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" The point is that there is a very old idea that the Holy Spirit is functioning in our lives not only to give us power as Christians but also to clean up our lives, lead us toward holiness. I will have to admit that certain kinds of holy Christians have always repelled me. I have never been able to tell whether it is because they make me uncomfortable, knowing that I am far from holy, or whether they are in fact making a serious error in supposing themselves to be holy when in fact all they are is sanctimonious. I will have to admit also, however, that I have met a few Christians who make no show of holiness yet whom I sense to be living on a different plane from my own. These people have a quality that strikes me as being at the heart of real holiness; they do not make me aware of their goodness so much as of their hope. They do not point up my shortcomings in contrast to their saintliness; they point up my potential.

I think Christ must have had this kind of holiness. He would never have attracted men like rough Peter and worldly Matthew otherwise. The secret ingredient in this kind of transforming holiness, I came to think, was love. When I came into contact with love as an overwhelming experience in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I found that I had been cleaned, built up, healed. I knew a kind of wholeness I'd never dreamed of; and the words whole, holy, and health are all derivatives of the same Anglo-Saxon word haml, meaning "complete." This is the type of sanctification that comes from contact with the Christ-love of the Holy Spirit. "

, They Speak with Other Tongues


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 quote : The point is that there is a very old idea that the Holy Spirit is functioning in our lives not only to give us power as Christians but also to clean up our lives, lead us toward holiness. I will have to admit that certain kinds of holy Christians have always repelled me. I have never been able to tell whether it is because they make me uncomfortable, knowing that I am far from holy, or whether they are in fact making a serious error in supposing themselves to be holy when in fact all they are is sanctimonious. I will have to admit also, however, that I have met a few Christians who make no show of holiness yet whom I sense to be living on a different plane from my own. These people have a quality that strikes me as being at the heart of real holiness; they do not make me aware of their goodness so much as of their hope. They do not point up my shortcomings in contrast to their saintliness; they point up my potential.<br /><br />I think Christ must have had this kind of holiness. He would never have attracted men like rough Peter and worldly Matthew otherwise. The secret ingredient in this kind of transforming holiness, I came to think, was love. When I came into contact with love as an overwhelming experience in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I found that I had been cleaned, built up, healed. I knew a kind of wholeness I'd never dreamed of; and the words whole, holy, and health are all derivatives of the same Anglo-Saxon word haml, meaning