Start With A Consecrated Mind

Hi brethren, it’s been some time since we’ve met. I suppose there hasn’t been a more eventful year as 2020, and now we are at 2021 still engulfed in the pandemic. Now, it seems to me that the world is getting a little bit more hopeful with the coming of the vaccine. Yet, just as the world is beginning to applaud its invention and turn celebrative, let us be mindful to set our hearts and minds apart. 

In fact, there is nothing to celebrate about when we are living in a world of sins. Instead, the bible teaches us to be sober-minded, knowing what is to come. If our Lord Jesus is coming again for His bride, the work of the Anti-Christ precedes that. With events that frighten the world, and with false hopes that blind the world, it is critically important for the bride of Christ to stay pure, like a virgin devoted to the Lord and His word.

Now, with that, I like to encourage you with a verse with the coming of the New Year.

<1 Peter 1:13-16>

 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled (or: sober-minded), set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.”

If you notice, the keyword here that is repeated 4 times is the word “Holy”. Now, most people will misunderstand the word “holy” as being good, being kind, or being loving. As it is, a holy person does good works, he reads the Bible, he prays, he helps people. Yes, a holy person does that, but “holiness” in its primary meaning doesn’t just mean “good”. It has a deeper and more critical meaning to just being good. Holiness is about being “consecrated”, being “set apart” or “separated” from what is common, typical and ordinary.

As it is, God is holy.

So God is separated from all sins, infirmities, decay, which is intrinsically human. And as it is, God who is glorious, his glory is infinitely different from angels which are sinless and glorious being. As we’ve seen in <Isa 6>, angels who serve before Him, covered their face.

Why?

Because our God is too holy to behold!

And the bible tells us that the Holy God has called us, sinful men to His presence in Christ. I mean praise God for that. No one can aspire to be holy, or try to be holy, without God, who made us holy in Christ first. And being made holy in Christ is not just a feeling, not just a title, it has got to do with our living. It has got to do with the way we think, the way we feel, the way we make choices.

As the Lord said: Be holy in all you do.

Now my brethren, the world doesn’t understand holiness, for it has been defiled by sins. But it seems to me that believers nowadays understand very little about holiness. The church in fact doesn’t teach much about holiness nowadays. Rather it teaches a lot about love, about grace, about good works. And as a result of that, you will see that the love and good works advocated by believers nowadays lean towards humanity. It’s purely human. It’s mostly about helping people, respecting people, being socially responsible. I mean nothing wrong with that, but that’s not holiness per se. Because any defiled person, any person born in sins can do those things. If we are preaching about universal love, universal good works, we will slowly see holiness starts to erode in the church, and the church will slowly trade the values of Christ for the values of the world.

Now my brother and sister, what if God tells you: “Away with your humanness! Nothing in a human can please me! You are being made holy for God!”

Iif this doesn’t strike a chord with your Christian conscience, I don’t know what else would. As the world moves towards coexistence, or towards finding hope in medical science, let us understand that the pandemic is a consecrated period provided by the Lord. It’s a window of opportunity to set His people apart, and put in them a different hope in the Lord.

So, how to be holy?

The word says: Prepare your mind for action. Now, my brethren, don’t just have an abstract sense of holiness. Ask yourself my brethren, “What is the consecrated thing to do as a believer of God?” I would say, start going back to church, start reading the bible, and give your focus to His word. And I told my teenage kids at the beginning of this year, “If there is one thing you need to be consecrated this year, it’s how you use your cell phone. Either you get absorbed by it, let it consume your morning and your whole day, like every other teenager, or you know when and how to use it through the guidance of the Holy Spirit”.

And I say it’s a whole year lesson, but you must prepare your mind for such action. It’s not just knowing, but preparing your whole mind to act on it, and keep working on it again and again even if you fail for a start.

And then, with regards to “being holy”, the bible says: Be self-controlled (ESV: Be sober-minded). I love this translation more.

Now what it means by sober-minded?

The world today instills into us ideas, concepts, and views that are not of God. The social media consumes us with a fake sense of fun, hype and sensation. So I like you my brethren to be sober-minded, to be self-controlled, to not be carried away by what is temporal, changing or even unbiblical. As the bible says: “Do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance”. Let us be clear and consistent with what the Lord has reminded us from His word. And let us be sure that the Lord looks after and reward His faithful ones.

And before we end, just a side note, we just had a very thought-provoking international conference before the year ended in 2020. The messages could be found in [theblessedrun.sg]. I wish you a very blessed 2021.