#1 - The Pursuit of Holiness

2010 has started off well...in the book department.

I just finished re-reading The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. I read this book as a teenager and remember being profoundly impacted by it. 20 years later, it's Scriptural exhortation and explanation of the process of sanctification (becoming holy) to the average Christian is timeless.

This is an incredibly readable book with great insight and depth and breadth. Bridges not only exalts a high view of God, he also shows you why and how that should impact your daily life. He balances the need to work hard at being holy with a Christ centered, grace for when we fail.

Bridges not only gives you good biblical information, he also gives you the proper way to view sin and holiness - a biblical worldview - which is priceless. Here are a few gems:

• The absolute holiness of God should be of great comfort and assurance to us. If God is perfectly holy, then we can be confident that His actions toward us are always perfect and just.
• But if we truly grasp the significance of God's perfect holiness, both in Himself and in His demands of us, we will readily see we can never justify before Him even the slightest deviation from His perfect will. God does not accept the excuse, 'Well, that's just the way I am,' or even the more hopeful statement, 'Well, I'm still growing in that area of my life.'
• When we are holding on to some sin, we are not pursuing holiness and we cannot have fellowship with God.
• You, too, if you diligently pursue holiness, must often flee to the Rock of your salvation. You flee there, not to be saved again, but to confirm in your heart that you are saved through His righteousness alone.
• If we are to win this battle for holiness, we must recognize that the basic problem lies within us. It is our own evil desires that lead us into temptation. We may think we merely respond to outward temptations that are presented to us. But the truth is, our evil desires are constantly searching out temptations to satisfy their insatiable lusts.
• It is time for us Christians to face up to our responsibility for holiness. Too often we say we are 'defeated' by this or that sin. No, we are not defeated; we are simply disobedient! It might be good if we stopped using the terms 'victory' and 'defeat' to describe our progress in holiness. Rather we should use the terms 'obedience' and 'disobedience.' When I say I am defeated by some sin, I am unconsciously slipping out from under my responsibility. I am saying something outside of me has defeated me. But when I say I am disobedient, that places the responsibility for my sin squarely on me.

There were a lot more good quotes that I underlined - you must read the book or re-read it if it's been a while! I'm at that stage in life where I'm not just thinking about books that are good for me but books that I want my children to read. This will be one of them.