Sunday 3 March 2019

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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4 comments:

  1. A very important reminder this morning that living for Jesus is not a part time 'job' but a full time gift. We must embrace this gift in order to be protected and to experience the fullness of God's Presence in our lives. Let us not throw this precious gift away through deliberate sin. Thank God that He gave us Jesus so that (in words of Wesley) I can 'boldly approach the eternal throne and claim my crown from Christ my own'. Thank you for the courage to write such a powerful message this morning. God bless.

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  2. Let us Love our Lord Jesus Christ more than ourselves or anything of this world , just has our Lord pursues us and is Faithful to us , let us be Faithful to him and continue to grow in his love and hate what is in this world that keeps us from Him . Thank you for this important blog today dear Sister in Christ xx

    Check out this wonderful poem by CT STUDD-----Only one life it soon will pass only whats done for Christ will last AMEN

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  3. God's timing is perfect, having just read Judges 17 before reading this blog and the heartbreaking scripture where God had left Sampson but Sampson did not even realise (Judges 16-20). Sampson was courageous before men but weak when it came to women.
    Job used great wisdom when he made a covenant with his eyes to not look with lust at a young woman (Job 31-1).
    I pray to never desire ANYTHING of this world. May the church have Spiritual eyes and ears this day I pray (Rev ch 2 and 3). God help us.
    All the Glory to God ALWAYS.

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  4. Thanks for the blog today which reminds us to set ourselves apart from the love of this world and look forward for our heavenly and be Holy let us be lead by the Holy spirit in our daily lives to keep us in the words of God may the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all Amen

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