Monday Morning Musings ...

Holiday weekends bring Sundays in which you never know what to expect. This is true of attendance obviously, but it is also true of the atmosphere and spirit in the services as well. Since this was a definite holiday weekend I was not sure what to expect and because of many people I knew would gone I was concerned. It turned out to be a very good Sunday. There was a fair amount of scrambling in filling gaps, but people really came through and helped make it a good day.

Our time of singing and prayer in worship was very good. Things flowed well, people were participating and there was a great atmosphere throughout the service. Everything seemed to fit together well, the songs and the message.

A laymen had asked if he could share a praise, I had him come up just as I was to start my message. He told of seeing a sermon just before our service began. A down's syndrome boy in our church had looked somewhat distressed. The boy then got up and went and took an empty chair from a row and took it back to a man who has recently had surgery on his Achilles so he could put his leg up. After he sat back down, he then got up again and went to the row in which he had removed the chair and respaced the remaining chairs so it did not look like a chair was missing. This act of compassion spoke volumes to this man and he shared it well with the congregation. It was a great lead into my message.

The message was from Romans 12:1-2, the title was "Wholly Holy". I know, titles are not always my thing. But the message was about the call to live holy lives at all times in all areas of our life. I said that I did not have doubts about holiness, or whether it was possible for someone to live a holy life. The reason for my confidence is because I saw it lived out everyday of my life while I was growing up. My parents lived it as well as they told it. Too often we give lip service to holy living but we live our lives in categories. We have a holy category and when we are in it we do fairly well. However, we have other categories of living in which holiness is no where to be found. The scripture calls us to live it in all of our life.

I don't what the right definition of holy living is, but my shot at defining it would be, "living in God's will in the place we are without pretense. To do this day in and day out. To live it in the good and the bad times."

Are you living your "whole" life "holy"?