It was so great to meet together Wednesday night, I'm excited that so many of you are taking this journey with me this summer! I hope you liked the first night of our study, "Living Like You Belong To God." I think it will be a great six weeks! True holiness is the key to true happiness, so I'm excited to dive in!
I have set up an email list for prayer requests and other messages that need to go out. If you have not received an email yet, and you are in our class and would like too, please email me at katew806@hotmail.com and I will get you on the list!
Here is a quick look at what we discussed in week one.
This first week of study we focused on "A God Who Separates Light from Darkness." We saw that God separated the light from the darkness in Genesis 1:4, and that spiritually speaking He has been doing that ever since. I challenged us to examine our lives this week and think about the areas that were most light and most dark in our lives.
We saw that what distinguished Israel from all the other nations was that God was going with them (Exodus 33:15-16). So what about you, what distinguishes you from the world around you?
We saw in Leviticus 10:1-5 that Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered up strange fire to the Lord. God was not pleased with their worship and they died. In this context holy means to be set apart from the common and to be treated with great respect. The priests treated God as common and with great disrespect. Do we at times treat our role as a holy person, bought with a price (the price of the blood of Jesus), as common and with disrespect on occasion?
We saw that in 1 Peter 1: 14-16 "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,
15but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;
16because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY."
The way we handle these truths affects our representation of Jesus in the world! Is your holiness clearly visible to a dark world? I made this cake on Tuesday. It was very pretty, but did not have much flavor (so I won't be recommending this recipe). However, when I made it, it made me think about our lives and holiness. You see before I cut into this cake, it looked like any other cake with buttercream icing. You couldn't tell what was special about this cake. From the outside, there was nothing that would distinguish this cake from any other cake. However, when you cut into it the beautiful colors were displayed for all to see. Are you like this cake? From the outside do you look like everyone else in the world, blending in so no one can tell there is anything different about you? Or are you displaying the beauty of Jesus in you for all the world to see?
Please feel free to continue the discussion we had the other night right here on the blog. Comment below if you have anything you would like to add or discuss!
I cant' wait to see you all back next week as we talk about belonging to a Holy God!