Love is the Inevitable Result of Purity
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” – 1 Peter 1:22-23 1 Peter […]
Holiness and Low Church
In the Old Testament there were all sorts of reminders of God’s holiness and his holy requirements for his people. There were holy places and spaces…holy things and holy people. The temple was holy and so were parts of the temple like the altar. The priestly garments were holy as were the priests themselves. Then […]
The Tension Between Holiness and Grace in Both Testaments
We are studying Judges on Sunday morning. What a train wreck. The people are worshipping idols. They have turned from God…until life gets tough and then they repent…but only until life gets good and then they turn from God again. What makes matters even more tricky is that their deliverers are also often less than […]
Holy
People usually define holiness as being set apart. The more I study holiness I see the set apart piece as more the result of holiness than the definition of holiness. It is like equating a car with the road. Cars are meant to be on roads but cars aren’t the road. Holiness is sacred. It […]
The Sacred and the Secular
In the Old Testament there was a view that things fell into one of two categories. Either it was sacred or it was secular, holy or profane. Those categories did not mean things were either good or evil but that they were either set apart for special purposes or that they were ordinary or common. […]