Saturday, February 4, 2012

Hope to the end

1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Hope to the end for the grace brought to us from a revealed Christ. We are cautioned to do more than hope aren't we? Gird up the loins of our minds- be sober. Some might scoff and say that's easy, I don't drink but that's not what is being said here. You don't have to be drunk on alcohol to have your mind corrupt and far from being sober. You can be drunk on selfishness so that it consumes you. You can be drunk on anger. You can be drunk on any emotion. The abnormal excesses of our fleshy desires make us drunk so that we are no where near being sober in our actions and all we do- understanding the seriousness of our lives and the eternity at stake. In ALL we do we have to put God first in our thoughts, don't we? Shouldn't we? Girding up the loins of our mind. When you gird your loins you are protecting them.

'Synonyms
3.  brace, steel, fortify, strengthen.

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We have to protect our minds, fortify, strengthen our minds and in doing so we are protecting our THOUGHTS- the same thoughts that produce our actions. Yes, we have to HOPE for the grace of our Savior but we also need to protect our minds but not letting ourselves fall prey to excess. I say it that way because a lot of our desires are not wrong unless they are done in excess. I'm NOT saying ALL our desires by no means because desires can become perverse under the guidance of Satan, but our basic un-perverted desires are normal and yes-God given when they are NOT allowed excess in our lives- consuming us and becoming idols to us. We need to protect our minds by being sober in ALL things.


1Pe 1:14 As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:
1Pe 1:15 But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;
1Pe 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

Lev 19:2 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy.

Called to be holy.
Called to be Godly.

This isn't the call for a person to become a pastor, a priest, a minister- but this call is to all who would have the hope of Salvation in Jesus Christ.

How many people believe that only those called to a profession in the field of religion are expected to live godly, to live holy lives? They see a collar on a priest, a minister, or even just learn the title of a man as a pastor and automatically they are held to a higher standard than the common man. The truth is we ALL need to be held to the higher standard- God's standard. What else separates us from those who are not God's? If we blend in with the world is it because they are seemingly God's, or is it more likely the fact we are compromising and seem more like the ungodly? These are questions we NEED to ask ourselves. No, I'm not saying we need to make spectacles of ourselves in an outright effort to appear to be God's, but our lives in general should be sober lives- not given to the worldly excesses all around us. We should live lives of self-denial, shouldn't we?

Mar 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.

Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Jesus in not walking the earth today asking people to follow Him. There is NO man alive on earth today that we are to follow like that, not ONE. There is NO religious organization we are to give up all we possess and follow. Yet we ARE to --

'... gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ'

We ARE to--

'...be ye holy in all manner of conversation

We ARE to--

'...Be ye holy; for I am holy.'

We ARE to--

'... be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.'

We ARE to--

'... through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.'


Knowing this--

Rom 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


By the grace of God may we gird up the loins of our minds and HOPE, 'hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ', all through Him, all through the Holy Spirit, all through our Heavenly Father.

Help us, Lord, help us, save us from ourselves, from our self-destructive ways. Please Lord, help us to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober, to be holy as You would have us be holy.

All through YOUR righteousness- Savior! All through YOUR love!

Amen.

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