2010

It's a new year. A new chapter of my life. As I sat on my couch not feeling the greatest last night I was thinking about 2009. I tried to come up with one word that would sum up that year. Quite sadly, the biggest thing I thought of was, "stats class." This year I strive for more. This year I dub the year of pursuing holiness.

I've taken a couple of sign language classes and the word holy in sign language is two different words combined. They were a modified version of the sign for good and then the sign for clean. I loved taking sign language because you get such a beautiful picture when you know how each of the signs are made.

Holy. Good. Clean. And is that not what I have been called to? "But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct. For it is written, 'Be holy for I am holy.'" 1 Peter 1:15-16

It has been on my mind a lot lately, this idea that there is such a thing as being "to pure" or "to holy." On the one hand, you do not want your desire for purity and holiness to become legalistic, however, on the other hand when our ultimate goal is to be as the Father can you ever really be "to holy?"

I think that often times I look at the bar that the world has set and I hover right above that bar. I then feel good about myself, because look, I'm not where they are. Then I look up. Way up. And I see the bar that God has set. And I realize that I had it wrong all along. The goal is not to stay hovering above the worlds bar. The goal is to be climbing, stretching, reaching, constantly to be as close to God's bar as I can be. Will I ever get there? No, not in this life time. I am human. I err. God does not. Does that mean I shouldn't try? No. I need to strive, to reach, to stretch, to grow.

So this year I pursue holiness.

Holy: in the way that I use my money. "Then you shall say before the Lord yoru God, 'I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandments which you have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them." Deut 26:13

Holy: in my mind and thought. "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:1-2

Holy: in my interactions with my boyfriend. "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Cor 6:18-20

Holy: before God. "just as He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love..." Ephesians 1:4

Holy: in my actions. "As obediant children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance, but as He who called you is Holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, 'Be holy for I am holy.'" 1 Peter 1:14-16

Our Bible study is going throught the book, "The Pursuit of Holiness" and I highly recomend it.

Join me, will you, in pursuing holiness this year?