A trip to the store and fun finds 🔔 Set apart

  1 Thessalonians 4: 7 - 8

For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

   

The words in Scripture are not just words of advice.

Through His Word, God has revealed to us how we are expected to live.

The words of scripture are to be welcome by us.

And God has given us the map that directs our way home.

Yet often we treat the Bible as if it’s a book of suggestions with outdated ideas rather than life giving revelation from God.

When God says, you shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy in Leviticus 19:2, He is not speaking to the religious elite or to the Jews only. He is speaking to us.

God has NOT called us to live impure lives, but to walk in holiness, to be holy as He is holy.

We must not disregard or pick and choose from the Word of God what we will obey.  

God’s Word is working for us, not against us.

If we are willing to disregard even a portion of His Word… it’s is not the message we’re ignoring, it is the author.  We, are disregarding - God.

A.W. Tozer said [in part] that God's Holiness Is Unique: [that] Until we have seen ourselves as God sees us, we are not likely to be much disturbed over our condition (our sin) ... after all people have learned to live with unholiness and have come to look upon it as the natural and expected thing. Which is why we make the necessary laws to protect us from our fellow man.

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding”.

To fear God does not mean to be afraid of Him, but to have a reverential respect for His magnificent greatness and His unlimited authority. 

The Bible instructs us in Psalm 2: 11, “Serve the LORD with reverent fear, and rejoice with trembling”. We have been set apart by God to be holy.

We are not to be reflecting the opinions, characteristics or the attributes of this sinful world.

We are to reflect the beauty of His holiness.

The Lord clearly wants us to understand that He is holy and we must understand this before we can truly understand our need for the gospel.

When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, the holiness of God works in us, into our very being and we become sensitive to sin and learn to despise it as God does.

God’s holiness demands our devotion.  1 John 5:21 warns us, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts”.

And Holy living involves a daily decision to surrender to the lordship of Christ.

Isaiah 6:3 says: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.

Real worship only stems from an encounter with a holy, living God.  The Bible tells us to - "Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness"