He was completely human, and was only empowered by the Holy Spirit to teach, prophesy, and perform miracles. This seems to be in line with the gospels and Phil 2:6-7.

When Moses came from Mount Sinai, his face was radiant because he had been in the presence of God (Exodus 34:29-35). We should strive for a relationship so close to God, so close to Christ, that we get a “Son Burn.” People should see Jesus shine from us (Matt 5:16).

Christ said for us to be perfect as God is perfect (Matt 5:48), but we use excuses, such as “I’m only human.” Imperfection should be accepted, but perfection should be continually striven for.

Enoch isn’t spoken of much in the Bible, but it says he walked with God (Genesis 5:21-24).

Jacob wrestled with God, and overcame according to Genesis 32:22-31. We need to struggle with (notice I didn’t say against) God in our life.

A mature Christian needs to walk with God, wrestle with God, and strive for perfection.

In the old testament, one of the things that I think God was trying to stress the most is that he wants our hearts. He wishes for us to have a need to serve him; not because we’re scared of hell, or because our parents said so, but because we have a need for God, and because we’re nothing without Him.

Isaiah makes it clear when he speaks the words of the Lord, “‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men” (Isaiah 29:13). They enforced the details of the law, and only followed them out of tradition. Their worship and praise was meaningless.

Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, basically makes a point that the law isn’t the important part of following God. If you read through it, you’ll find multiple, “You have heard… but I tell you” phrases. “You have heard… ‘Do not murder’… But I tell you… anyone who is angry… will be subject to judgement” (Matthew 5:21-22). “You have heard… ‘do not commit adultery’… but I tell you… anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28).

I’m not saying that the law isn’t important, because it is given to us for a reason. Jesus states to the woman at the well that people would worship in “Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23). Without spirit, our life in Christ will not last, but without truth, our life in Christ will be in vain. We have to follow God, both with our hearts, and by the Word of God.

In early Israelite days, God chose for the people to have judges. These judges would direct the people in the ways of God. But the people were unhappy with this system of rule. They looked around at the other nations and saw how all the nations around them had a king. They said to Samuel, “‘Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations’” (I Samuel 8:5). They rejected the will of God. “The LORD said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them’” (I Samuel 8:7). They went by their gut-feeling rather than trusting in God.

In many, many churches today, we see a lot of gut-feeling decisions. They’re not based on the Word of God, but rather, what they feel should be done. God does have a will, and even though people may believe that the Bible is a guide for us to pick and choose what to follow, there is no foundation in that belief. “…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). The will of God, as stated here is “good”, “acceptable”, and “perfect.” Divisions in the Church were created by people who pick and choose what they want to follow. A verse here, a verse there, and they’ve created a new Church.

Sin in our personal lives occurs because of our own selfish desires. We look around, and are jealous of others living in sin. It’s appealing on the outside. But in Romans 12:23, it tells us that “the wages of sin is death.” But we have hope in Jesus Christ, because “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We cannot live in sin and be in Christ Jesus.

God is a forgiving God, and if it were not for that, we would have no hope. After the Israelites had chosen a king, Samuel confronted the people, and they repented.“Then all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king.’ Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear. You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile’” (I Samuel 12:19-21).

In a recent class I was in, we discussed Godly wisdom. In everything wordly, we see “bitter jealousy” and “selfish ambition” (James 3:14). These lead to destruction. But with Godly wisdom, when a person is no longer seeking glory for themselves, the world becomes a better place.

So how do we get wisdom from above? David tells Solomon to “seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures” (Proverbs 2:4). We are told to pray for it in James: “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

In James 3:17, this wisdom is summed up: “…The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.” With wisdom from above, life is more fulfilling.