Cleansing Power

“Now that you are obedient children of God, do not live as you did in the past. You did not understand, so you did the evil things you wanted. But be holy in all you do, just as God, the One who called you, is holy.” – 1 Peter 1:14-15

I spent much of my adolescence as a nonbeliever, confused about religion and unsure of what to think about God. I went to Pine Cove, a Christian camp, participated in FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes), and dated believers, but I still did not put my faith in Jesus Christ until the beginning of my senior year when I began to go to Kingsland Baptist Church every week with Alisdair, Blake, and a group of my close girl friends. It was during this year that I became a Christian, and in the middle of my freshman year of college, I was baptized. This is a brief version of my testimony, one that I shared earlier today with the 10^th grade girls in my Sunday School class. Before I became a follower of Christ, I “did the evil things [I] wanted,” like the apostle Peter described in the verse above. My bible (NLV) says, “You did not know any better then,” and I couldn’t agree more. I was not making decisions to live a pure life like I do now, but at the time, I couldn’t fully comprehend why I should act any differently. I wanted to make my parents proud, but I was able to hide things from them that I know I cannot hide from God.

My 100 Favorite Bible Verses book states: “To be holy…is a lifetime of moment-by-moment decisions where you choose God’s moral standards over what the current culture says is acceptable… The closer you grow to God, the easier it is to keep your eyes on Him, and the more your character will grow to resemble the holiness of His own.” I love this description of what being holy means because it is so true. As I have grown closer and closer to the Lord over the past few years, living a pure, holy life has become far more easy, with much temptation from the Devil not being able to penetrate the relationship I have with God. James 4:8 says, “Come near to God, and God will come near to you. You sinners, clean sin out of your lives. You who are trying to follow God and the world at the same time, make your thinking pure.” We are all sinners, yet it is part of our duty as Christians to try to “clean sin out of our lives.” Since Jesus Christ died for our transgressions, we know that we can pray for forgiveness when we make mistakes, but this is not an excuse to repeatedly live in sin, relying solely on prayer and forgiveness. If we truly love God, we would not want to sin because we should want to make Him proud of all that we do.

In 2 Corinthians 7:1, the Bible says, “Because we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God.” I love that Paul uses the term “cleanse ourselves,” because I genuinely feel as if I was cleansed when I became a Christian, made new by the Holy Spirit.  After spending seventeen years allowing myself to be “defiled,” as Paul puts it, I was made completely pure again, and for this, I will be forever thankful. I know many Christians that choose to have sex outside of marriage, and I would never judge them for this decision, but I personally think that is it important to “work toward complete holiness because we fear God,” like Paul stated. I was once discussing premarital sex with a Christian guy friend, and he pointed to James 2:10, which says “For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws.” His point was to say that all sins are weighed equally in God’s eyes, i.e. cussing is as bad a sin as sex outside of marriage. The logic to this reasoning seems so broken, yet reflective of our today's culture. Instead of saying "Oh, okay, well then I'll have sex if it's just as bad as cussing," I believe that our response needs to be more along the lines of– “So, shouldn’t you focus on not swearing?”

When we put our faith in the Lord, our bodies are not only made pure, but so are our souls. In Psalm 86:11-13, David writes, “Teach me Your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to Your truth. Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor You; with all my heart I will praise You, O Lord my God; I will give glory to Your name forever, for Your love for me is very great, You have rescued me from the depths of death.” This verse is one of my absolute favorites. God grants us purity when we pray for it – what a miracle indeed. Praise the Lord :)

Of course, we are all sinners and are bound to slip up from time to time, whether that be judging someone for something they say or getting drunk and giving in to our body's desires. It is important to remember that God will forgive when you repent of your sins, but it is also crucial to understand what James 1:13-14 says about the root of temptation: “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, ‘God is tempting me.’ God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else. Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.” Matt Carter, the pastor at the Austin Stone, preached an incredible series on Temptation in August, 2010, and I highly recommend that you listen to the sermons on iTunes.

Lastly, I want to end with one of the most moving Christian songs I know. “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” I pray that these lyrics to “Amazing Grace” stir the same emotions in you as they do in me. Salvation is such a beautiful gift, one for which I simply cannot thank God enough. My prayer for anyone who may still be feeling lost or confused is that they too will be able to proudly say, “Now I see.”

In His name,

Ailee