HEBREWS 12:14 – Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

THEME OF THE DAY. WHAT ABOUT HOLINESS? Today’s nugget is going to consist of three questions about this nugget’s theme – holiness. No instructions today. Just a little self-evaluation along the lines of the most important thing in the Christian life – personal holiness.

First, when is the last time we read a book on biblical holiness? By the way, I was recently informed that 44% of Americans never read a single book in a year. That is serious, especially so for Christians since God gave us a book to know Him. But back to the first question . . . have we recently read anything about personal holiness? Not a book on being a better whoever, or developing a more consistent prayer life or anything else about the Christian life. A book on the chief mark that is to be in God’s children – holiness. If we haven’t, here is a recommendation – The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung. It is awesome.

Second question around today’s nugget theme – “Do we daily think about personal holiness?” Extremely important question because of today’s scripture. Holiness in the Christian is not optional. It is required and not just positionally by being in Christ. Holiness is to be a clear mark in our lives and developed throughout our lives. Holiness is to be noticeably progressive in the Christian life. This means we should see more and more holy traits in us which basically is becoming more and more like Jesus and less and less attached to the world. And it starts with thinking about holiness. The question again is, “How much of our thinking is centered on being what we are called to be – holy?” If holiness rarely comes into our minds, that means not much, if any, holiness is happening in our lives. And that should take us back to today’s scripture with some serious soul-searching – “without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”

My third question dealing with the theme of personal holiness is . . . “Are we a people who are purposefully, intentionally, and consistently taking active steps of self-restraint, self-control, and faith-acting obedience to God’s Word in the pursuit of personal holiness?” I am not referring to just saying no to things of the world and going through some rules keeping. Here is an excerpt from the book I recommended above along this line of thinking. Pastor DeYoung writes, “It’s all too easy to turn the fight of faith into sanctification-by-checklist. Take care of a few bad habits, develop a couple good ones, and you’re set. But a moral checklist doesn’t take into consideration the idols of the hearts. It may not even have the gospel as part of the equation. And inevitably, the checklist spirituality is highly selective. So you end up feeling successful at sanctification because you stayed away from drugs, lost weight, served at the soup kitchen, and renounced Styrofoam. But you’ve ignored gentleness, humility, joy, and sexual purity. God has not really gotten your heart. I could probably sell a lot of books if I demanded that Christians read their Bibles two hours a day, throw away their TV’s, sell their possessions, adopt three orphans, and move into a commune. We like getting lists. Some of us like getting beat up and then being told exactly what needs to be done to become a true spiritual giant. This sort of exhortation seems promising at first, but it proves ineffective in the long run. Mere rule keeping is not the answer because holiness cannot be reduced to a little ethical refurbishment.” Isn’t that good? The bottom line around this question is not about generating conduct around a to do or not to do list. Holiness is a heart issue. And the true pursuit of holiness is a flat-out daily war against the world of passions and the passions remaining in our heart. It is a sold-out effort daily to say “no” to the flesh, the cravings of our sinful desires, and to pursue a life of self-denying obedience with two purposes; to love our Holy God and become like our Holy God. To pursue holiness is to not allow one single God-dishonoring glance, desire, or thought to dwell within us. Oh, we cannot stop them from seeking entrance into our hearts, but we can refuse them lodging in our hearts.

So, what about personal holiness? Read any good books on the topic? Think about it much? Pursuing it daily? I hope so to all three. After all, holiness is the mark in God’s children.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see that salvation is a call to holiness and the evidence of my salvation will be my holiness.”

QUOTE: “Holiness is not about keeping God’s rules but living a life of love seeking conformity to Him who made the rules”