Saturday, March 2, 2013

Day 58: Significance of Holiness



Reading: Psalm 27:1-6

Worship Him for His Holiness
The holiness of The Lord comes with His many characteristics. Holiness is to be set apart, or separated. David shows just how holy God is in the first part of Psalm 27. We know from other readings that David has faced much opposition and attack in his life. Bit we read this Psalm and see how calm and worshipful he is, as he states in verse 3 that he is confident. Other versions say he is calm. He goes into the longing of wanting to dwell with The Lord and see Him in His glory. David knows how powerful worship is. When we take time to fully, deeply worship God, we can forget about our fears, problems and temptations, because we know how confident we can be in The Lord. David says the God will conceal him and hold him up when troubles come.
David expresses worship for the beauty of The Lord. When we think beauty, we may jump to outward appearance, but here we see a beauty through the holiness of God. Because of His holiness, we get to experience the beauty of being lifted from those distractions of life. Worship Him and pray the prayer that Psalm 27: 4 suggests.


Reading: Mark 9:33-10:12

Love a Life, Devoted to Holiness
We are called to live lives of holiness. We are not of this world, but we are in it, and the way we live will either reflect or reject a life of holiness. Jesus lists a few characteristics of a life devoted to holiness:

Humility- You've heard how important it is over and over. Jesus was serious about humility. In a world that doesn't practice humility often, we need to be a light in that aspect. When the disciples are arguing over who is the greatest among them, their humility probably needs to be checked. Don't let rivalry eat up your humility.

Love- Jesus demonstrated a great love for all. He shows us by accepting the little children and demanding we do the same. Jesus doesn't only show love for those who can give back to Him. He loves all for who they are. We are to follow this example with the people (and children) around us.

Tolerance- We read of an incident where the disciples tell Jesus they told someone to stop using His name because they weren't part of their group. Jesus then makes it very clear that we are to be tolerant and accepting of all other Christians, whether or not they come from our church, our denomination, or our organization. The high school cliques do not work here.

Discipline- Our tolerance for sin in our lives, however is unacceptable. Jesus tells the disciples that if anything causes sin, they are to cut it off. Though He didn't literally mean to hurt ourselves by cutting off our hands and other parts, but He is expressing how important it is to cut sin out of our life. If there is a group of friends that doesn't have the beat influence on you, and causes you to sin, perhaps you should find new people to hang out with. Be careful where you go, what you look at and what you say.

Peace- We are to strive for peace among each other. This doesn't mean conflict won't arise, but we are to handle it correctly, as we will read about later on this year. Jesus wanted His disciples to get along. When we have conflict within the church, it can take away from the bigger mission or vision that is trying to happen. We need to establish peace with each other so we can get to the important things in the church.

Faithfulness- Jesus speaks very highly and importantly of marriage, telling us that separation is wrong. There is a trait of faithfulness in one's life when they can be with the same person through it. God's intention for marriage is a life-long commitment. What He brings together shouldn't be broken.

As you can see, many of the above traits don't always align with the traits of our culture or world. We need to remember that we need to live lives of holiness, set apart for the work and lit of God, no matter how ridiculous it seems to those around us.


Reading: Leviticus 1:1-3:17

Be Holy Before God
As we start out in Leviticus, we can see how the people had to make themselves right before God. Though we no longer have to sacrifice animals, we can see how incredibly significant Jesus' death on the cross was for us. Every time someone sinned in the Old Testament, they had to sacrifice an animal. Now, when we sin, we ask forgiveness and because of the sacrifice made by Jesus long ago, we are set right with Him. We are called to have our lives right before God, setting ourselves apart from this world. When we mess up, we need to set it right. Be holy before God, and remember the sacrifice He made for us so we can be joined with Him again.


Holiness is a very important trait of God and His followers. We need to live in this world, set apart and shining for Him. May we worship Him for His holiness, live lives of holiness and make ourselves holy and right before Him.

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