Motivational Moment August 18, 2019 Can you still have fun and live a life of holiness? If God gave you the ability to laugh and He made us in His image, wouldn’t it be safe to say that God encourages fun in our lives. A friend of mine (Rachel Hockett) shared something so powerful last Sunday, and answered some hard questions about holiness…here’s the just the gist…she asked… "What if God’s commandment to be holy is not a judgement against who we are not, but a promise of who we can be? What if this is an invitation to be our true and best self and to take on the nature of our Father. Philippians 2:13 says it is God who works in us to will to do His will. When Jesus died for me, He did it for me as me. He literally took our place so now we have full access to His nature and He is able to keep us from falling! 2 Timothy 1:9 says He has saved us and called us to a holy life not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. Holiness and living a holy lifestyle only happens in intimacy with the Father. His yoke is easy His burden is light. His commandment for us to be Holy is not too heavy for us, it is the only attire suitable for us to wear, it’s meant to bring us abundant life. We must understand that the author of fun is God or we will always be trying to have fun outside of Him and real fun with no consequences doesn't actually exist outside of Him." The past several Sundays we discovered that holiness involves disciplining your time with the Lord, making the effort to study His word and now we can recognize that we are not victims but victors in Christ the closer we get to Him! AND we can have and enjoy good clean fun! I also hear Opulent when I embrace the holiness of God…pure, radiant, fabulous and engaging. Holiness. Joyful Fun. Victorious living.