Just enough Holiness

 When I was growing up, I was taught "stay as far from sin as absolutely possible and as close to God as absolutely possible in order not to fall down the slope of sin." My parents never let me ask the question "what is wrong with that?"  They always combatted me with "But Megan, what's right with it?"

Lately, we are in the midst of such a culture that is a slippery slope. People in my generation love to dilly dally in sin. We focus on the grey areas of Scripture (which do those really exist?) and claim that we are totally fine as long as "Jesus is in our hearts." Or "we are covered by His grace and forgiveness." Y'all. Thats not how this works!!! 

I read a quote this week in light of some events in our community. It said this:

“I’ve never had a problem drinking alcohol socially but in the past year or so I’ve allowed myself to slide into, in my opinion, the overuse of alcohol."

This is where the entire problem in sin culture, grace-only culture Christianity. Sins come in a slow fade. I have no desire to argue drinking--whether it's right or wrong. I don't want to argue sexual conduct--where the line is. What I want to focus on is that we should stay as far from sin culture...as far from the edge of the slope as absolutely possible! 

Salvation comes by the love and grace of God. He welcomes us, junk and all, into His family and desires us to be part of His family. With that, comes becoming more like Christ! I could choose many Scriptures to back my point, but 1 Peter 1:16 sums it up in 6 words--"Be holy for I am holy!" Our goal isn't to be Saved and have as much worldly fun as possible. That shouldn't even be our heart's desire if we have truly been welcome into God's love and His family. Once we are enveloped into His family, His Spirit should be convicting us to change--to be Holy, like Christ and only Christ is holy!

Our pastor said this week, "I've met too many people who want juuuuuust enough Jesus to get into heaven but want to live their lives on their own here." What a wrong mentality!!! John 3:30 says "He must increase; I must decrease." Christ paid the price for our sin so that we can have freedom spiritually. Out of gratitude, out of respect, out of love--let us choose Him. Let us choose to be more like Him.