DAILY DEVOTIONS
–With Pastor Harmon–
Monday—May 3, 2021
Devotional Series: Portals of Prayer (April—June 2021)
Scripture: Leviticus 20:26
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s devotion was based on Leviticus 20:26 – “You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.” And at first glance, the focus seems to be on what I should do to be holy – what I need to do to be like God.
But that’s not the case. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves holy. We are descendants of Adam. We inherited his sinful nature. We can’t change who we are. But God can!
He took on our human flesh – our sinful nature – and put it to death on the cross. He put it to death so that He could make us new. In Baptism, we have died with Christ and we have been raised to life with Him. The old has passed away and the new has come.
By the forgiveness of our sin, we have been clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. He has given us His holiness so that we can be holy just as He is holy.
We have been set apart as God’s own people. But it’s not so that we can stand above those who aren’t as good as I am or as holy as I am. We have been set apart and given new life so that we can share that life with others. We have been raised from death in sin to life in Christ. But we remain in this world as living testimonies to that life that Jesus gives through the forgiveness of sin. We remain so that we can share that life with others who walk without hope.
-Pastor Harmon
Devotional Series: Portals of Prayer (April—June 2021)
Scripture: Leviticus 20:26
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Today’s devotion was based on Leviticus 20:26 – “You shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.” And at first glance, the focus seems to be on what I should do to be holy – what I need to do to be like God.
But that’s not the case. There is nothing that we can do to make ourselves holy. We are descendants of Adam. We inherited his sinful nature. We can’t change who we are. But God can!
He took on our human flesh – our sinful nature – and put it to death on the cross. He put it to death so that He could make us new. In Baptism, we have died with Christ and we have been raised to life with Him. The old has passed away and the new has come.
By the forgiveness of our sin, we have been clothed in Jesus’ righteousness. He has given us His holiness so that we can be holy just as He is holy.
We have been set apart as God’s own people. But it’s not so that we can stand above those who aren’t as good as I am or as holy as I am. We have been set apart and given new life so that we can share that life with others. We have been raised from death in sin to life in Christ. But we remain in this world as living testimonies to that life that Jesus gives through the forgiveness of sin. We remain so that we can share that life with others who walk without hope.
-Pastor Harmon