Holiness and discipleship

"To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a pair of new breeches, to give him regular work, or even to give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged you have wasted your labor. You must in some way or other graft upon the man's nature a new nature, which has in it the element of the Divine.”
William Booth

I am always challenged when I lead someone to Christ because although I praise God for their awessome decision I also know that it has to go deeper. Some will say that this happens by the process of discipleship, being lead by other men and women of God over a long period of time.

However we should never forget stories such as the Gadarene demoniac wjere the man just saved is told not to follow Jesus on His journey but to turn around and tell the town what God had done for Him. What about Paul being discipled by the Holy Spirit?

Holiness is the answer and is an awesome gift that God gives to us. And all it requires is for us to totally renounce all sin, totally consecrate our lives to God and totally believe He will sanctify us. In our evangelism lets not forget that God can change a heart in a beat! And that change can far out last any program we give them. The thing people need is a solid relationship with God.

KILL THE OLD MAN

Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9 call it the old man...

Romans 8:7 calls it the carnal mind
Romans 7:24 calls it a body of death

Galatians :17 calls it the flesh

James 1:21 calls it moral filth and the remainder of iniquity

John calls it "sin" as distinct from 'sins"

Ezekiel 38:26 calls it a stoney heart

Theologians call it imbred sin, original sin and depravity.

It is the sinful nature and we are told to put it off, lay apart and kill it.

We are rminded that the blood of Jesus cleanses us and purifies
We are reminded that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil
We are reminded that God will remove the stoney heart.

(Most of the references were taken from Brengles Heart talks on holiness! A must read if you wanna get holy! Very helpful!)

Ambassadors of Holiness

Its been a long time since I've blogged but Im back and am hoping to get into it now on a much more rgular basis!

I am now a cadet at the Training College in the Ambassadors of Holiness session! Im very excited and at the same time a little daunted by our session name.

This is what an ambassador means:
A diplomatic official of the highest rank appointed and accredited as representative in residence by one government or sovereign to another, usually for a specific length of time.

So in my case I am chosen, accredited and appointed by God to be a representative of holiness to the unholy until i die.

Wow.

I know that I can not be holy on my own. But I do know that God provides us with all we need to be holy. In The Salvation Army we know it as "BLOOD AND FIRE!"

The Blood of Jesus washes away our sin and the fire of the Holy Spirit empowers us to live holy! We are justified (declared holy) at Salvation but at Sanctification we are made holy, that is our sinful nature is killed and instead we are controlled, compelled by the love of God!

God, make me holy and I will show others how to be holy!