Tag Archives: Holy

What is our Goal?

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Sometimes in our lives, we feel like changing ourselves and our actions can be a hopeless cause. What can we possibly do? What can we do to make ourselves better, or more holy, or more obedient?

When we try, we fail. We try to be good. We try to behave. We try to do right. And when we do, we find ourselves falling time after time after time.

As CS Lewis said – “No man knows how very bad he is until he has tried to be good.” The frustrating thing can be trying so very hard to do good, to do right, to get it right; and then we fall down

So we quit trying. What’s the point? We’ll never do it right. It will never happen. There’s no reason. We’ll never be good enough to get it right.

Strangely that’s what God is saying through Ezekiel 36:25-26.  Listen to what He says in this passage.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh

Notice, God doesn’t say that you will do this, you will do that. God says, I will do it. I will sprinkle you clean with water. I will give you a new heart. I will remove your heart of stone.

God says I will do it. You can’t do it on your own. It’s not possible.

So, who does it? God does you.

You can’t change yourself. God can change you. So, today, you goal shouldn’t be to be a “better person.” Your goal should be to draw close to God.

If we draw close to God, He will do the rest. He will take care of the rest. He will clean and change us.

Being perfect a daunting goal. Drawing close to God, that’s a goal we can do today. He will clean us, He will change us.

Today, our goal is to draw close to God. May we do that will all that we have!

Where Is God?

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It really is hard for us as humans to wrap our minds around God. We really can’t understand who God is. He is other. He is different from us. We simply can’t fathom who He is us.

We know of God what God has revealed to us through Scripture, through tradition (the wise teachings of others), reason (our ability to think and understand) and experience (the things’s we’ve experienced). So, there are things that we know about God. But there’s lots of stuff that we don’t.

Listen to what Isaiah 57:15 says:

For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.

In this verse, it says God inhabits eternity. His name is holy. To say that His name is holy is to say that He is Holy. In scripture, you name wasn’t just what you were called, it was who you. To say that God is holy is to say that this is who He is.

He is holy. He is other. He is different.

But look in this verse what else He is. He is with the lowly of spirit. He is with the ones that are contrite. He is with the ones that understand they are in need of His grace and salvation. He is with the broken, the needy, the hurt, the one’s that know that they need Him.

Today, if you know you aren’t what you need to be; if you understand that you’ve made mistakes; if you understand that you need God, guess what?

You are right where He wants you. You are in the place to know His grace. You are in the place where He can draw you near.

Today, in knowing that we need Him more and more and more, we find that at that exact moment and place, He is waiting on us.

Today, where is God? He is with us.

Be Ye Holy

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In the Old Testament, one of the constant commands of God to the people is that they are holy. They are told over and over again to be holy, as God is holy.

That is the definitive revelation of who God is in the Old Testament. He is holy. And as a God that is holy, he expects His people to be holy.

Gulp. That’s a pretty big requirement. To be holy. That’s a tough thing for them. And, a tough thing for us.

But, before we talk about how it’s something that we can’t do, let’s first think. What is it? What does it mean? To be holy, what does that mean?

In short, to be holy is to be set apart. To be different. The people of God are supposed to be different. Different from the world. Different from culture. Different.

Not perfect, mind you. None of us are perfect. The church is not perfect. No one, except Jesus is perfect in action. That doesn’t mean, though, that we are not supposed to be holy. We are supposed to be different.

Listen, though, to what the people of God say in 1 Samuel this morning:

But the people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning. “Even so, we still want a king,” they said. “We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.”

The people wanted a king. Why? To be like the other nations. God’s plan was for them to be holy. To be different. To be set apart.

What did they want? What did they desire?

A king.

Why?

To be like other nations. To be like everyone else.

And in that, they were no longer different. They were no longer set apart. They wanted to be like everyone else.

Today, what about us? Are we holy? And I’m not asking are we perfect. I’m asking are we different? Are we different from culture? Is there something about us is that is different? Set apart? Dedicated to God?

God told His people in the Old Testament to be holy as He is holy. He desires the same for us today.

Today, may we be different. May we be different from the world we live in. Today, may we be holy.

Weird

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One of my favorite writer/preachers today is Craig Groeschel.  He is the pastor of Lifechurch.tv in Oklahoma and has written several books that are just great, particularly The Christian Atheist.  I was at a Christian bookstore the other day and noticed he has a new book out, Weird.

With a title like that, you’ve got to pick it up and look.

And as I read the back, I saw that the one of things he was talking about in the book is one of the same things that Paul talks about in Romans 12:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Craig calls it being weird.  Paul calls it not being transformed.  In the Old Testament, it’s called being holy.  All of these things come down to one major thing.

As Christians, we are called to be different. We are called to be different from the world. We are called to be different from the culture. We are called to be a little weird. We are not called to be like everyone else.

We are called to be like Jesus.

We are called to follow His plan, His life, His way. We are not called to conform to the world and it’s values, we are called to conform to Jesus and His values.

And you know what? That may make us a little weird.  That’s ok.  That’s fine. That’s the way it is supposed to be.  I tells folks if people find out that you are a Christian, and they are surprised by it, that’s probably not a good sign.

Today, we called not to conform. We are called to be different. We are called to be weird. We are called to be holy.

We are called to follow Jesus.

Today, let’s chase after Him, not the world.  And in that, may we find the life we can’t find anywhere else.