No drinking

No smoking

No premartial sex

No R- rated movies

No scandelous dancing... to be safe no dancing at all

No bowling... just to be safe etc...

What this author challenged me on was in realizing that holiness is a two sided coin.. and in fact when Jesus talked about it he more often mentioned the stuff we are suppose to do (like feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, fight for justice, be kind to our enemies, love those who hurt us, forgive, don't judge) more then he told people they had to shed their evil "skin" and stop being bad.

I think what was really powerful was how this author reminded me about a few things.

1. If the bible is "good news", i should not be tempted to share it in a way that makes people feel guilty, shameful, or down right bad.

2. holiness is a process of casting things off, but even more so it is a process about adding good things into our lives so that we can reflect Christ more.

3. the mystery of God is that the more good we add into our lives, naturally the less bad or sin can be there... thus simply being intentional about following Christ by doing what he did, can achieve what so many people are desperate for and no nasty check list of sins had to be completed

Basically I realized that if all I ever do is walk around telling people what they can not do that doesn't sound like very Good New. Even more so, one of the reasons people feel like they fail when they try to be more holy is because they focus more on "getting rid of their bad" and completely forget the important step of making sure that they are filling that space in them with all the "good" that God offers.

realizing holiness is a two-fold process really challenges me to not get so hung up on the times when my "bad" side comes through, but to just remember to be intentional about including the good practices of Christ... according to Hugh Halter (and even more so the bible) the more we infuse our life with the good ways of Christ the closer we will get to our Holy God and the more natural holiness becomes.