How to be Free (2)
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Holiness
Holiness
Have you guys ever really blown it? Like really bad? I remember when I turned 16 I was so excited to drive. I had been given a car by a family friend. Nothing special, but man, it meant something. It meant freedom! The first day I had it I was out driving with one of my friends and we decided to head up to Clarkdale. I took the left by Chase and almost right away someone cut me off. I t-boned another car going about 35mph. Scared the crap out of me! Really scared the guy in the other car. And it sure as heck scared his dog in the passenger seat! Long story short, I had to get the whole front end of my car repaired.
Most of us have found ourselves in rough situations that we don’t know how to get out of. Sometimes it’s because of our bad decisions. Sometimes it’s not our fault at all, but we still feel dirty, wrong or like we messed up. We start to ask questions. Can we ever be free again? Will we ever be whole?
So prepare your minds for action and exercise self-control. Put all your hope in the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as “temporary residents.”
Being holy, sanctified, made clean and/or whole is something deep down most of us want. So what does it mean to be holy? The best way I can explain it is the sun. The sun is a good thing. But if you get too close it burns you. God’s holiness is like that. “There is no way I can ever make myself holy.” Thank you Lord it is not up to us. Jesus made a way for us to be holy! He lived a sinless life for us. Then He allowed Himself to be killed, sacrificed, for us to be made holy.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
“Once you had no identity as a people;
now you are God’s people.
Once you received no mercy;
now you have received God’s mercy.”
Holiness, being separated for God’s purpose, is something you need to fight for. It’s a sacrifice to live holy, but it is what God calls us to be. To be holy, to show others the goodness of God, there has to be something that makes you different than the world.
Am I like everyone around me?
2. Why am I trying so hard to fit in?
3. What is something I can do to be more like Jesus?
