All in Holiness
Are you feeling good about being chosen by God for righteousness? Do you think that God selected you, and urged your soul to open itself to Him because you were special, good, or by some other attribute were distinguished as being deserving above others? Well perhaps it’s time to look at yourself in a totally different light... to look In the mirror through the eyes of God.
Do we judge others, and not allow them to approach us because we feel more holy than they are? Are we intolerant and use our faith as a tool of pride and arrogance against those who are yet to find the Lord, and who haven’t been introduced to the gospel, and begun to understand it? If this describes who we are then we should beware because we are not holy as we think, and like kindling that is stacked by the fire, we are destined to be burned.
God knows us because we call on Him, we obey Him, and we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. His is a firm foundation, and in Him all things work together for good to those who love Him. If we love Him in this way, and we believe that His Word is truth, then we should know beyond all doubt that we are His, and what to expect from Him, but we should also know that He speaks to each of us individually. Do you pray as one who knows this? Is your life uniquely His, and how do you travel His Holy Highway?
Do you make excuses for sin? Do you make room on the seat beside you for sinful people? Do you find it noble, or gracious, to greet sin with a smile and a handshake? So often today we hear excuses made for allowing ourselves to coexist, tolerate, or even fold sin into our everyday lives. How do we approach sin in our lives? At what point does it stop being tolerated, and begin to influence our lives?
Are things not going well in your life? Do you go to work and do the same things as those around you and yet they prosper and you do not? Do you ask yourself how those around you can do so well, and yet you, who are a righteous person, fails? Well perhaps it is your association with those who are unbelievers, and not doing all that God desires of you.
There are two types of Christians in the world... those that call themselves faithful, and those who were called and made so by Christ himself; we must carefully ask ourselves which of these we are. In our quest of faith there are those who travel alone, and those who walk humbly behind their master... those of earthly substance, and those of heavenly power and treasure.
There are two parts to spiritual salvation, and there are two parts to the salvation of countries, churches, and peoples. The first part changes who we are, and the second part fills us with God’s essence. We find Jesus Christ who renews us, and then we receive the Holy Spirit which is the understanding of God. Do you have both? Is your country prepared to be fixed and restored to God?
You believe in God, and are determined to seek Him all the more each day. Is your burning desire to reflect a perfection of faith; His amazing characteristic of holiness? Well, it should be, because who sets out to do something, or to be something, and has set mediocre as their goal?
Jesus, is our sole path to eternity, and the bearer of God’s holiness, who, in dwelling in us brings that holiness to us. Are we ready to accept Him into ourselves? Are we prepared to allow Him to abide in us, and to take His body, and His blood as our sustenance? Many have not been, and have walked away; thus the question becomes this... “Who are we?”, and not “Who is He?”
Do we give thanks for our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do we take our own sanctification by the Holy Spirit as more than a distant hope, but as a present truth? Do we find ourselves filled with the glory of Jesus Christ, and allow him full reign as he abides within us? There was a time when I accepted Jesus as fact, but didn’t want the close relationship that He offered; I wanted to follow Him but not to walk too closely, not to accept the changes that walking hand in hand with Him meant. Is Jesus your speaking friend, or your best friend and confidant? Are you sanctified or just aquatinted?
Are you living out your life claiming to be a Christian while continuing to live under the control of your own will; skirting God’s? How is it that we can be satisfied in this? How is it that we can taste His will, experience a touch of sanctity, holiness, and joy, then retreat back into our own humanity? This is the struggle of faith... the denial of the comfort we find in our own flesh, nature, and will, that we might accept God’s.
Are you a branch on the vine of Jesus Christ? Do you know what that means to you? When we are grafted into the vine of Jesus, you become righteous as He is righteous, and free of sin as He is free of sin. Grafting doesn’t transform the branch’s nature, but it is from that moment on supported and fed by the new vine. Are you fed and supported by Jesus? Is your fruit made more perfect and full by its perfect new source of nourishment?
Are you sanctified, Holy, and doing the work of the Lord, or just working hard at religious things? Are you serving the church you attend, and other institutions around you, because they do holy things, and yet you yourself have not been sanctified? To do Holy work for God we must first sanctify ourselves, otherwise the works we do are just good deeds in the eyes of men. Who do you serve, and in what capacity?
Do you seek to be holy as God is? Do you long to live a life of righteousness and abhor sin because that is how He would have you live? If so, you are pursuing God’s desire for us and the stakes are high. This is an aspiration without degree because we are either found to be with sin... or without it; this is a race in which there is no second place, but fear not.
You have accepted Jesus as your savior, and you have separated yourself from the sinful life you once led, but are you righteous? More than that, are you Holy? When asked, many Christians will define holy as being dedicated, or separated, to God, but this is only part of the equation... it also means for His use, righteous, and divine. These are not qualities that are part of separation, but these are the things that fill us once we have been set apart, emptied, and purified for His use.