Holiness part 5
When you have Jesus saying things like, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last first" (Mark 10:31), it seems to me that we ought to change our mindsets a little bit. The Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Love) doesn't operate the way we think it should. It has it's own Divine Order. We don't bring earth to heaven, Jesus brought heaven to earth. So in the same way we need to chang the way we think about things like holiness. Instead of thinking that being "holy" makes us better than people, we need to understand that true holiness is simply loving people! And in order to do that (I'll use Jesus as the example again), you sometimes have to get down on your hands and knees and wash people's feet. You have to meet people where they're at. See, Jesus didn't expect, or demand, that His disciples be clean. He cleaned them. He washed them with the Word (which is Jesus, which is love), and He literally washed them with water and a towel. He made them holy by being holy to them. We learn how to love by learning how we are loved. We show people God by showing them love. Guys. Come on. It's all about love. When you know that you are loved, you can love. Because when you know that you are loved... you can BE love. You can know that you ARE love. So stop worrying about what you're not and simply begin to embrace who you are. Esteem others higher than yourself. And, listen, being humble doesn't mean thinking less of yourself. It means thinking of yourself less. If I've got your back, and you've got mine, that means neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. And that's a great place to be. When you know your heavenly Father is taking care of you (usually in the form of your neighbor taking care of you) that's when you can stop stressing out. Because you've cast your cares upon HIM, because He cares for you. Let go and let God, as they say. And when you're not stessing out about yourself, that's when you can see past yourself and see the needs of other people. I'm telling you, there is nothing more gratifying than making other people happy. Acts 20:35 in the New Living Translation says, "And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" And I'm telling you, it really is. Because love is giving! You have to receive before you can give--you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have--but the point of receiving is being able to give. We are blessed to be a blessing. Enjoying what we've been blessed with is just a fringe benefit. Let me say it like this: If you want to feel forgiven... forgive someone. If you want to feel love... love someone. If you want to feel holy... be ye holy as your Father in heaven is holy. Which means... forgive people and love people! I think those are two of God's go to moves. He forgives (He has forgiven), and He loves. That's not just what He does, that's who He is. And because as He is, so are we in this world, that's who WE are. We are forgiven. We are loved. We are holy. If we can accept that we are the righteousness of God in Christ... we ought to be able to accept that His holiness is our holiness. We ought to be able to accept that we are who our heavenly Father says we are. And once we accept it--and believe it--we can start to BE it. You don't do in order to be, but you do because you be. You ARE holy. So you can BE holy by loving people!