Holiness

In reading Leviticus, I'm realizing more and more just how much God is about holiness. Then tonight, I read My Utmost for His Highest, and the verse talked about was Matthew 5:48, which says, "...be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Wow. That's a high calling. Here's what Oswald has to say about this verse:

"The true expression of Christian character is not in good-doing, but in God-likeness. If the Spirit of God has transformed you within, you will exhibit divine characteristics in your life, not just good human characteristics. God's life in us expresses itself as God's life, not as human life trying to be godly. The secret of a Christian's life is that the supernatural becomes natrual in him as a result of the grace of God, and the experience of this becomes evident in the practical, everyday details of life, not in times of intimate fellowship with God. And when we come in contact with things that create confusion and a flurry of activity, we find to our own amazement that we have the power to stay wonderfully poised even in the center of it all."

I'm so far from this yet so glad that God is my Sanctifier. He is making me holy as He is holy! May I continually submit to His work in my life that I may continually be conformed more and more to His holiness. Psalm 73:28 has been close to my heart for the past couple months, and it has become even more relevant in light of all of this: "But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." God, your nearness IS my good, but don't just be near me, be IN me, sanctifying me, making me holy like you, that I may tell of all your works!