Be holy because I am holy

Gay sex and drugs - not the type of stuff you would associate with a senior pastor of a 14,000-member church in Colorado Springs and a top official in the National Association of Evangelicals in the US. This episode also points to a biblical truth:

A Lamp on a Stand

16"No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him."

I've read quite a lot of articles on this, but this is the link that interested me the most because it highlighted the issue of ethical decision-making in newsrooms.

This is the link to to the Poynter Institute Online website article: http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=67

I brought it up not to cast judgment on or throw stones at Ted Haggard but more as a cautionary tale of how sometimes we foolishly and arrogantly think that we can proclaim our belief in God and yet act in ways that show up our hypocrisy. And that sometimes this is very evident to people, especially non-believers, around us --- our family members, our friends, our colleagues and so on. Sigh...goodness knows how many people I've turned away from Christ because of my words, my actions and my behaviour. :-P God, forgive me. Phew!

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Finally, the verses below are what I've been led to end this with. I hope that they will be an exhortation to us to be holy because He is holy, and because our salvation was bought not with perishable things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Amen!

1 Peter 1:13-25 (New International Version)

Be Holy

13Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."^[a]

17Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 21Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

22Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.^[b] 23For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24For,
"All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25but the word of the Lord stands forever."^[c] And this is the word that was preached to you.