Set Apart for God

God wants us to be Holy in this world and happy in the next, but our own selfishness wants to be happy in this world and Holy later

Source: ConexionChurch

As a Fellowship we read three chapters of the Bible each day and we recently completed reading the Book of Leviticus which looks at the Holiness of God (If you would like to join in reading the three chapters a day you can find them on our MCF Website (link). God’s Holy Love is so great that He hates sin which is an abomination before Him. The sinfulness of man not only pollutes clean things, but it also profanes Holy things.

Leviticus 20:26 tells us ‘you must be Holy because I, the Lord am Holy. I have set you apart from all other people to be my very own’. When I read this I paused and spent some time praying to God. I asked God; ‘is it possible for humans to be Holy when living in this sinful, carnal flesh?’ This was a sincere question given that In John 2:24 it tells us that even Jesus did not trust human nature. The scripture that came to mind following my time of prayer was Zechariah 4:6 ‘………but not by power nor by might, but by my Spirit’. As I studied some more it become very clear that God expects His Children, the people He has liberated by the Power of the Holy Spirit to be like Him and not like those of the world. In 1 John 2:15-16 it says ‘do not love the world or the things of it……’ and then in James 4:4 ‘you adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God’.

Source: LDS.org

Leviticus points towards the fullness of Christ and His Sacrifice, once and for all. Through Jesus, God provided a way of cleansing the sin from mankind. However, Hebrews 10:26-31 warns us to stop deliberately sinning. Hebrews 10:29 states; ‘just to think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God……..’. Deliberate, disobedient sin for those who have claimed Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is a very serious matter. When Jesus caught the woman in adultery He said to her ‘…..go  and sin NO more!’ (John 8-11). As God’s Holy vessels here on earth we come against deliberate disobedient sins such as; selfishness (we are to die to self), same sex marriages, sex outside of marriage, masturbation, looking at pornography, unforgiveness, jealousy, arrogance….. and so on.

Jude 1:22-23 tells us that we must show mercy to those whose faith is wavering but we must hate the sins that contaminate their lives. The Christian walk is a life of sacrifice, we live in this world but we are not of it (John 15:19) in fact 2 Corinthians 4:4 reminds us that satan is the God of this world. In Genesis 4:7 God warns Cain ‘….. you will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse then watch out! Sin is crouching at your door eager to control you but you must subdue it and be its master’. The world’s pleasure must not be our goal in life, our goal is to worship God and to live our lives as light. We are Ambassadors of Christ’s Kingdom, we are Princes and Princesses.

God wants us to be Holy in this world and happy in the next, but our own selfishness wants to be happy in this world and Holy later. A Godly life has to be through and through or it is not Godly at all. This life is a preparation for our life in heaven, this world is not our permanent home ….(Hebrews 13:14).

Father God in the name of Jesus of Nazareth and through the Holy Spirit we ask you to help us to understand that being good is not good enough, we are to be holy and set apart, for your Kingdom, for your Glory and for your honour, help us in freedom to choose not to sin this day we pray, Amen.

Author: Anonymous

May God bless and enrich your life

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