Once we’ve begun to live holy lives set apart for God, we then need to learn to remain in Him, to seek Him every day, and let Him lead our lives.
When we remain in Him, we begin to grow fruit in our lives. Wait … what? Grow fruit!?
Well, yeah!
The verses you just read talk about growing fruit. But not like apples and oranges, that would just be weird, come on!
Galatians 5:22-23 talks about the kind of fruit we’ll produce when we remain in Christ. When we seek Him and spend time with Him every day, we will be more loving, have more joy in our lives, experience more peace in our days, have a little more patience for others, be able to be more kind to people, do more good, and have greater faith.
Who wouldn’t want to live that way and be that kind of person?
That’s what happens when we remain in Christ throughout our days and live holy lives set apart for God.
Set ApartÂ
A lot of people say they’re Christians, but not all of them live that way. They talk the talk but they don’t walk the walk.
Would you say people know that you’re a Christian just because you say it or do they know it because you live it? To be holy is to live your life set apart in such a way that people can tell there’s something different about you even without you telling them.
As Christians, we shouldn’t be doing what everyone else is doing. We shouldn’t just conform to what’s normal.
When everyone’s talking trash about someone, you choose to be their one and only friend. When others are sleeping with their boyfriend or girlfriend, you choose to wait for the person you’re going to marry. When people you know are making crude jokes or comments, you choose not to be a part of it.
Choose to live your life set apart for God. Be different in a good way. Choose to love better than anyone else. Choose to live your life with more joy, excitement, and contentment than everyone else. Choose to be someone who is known by what you’re for rather than complaining all the time.
So what ways do you need to start living a life set apart?
When you start to live your life holy, set apart from everyone else, people will start to take notice and will want what you have.
Set ApartÂ
We must be holy and live holy lives! What does that even mean? Well, simply put, it means to be set apart — in a good way.
If you’re a Christian, that means you should think differently, act differently, and live your life differently. This is what it means to be set apart or holy. But in order to be set apart for God, we need to learn to first set apart time with God.
Life gets busy. There are so many things contending for our time and attention: school, homework, sports, friends, family, and the list goes on and on. God begins to get pushed to the back of our minds, and eventually we realize that we haven’t really spent time with Him in a while.
So if that’s you, here’s what I want you to do: slow down, stop and put everything away, and set apart time for God. Get away from it all. Be silent for a moment. Go experience God in nature, read your Bible, journal, pray.
What do you need to do less of, to experience more of God in your life?
To be set apart we need to set apart time with God.
It’s Not Just You
Confession: probably my biggest pet peeve on the planet is when people start a question with “Am I the only one who…?” No. You’re not. You’re not the only one who writes that way, reads that way, likes that food, likes that band, thinks Benedict Cumberbatch sounds like a Game of Thrones character or looks like someone squeezed Spongebob and stuck googly eyes on him…you’re just not. But. There’s a different kind of “Is it just me?” feeling, and that’s the stress of when you’re drowning in something and nobody’s talking about it and you feel like everyone’s got it together but you, and so you don’t wanna say a thing, and it all snowballs until you basically wanna curl up and die. I know that feeling. It’s why I wrote this post after splitting with my first agent. So in case you are wondering any of these things, I…
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My daughter, Caitlyn Jenner, and Laverne Cox
As the mother of a young transgender child, my response to Caitlyn Jenner’s headline-grabbing announcement is a visceral one. Yes, I’m kind of put off by the hype. No, I’m not a big fan of celebrity culture or reality television. But when I look at the cover of Vanity Fair, and read the news articles that respectfully use Jenner’s new name and female pronouns, I’m overwhelmed by this new state of affairs, and by a world that might just be ready to accept my daughter. And that knocks me off my feet with awe and gratitude.
I called my friend Alice, a member of our support group whose trans daughter is a few years older than mine. “Did you see it?” I said. She knew what I was talking about.
“Of course,” she said. I could hear her shaking her head over the phone, as overcome as I was…
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accra floods and gas explosionÂ
Hhmm
A friend shares her testimony.
Agnes Matilda Mends-Armstrong
So June 3,2015 will be a day I will forever
remember……..but most importantly, this day
will forever remind me of the LOVE and
MERCIES OF GOD and His favour upon my
life!…………..I was going home en route circle
when the rains started……I decided to take
solace at honest chef restaurant as the streets
began flooding up and there was no car in sight.
After some hours the restaurant began flooding
up as well and we all had to stand outside in
the flood on a higher levelled ground to keep
from drowning; there were more than 25 pple
there ……WE COULD SMELL FUEL in the water
coming from the GOIL FILLING STATION which
was about three blocks away but there was no
escape……Just when we decided to move by
hook or crook, there was an explosion possibly
caused by the gas from the kitchen and the fuel
in the water………there was screaming and
scrambling for life……..I SAW THE MAN
HOLDING MY HAND CATCH FIRE RIGHT BEFORE
MY VERY EYES………he pushed me under the
water together with a woman and her baby and
every where around me was burning with
people screaming out of agony and pain from
their burns……….the woman with the baby tied
at her back was not moving(she had drowned)
and I thought I was dead because I was so sure
I had caught on the fire (which had engulfed
almost everyone around me) UNTIL A MAN
FROM NO WHERE PULLED ME OUT AND ASKED
ME TO SWIM OR RUN THROUGH THE
WATER……….NOW THIS MAN WAS NOT ON FIRE
NEITHER WAS HE RUNNING FOR HIS LIFE; HE
JUST PULLED ME OUT AND ASKED ME TO RUN; I
NEVER SAW HIM AGAIN!!……I had dropped my
bag, phones, and spectacles in the flood and I
run in the opposite direction with my mind
blank and not seeing anything until i was far
from the fire which was catching on fast and
started screaming for help…..the people around
couldn’t believe I was alive because they saw
the fire…….they saw me come out of it and YET
I HAD NO BURNS TO THE GLORY OF
GOD!!!…………I STILL CANT BELIEVE I’M
ALIVE…….GOD IS GREAT AND I’M ETERNALLY
GRATEFUL FOR THIS MIRACLE!………..I can’t
sleep at night because i keep hearing the
screams from the people I stood and chatted
with while waiting for the flood to subside……..
.I keep smelling petrol, diesel and smoke in my
room when I’m alone……..I look at the gory
pictures of the charred bodies of the people I
stood with and I can’t HELP BUT SHED TEARS
…….GOD SAVED MY LIFE…………HE SENT AN
ANGEL TO PULL ME OUT AND GAVE ME
STRENGTH TO RUN!……..I IMPLORE ALL THE
UNBELIEVERS THERE WHO READ THIS TO GIVE
THEIR LIVES TO JESUS CHRIST AND ALL THE
BELIEVERS TO HOLD ON TO THEIR FAITH……….
GOD IS GREAT!!
Hair and boobs
On the morning of my 39th birthday, I was grateful for two things: my hair and my boobs.
There were other things too, of course – the way Sam buried his little face in my hair at 5:30 in the morning. The way he and Drew planned how to surprise me with breakfast and cake and presents.
But my hair and boobs were on my mind the most because in the week leading up to my birthday, one friend had to shave her head and another friend found out she might be losing her breasts.
I sort of hate to feel gratitude like this—it seems like such a selfish feeling. Like by being grateful I am saying that I am grateful that YOU have this horrible disease and not me. I am grateful that I have my hair, but too bad about yours. That’s clearly not what I want to…
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