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Holiness is being set apart for God, devoted to God, being like God in character. As a wretched sinner, I am very aware of my UNholiness except for the blood of Christ that has cleansed me from my sin and made me holy in God's sight. My holiness is the holiness of Christ placed on me. Now I want to be obedient in order to live up to the identity God has so kindly given me, that of a forgiven child of God. My biggest struggle with holiness is that my eyes constantly stray to looking to the world rather than to Christ for my identity.

It should get our attention because it is the glorious culmination of all that Christ has suffered for, and we are living in the era in which we expect him to be coming back. When you're expecting something to happen, you try to be ready. You make choices based on that expectation. If you don't expect Christ, you may compromise on those choices and your life will be less pleasing to God and less fruitful for the kingdom.

The basis of Christian joy is loving and believing in God even though you can't see him. (Hebrews ll:1 1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.) Basically, having faith in God, even despite grief and sorrow and trials. God's purpose in giving the trials is to prove our faith genuine, and this is important because it is genuine faith that results in praise and honor to God. Faith is very valuable in God's eyes. So faith is supposed to lead to 'inexpressible and glorious joy'. In the context of experiencing 'grief in all kinds of trials', I don't see this as really a happy emotion or feeling as much as a mindset of confidence in God that enables a person to have hope despite the surrounding difficulties. It is related to ones frame of reference for life, and upon whom a person fixes the eyes of their heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.) Where we are looking makes all the difference in our perspective and our ability to live out our faith.

God constantly refines both my character and my faith through difficult circumstances. He has done it most often for me by putting difficult people in my life and challenging me to love them. This forces me to lean on God for my ability to love, since the individuals are sometimes not what the world would consider 'lovable'. It forces me to turn to God for my sense of worth, because the individuals do not necessarily give me much positive reinforcement. It humbles me, because when I am impatient or angry or sin against them, the Spirit shows me that I have to confess it and ask their forgiveness. Then, at times, God gives me insights into how he is at work in their lives and mine, and I am so grateful for the trials and the struggles that keep my need for God at the forefront of my life. Genuine tested faith brings glory to Jesus. Here it is in a nutshell: 2 Corinthians 4:5-10 5For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"[a]made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Q3. (1:5) According to 1 Peter 1:5, what is God's part in securing your salvation? What is your part? God gave me new birth into a living hope and an imperishible inheritance, and uses his power to shield me until the final revelation of salvation. From what is God shielding me? He is simply protecting me from being snatched away from him. He is NOT shielding me from grief or trials, even though my human nature would wish this were so. But God is only content with genuine faith -- and so he allows me to have trials and sees me through them in order to refine my faith. And, ultimately, he sovereignly makes sure that all who are chosen by him are there with him in the end. My part is to place my faith in the resurrected Christ, which is the hope God has given us. This simply entails saying yes to the gift of new birth that God has given, and to keep on saying yes as I walk through my life being refined by my trials and sanctified by the Spirit.

I see two aspects to the relationship of forgiveness and obedience: First, forgiveness is necessary to obedience because, no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot truly obey God on our own. Our obedience is always imperfect, and in need of the lavish redemption and forgiveness accomplished by Christ. Reference: Romans 3:22-24 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Secondly, the proper reason for our effort at obedience is gratitude for God's amazing forgiveness (as opposed to earning God's favor). If we could actually obey 100%, we'd be able to boast in ourselves -- something that the world encourages. But because God constantly shores us up with his gift of forgiveness even as we attempt to obey him, we are then moved to boast in God and His great love and compassion, and be humble about our own tainted actions. How thankful I am when the Spirit takes my marred motives and works through me anyway. The glory all goes to God.

"strangers in the world" The behavior of a stranger is behavior that is different than the norm, based on norms from their home culture and not in sync with the culture in which they are currently located. Christians are, in fact, strangers in the world because our home is in the Kingdom of God. Therefore it would expected that a Christian would feel a little uncomfortable, sometimes make others uncomfortable, see things differently and behave differently at times. I myself often feel all-too-comfortable and at home in the world. When I am identifying with my present homeland, I find worry about money, health, employment, reputation, possessions (all typical behaviors for our society). I also tend to obsess about my relationships with people -- becoming a people pleaser -- and base my view of myself on the feedback I get. This is an ongoing struggle for me. It would be less of a struggle if I would immerse myself in the Word and open myself to being reminded of my true home more often. Then I would be giving the Holy Spirit a chance to remind me of the truth more and more, and I'd be able to act on it more and more.