I will share about Christian books I have read or listened to.
I will be sharing about my life before and after Christ. I will include stories about my pet and other pets I have encountered.
Set Apart
In modern language, "holy" often means something religious or spiritual. But in the Bible, “holy” simply means “set apart.” It means something (or someone) different and distinct from everything else.
God is unlike any other gods the nations knew. The Lord is holy and called His people to be distinct—or holy—too.
Some of the distinctions that set the Israelite practices apart were religious and spiritual. They offered sacrifices in a certain way and had specific instructions for how priests, worship, and the temple operated. Other practices that set Israel apart involved everyday things, like food, clothing, and their weekly calendars. These habits and customs were meant to reflect and reinforce that they were truly different—or holy—because they belonged to God.
The fourth commandment given to Israel is to "remember the Sabbath day" and keep it holy—a reminder to Israel of the blessed pattern God laid out in Creation. Just as our Holy Creator worked for six days and rested on a seventh, He calls His holy people to do the same.
What's holy about the Sabbath? It's a day set apart to be different from all the other days of the week. God intends for one day a week to look and feel different. As people who belong to Him, we can delight in His designation of some days as productive days for work and then other days set apart for reflection and refreshment.
Remember, God created special times for rest—keep those times set apart.
Keep the Faith
In the book of 2 Timothy, we find Paul writing a letter to Timothy, a fellow missionary. Many Bible scholars believe that this was the last letter Paul wrote before his death and that he wrote it from a Roman prison cell. Reflecting on his own life and believing that his death is coming soon, Paul writes that powerful passage:
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7 NIV
Faithful.
Paul was faithful to God and, without end, God was faithful to Paul. Shipwrecked. Stoned. Abandoned by friends. Imprisoned. The list of what Paul suffered goes on and on. But he persevered. He remained steadfast in his devotion to Christ.
When you think about your life, what do you want to be able to say at the end? What will you see when you look back?
In Paul, we see an example of what it is to cling to faith in Christ. He knew what it was to be dependent on God for everything. He drew strength from God because he could not do it...
