Post by Katie on May 27, 2010 14:39:30 GMT -6
Dr. Duvall says, "Gathering with other believers to worship is crucial to a healthy spiritual life, but we worship primarily by how we live. The habit of whole-life worship nurtures in us the character quality of purity-- living a holy life in public and private that honors God."
God is so very different from everything we really know. God is separate and distinct. This "separateness" is what we call "holy." God defines holiness. In the Old Testament you find God being called "Holy One" and people, place and things being holy because of contact with Him. We, as God's people, are holy because we belong to God. God is in believers because His Holy Spirit is in us. We are holy in this way, and God commands us to be holy.
Here is what C.S. Lewis has to say about holiness.
"Perfect chastity [purity]... will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again... We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other hand, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection." --C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Discussion Questions:
1) What is "holiness" to you?
2) Do you think it is fair for God to command us to be holy?
3) How are we supposed to go about becoming "holy"?
God is so very different from everything we really know. God is separate and distinct. This "separateness" is what we call "holy." God defines holiness. In the Old Testament you find God being called "Holy One" and people, place and things being holy because of contact with Him. We, as God's people, are holy because we belong to God. God is in believers because His Holy Spirit is in us. We are holy in this way, and God commands us to be holy.
Here is what C.S. Lewis has to say about holiness.
"Perfect chastity [purity]... will not be attained by any merely human efforts. You must ask for God's help. Even when you have done so, it may seem to you for a long time that no help, or less help than you need, is being given. Never mind. After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again... We learn, on the one hand, that we cannot trust ourselves even in our best moments, and, on the other hand, that we need not despair even in our worst, for our failures are forgiven. The only fatal thing is to sit down content with anything less than perfection." --C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Discussion Questions:
1) What is "holiness" to you?
2) Do you think it is fair for God to command us to be holy?
3) How are we supposed to go about becoming "holy"?