"Beautiful Offering"

"O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth." (Psalms 96:9)
I don't care how you make it, sin is ugly! It might feel good for a moment; it might even seem to be enjoyable; but when we witness the carnage that comes from it, there is only ugliness that becomes of it. Here is what would seem is an addition to the need to be right with God, our requirement to be holy, as He is Holy. Is it a requirement to be holy? If you really want to worship God, then yes, it is a requirement. Can we actually be holy, as required? Only the blood of Jesus Christ can provide the holiness required; but, we need to want to achieve holiness, it must become our goal. I think Paul had some good points on how this might work, like 1 Corinthians 9:24, "Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one receives the prize? So run to win!" (NLT) The point is that of doing your very best to achieve, even that which you might not accomplish. Not everyone wins, but those that want to win, set out to make it happen; even if it might not happen, they run as if it could. The second point is found just two Scriptures away, "So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing." (NLT) If you think about it, you don't really need to be told what you must do to be holy, you are well aware of your own personal sins; and you are also mindful of what you need to do to avoid them. Just like a runner who trains to win, they know what they must do to stand a chance to win, and they also know what things to avoid that might hinder their accomplishment of that goal. As for the "shadowboxing," this is where we start striking back; not as one who beats the air, but as one who sees the target and aims to hit it. There is only really one way to be the best, in any sport, and that is to take away everything that hinders you from achieving that goal. The only one who stands in the way of you achieving your goal, is yourself. Besides, we have every tool at our disposal to be the man or woman that God would have us to be, if we would just want it bad enough. Could that be the key to winning the race, the need to win? In other words, we don't have a choice...
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." (Hebrews 12:1) NLT