Thoughts for another day

November 30, 2011

Today's verse: 1 Pet. 1:15.  But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; (NIV – copyright acknowledged)

(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

All these days, we've been reflecting on holiness: purity or righteousness, and you may wonder why?  Simple, God is holy and we need to be holy.  Holiness is so important to God that to indulge us in this fact, God sent His only begotten Son, not any representative nor an animal, to stand on our behalf, shed blood and pay the penalty for sin.  Sin is the cancer that eats at the substance of our relationship with God. 

Sadly, few preachers will declare that you need to repent and be changed for they fear the churches will be empty if they stress on it.  I may sympathize with them for the world is rife with sin (and I remember once I told a woman whose husband works away from home and she was entertaining another man, that it's wrong and from then she never spoke to me the way she did before) but then we need to ask ourselves, in whom is our trust, the Lord or the people?   Holiness is also a victim of the lack of faith in God for faith in a good and beautiful God will automatically lead us to holiness because when we realize who Jesus is, the burden that sin causes becomes too heavy on our hearts and we beg to God to take it away: consequently Grace flows in.

No matter if the message on holiness is dimmed and not there in our churches, we must practice it seriously for believe me, even if you do nothing else, you're home and dry if you keep yourself holy, for God will do everything else for you.  In this regard, didn't Jesus say, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you?' (Mt. 6:33).  My friend if you truly and sincerely want to follow God and make Him the blood in your veins, you need to be holy.  Our Scripture today exhorts us to be holy in all that we do for He is holy.  It will be difficult but struggle, for He who sees you struggling will lift you up, hug you tight and wipe the tears from your eyes.  What more could you possibly seek?