Being set apart
Christ calls us to be holy. We cannot manufacture holiness on our own. No way, no how. There is no action, no mantra, no position, no words, no anything that can make us holy. So why would Jesus tell us to be something that we cannot be? Enter Holy Spirit. To be holy means to be set apart. But how? For whom? For what? Set apart can mean, for some, to be separate from the world, separate from others; kind of like being an oddball, a square peg in a round-hole world. But Jesus was not a recluse and He was entirely holy. Jesus was engaged in teaching, healing, performing miracles, eating, drinking, "doing life," as we call it these days, fully and completely. But it was never an outside-in job. He was acting from the Spirit of God in Him, inside-out. Christians can be tempted to think that acquiring holiness is something they need to "do" on the outside, like give up something (sinful habits), or do certain things more (go to church more). Bu...
