Bruce Wilkinson - 30 Days to Discovering Personal Victory through Holiness: Thirty Leading Christian Authors Share Their Insights

30 DAYS TO DISCOVERING PERSONAL VICTORY THROUGH HOLINESS
published by Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

2003 by Walk Thru the Bible

Italics in Scripture are the authors emphasis.
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:
The Holy Bible, New King James Version 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Other Scripture quotations:
The Holy Bible, New International Version ( NIV ) 1973, 1984 by International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House
The Holy Bible, King James Version ( KJV )
New American Standard Bible ( NASB ) 1960, 1977 by the Lockman Foundation
The Living Bible ( TLB ) 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Revised Standard Version Bible ( RSV ) 1946, 1952 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America

Multnomah is a trademark of Multnomah Publishers, Inc., and is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The colophon is a trademark of Multnomah Publishers, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission.

For information:
MULTNOMAH PUBLISHERS, INC. P.O. BOX 1720 SISTERS, OR 97759

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

30 days to discovering personal victory through holiness / [compiled by Bruce Wilkinson].

p. cm.

eISBN: 978-0-307-56463-4

1 Holiness. 2. Spiritual lifeChristianity. I. Title: Thirty days to discovering personal victory through holiness. II. Wilkinson, Bruce.

BT767 A13 2003
248.4dc21
2002151076

v3.1

I f youre anything like me, sitting down to watch the evening news can be a grueling experience. Just the other day, in fact, it was reported that a five-year-old boy was gunned down in a drive-by shooting. What a tragedy!

But thats the reality of our world today: murders, drugs, bombings, rapes and other sexual crimes, domestic violence, and a myriad of similar problems.

Unfortunately, the evening news isnt the only place you hear about these things. Turn on the television during daytime or prime-time hours, and youll get a heavy dose of these issues acted out in front of you. Hilarious sitcoms and compelling dramas have subtly taught us the wrong way to deal with relationships, manage our money, place value on things, and evaluate what is right and wrong. Even the most mundane shows often teach inappropriate ideas and behavior.

Although TV is not the only culprit in our decaying society, our culture is more and more becoming a mirror image of what it sees on the screen.

But Christians are called to become more like Christ, not like the people we see on TV. First Peter 1:1516 commands us to be like Christ with these words: But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy.

The Bible clearly instructs us in this passage, as well as in many others, that we are to be holy. First be holy and then act holy.

Thats what this book is about: your personal holiness. Not when you are in heaven, or when you are ninety, but when youre in the prime of your lifelike you are right at this moment.

The thirty articles you are about to read are written by godly leaders who know what it means to follow Christ. They have taken the time to learn the difference between good and evil and are following the path of personal holiness.

Some of you may be saying that its too difficult, if not impossible, to become holy. It is true that the road is fraught with danger. Irresistible temptations stand between you and your goal of personal holiness.

But the good news is this: God doesnt expect you to do it on your own. His grace and the Holy Spirit will be right there with you, giving you the power to accomplish His will.

And with this book, youll also have the likes of Charles Swindoll, Tony Evans, and Max Lucado to walk with you and encourage you every day of the month.

May this book be an encouragement in your pilgrimage to personal holiness.

Bruce Wilkinson

If you desire Christ for a perpetual guest, give him all the keys of your heart; let not one cabinet be locked up from him; give him the range of every room and the key of every chamber.

C HARLES S PURGEON

Y ou were nervous, thats for sure. Who wouldnt be? In just a couple of moments, you were going to walk through that door and have one of the most important interviews of your lifefor the job youd always dreamed of. Clutched in one hand was your most updated rsum (just finished late last night) and, in the other hand, a few samples of your best work.

The interview seemed to be going well until the vice president asked you to list three or four words that best described who you were as a personoutside of work. What a curveball! What would you say about yourself? Then he showed you a couple of handwritten pages and smiled, saying he had just finished calling a number of your family members and friends and had asked them the same question.

Now think for a moment: What would your closest friends say about you on a personal basisand in only three or four words? Would any of them describe you with the word holy? Would you even have thought of that word? Holy seems like such a foreign wordmore for ministers, monks, missionaries, and martyrs. Not long ago, I asked a group of men this same question, and one man said he had never dreamed he could be a holy man.

Obviously there are some misconceptions about what it means to be holy. Scripture says that it is the will of God that you be holynot just your minister or that other guy, but you.

So what does it mean to be holy? Literally, the root of the word holy means to separate. For instance, if you were to cut a steak into two pieces and grill one part and save the other for another day, you would have made it holy in a general, nonreligious sense.

So the big idea of holiness includes the concept of separation. When something is separated, it is separated from something, as well as separated to something else. Take that steak again. When you cut it, you separated a piece from the whole, and then separated it