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Holiness of Life, May 14
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14
.
No one who claims holiness is really holy. Those who are registered
as holy in the books of heaven are not aware of the fact, and are the last
ones to boast of their own goodness.
It is not a conclusive evidence that a man is a Christian because he
manifests spiritual ecstasy under extraordinary circumstances. Holiness
is not rapture: it is an entire surrender of the will to God; it is living by
every word that proceeds from the mouth of God; it is doing the will of
our heavenly Father; it is trusting God in trial, in darkness as well as
in the light; it is walking by faith and not by sight; it is relying on God
with unquestioning confidence, and resting in His love.
No one can be omnipotent, but all can cleanse themselves from
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the
Lord. God requires every soul to be pure and holy. We have hereditary
tendencies to wrong. This is a part of self that no one need carry about.
It is a weakness of humanity to pet selfishness, because it is a natural
trait of character. But unless all selfishness is put away, unless self is
crucified, we can never be holy as God is holy. There is in humanity a
tendency to suspicious imagining, which circumstances quicken into
lively growth. If this trait is indulged, it spoils the character and ruins
the soul.
God requires moral perfection in all. Those who have been given
light and opportunities should, as God’s stewards, aim for perfection,
and never, never lower the standard of righteousness to accommodate
inherited and cultivated tendencies to wrong. Christ took upon Him our
human nature, and lived our life, to show us that we may be like Him....
We ought to be holy even as God is holy; and when we comprehend the
full significance of this statement, and set our heart to do the work of
God, to be holy as He is holy, we shall approach the standard set for
each individual in Christ Jesus.
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