Holiness part 4
Be ye holy, as your Father in heaven is holy. That's kind of my main point in this Rant series. Because while it may seem like an instruction... it's really a revelation. Not so much telling us TO be holy, as telling us HOW to be holy! Jesus never sent anybody on an impossible mission. God always provided what was required before requiring it. He made grass before He made cows, right? So we don't ever need to look at what God tells us to do as something that WE have to do. Certainly not something that we have to do on our own. It is the power of God working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He puts the want to into our hearts, and He put the ability to do it into our bodies! The trick, then, is knowing how He is holy. Yesterday we saw that even in the Old Testament it was generally agreed upon that God is holy. I think there were (and, unfortunately still are) a lot of misconceptions about God. I think we've tried to make Him in OUR image way more than we've accepted and understood that we have been made in HIS image. We have twisted the God who is love around and made Him look more like Zeus--an angry, distant taskmaster with a lightning bolt in his hand poised and ready to strike every time we mess up. That's not God. That's not love. We've twisted holiness to be "never making a mistake." Guys... if you never make any mistakes how can learn from your mistakes? More is learned through failure than success. And the only true failure is failing to try again. The only way to fall from grace is putting yourself under the Law. So, you know, don't do that. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. Where sin abounded (before the cross) grace did much more abound (on, and through, the cross). We are not slaves. We are Son(s). We are not sinners. We are saints. We don't have to try to live up to some unrealistic, and unattainable, idea of "holiness." Not when we understand that loving people is the most holy--perhaps the only holy--thing you can do. It's all about love. Be ye holy and God is holy. God is love. Therefore, love is holiness. It's like that old Mother Teresa quote, "If you want to change the world, go home and love your family." Just be the best person you can be to the people in your road. Just pour yourself into the people that are ready, willing, and able, to pick up what you're laying down. You don't have to be someone you're not. And, in fact, you can't. What you ought to do is just accept and embrace who you are. Who you REALLY are. Which is who you are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in you. Let the light shine no matter where you are. God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all. As He is, so are we in this world. So that means WE are light and there is no darkness in US at all! See it, believe it, BE it. Don't hide your light under a bushel because you think you're full of darkness. Know (and believe) the truth, and let the truth make you free and set you free. Be holy because the Holy One lives inside you. And once you BE it, you can DO it. We don't do in order to be. We do because we be. Who you are--what you believe--is what will manifest in your life. Right believing produces right living. Knowing and believing that God is love and He loves you is what equips and empowers you... to love. Knowing that He is holy and lives in you is what equips and empowers you... to be holy! And, friends, those things are one and the same! God is holy. God is love. As He is... so are we in this world!