FROM THE PULPIT: HELP IS NEEDED TO LIVE HOLY

It is possible to live a holy life in an environment that is far from holy. It is not automatic; it is not easy. But help is within reach. m e sincere, devout Christian can call for help in an emergency and he will receive it. But he must not neglect the means of grace in the routine of daily living.

It is the one who keeps up-to-date in the daily pattern of Christian living who finds special strength for the times of severe testing. It may come in immediate deliverance or it may come in assurance of renewed strength. But it will surely come to all who are up to now in obedience to the light received.

m ere are powerful incentives to be holy. God is holy and He says, "Be ye holy." To glorify the Triune God we should have intense desire to be holy. And that the world might believe, we should earnestly pray that we may leave in the minds of all who know us the image of a holy life.

The first practical aid to holy living is faith in the promises of God. They are many and given precisely that the day-by-day need of the saints may be supplied.

We have Jesus' invitation. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) There is His promise of adequacy. "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." (Acts 1:8).

Faith in the promises of God is an incentive to prayer. Prayer lifts the longing soul to higher altitudes where the air is purer, vision is clearer, and burdens are lighter.

A second help to holy living is in learning obedience as God's disciplines are administered. m is obedience springs from love for Christ. "Though He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). Obedience that costs extreme anguish takes on a new dimension--when obedience costs a broken heart, its lesson has been learned and its genuineness authenticated.

If anyone would be holy in Christ--and it can only be in Christ--then he must trust and obey even when the sky is clouded and the dark shadows fall across the way. We learn that God will match disappointments, heartaches and adversities with strength that we may show ourselves and others that God is the All-Sufficient One.

Saintliness is not developed in sheltered places but in the dark tunnel, on the burning dessert and in the storms and stress of live.

This points up the truth that holy living is possible only by God's grace. "By grace are ye saved through faith." Grace..is greater than all our sin. By grace are we kept through the power of God. It is grace that builds Christian character. Peter wrote, The God of all grace ...make you perfect. (I Peter 5:10)

There is grace to keep at our task when there is no encouragement; grace to be patient with the faults of others. Grace to confess our faults that we may be healed.

The Bible tells us very clearly how to obtain this grace. "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)