I recommend The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. I first read this book in high school and it helped me take active steps toward being holy. Now I am encouraging my high school students to read it and praying it will do the same for them.
Hebrews 12:14 - Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
Verses like this make it very clear we should be striving for holiness. Sadly, many Christians don’t seem to be making much effort at all. I constantly hear about how it seems like an unattainable standard. After all, we are only human. Here’s one way that Bridges addresses this issue:
“But God demands more than that we acknowledge His holiness. He says to us, “Be holy because I am holy.” God rightfully demands perfect holiness in all of His moral creatures. It cannot be otherwise. He cannot possibly ignore or approve of any evil committed. He cannot for one moment relax His perfect standard of holiness. Rather He must say, as He does say, “So be holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15, emphasis added).”
As Christians, we refer to God as our Heavenly Father. Usually we associate this with his love and kindness. But 1 Peter 1:14 says that we should be obedient children. If he is our father, then we should do what he says. We should want to be like him. In this case, that means following the example of his holiness and pursuing it ourselves.
I know that as long as we are alive, our sanctification will be a fight, but we need to be fighting. The question we need to ask ourselves is “What am I doing today to be holy?” Like it says in 1 Timothy 4:7-8 we need to train ourselves to be godly. As athletes are committed to exercise, so we need to be working out our salvation in practical ways.
Reading The Pursuit of Holiness will get you headed in the direction of being holy. If you need a copy I have a few in my office or you can get it at the bookstore at church.
Let me know what you think about the book and what you are doing today to be holy like our Heavenly Father is!
I enjoy reading the book! Thanks for giving us high schoolers some copies of it!
Its a great book! Each chapter helps me to practically seek out aspects of my life that are in sin, starting with the heart, and destroy them in obedience to God. Thanks for the book!
This book teaches so many good things, and practical things to put into practice. Its a great book!
This is one of my top ten book recommendations! I have read it a few times and have been both challenged and encouraged in my own pursuit of Him. Pursuing holiness for the Christian is not an option but rather a command that we see throughout all of the old and new testaments, it is the standard we are measured up against! Bridges does a great job at giving practical applications as well as beneficial exhortation in order to help each reader more effectively pursue holiness!
So how am I personally pursuing holiness? Well, I have resolved to actively fight sin specifically! I think often times we repent of “sin” on a general broad scale as opposed to specifically identifying with the actual sins in our lives and seeking to put them off and put on godliness in those areas. It is only through Christ’s strength that we can do this (Phil 4:13).
The standard is high but may we strive for Christ-likeness in all things!!!
Great Book!!! im enjoying reading it…even tho i forgot that 1 week haha(but i paid 4 it with laps:) )
Thanks Pastor Bobby for encouraging us all to holiness…how rare this is in churches today…..good to hear it being encouraged with the youth and us all. Yes ….its a good book on holiness… I like Jerry Bridges writing… he is a practical in holiness author, and I appreciate this book as a reminder to what God calls each of us too….being sanctified in His truth…for His Word is truth.
another Jerry Bridges book we just got in the bookstore that I just finished he writes with Bob Bevington is The Bookends of the Christian life…speaks about salvation and sanctification( leaning on the second bookend). One of my favorite books is Spurgeon on Holiness in the Life of the Believer…good reminders…good summer reading when there is time …thanks for the blog…holiness is the desire of my heart……
So far (I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more) I’ve learned that because of Christ’s blood we are holy. Chapters 2 and 4 have shown me that #1 God is EXTREMELY holy (I knew this but now I KNOW this) and #2 Christ’s perfect sacrifice atoned for our sins so we can be holy and therefore we are called to be holy. This means that any sin I commit is like we learned in teen ministers last time: a choice. That is very easy to understand but very hard to grasp because I knowingly sin and I don’t want to. So this book has definitely helped me in my personal holiness: bringing things to my attention, helping me say no to some “acceptable” sins, helping me greatly with my personal struggles, and allowing me to grow in my faith. This is by far one of the greatest books I have ever read (probably second to the Bible) being enjoyable, convicting, and very easy to understand. I recommended praying to God for understanding and the revealing of sins before you read chapters 7 and 8.
I like this book. It has showed me we must fight sin and strive to live a holy life. It is not going to be easy but God is on our side.
Like everyone else has said this book is the bomb. It is extremely practical and Jerry Bridges does a great job of explaining our responsibiblty in holiness. Some ways that I am pursuing holiness are staying in the Bible everyday and making flash cards of verses that are of specific importance in my fight against disobedience!