I author another blog called GIGATTAATTGIG -- God Is Good All The Time And All The Time God Is Good. Today, on this blog, I am writing to tell you that I am so very grateful that God is HOLY all the time and all the time God is HOLY!.
I began the year, on this blog, with the first theme entitled HOLY. On yesterdays post, I shared the amazing fact that all of the following words have the same Greek root word: holy, holiness, hallow, hallowed, consecrate, saint, sanctify, sanctification, and sanctuary. Did you know that the number one, most discussed, character trait of God in the Bible is HOLINESS???!!!??
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Today, I would like to share some of a journey of visual connections to HOLINESS that God has allowed me to see, since that first week of 2010.
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THE FINAL VISUAL OF HOLINESS was yesterday as I traveled to supervise one of my clinical practice students. I passed a housing development unlike most housing developments I've seen. The name caught my attention first. Then, the million dollar plus homes made me realize that this was no regular housing division.
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I began to envision THE HOLY CITY... and I realized that what I was seeing was nothing compared to my heavenly home. I drove back around and snapped this photo of the gates into the development:
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Revelation 21 (in part)
"I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Now the dwelling of God is with men,
and He will live with them.
They will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them and be their God.
He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
There will be no more death
or mourning or crying or pain..."
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My FEBRUARY VISUAL OF HOLINESS INCLUDES THESE 3 LITTLE GUYS: Born in February, my nephew Eric's, and his wife Lindsey's, new little one, Clayton...
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.... and my friends', Brenda and Matthew's, twins - Connor and Caleb.
We come into this world from God, pure and holy... sinless... Ephesians 1:4
"For He chose us in Him
before the creation of the world
to be holy and blameless in His sight..."
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My MARCH VISUALS OF HOLINESS come from this past Sunday's Bible class and sermon.
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In Bible class, we often provide opportunities for church family members to tell their "God stories". This quarter, our women are having a Bible class where we are going through the book of Colossians in a quarter as we follow the theme of Christ being "The One". Last Sunday, the topic was "THE ONE WHO FORGIVES MY SINS".
Sister "A" shared of years in prostitution before coming face to face with HOLINESS. Her "remembrance story" has become another visual for me of a HOLY GOD calling sinful people back to HOLINESS.
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The concept of this kind of story is summed up in Romans 6:
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"Just as you used to offer the parts of your body
in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness,
so now offer them in slavery to righteousness
leading to HOLINESS...
...But now that you have been set free from sin
and have become slaves to God,
the benefit you reap leads to HOLINESS,
and the result is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
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Steve's Sunday sermon included an example of a short tailed weasel. This little guy makes his home in places like Canada and Siberia. His coat changes colors with the seasons to be his camoflauge. In fact, his name changes, too. When he is white as snow, in the winter, he is called an Ermine.
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.When the snow is gone, his coat changes to brown. Then, he is called a Stoat.
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That so illustrates our challenge! Do we become like the world when we live in the world? Does the world change us or do we change our world?
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1 Peter 1:15-16 says,
"But just as He who called you is HOLY,
so be HOLY in all you do;
for it is written:
"Be HOLY, because I am HOLY."
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Hebrews 12:14-15 says,
"Make every effort
to live in peace with all men
and to be HOLY;
without HOLINESS no one will see the Lord."
.1 John 4:4-5 says,
"You, dear children, are from God
and have overcome them,
because the One who is in you
is greater than the one who is in the world."
God, thank you for the visuals! I get it!
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1. SANCTUARY: Your HOLY residence now and forever!
- 2 Corinthians 6:16-17 "For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord."
- Revelation 21:1-4 "I saw the HOLY City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God."
2. BABIES: You desire for us to be sinless... HOLY!
- 1 Peter 2:1-3 "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation..."
- Matthew 19:14-15 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
3. SIN = DEATH; NEW BIRTH=ETERNAL LIFE:
- 1 Peter 1:3-5 "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you..."
- Colossians 3:5-14 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator."
4. HOLY LIVING FOR GOD'S HOLY PEOPLE:
- Colossians 3:12-14 "Therefore, as God's chosen people, HOLY and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."
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