A Holy Man
Uncle Cockie was a humble man, as we saw yesterday and he was also a holy man.
Somebody at the funeral said that at other funerals, you have to kind of embellish people's goodness to try and make them sound better than they were. But for Uncle Cockie, that was absolutely not the case. He truly lived a holy life, committed to God and honoring him in many ways.
Saint or Sinner?
Uncle Corky had a ministry called Golden Apple Ministries. He did a few little things on YouTube, and I'll share some of that with you through the week. But it started as a Facebook thing, and he would write short teachings and share them on Facebook. And on 23 July 2018 he wrote a piece on his Golden Apple page called “Saint or Sinner”. Let me read some of it to you.
“I have been born into this world a sinner, but I have been born again into the family of God. I cannot be a child of God and at the same time a child of the devil. Whenever I stumble and do wrong things, I have an advocate who pleads for me by the Father, and his Spirit teaches me to confess these sins and He's faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness” (that's from 1 John).
“That does not mean I go from sinner to saint and from saint to sinner and back and forth ten times a day. There is a vast difference between stumbling and willfully sinning and the Bible is very clear on the matter. Hebrews 6 warns us that it's possible to fall away from salvation and be lost.
Growing in our Faith
“Paul's great concern for the church was their failure to become mature in Christ. We all need to grow in knowledge of his will and wisdom and spiritual understanding so that we no longer remain babes in Christ.
“There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin in death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
This was his story. He was a man who didn't walk in sinful ways, but who walked in holiness, growing in grace as a saint. And that didn't mean that there weren't stumbling and mistakes, but that he knew the power over willful sin that Jesus had given him and he walked in that.
For me, I was so encouraged reading this and hearing how people could witness to the fact that this was true in his life. Let's remember that we are forgiven and cleansed so that we can live a life of godliness.
Many people saw it in him, and I hope many people will see it in a you and I today and every day.
