February 24 - Reasons of My Worship Practice - Reason Two

“. . . [I]n admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations” 

Ezekiel 44: 7

This entry is taken from Daily Readings - John Bunyan a 366 day devotional edited by (and posted with permission from) Roger D. Duke, Scholar-in-Residence at Stage & Story, and published by Christian Heritage Press.

Each month focuses on a different book or writing by Bunyan. For February: My Confession of Faith (or A Confession of My Faith and a Reason of My Practice, or, With Who, and Who Not, I can Hold Church-fellowship, or the Communion of Saints)

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Reason Two

Secondly, because it is so often commanded in the Scriptures that all the congregation should be holy. I am the Lord your God, ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves; For ye shall be holy for I am holy. Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Sanctify yourselves therefore and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. Besides, the gates of the temple were to be shut against all others. Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps the truth may enter in: This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter. Thus, says the Lord, no stranger uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary or any stranger which is amongst the children of Israel. For the things of worship are holy. Be ye holy that bear the vessels of the Lord. Because all the limits and bounds of communion are holy. This is the law of the house: Upon the top of the mountain the whole limit thereof shall be most holy. Behold this is the law of the house.

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John Bunyan was a preacher, theologian and author, whose best-known work, The Pilgrim's Progress, has challenged and influenced readers for almost 350 years.

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