We always say “Jesus can save anyone“… but I’m not sure we really believe it. What we say and what we signal are frequently at odds with each other.
I think we’re sending mixed messages.
We say, “Come as you are,” but we signal, “Get your act together first.”
We say, “Jesus loves the world,” but we signal, “Jesus loves the church.”
We say, “I care about you,” but we signal, “I am too busy to care about you.”
We say, “I’ll pray for you,” but we signal, “I’ll never think about this again.”
What’s the deal?
The essence of holiness is integrity. In other words, God is holy because what He says and what He signals match one another. He says what He means, means what He says, and does what He says He’ll do. His words and His actions are ONE.
God is holy.
As God’s representatives we are called to be holy, too (1 Cor 1:2; 1 Peter 2:9; 1 Thes 3:13; 1 Thes 4:7; 2 Tim 1:9; Heb 3:1; Heb 12:14). We cannot fulfill our divine calling until we learn to practice what we preach.
It’s not enough to think serving Christ is a good idea. Ideas by themselves are worthless things. Only when an idea is transformed into an action does it provide any real value to the world. (more…)
From the outside looking in, Christianity is viewed as something radically different from what Jesus intended it to be. I received these words yesterday from a friend with just such a vantage point: “…most people believe that being holy entails telling everyone else what they’re doing wrong, chastising others, standing at the funerals of gay people and telling their friends and family that those people are on their way to hell, condemning music and books that are deemed morally lacking, etc. … being legalistically judgmental.” His sentiment simply echos the latest research concerning Christianity’s 
