(UPDATED: Oct 28, 2009, originally published Jul 4, 2008)

There is a tremendous disparity in our understanding of the doctrine of holiness and/or sanctification.

The definition of those terms is a matter of debate among many teachers and preachers. It is also one of the primary differences between some major denominations.

Many people today believe that no one can be holy except God Himself. I have heard people “quote” the Bible as saying that. However, the Scripture they think they are quoting is not found in any Bible that I have ever read. The nearest that I have found to such a statement is Luke 18:19 where Jesus asked, “‘Why do you call me good?’ …. ‘No-one is good— except God alone.‘” But this speaks of “good” — not “holy.” And even the statement of “good” is not to be taken literally – Jesus taught that true disciples would be “GOOD and faithful servant[s]” (Mat 25:21).

Still others understand holiness as the elimination of all sin in our lives. When I first joined the Church of God (in 1968) that was the prevailing belief about holiness. We were taught that “Christians do not commit sin.” The problem with that concept was that each of us (without voicing it) realized that we were failing in that area. The reality is that we DO fail God – even to the point of sin. But even frail, failing humans like us can still be holy. Read the rest of this entry »

Evangelist & short-term missionary George (TC) Wells was our special guest today at Agape’ Fellowship. He spoke to our congregation on “worship” and it was good.

Real worship is sometimes defined as setting our entire focus on God. When one is in true worship, all other interests fall by the wayside – only our communion with God is important. (I will deal with the matter of “focus” in a later article.)

There were several other significant points that TC presented concerning true worship:

• It is bound in sincere humility before God
• It requires us to be in total submission to God
• It is linked to a deep reverence & awe of our God
• It cannot happen in the absence of unquestioning love for God

I believe that it is very significant that Bishop Isaacs posted an article on “Genuine Humility” in the previous article! Perhaps our Father is trying to tell us something? Pride (spiritual and all of the other iterations) is rampant in our society today. And the Scripture advises us that it is a precursor to destruction: Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

Listen to the podcast below:

[podcast]080622_TC_Humility.mp3[/podcast]