But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. (1 Timothy 6:11)
Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22)
One of the things that strikes me about modern Christianity, is how known we are as avoiders. Christians are known as those who don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t have pre-marital sex, don’t swear, etc. And while statistically, “Christians” are no different from the world in many of these areas, that is what we are known for. As people who “don’t” do things.
We are ready to flee impurity (or at least be known for fleeing impurity). But we are so rarely ready to pursue, to chase after, righteousness, or faith, or love. We’d rather just avoid the bad stuff.
What a terrible witness this is! We become known as those who “don’t” do things – those who don’t have fun. When that should be the opposite. We are the ones who “do” things – those who seek to follow after God with our whole hearts, our whole souls, our whole strength!
Are you pursuing righteousness? Are you truly chasing after it, seeking after it, doing all that is in your power for it? Are you truly looking at submitting your whole being to the Lordship of Christ? Are you? Am I?
Mission Statement
In classical sacrifices, the people get the good bits, and the gods get the refuse, the bits that would get thrown out otherwise.
Not our God. Leviticus (particularly Leviticus 3) describes the sacrifices that our LORD demanded from His people of Israel. God gets the kidneys, the tail, and all the fat. He gets the prime steak, He gets the best.
Today we do not literally give sacrifices of animals. For us the ultimate sacrifice has been made through our Lord, Christ Jesus. But should always be our ambition to do the same thing - to offer God the best of what we have, to offer Him the fat, and not the smoke and bones.
Not our God. Leviticus (particularly Leviticus 3) describes the sacrifices that our LORD demanded from His people of Israel. God gets the kidneys, the tail, and all the fat. He gets the prime steak, He gets the best.
Today we do not literally give sacrifices of animals. For us the ultimate sacrifice has been made through our Lord, Christ Jesus. But should always be our ambition to do the same thing - to offer God the best of what we have, to offer Him the fat, and not the smoke and bones.
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