Author: Wick

During lunch yesterday, I saw a commercial. It started out with a man who appeared to be drowning in a swimming pool, shouting for someone to rescue him. It then panned out to show a high diving board, with a woman preparing for a dive. The amount of time that passed between her preparation, getting into position, dramatic dive filled with flips and spins, and finally landing without much splash to rescue him….was tense.

although in this case: food.

So you may remember just a couple days ago, I posted my ambitions to make it until September 16th on only a liquid diet. Out of solidarity with my brother-in-law, and kinda like a “dare” type situation….and I was totally gonna do it too.

I lasted through Maid-Rites. Lasted through offers of free lunch. Lasted through an ultimate frozen pizza with garlic bread crust being cooked in my very own house. Lasted through our giant church picnic yesterday with all sorts of amazing dishes/desserts.

On the way home from the picnic, I passed a church sign that read, “The more we see a temptation, the more attractive it becomes.” My stomach agreed.

That afternoon, Sarah’s family called to see if she wanted to come over for some pizza they were ordering for dinner. She went, leaving me with the girls so I wouldn’t have to see the pizza up close. I sat down to feed Sophie and Addie. I was spooning rice cereal into Sophie’s mouth, as Addie sat next to us, munching on her Cheez-It crackers. (one of my vice’s)

Out of nowhere, my daughter grabs 3 crackers, and holds them out to me, saying:

If you see the first word “Holiness” in the title over the next while, you’ll know it’s my thoughts on a section of the book “Holiness Manifesto” I’ve finally received.

With the title containing the word “manifesto”, it includes a bit of confusion for me as to the purpose of the book itself. This introduction does a great job at motivating the reader to continue, and to be excited for the purposes of this book.

I like what he says about the 20th century evangelical movement to “take over and dominate culture” probably being “counterproductive to Kingdom purposes. This Holiness movement was and is never about creating a Christian subculture, or even in domination of what is considered popular…politically OR socially.

Basically, the purpose of this collaboration of 10 denominations, seems to be connected to this: “a commitment to a personal transformation of life that has social and public impact around Kingdom principles consistent with the nature of God…..a discussion regarding the identity and mission of the church for the next generation and beyond.”

The section on context basically gives a context (past and present) for biblical and radical holiness. It it summarized/pinnacled in the final sentence, a statement made by Howard Snyder in his book from 1980: