Friday, March 9, 2007

Today Is A Gift From God

James 1:17 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."

Each day is a gift. It's not a gift that God had to give you. He chose to, however, and we need to make good use of that gift. He desires to accomplish something through your life today for His honor and His glory.

My husband preached not too long ago about being sanctified (or set apart) to live holy for God. That is one thing God expects of His children. He tells us in His Word in Leviticus 20:7 "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God." He also tells us in I Peter 1:15 "But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." He is not giving us a choice here. He is telling us to live holy. To live holy we have got to yield ourselves to God. We cannot live holy if we yield ourselves to the flesh. What we yield to is what controls us.

We need to be completely yielded and devoted to Him in every area of our lives. To live contrary to holiness is not to reject man's authority but to reject God's authority. Man is not telling us to live holy and sanctified...God is!!

When we live and grow in the area of holiness then the other areas of our Christian life will be more effective. For example...when we live a holy life our witness will be more effective. If you go up to talk to someone about the Lord and your life is not one of being sanctified and holy....if it is a life of worldliness and carnality...what kind of impact do you think you will make? Not as much of an impact as if you lived a holy and sanctified life. The lost want to see something different in and about us. There is nothing to want if we're just like they are.

The Lord Jesus purchased us with His own precious Blood. I Corinthians 6:19-20 "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." If you are saved then you belong to Him. Ye owe it to Him to live holy according to His Word.

How do we do that? By reading His Word and obeying His Word and through prayer and realizing that we cannot live a holy and sanctified life. It takes the Holy Spirit Who lives within us to live it through us.

Others....not just the lost....are watching our lives to see something different. There are newly saved people, that are only just beginning their new life that are watching us. They are looking to us to be an example of Christ to them.

God has given us all a limited amount of time on this earth. Each day is a gift from Him. Are you living a holy and sanctified life that points others to Christ?

My prayer each day is to first thank God for the day and then tell Him my desire is to not use it in vain but to live it to honor and glorify His name. We do that by living holy.

Make a point today and each day to live as Christ would have you live. Afterall....all He did was die for you....it's the least you can do!!!

10 comments:

Kristi said...

It is the VERY least we can do. Amen to this post, Sis Julie.

God is so good to give us breath each day to live for Him.

~Kristi

Lyndy said...

Sis Julie,

You have a gift for writing the most thought provoking posts. I am so glad we “met” in the blog world.

I also have read your testimony and was very blessed by it as well.

Have a blessed weekend. Supposed to be wet here in north Georgia.

Rita Loca said...

Very well said, Sis. Julie! I ,too, enjoy your posts and even your comments are edifying!

Jerry Bouey said...

When we live and grow in the area of holiness then the other areas of our Christian life will be more effective. For example...when we live a holy life our witness will be more effective. If you go up to talk to someone about the Lord and your life is not one of being sanctified and holy....if it is a life of worldliness and carnality...what kind of impact do you think you will make?

Great exhortations in this devotion. Makes me think of this verse:

John 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

When we do not abide in Christ and produce fruit for His glory, then the lost world around us (and yea, even the true believers around us!) see our profession of faith as useless, vain, empty - fit only for the fire. Then those people cast us aside, and have no use for our witness of Christ.

Oh Lord, let those reading this blog (including me) never compromise in such a way that our testimony is cast aside and our faith in Christ is considered by the lost as a vain thing. Let us never be stumbling blocks to those around us.

Sis. Julie said...

Thank you all for your comments and for coming by.

Bro. Jerry....it is such a joy to have you back online again. You always add so much to my posts that help to get what I'm trying to say across to someone. You were very missed when you were gone. Welcome back!!!

Unknown said...

Once again, thanks for this post. You have a real ministry here I believe. I'm so happy to have crossed your path in this world of *blogging*!

Susannah said...

I like your Scripture verse at the top of this post, and I love the idea that "God is a Father of lights." I'm kind of weird about lights around my house in the daytime... I leave them all on! Maybe I belong in sunny CA or AZ (or the tropics!)

Anyhoo, our heavenly Father is so pure and so bright, like the whiteset lightbulb you've ever seen. And I want to be holy, just like that! Hugs, e-Mom

TO BECOME said...

Sis. Julie, I couldn't agree with you more and I thank you for the post. YOu are right, the very least we can do for the One who died for us. connie from Texas

Sista Cala said...

Amen and again I say, Amen.
Excellent post & powerful reminder.

CindyMae said...

What a wonderful post!! God is so awesome and we should all stive to be more like Christ!!

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