Holiness Remix

Over at Justin Taylor’s blog you’ll find a short blurb from an interview with a church leader who is talking about sanctification (there’s also a link to the entire interview).  He highlights this section:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They’re not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn’t take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It’s not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that’s a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what’s right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they’re not immoral.

I thought it was so good I had to quote it here myself.

Discuss amongst yourselves…

So, after Sarah told me last night that most everyone begins their blog like I did (everyone except her, that is), I decided that I might describe some of the things I’m thinking about.  Here goes:

1)  The seeking heart.  No one told me that a life lived for Jesus was so difficult.  And I’m not even talking about persecution, living in a third world country, or enduring a life-threatening disease.  None of those things affect me directly.  Then kind of hardship I’m talking about is the day-in and day-out decisions that affect the future–especially eternity.  And in that, making sense of all the other things that are apart of life (like persecution, living in a third world country–you get the picture).

2)  The End Times.  I’m not an eschatology buff.  Some people are, and that’s okay.  I feel a divine calling to be informed about what the Bible says will happen at the end of the age.  Jesus is coming, and I want myself and others to be prepared.  Or at least informed.

3)  Holiness.  Mostly used as a word that people use synonomously with “scrooge”, “killjoy”, or even “boring”.  I want to look at it not so much as what we as believers can’t do, but what we are allowed to do.  Huge implications follow.

4)  Books.  A favorite subject of mine.  Maybe I’ll give some reviews, or even a “best of” list.  Exciting stuff here, folks.

5)  Christian culture.  For this topic, I’ll especially be writing as a student and not a professional.  It will probably be mostly observations.

6)  Prayer.  I saved the best for last.  I actually don’t even want to get into it now because I don’t think I’d stop.

 So, until then.