The word holy seems to have a stigma to it.  Who wants to be holy?  How self righteous for somebody to want to be holy!  Do you ever think of yourself as holy?  See what I mean.

But yet God is holy.  That is one of God's attributes.  And God calls us to be holy.  "Be holy because I am holy."  Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter 1:14-16.  It's an imperative, a command.  It's not optional hardware for us "jars of clay!"  

Our study will get into what it means to be holy and how that's possible because of our  relationship with God and the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.  The apostle Paul tells us it is our responsibility (a duty!) to choose to live according to our "higher nature" in Christ and deny our sinful nature.  We have a sinful nature.  But we have the calling, duty, and power in Christ to choose to live a holy life over against a sinful one.  We seem to always stumble and fall because of our sins.  Yet it's the struggle we are called to engage:  picking ourself up after we sin and fall and "falling forward" time and time again as we travel homeward bound.

Here's the good news.  All along the journey, as we stumble, fall, get back up and move forward, we are being transformed into the very image and likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Paul puts it this way, "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes  from the Lord, the Spirit."  2 Cor. 3:18. 

That is awfully good news! Think on that for a while.  Through our relationship with the living Word, as we respond to God's grace in obedience, we are being transformed into his image, into God's holiness.  It's our calling.  It's our duty.

Well, holy ones, have a blessed gathering with your Life Group.

Blessings,

Pastor Michael