Dr Paul Allen

Christians long for holiness and strive for sanctification. And we do it because we are offspring of a holy Father . The longing for holiness is due to our new nature and our new Father. 1. Your New Nature 1 Peter 1:14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Just before Peter issues the command to be holy he provides an instruction that gives a hint as to what holiness is, by describing what it is not. Consider the phrase “the passions of your former ignorance.” “ Passions ” is the word for strong desires, or lusts. Before you were saved you had strong desires for evil, but after adoption into God ’s family your heart experiences a new craving: for holiness. Holiness is desiring the opposite of what your old nature used to hanker for . You wanted money, you pined after physical pleasure, you craved comfort and ease and possessions and recognition and respect. But that’s okay, because you were just being dumb. You didn’t know any bette...

Image via Wikipedia Anyone encountering anti-Christian polemics will quickly come up against the accusation that a major festival practiced by Christians across the globe—namely, Easter—was actually borrowed or rather usurped from a pagan celebration.  I often encounter this idea among Muslims who claim that later Christians compromised with paganism to dilute the original faith of Jesus. The argument largely rests on the supposed pagan associations of the English and German  names  for the celebration ( Easter  in English and  Ostern  in German).  It is important to note, however, that in most other European languages, the name for the Christian celebration is derived from the Greek word  Pascha , which comes from pesach , the Hebrew word for Passover. Easter is the Christian Passover festival. Of course, even if Christians did engage in contextualization —expressing their message and worship in the language or forms of the local people—th...