Cornelious

 Acts 10:4-  "And he stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” And he said to him, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God."

I read this verse a couple weeks ago and it lingered in my mind. At times I strugle with the thought that I can't do anything that pleases God because even my good deeds are so tainted by dark motives. I'm so full of sin and don't know if I do anything with purely good motives. I know there is no good in me apart from Christ, but I  wonder if I do anything that pleases him. This verse is about Cornelious. He lived a godly life, not because he wanted to do good so God would bless him, but because he really loved God.  God spoke to Cornelious and told him how his devotion and faithfulness were like a fragrant offering to Him. As a result, Paul came to his house and preached and salvation came to his family.

It just really touched my heart that God noticed Cornelious and appreciated him and blessed his family. Imagine what that would be like! Imagine God noticing some good work in us,telling us that it meant something to Him and then giving us a special blessing as a result.

Holiness

This morning our teacher in Small Group asked, "How do we become more holy?" A part of me wanted to raise my hand and say, "Well, we make a list of things we should  and shouldn't do. The bigger the list and the better we stick to it the more holy we are." I refrained. Someone else had a much better answer, she said, "We become more holy by confessing sins." I agreed with her answer, but thought there must be more to it than that. I thought about the people in my life that I consider holy. They don't seem to be striving toward holiness; it's like holiness just happened to them while they were striving toward something else. I thought about humility. Humility isn't when we think little of ourselves, it's when we don't think about ourselves at all. The moment we think we've become a humble person, we've become proud. We can't specifically work towards becoming more humble. Humility happens when we stop thinking so much of ourselves and put our eyes on Christ and others. Maybe holiness is the same way. If we try to become holy, we become legalistic. If we stop trying to work on our own holiness and put our focus on God's holiness, we will be in awe of His greatness and overwhelmed by our sinfulness. The people I consider holy, are the most humble and most aware of how much they fall short. They don't think they're holy, which is probably a good indication that they are. Should we specifically strive toward holiness? if so, how do we without becoming legalistic?