Monday, February 2, 2009

holiness

Holiness. A scary word to some. Including myself. From my youth this word has reminded me that I am not good enough. I liked to dance and I listened to the wrong music.

I will have to find this quote, but I was reading last week and the author mentioned that holiness is simply learning to live a life void of self. "To give one's self away for the sake of Christ, to a world in need."

I love that idea, because I can see you all doing it, and I can see it happening in myself as well. It is a goal that we can pursue. It holds no guilt, just an invitation to live a caring Christian life in a manner that is relevant to the world around us.

Find some way to live outside of yourself today. Find some way to give your self away.

It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.

2 comments:

Dave Templeman said...

I've been studying Leviticus over the past 5 weeks. Leviticus is a book primarily describing the priesthood and sacrificial system. Holiness is the main theme of the book. Holy occurs more than 100 times in the pages of Leviticus.

Here's what I've learned about holiness this year. To be Holy the priests were given explicit instructions about how to approach God, how to cleanse themselves & how to perform the sacrificial offerings. Not following God's instructions held serious consequences (check out the story of Nadab & Abihu in Leviticus 10).

The headpiece of the chief priest was inscribed "Holy to the Lord". We are Holy because we are set apart for God. The Levites were specifically set apart to serve as Israel's mediator to God. Christ ended that - He is our great mediator and redeemer. We have been made "Holy to the Lord" through His spilled blood.

Much like salvation, we don't earn holiness - it is a gift given freely out of love to us by God. It is our responsiblity as followers of Christ to put on the new priestly garments (Ephesians 6:13-17) and live our lives for Him.

Anonymous said...

From my youth this word has reminded me that I am not good enough-----------



what you forgot that email I sent last year telling you you were good enough? :-)