\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nToo often, we Christians presume that we\u2019re \u2018sinners\u2019 at the core just like everyone else. In doing so, we ignore one of the greatest aspects of the cross\u2014the killing off of our old self. When we take on the \u2018I\u2019m a dirty worm\u2019 theology and then seek to \u2018be like Jesus,\u2019 we\u2019ll find it to be a losing effort. Christianity then becomes an exercise in futility and falsehood. We\u2019re essentially trying to act like someone that we don\u2019t believe we are. It then becomes religion.<\/p>\n
We died. We\u2019ve been raised and seated. And we\u2019re clean and close to God. What more can we ask for?\u201d<\/p>\n
(from \u201cGod Without Religion\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we Christians presume that we\u2019re \u2018sinners\u2019 at the core just like everyone else. In doing so, we ignore one of the greatest aspects of the cross\u2014the killing off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1359,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Clean and Close to God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clean and Close to God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andrew Farley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andrew Farley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andrew Farley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/\",\"name\":\"Clean and Close to God\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/75de11f08dc4a7e5950aed46e29d6f84\"},\"description\":\"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Clean and Close to God\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/\",\"name\":\"Andrew Farley\",\"description\":\"Jesus plus nothing. 100% natural. No additives.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/75de11f08dc4a7e5950aed46e29d6f84\",\"name\":\"Andrew Farley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e8c1d10646f2c8a1ac6afd85f008c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e8c1d10646f2c8a1ac6afd85f008c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Andrew Farley\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/andrewfarley.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/author\/jordandigital\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Clean and Close to God","description":"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Clean and Close to God","og_description":"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/","og_site_name":"Andrew Farley","article_published_time":"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00","author":"Andrew Farley","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Andrew Farley","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/","name":"Clean and Close to God","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-09T14:35:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/75de11f08dc4a7e5950aed46e29d6f84"},"description":"\u2019Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.\u2019 (Col. 3:2-3) Too often, we","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/2015\/03\/clean-and-close-to-god\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Clean and Close to God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/","name":"Andrew Farley","description":"Jesus plus nothing. 100% natural. No additives.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/75de11f08dc4a7e5950aed46e29d6f84","name":"Andrew Farley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e8c1d10646f2c8a1ac6afd85f008c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50e8c1d10646f2c8a1ac6afd85f008c8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Andrew Farley"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/andrewfarley.org"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/author\/jordandigital\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1359"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andrewfarley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}