SET APART

PRAY WITH ME FOR AFRICA: This week we start praying for the 4th largest island in the world, the exotic island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, off the East Coast of Africa. Madagascar is home to unique species of vegetation and 90% of its wildlife is found nowhere else on earth. Of Madagascar's 26 1/2 million people, 50% follow the traditional religion honoring Zanahary the powerful creator and family ancestors, 25% protestant, 16% Catholic, and 7% Islam. Pray for the growth of God's kingdom in Madagascar.

 
 Madagascar, fourth largest island in world and home to unique vegetation and wildlife




Just a simple reminder this morning about the word "holy". I was reading again this week how the primary meaning of the word holy in the Bible is set apart from the rest, and is used of any person or thing that is set apart unto God for His use or destruction. It also has as a secondary meaning which includes the idea of purity, to be set apart from what does not reflect the character of God's purity. So as God's people we are called to be set apart from the rest of sinful humanity unto God's own purpose to reflect His purity in our lives to His Glory. By extension this means that we are to separate from all sin which as 1 John 2.15-16 and James 4.4 explain is love for the world, described in terms of desire, pride and adultery.

 In our union with Christ we are dead to the realm and power of sin (Romans 6.1-11). Let us feed our minds on God's Word daily so that our minds might be renewed with understanding about who we are in Christ and about the will of God and our place of service in the body of Christ and in this world (Romans 12.1-8). Let us renew our spirits by often worshiping our God. Let us be holy unto God but not isolated from those who need to know the Savior, Jesus Christ. "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you had not received mercy, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2.9-10

Good Articles This Week:
 Thoughts on Revoice [This paragraph is particularly insightful:
I’ve discussed some of this issue in my blog post Gay + Christian. My main point was that it is inappropriate for a Christian to self-identify according to any pattern of sin or struggle. Paul proclaims this astonishing news: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). The compelling and controlling power of corrupted characteristics, desires, drives, and compulsions (sin) that used to characterize us begin to fall away in our union with Christ. No prior life, or identity, should redefine who we are in Christ, as Christians.
Revoice must realize that advocating for the use of such terms is not an insignificant thing. It is one charged with meaning, ripe for being continually misunderstood, and one which will encourage those who call themselves “gay” or “queer Christians” to further identify with, or long for, the broken and sinful characteristics associated with those labels.]

7 Life Changing Prayers for Your Church