It is about self-denial

NORSK
I have on several occasions claimed: If holiness only is rhetoric, the miracle of incarnation does not take place, and holiness becomes irrelevant. We are left with religion.
How do I become part of the miracle of incarnation?

How do I come to the same conclusion as Paul:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:20  

The answer is simple, and it pops up many times when I drink from the ‘well of holiness’. It is good to discover that this is also an important focus of great thinkers, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It is about denying myself, die with Christ, rise with him and represent him in this world. To do that we do not need properties nor institutions (1) (even though these can come useful as long as the Spirit leads them), the only thing needed, is a body and face.

…the miracle that has happened, the miracle the world cannot comprehend, but can sense, is that the man who has died and risen with Christ has gone through a transformation. He is transformed from a ‘me-ME-person’ to a ‘me-YOU-person’. 

“When the sacred becomes secular, you’ve a mission going. It’s Jesus Christ coming to Bethlehem” (2)

‘Manna’ for today:

Holiness is about self-denial

PS More about self-denial tomorrow
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(1) See: “It is about secularization”
(2) Robert H. Schuller in "Your Church has a Fantastic Future" Regal books 1986 p. 94