Colossians 1:21-22 “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him,”

Solid Christians today do not speak or think much of the idea of personal holiness. After all, no one can be truly holy because only God can be perfectly holy. We say things such as “God has made me holy when He saved me.” What we often times forget that although God is sharing His holiness with us, we are now called as well to do our best to live a life of personal holiness. His sacrifice for us gave us the opportunity to start fresh in our walk, blameless and sinless, holy to Him. 1 Peter says it well “As obedient children,do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, 'You shall be holy, for I am holy.' ”

In Leviticus 11:45, God reminds us that He saved us from our slavery. Just as the people of Israel were enslaved to the Egyptians, we were enslaved to sin. “For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” The writer of Leviticus then continues on in verse 19:2 “Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” This was again to remind them that God wanted them to be set apart and that since He was holy, they were to be holy. They were to remember that they were no longer enslaved. He wants us to remember that we are no longer bound in sin and the world and that we should live a life entirely dedicated to Him.

A life of personal holiness does not make us 'holier than thou.' We are warned repeatedly of turning into pharisees with our words and our actions,but instead we are told that we need to be as Christ and walk in His sandals. Rather than acting all holy like the pharisees did and becoming modern versions of them, we are to be like Christ and feed the hungry, aid the poor, intercede for the the fallen, encourage the downcast, mourn with the sorrowful and rejoice with the blessed, even fellowship with the lost and the sinful (gasp!). The thing about personal holiness is that it is an internal affair instead of being external actions. Being holy on the inside makes you holy on the outside. Acting holy on the outside is just like trying to use cologne to cover the stench of not having showered in months – it ends up irritating everyone who smells you. Your outward holiness drives people away from the cross, while your inward holiness will attract them (first to you and then to Christ). Personal holiness is not bragging about going to bible study, or speaking of how you can't go out with your friends to that party because you have to get up and do your devotions. Personal holiness is going to the bible study without talking about it and getting up early for your devotions without complaining or making excuses to your friends. Personal holiness is living in humility and in constant dependence on God. It is praying for your friends and being a living witness to them despite the problems it causes you.

We are called to consecrate ourselves and be holy, because God is holy. (Lev 20:7) Because we are called to a holy calling (2 Timothy 1:9) we must hold ourselves to the highest standard in our pursuit of Christ-likeness. We do not do this out of selfish ambition or vain pursuit, but rather out of love and respect for our Saviour and Redeemer. We must take every care to hold ourselves to the standard of Christ while not judging those who don't. Remember that in the end, your relationship with God is between Him and you and no one else.

Father God, here is my life. Take it and make it holy. Take it and purify it. All there is in my life that is not pleasing to you please remove it and get rid of it. Lord I desire to be entirely yours. Make me a pleasing aroma to you. Help me to be holy because you are holy. Enable me to let your righteousness abide in me! Amen.

Revelation 3:19 “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

Have you ever been around someone who was never disciplined as a child? They are spoiled and rotten. They have no clue about what normal life is like and they have never learned how to deal with not having their own way. When problems come they seem surprised that anything should happen to them; they cannot accept the consequence of their own actions!

When I was in school, the consequence of not studying for a quiz usually meant that I did not do very well on that quiz. At work when I did not totally follow the paperwork, I screwed up and and had to get help to redo what I had messed up. I learned through the consequences of my actions. I, however, do not want to suffer the consequences of my sin. Eternal death and everlasting separation from God is more terrible than anything else that I could imagine. Fortunately for me, Christ decided to pay my penalty for me, and that made me Gods. Because I am now God's everything I do reflects on Him. When what I do does not follow His laws for my life, His decisions, or goes against Him, He loves me enough that He punishes me to drive the lesson home. He doesn't want any spoiled brats in His house. God wants all of us to be responsible and upright. On our own power we can never be righteous, but because Christ gave us His, we are holy. Do we zealously pursue uprightness then? Do we strive to please God?

We should not pursue uprightness and strive to please God because we have no desire to be punished, but instead because we love Him more than anything. I want to be grieved by sin – any sin- because it grieves God. I want to be brokenhearted because people reject Him, I want to rejoice because someone has chosen God above everything else in this world. I also would like for this to be a world-wide phenomenon among Christians. Imagine if your heart broke, not because you saw hungry children crying for food, but because you saw people ignoring God's pleas for loving your neighbor. Imagine you crying your eyes out because you heard a man blaspheme God's name and you were sorrowful for God and pitied the man who blasphemed. Imagine that you just ran up and hugged a man – dirt, sweaty, and raggedy though he is - because he was just lead to Christ. Just imagine how your life will change once you no longer fear God's discipline, but rather you love him more for the correction and you can turn around and share God's heart for this world!

The voice of God is calling
its summons in our day;
Isaiah heard in Zion,
and we now hear God say:
"Whom shall I send to succor
my people in their need?
Whom shall I send to loosen
the bonds of shame and greed?"

We heed, O Lord, your summons,
and answer: Here are we!
Send us upon your errand,
let us your servants be.
Our strength is dust and ashes,
our years a passing hour;
but you can use our weakness
to magnify your power.

2 cor 13:4 "For He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are also are weak in Him, but in dealing with you we will live with Him by the power of God."

I seek after Christ and I desire to be like Him. He is my example for life and behavior (and everything else). Do you remember back in elementary school? Do you remember that boy who was good at sports or the one who got good grades that you admired? Do you remember that you tried to act like them? You dressed how they dressed, you tried to walk how they walked, and you tried to speak like they spoke. In the end it was utterly pointless though; every year there was someone new to be like because the old person had somehow let you down. Well, we as believers do the same with Christ. No, we do not have to dress like He dressed and we don't have to talk with the same accent He spoke with. We do not need to ever even raise someone from the dead just to know that We are truly pursuing a life of Christ=likeness. We do not even have to be crucified physically to be like Christ. We do need to love Him and follow His examples though.

To love God and to seek His heart, to search for His Will, and to pursue being like Christ in attitude and personality is to remember the ultimate expression of Christ's love for us. Remember that He died in the most gruesome way possible because He loved you. He knew that his forfeiture would redeem us, but only at the greatest price - God turned His back on Jesus because at that very moment Jesus became the most sinful person the world had ever seen (it wasn't too hard since at that moment he became the only sinful person in the world). When He rose from the dead, He turned the world upside down and He rejoined God.

We do not have the strength Christ had, but we do have Christ. We do not have the will Christ had, but we do have Christ. We do not have the knowledge Christ had, but we do have Christ. We have Christ and that has made all the difference. It is through His strength that we live now. It is Him who has enabled and aides us to imitate Him. It is His power alone that draws us closer. It is not enough for us to just say thanks, however. We should be so thankful that we actively run towards Him, that we pursue Him and that what He says is the most important thing in our lives. Remember that by the very power of God He lives and we too live with Him!

O Spirit of the living God,

thou light and fire divine,

descend upon thy church once more,

and make it truly thine.

Fill it with love and joy and power,

with righteousness and peace;

till Christ shall dwell in human hearts,

and sin and sorrow cease.

Hebrews 5:9 “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,”

Are you perfect? Think back on all the events of even this day and attempt to think if it was all perfectly done. I know I am not perfect, and there is no way that I can ever be perfect. I mess up at work, I mess up trying to clean the house, I even mess up writing these devotionals. I make mistake after mistake, error after error and I can not be perfect. Jesus, however, was perfect. He never stepped out of line. He never spoke out of turn. He always did what was right. He never disobeyed His earthly parents and He never led His disciples astray. He astounded all those who heard Him and for them to even find Him guilty of anything they had to falsify witness against Him.

Because of His perfection, He was able to take the burden of all our sin, all our mistakes, all our errors, and all our faults on Himself and He became the source of eternal salvation as well as the entry-point into our new life (and perpetual guide there). Because He was perfect, He took our imperfections and said that we are now perfect through Him.

Because of Christ's sharing with us His perfection, we are all now held up to His standard, rather than the normal standards of our friends, neighbors, and coworkers. Sadly, despite our best efforts we do not measure up to the Standard of Jesus, but His grace covers over our failures. We must be making the effort though. We must be striving and trying and fighting to meet the standard that He has put in place. God's glory shines brightly when we strive to the best of our strength to live up to that standard. His glory shines brighter when we fall short and fail but then we get back up, apologize to those who saw or know of our failure, and then try again.

Christ's perfection has become yours, are you working with all of who you are to meet the benchmarks that Christ has placed for us? I pray that in all I do that I endeavor to meet these standards and that in your daily life you do too.

Inspire the living faith
(which whosoe'er receive,
the witness in themselves they have
and consciously believe),
the faith that conquers all,
and doth the mountain move,
and saves whoe'er on Jesus call,
and perfects them in love.