Scripture

Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.

~1 Peter 1:14-15, NLT

Quote

God has wired us in such a way that the more holy we are, the more we actually enjoy life.

~Bill Hybels

The LORD said through Moses  in Leviticus 20:7, “You must be holy because I am holy.” Many years ago I had a young person come to me confessing that she wanted a change in husbands. Her argument was, “I am not happy and I believe God wants me to be happy.” I quoted Leviticus 20:7 which the Apostle Peter quotes in his epistle. I told her, “There is no verse where God says, “Be ye happy, for I am happy.” I have to admit that God is a happy God. He is the source of all joy. But we cannot get happiness by pleasing our self or our flesh. The way to happiness is holiness. I know, it sounds crazy, but it is true. One of the problems is our definition of holiness. Most people associate holiness with religion and the more religious we are, the holier we are, but fanatical religious zealots are never happy people. They are proud, concreted, priggish and anything but happy. They live up to a standard but it is a religious standard. They cannot afford to be honest; that would hurt their reputation, so they live a life of pretense and this make joy impossible. The worry constantly about what people think of them.

Holiness has nothing to do with religion, wearing long skirts or pants to keep all the flesh covered; or wearing your hair in a bun with no make-up {speaking to the ladies}; or even avid worship attendance; or even tithing. Holiness is transparency. Holiness is real. It does not pretend. Holiness is honesty: telling and living the truth. It does manifest itself in our behavior but it has to be motivated by God’s lavish grace. It will not tempt or seduce others to sin. All women should dress modestly but not because I say so. They should have no desire to create temptation toward lust. This does not mean that they should wear sweat pants or mumu’s with cold cream on their face. In my opinion, sweat pants should be outlawed. Christian women should not dress to excite men. A good man is more impressed with modesty than with lewdness. Why should a woman want to attack a man who has no character? As a renowned preacher, a legend in his own mind, once told me, “Honey attracts more flies than vinegar.” Maybe so, but who wants to attract flies? Revealing apparel with certainly get the men’s attention, but not their admiration.

When we live to please Jesus, He blesses us in ways we can understand or even describe. As a nineteen year old, I don’t think anyone could have convinced me that true holiness would be more fun that playing basketball or football, but there again, I did not understand the true nature of holiness. Today, I prefer holiness over all sports.  Holiness is actually becoming who God created you to be. It beats the devil out of pretending to be something you are not. People who pretend live with the constant fear of being found out.

Extra

Hey, I digressed today. I started out with one thing in mind and then went in another direction. I started to go back and erase the second paragraph because every woman who reads this blog is modest in their dress. The point is, don’t misunderstand holiness, it is not being prude or lewd, but being who Christ wants us to be.

Absolutely gorgeous weather. The heat has brought our corn out of the ground. We have four rows up and our potatoes are growing like weeds. Our greens are ready to harvest. We could use a little rain but we are not hurting. The ditches are still too wet to mow and I hate weed eating.

Have a good day and thanks for reading the blog.

Ken Nelson is better but still not out of the woods. Melanie Mitchell cell implant went well.