What does being holy mean? it's not to do good things and refrain from bad things. Being holy means being separate.
Daniel chap 1. Daniel and his friends stood out, not because they didn't know the medical properties of wine or were uninformed about it's goodness. it's because they knew that the meat had been offered to pagans first. so they decided to stand different from the rest of the crowd. and God blessed them for that.
we live in a world that tries to unify people. unity in school with a uniform, in church, wherever we go, peace and tolerance is preached. understanding. sometimes even to the level of trying out these bad things. but as a Christian, there are certain things we shouldn't tolerate, stuff we should keep away from. we should stand up for our faith and what we believe in.
Faith that we get from hearing the Word of God, but how does it grow? By watching our parents. If we have Godly parents, we can imitate them and exercise our faith. So our first step should be praying for our folks.
The next step is a personal relationship with Christ. Not a uniform church we go to, not a ritual we follow, a PERSONAL God. He makes standing out in any crowd worthwhile.
NOT that it's going to be easy! Far from the contrary it's going to be so difficult! Daniel and the boys had every excuse. They were hungry in a strange country. It was the king's orders, how can you defy that? They were without their parents-- no one was watching them. But through it all, they practiced their faith and the deep relationship with their God would NOT allow them to eat the meat.
And their faith was tested many times: Daniel in the den of lions, the boys in the fiery furnace, yet they never backed down. They were always different, and they stuck with it.
Take a challenge to be holy and stick to it. It ain't gonna be easy, but when your relationship with your God is secure, it's soo worthwhile!
Daniel chap 1. Daniel and his friends stood out, not because they didn't know the medical properties of wine or were uninformed about it's goodness. it's because they knew that the meat had been offered to pagans first. so they decided to stand different from the rest of the crowd. and God blessed them for that.
we live in a world that tries to unify people. unity in school with a uniform, in church, wherever we go, peace and tolerance is preached. understanding. sometimes even to the level of trying out these bad things. but as a Christian, there are certain things we shouldn't tolerate, stuff we should keep away from. we should stand up for our faith and what we believe in.
Faith that we get from hearing the Word of God, but how does it grow? By watching our parents. If we have Godly parents, we can imitate them and exercise our faith. So our first step should be praying for our folks.
The next step is a personal relationship with Christ. Not a uniform church we go to, not a ritual we follow, a PERSONAL God. He makes standing out in any crowd worthwhile.
NOT that it's going to be easy! Far from the contrary it's going to be so difficult! Daniel and the boys had every excuse. They were hungry in a strange country. It was the king's orders, how can you defy that? They were without their parents-- no one was watching them. But through it all, they practiced their faith and the deep relationship with their God would NOT allow them to eat the meat.
And their faith was tested many times: Daniel in the den of lions, the boys in the fiery furnace, yet they never backed down. They were always different, and they stuck with it.
Take a challenge to be holy and stick to it. It ain't gonna be easy, but when your relationship with your God is secure, it's soo worthwhile!
