Nothing detracts more from the radiance of true Christian holiness than the judgmental spirit of legalism. Legality, the condition of conforming to law, is desirable. "Legalism," however, is a dependence on keeping law as the means of salvation. It is an excessive bondage to the letter of the law, which overlooks the law's purpose and fails to be motivated by love.

This is a poor substitute for genuine Christian faith.

Nina Gunter, general director of Nazarene Missions International (NMI) shares with Holiness Today readers about her passion for missions and how the church around the world can work together for the cause of global evangelization.

Q. We are looking towards the Thanksgiving Offering for the World Evangelism Fund (WEF). Why is this important to the life of the church?

“Institutions are the lengthened shadows of great men and women” (adapted from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, Self-Reliance). Bertha Munro (1884-1974) was the great woman who cast just such a shadow and Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts was, and is, the institution. She was a Christian higher education administrator, writer, speaker, and lay theologian, as well as a beloved professor, a dominant academic voice, and a driving force in the liberal arts tradition.

Q: Is there a "Christian" way to think about, and use, power and authority?

On Sunday, April 13, 2008, the Peniel Church of the Nazarene in Greenville, Texas, celebrated its 100th anniversary. This church was organized in April 1908, six months before the merger in Pilot Point, Texas, which marked the beginning of the Church of the Nazarene 100 years ago. The Peniel church has averaged less than 100 in attendance throughout its history.

"If I really connect, I bet I could hit the ball into the ocean."

When I was a child, many things frightened me: junkyard dogs, lurking shadows in my bedroom at night, and most of all, big bullies. Those threatening guys at Walthall Elementary School, in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, stalked me and made my life miserable. Evidently my experience is not isolated.

Seven years ago*, God dragged John Mohan "kicking and screaming" into a new career.

Mohan, an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene, went from being a self-described "typical white suburban pastor, with little awareness of homelessness," to chief executive officer (CEO) of Siloam Mission, an urban Nazarene Compassionate Ministry Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, arguably the coldest capital city in the world.

Call and consecration are two powerful aspects of holiness and they relate to our status in relation to God. Through God's call and our consecration to God, we have been drawn into a special relation—we are God's possession and are dedicated to God's exclusive service.

We have been spiritually transferred from the fallen world into God's presence. Through the Holy Spirit, we have been introduced into the fellowship between the Father and the Son.

Nearly every morning, Annie (my Golden Retriever) and I go for a walk. I’m fairly certain that our walks are different than some: ours is an adventure in discovery. We stop at every telephone pole and every pillar. Every blowing leaf has to be examined and trash is a gold mine just waiting to be pounced upon (she is still a pup after all). While I walk in straight lines, she is a constant back and forth zig-zag. But, she is growing up.