October 13, 2021
Greetings and blessings to all of you. God told us in II Cor. 6:17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate.” God told the Israelites after coming out of Egypt in Lev.20:8 “Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord who makes you holy.” Why did the Lord tell this to the people? Leviticus is a manual of regulations that God, the holy King, had given to the people of his kingdom for setting up his earthly throne among them. It explains how the Israelites are to be the Lord’s Holy people and are to worship him in a holy manner for His purpose, His service and His glory. Why did God tell you and I this? The Lord wanted to establish us as his holy people and to instruct us in holiness when we were Born Again and we dedicated our lives to be “followers of Christ”. When we think of “holiness” we think “I don’t smoke, drink, dirty dance, etc.” We then become modern day Pharisees. That sect in Jesus’s time had an endless list of do’s and don’ts including a self-righteous attitude. They also included a particular set of dress and mannerism…alluding to unattainable perfection causing those who admire them to become discouraged and feeling hopeless. For us today to live a holy life is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. In Eph 4:22,24 God told us to “to put off your old self which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires to be made new in the attitude of your minds and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” In Rev. 18:4, God said, “Come out of her my people so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues… for her sins are piled up to heaven and God has remembered her crimes”. In I Cor. 15:33, “bad company corrupts good character. Come back to your senses as you ought and stop sinning for there are some ignorant of God. Our nation does not want anything to do with His values. Our nation does not accept the truth that God is holy and that He requires us to be holy. We cannot be part of the secularism (world’s viewpoint) that wants us to adapt to the character and behavior pattern of “the world”…so God says to come out from among them and be ye holy. Know this… every time we sin, we are doing something God hates.
With the Love of Christ
First Lady Vivian C. Currie
Pastor ALC