Personal Holiness & Accountability!

Christ desires us to be striving to be holy, to live pure & honest before Him. We are to be "spiritually-minded"...
controlled by the Holy Spirit..not by the carnal flesh. Romans 8:5..."For those who live according to the flesh set
their minds on the things of the flesh...but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit"
Romans 8:6 "For to be carnally minded is DEATH, but to be SPIRITUALLY MINDED is LIFE & PEACE."
{Romans 6:1-2; 11-12}
JESUS loves us,,He HATES our sin! His death on the Cross was because of our sins! Jesus & His Truth exposes our hypocrisy! That is why we have to "suppress the Truth" & "exchange Truth for a LIE in order to
continue to sin" {Romans 1}
There is more to a relationship with Jesus than just going to church & then living like the devil!...
WHERE IS THE TRANSFORMATION OF HIS LIFE GIVING POWER?!
We must get serious about our sins & our committment to Christ...absolute forgiveness comes through
salvation in Christ....but then comes a changed life...the disciples turned their world upside down!
Today, we don't have enough power in our lives to even defeat the personal sins in our lives!
{Romans 6:23; Romans 5:18-21; Romans 3:11-18; Romans 2:1-11; Romans 8:1}
We are saved by His grace...& mercy...but we are not free to continue in sin.
JESUS loves us too much to leave us like we are...He wants to deliver us from ourselves! We can't earn our
salvation, that is His free gift, but we can't mock Him & disobey then expect Him to look the other way.
Christ can't look upon sin! He is HOLY & wants us to strive to be Holy in Him. Satan has lied to us & we have
listened to him, we think we can have one foot in Heaven & one foot in the devil's playground!
We are playing in enemy territory & satan will destroy our lives, if we don't get serious about sin in our lives!
We profess that we are Christians & love the Lord, yet we lie to Him & cheat on Him! We tell Him
we want to live for Him...then run to play in the devil's yard! Christ is our Heavenly Bridegroom..& we are
cheating on Him! We lie to Christ when we ask for forgiveness for our sins & then turn right around & keep
doing it! We know what is right & wrong but we don't really care, because if we did, we would do
something about it! Only JESUS can save us from ourselves! {Romans 7:14-24}
We can't be perfect, Christ knows that..but we need to strive daily to obey Him & be all that He wants us to be
...letting Him change us from the inside out.
Christ knows we will sometimes fail, & fall & need to repent & get back up & go on....but we are not suppose to
live "continually" in sin...for when we sin, we have to stomp on the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we trample
Him under our feet. Christ has done everything in His power to stop us from going to Hell & being slaves to sin,
yet we have to ignore His gift of grace & mercy to be able to run on into sin...
We are shocked that He would require us to live holier lives...He bought us with a price, but not for us to
continue to trash our lives by sinful choices! That is not the reason He saved us! He calls us to come up
higher, to Holy ground. When we get into His Presence, drawing nearer to Him, then we are cleansed &
washed & pure in His sight.
HOLINESS.....is the habit of being of one mind with God, according to His Scripture. The habit of agreeing
with God's judgment...hating what He hates...loving what He loves, measuring everything in this world by
God's standards in His Word.
The more we agree with God, the Holier we become. A Holy person will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ...
He will live the life of faith & draw near to Him for peace & strength & to be conformed to His Image
{Romans 8:29; 1 John 2:6} To "walk as He walked"...to be holy is to seek to be meek; longsuffering; gentle;
& kind.
A Holy person will practice self-denial...to MORTIFY {kill} the desires of the body...to crucify the flesh,
restrain carnal desires {1 Corinthians 9:27}
A Holy person will follow after the fear of the Lord...to reverance Him...to seek purity of heart to avoid all things
that might draw us away from Christ. A Holy person will be Spirit-minded to set his affections entirely on things
above. Not neglecting the business of life but store up treasures in Heaven...to commune with God in prayer
in the Bible, meeting with other believers. {Psalm 63:8; Psalm 119:57}
Holy living, striving to live Holy, is proof of our sincerity of loving Christ. If we love Him, really seriously, we
will want to please Him. To be an example to others of what Christ can do for them also.
May we all experience the importance of Holiness; more than we ever have before
Pray for it...seek the Lord for it daily & it will come! PRAISE HIM!
{Hebrews 12:2; Philippians 4:13;Galatians 2:20}