(Connecting Advent and Holiness)
The advent of Jesus was the appearance of grace. Further, grace trains us to live lives of holiness. If grace is at work in your life, that is what it is doing. Being holy does not mean that we have to live a cloistered life in isolation from the daily challenges of ordinary life. As a matter of fact, the Book teaches us that we can live “self-controlled, upright, and godly” in this present age. He can “redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own”. Not in our own strength, but it is through the grace of the Holy Spirit at work in us. Seek this grace more and more and yield to its transforming work. We do all this waiting for our “Blessed Hope”.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:11–14(NRSV).
