Your Adam and my Adam must be left in the middle of Jordan. Otherwise we cannot cross over to the land of promise. The pillar of twelve stones erected at Gilgal, on the west side of the Jordan, represents our new resurrection life in Jesus Christ. It is this new life that is the Kingdom of God. It is the new life that inherits all the promises of God.

Until you leave Adam in Jordan you cannot move past Pentecost in your spiritual experience.

At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again." (Joshua 5:2—NIV)

It is time for the new generation to be circumcised in heart.

I have been pastoring the same church for nearly a quarter of a century. During that time I have not talked much about holiness—a great deal about righteousness but not much about holiness.

Righteousness is our behavior toward people. Holiness is our behavior toward God.

Having come from a Pentecostal background we have seen the swing from "don't go to the movies; don't wear cosmetics; don't go to the beach"; and so forth to "anything goes because God looks on the heart and not on the outside."

It is time to bring the situation back into balance. God indeed does care whether we sit and watch movies in which there is profanity and references to sexual activity; whether we lie on the beach while all around us are exhibitions of near-nudity.

The catalyst at our assembly was the motion picture "The Titanic." It was pointed out to me that several of our young people had gone to watch this performance.

When I heard this I was upset. I went to the Lord. I said, "Is this an Ezra thing?"

The Lord answered, "Yes, it is an Ezra thing."

I asked, "How do you feel about this?"

The Lord responded, "If you are outraged, what do you think I am?"

Then the Lord added, "Tell the people that they can come and be cleansed, washing the dirt from their robes. If they do not repent, there is a price to pay."

Which I did, the following Sunday. You can get the tape (March 29, Sunday a.m., 1998) by writing or calling our church office.

The response was excellent. The people came to the altar and we prayed a prayer of confession, asking for forgiveness and renouncing profanity and the rest of the activity that fills the movies and the television.

Before the morning service I asked one of our older young people if there really were profanity, nudity, and allusions to sexual activity in the picture.

She said, "Yes."

I asked, "How did you feel about this?"

She responded, "It wasn't necessary. It didn't add anything to the picture."

I felt this was an excellent, intelligent response.

As I thought about it later I realized that Satan had employed an interesting subject to draw in Christian people so he could imprint their personalities with the profanity and other moral filth that are the delight of the demons.

To be continued.