What Standard Are You Living Up To?

What Standard Are You Living Up To?

Is it possible that someone could live their life according to the world’s standards so much that they become calloused to the things of God? Can someone who once had a growing relationship with God ignore the signs and become calloused to the things of God? The Apostle Paul evidently thought this could happen as he writes Ephesians 4:17-5:20.

Corrie ten Boom reflects on the key to holiness in her book, “Not I, but Christ.” She writes, “A pickpocket once said: ‘I became a Christian. In the past I stole fifty or sixty watches every week, but I don’t do that anymore. Now I only steal five or six.’ Perhaps you laugh at that pickpocket, but are you and I often not just like him? No, we don’t steal – we just dodge taxes a little bit. If you do it cleverly, that is all right, isn’t it? No, that is not all right. Nothing like this is all right. Now, it is possible to live a clean and holy life, because the Lord is with us.”

The Apostle Paul writes about putting off the old self and putting on the new self, “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:24). Take the time to read through Ephesians 4:17-5:20. As you read through this passage, make note of the bad habits you need to overcome as well as the qualities you need to embrace. We are to be imitators of Christ, living lives of love, just as Christ loved us; be made new in the attitude of our minds; being filled with the Spirit. These are the qualities that stir the fires of personal revival and keep us from hardening our hearts.

This Sunday we will continue in our series, “Maneuvering the Ships of Life,” as we begin to look at friendships and how they can raise us up or tear us down.

Do whatever it takes to let the light of Christ shine through your life today.

Joy in Jesus!

Pastor Mike