Joanne

“To commune with God in prayer, in the Bible, and in the assembly of His people will be the holy person’s main enjoyments. He will value every place and thing and company in proportion to how they draw him nearer to God. He will enter into something”
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

“A person may go great lengths and yet never reach true holiness. It is not knowledge, for Balaam had that. It is not a bold profession of following Jesus, for Judas Iscariot had that. It is not doing many things, for Herod had that. It is not just having zeal for certain aspects of God’s Word, for Jehu had that. Holiness is not morality and outward respectability of conduct, for the young ruler told about in John 3 had that. It is not simply taking pleasure in hearing preachers, for the Jews in Ezekiel’s time had that. It is not even in keeping company with godly people, for Joab and Gehazi and Demas had that. Yet none of these people were holy! These things alone are not holiness. A person may have any one of them and yet never see the Lord.”
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]

“The disciples had been taught the Old Testament Scriptures their entire lives. They had followed Jesus Himself for three years. But only when He opened their minds did they begin to understand. Only when the risen Christ gave them eyes to see did they begin to recognize the shadow of the New Covenant in the Old, and to view the Old Covenant in the light of the New.”
― Rebecca H. Davis, Untwisting Scriptures that were used to tie you up, gag you, and tangle your mind: Book 2 Patriarchy and Authority

“A holy person will strive to be like our Lord Jesus Christ. He will not only live the life of faith in Him and draw from Him all his daily peace and strength, but he will also labor to have the mind that was in Him (Philippians 2:5) and to be conformed to His image (Romans 8:29). It will be his goal to bear with and forgive others, even as Christ forgave us (Colossians 3:13). He will desire to be unselfish, even as Christ pleased not Himself (Romans 15:3). He will want to walk in love, even as Christ loved us (Ephesians 5:2). He will aim to be lowly-minded and humble, even as Christ made Himself of no reputation and humbled Himself (Philippians 2:7). He will remember that Christ was a faithful witness for the truth (Revelation 1:5), that He came not to do His own will (John 6:38), that it was His meat and drink to do His Father’s will (John 4:34), that He would continually deny Himself in order to minister to others (Matthew 16:24), that He was meek and patient under undeserved insults (Isaiah 53:7), that He thought more of godly poor men than of kings (Luke 6:20), that He was full of love and compassion to sinners (Matthew 9:36), that He was bold and uncompromising in denouncing sin (Matthew 23:13-37), that He did not seek the praise of men when He might have had it (John 5:41), that He went about doing good (Acts 10:38), that He was separate from worldly people (John 17:16-19), that He continued instant in prayer (Luke 6:12), and that He would not let even His nearest relations stand in His way when God’s work was to be done (Luke 2:48-49).”
― J.C. Ryle, Holiness: For the Will of God Is Your Sanctification – 1 Thessalonians 4:3 [Annotated, Updated]