Home for the Holidays - Part 2
January 2, 2022Today's message was the second in a 2-part series called Home for the Holidays. The message is here. Bottomline: Chooose carefully what to hold on to and what to let go of. It's another teaser for the January 9th start of a series called "Chasing Carrots."
"GOD made my life complete when I placed all the pieces before him." 2 Samuel 22:21
Psalm 34:5, "Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces."
What to keep and what to reject is largely a question of what leads to holiness and what leads away from holiness. The Hebrew word for holy really means to separate (kadosh), in this case God on one end and animal on the other. Humans are somewhere on that continuum. We are made in both God's image and that of the animals.
Many things can be God-like or animal-like. Sex, for instance, can be part of a loving relationship, that is, holy, or it can be like an animal, rape in the worst case, on the animal side. Often what to keep or throw out is not so much about keeping or tossing but rather on how we use it. Do we use it for holiness or not?
Leviticus 19 is a key Torah chapter about how to live in holiness, one that is referenced often in the New Testament. You may recall that this is the chapter that includes "Love your neighbor as yourself, I am God."