Helen, good point.  The Lord wants us to be conformed to the image of His
son, and not be made shiny, museum pieces.

At 07:33 AM 12/2/03 -0500, you wrote:
>It is a trap to presume that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what
>He can do--God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of
>holiness movements tends to be that God is producing specimens of holiness
>to put in His museum. If you accept this concept of personal holiness, your
>life's determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the
>evidence of God in your life. How can we say, "It could never be God's will
>for me to be sick"? If it was God's will to bruise His own Son
>(<http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=Isaiah+53:10> Isaiah 53:10 ),
>why shouldn't He bruise you? What shines forth and reveals God in your life
>is not your relative consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but
>your genuine, living relationship with Jesus Christ, and your unrestrained
>devotion to Him whether you are well or sick.
>
>~Oswald Chambers~

John

We give advice but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by
it. -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld<*>