Holiness Is The Context of Wrath

There is a word used by Chambers in this entry which is at the heart of the issue he has pursued the last three days.  The word is more comfortably used to refer to our standing before the Creator and Master of all things.  But when applied to the One who defines it, it becomes terrible even more than it becomes logically necessary.  The truth is that my Master is Holy.  And this is a frightening thing when compared to my profane life inside and out.  Moses spoke with God face to face, and yet could not gaze on His glory, but had to be hidden, seeing only the trailing final tendrils of it. 

The Holiness of God obliterates the existence of all that is not as pure as it is.  That is why it is so frightening; “For no man has seen me and lives (Exodus 33:20).”  This holiness takes the “otherness” of God to the extreme that is logically necessary for One who has Created this cosmos.  There truly could not be imagined a way for us to reach through the otherness of such a One.  What I discover is that for this One to reach out to His created beings requires a concession on His part.  This concession is required to bridge the gap between the magnitude of the holiness of such vast power and such limited frail ones such as me.

To stand in the presence of God with anything that is not what He has designed is to be in contempt of the One who made me, and all creation.  The nature of my sin is that I want to be my own master and my own god (my pastor reminded me of that Thursday – Thanks Pastor Rod!).  Such a nature stands in contempt of the One who truly is Master and God of all, not just me.  How can I exist in His presence with such a nature?  If Moses could not as the friend of God, how can I?  There is no fix available that I can produce or provide that will enable me to stand in the crushing weight and furnace fire that is the Holy Presence.

The glory of my Master is something I have seen in a vision, toned down to fit into my tiny head.  To enter from a dark hallway, I had to pass through a membrane that filtered out all my impurities.  I arrived in dirty tattered clothes and Jesus gave me a new robe to wear.  Even with my new robe, the pain in passing through the membrane was enormous.  It was like I left more than half of myself behind in the dark hallway.  But after the pain I stood in the brilliant presence of my Master.  I could not see His face, only such light that would blind me as the sun, and yet I could look anyway.  That “membrane” and the One giving me the new Robe, they are the same.

The Creator and Holder of unimaginable power, even though I am profane to my very core nature, still desired that “light” He imparted to every human.  He still wanted communion with those He made but who rebelled against Him; and continue in their rebellion.  He wants me as I am a member of this vast rabble of shameful rebels.  And His desire cannot be denied, even by Himself.  He moved to make it possible for the requirements of His holiness to be met on my behalf.  The wrath is now located in the context of the holiness of my Master.  It is a characteristic of such glorious otherness.  And it is pacified only in  the work of Jesus.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, November 21

Up On My Old Testament Soap Box…Again

Sanctification is a big theological word (like theological isn’t).  I have said in previous entries that it refers to the process used to dedicate something to a deity.  Remember that a pagan language, Greek, was used to convey this idea, and so the word had use and understanding for those who did not know the One True God, nor the Son, Jesus.  So it refers to the process used by any religion to dedicate something solely to the use of a deity, whatever deity.

The important things are the two elements of “process” and “dedicate”.  Dedication conveyed an idea of being cut off from whatever use, location, or possession something used to have and replacing that use, location, and possession over to the deity.  Now the object having gone through the process of dedication is used only for or by that deity, located with the deity, and is owned by the deity.

I want to put that in its simplest terms because I think the idea of “holiness” is often lost on modern minds, even in church.  For instance, how can someone consider themselves holy to the God of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures but not spend time in the Hebrew Scriptures?  How is it that they can really be considered dedicated to that deity if there are reservations about that devotion and how they will be devoted?

Well meaning believers will say they want to know the will of God in their daily lives, yet never even think to look in the laws God gave to the Hebrews for their daily lives.  If such a suggestion is made, then they look hurt or offended or shocked and say, “we’re under grace not law!”  I don’t get that response.  It’s like taking the quote of Jesus where He says, “Man shall not live by bread alone,” and renouncing the super market lest you might buy such evils as bread.

Being dedicated to the Master of all matter means submitting myself to everything He reveals, not just the parts I’m comfortable with.  If my Master reveals areas in which He is interested that involve my daily routines, then I need to accept those.  There are lots of those in what we call the Law of Moses.  We seem to forget that it was recorded by Moses, but inspired by our Master.  What needs to be avoided is the temptation to use those laws as a means to be accepted by my Master, and as a measuring stick to compare myself to others.

Some of my favorite laws are actually in the set recorded in Exodus, and I don’t mean the Ten famous ones.  They are very practical means of guiding daily life, written much like ancient legal codes.  They are written in a way to decide cases brought before judges, or the city elders in the gates.  They hold insight into what my Master considers important, how my Master sees the value of people, and what does it mean to be holy in the daily routines of this unholy culture.

But to bring them forward into the circumstances of this day and age takes work.  And many people do not like to to do the work or find it intimidating.  It isn’t easy, but it is rewarding.  I find that among the ancients, my Master was progressive in women’s rights, spoke to the rights of employees and workplace safety, and took family relationships and the roles of parents and children very seriously.  This isn’t normally how my Master is seen or understood.

A lot of the will of my Master can be found simply through basic study of Scriptures rather than difficult passages.  It isn’t impossible or even hard to figure out how to treat women, employees, children or parents by studying the easier, more accessible passages.  The key is devotion and obedience to what is found in such study.  If the law of Moses is too hard, then the Beatitudes will suffice for a start.  The rest of the Sermon on the Mount is enough to occupy several years of study in understanding how a holy person behaves in this corrupt culture.

I find something wonderful about the character of my Master in discovering how He is the same even way back in the days of Moses and Abraham.  It’s sort of exciting when I find the words of Jesus among the Proverbs.  It’s comforting to me to know and see such evidence that my Master is truly the same yesterday, today; and then I can more easily believe that He’s forever.  I had a teacher who said something very profound, “There is more grace in the Old Testament than people think; and more wrath in the New Testament than people think.”  I have found that to be very true. 

I admit that the Hebrew Scriptures hold a fascination for me in a way not unlike my fascination with antiques.  I find a measure of quality and detail and heart put into such items that is sorely lacking today.  Our concrete buildings will never stand as long as the stone structures old in the days Abraham saw them in Egypt.  The words of my Master to the people of that day also carry a certain degree weight, greater than the stones they used to build.  Words of my Master to people capable of such work on behalf of demonic deities are words I feel a pull to seek and understand.  There is something there for the prideful people of this day; a message being missed in the hustle and bustle of the daily grind.

Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, October 20

Being the Dish I Wash

I have a problem.  If you've been following this blog for any time, you would agree that is an understatement.  I have a host of problems, but I want to focus on one in particular today, that I tend to minimize or ignore.  Readers may have already picked up on it, so if it's obvious already...well, get over it.  It's new to me.

I have been neglecting my responsibility to cleanse myself and perfect or complete holiness in myself.  I should be doing this in fear of my Master.  As my ministry buddy, Paul, says in 2 Corinthians 7:1, as a result of the promises lined out in chapter 6, I should purify or cleanse myself (go through catharsis, which could also be emotional cleansing), and perfect or complete holiness in fear of God.  There is not a lot of wiggle room or gray area in this statement.  The promise in chapter 6 is the adoption by God which, as Paul puts it, God has already done.  So the cleansing and completing of holiness is in response to a promise we trust has already been completed on God's part.  Sounds good, doesn't it?  I'm not working to gain the promise, I'm working in gratitude for having the promise already.

I seem to not be all that honorable a receiver of the promise.  Having received the adoption by my Master, I then have not purified myself and do not consider holiness to be completed in me.  I have not done this in fear of my Master.  I still lust, I still speak negatively about someone without knowledge, I still consider hone my sarcasm and cynicism regularly.  These are not the actions which increase holiness, but rather the opposite.  These actions make me look like everyone else, and that means common or profane (in the sense as not set apart for special use by a deity, not in the sense of cussing or something).  Because these terms which are antithetical to holiness are so often used for using "bad" or four-letter words, the application of them to daily life is lost.  But it is actually more appropriate to use them for daily living than my language.  If I use a lot of "colorful" language, I don't talk like everyone else, I don't hear that language at work.  But if I act with a cynical attitude, then my attitude does look like those who have no relationship with Jesus, and that is profane, common, or vulgar, in their actual meanings.  They have been vilified to the point of uselessness in the development of holiness.

It would be great if I could blame my lack of holy development on semantics of antithetical terms, but I can't.  I may not be able to use those antithetical words for what I do normally, but I still understand that my actions and attitudes are not holy.  I know that my words and terms are more like the world I live in rather than my home world of Heaven.  I know those facts even if those around me do not.  That they do not notice anything different about me is what speaks volumes in support of my point.  I am not holy if there is nothing appreciably different about my demeanor than the agnostics, practical atheists, and utilitarians I work with.  If my actions do not declare that I know God exists, or I give the impression that I simply go with whatever works regardless of moral implications, then I cannot be distinguished from those categories of people around me who have no practical daily working relationship with the Master of the universe.  That's not an opinion, that is true by definition of holiness, of agnostic, of practical atheist, of utilitarian, and therefore of me when I fit those other definitions. 

I may not actually be those things, but no one knows my true character unless my actions support that character and make it known.  I may have been adopted by the Master of all space, time, and matter.  But it is a grand secret I keep until I perfect holiness in fear of God.  Perhaps I have tasted and seen that He is God, but if I keep it a secret, then I have not ritually purified myself for the special use of this One I serve (or am supposed to be serving).  If some random person were to survey my co-workers regarding my beliefs, would they be able to point to actions and attitudes on my part that support what they may suspect from sporadic claims I have made in the last five years?  Or would their answers approximate something more like, "Well he said that he believes in Jesus, but..."  Whatever follows the but is the verifiable part, and is more real in their minds than any claim on my part. 

Today, I will attempt to cleanse my mind, my attitudes, my actions, my speech from cynicism, sarcasm, and curb my imaginations desire to jump to conclusions without knowledge.  I will seek today to be more available to the special use of my Master.  Boy this will take a lot more than a shower.

Does This Holiness Make My Head Look Big?

I am amused every time I tell other believers that the word "holy" is a word borrowed from pagans.  They seem shocked to hear that.  But the Christian Scriptures were written in Greek, a language of pagans.  How could the word not be a borrowed pagan word.  Almost all of them were.  What it means though is that the meaning was also brought over.  There was a pagan understanding of holiness rarely considered.  I consider it only because most of the places I have to practice holiness are "pagan" rather than Christian.

Paul, in his closing of his first letter to the church in Thessalonica wished for them that the God of peace would sanctify them (the process making them holy) all through; spirit, soul, and body.  He used words that referred to both quality and quantity, leaving no space in the believers life for the common or profane.  So, these believers were to practice this holy dispostion in the world around them; a pagan, sometimes hostile, misunderstanding, self-focused, and sometimes indifferent society.  It sounds familiar.  They really cared about Jesus followers only when the peace or commerce were disrupted.

So what does holy mean?  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sanctification try this link.  It's informative.  The simplified definition includes purity from sin and the process of being set apart for God's use alone.  The second part is the normal use in pagan understanding, the process including a washing which where the first part is derived from.  In the Hebrew Scriptures, holiness was so important than an entire book was dedicated to both the Hebrew people and the priests who served God on their behalf.  God was very strict in how He wanted this holiness expressed by both priests and the rest of the people.  Unfortunately, the contents of the book of Leviticus have not made very interesting reading for most modern believers.

So how does this holiness play out in my life?  It must play out in some way which preserves the characteristic of being set apart, and also intersect with this unholy world.  That was forbidden in Leviticus.  Holiness was maintained by not mixing things, anything, even types of cloth (no wool blends!).  So how can I walk before this infinitely Holy God and be blameless as He calls me to be, when I have to interact daily with people who are anything but holy; they aren't even interested in being holy?

The short answer is, "I don't know."  The nice thing is that I don't have to know.  One less thing to worry about.  The verse after Paul expresses his wish for the believers sanctification (the process again), he praises the God calling them to be holy, and says, "He will do it."  He uses the future tense.  He uses the generic word for make or do.  He uses a short sentence, which for Paul should mark something as particularly special.  So what do I do?  I let Him.

Spiritual disciplines are activities I take which make me accessible to God and His work in transforming me.  They do not, in and of themselves, make me holy.  In fact sometimes they can become so distracting, they keep me from holiness.  I was never intended to be set aside to spiritual disciplines.  I was intended to be set aside for the work of God through His Spirit within my very soul, spirit, and body.  So, I live out my day, interacting with the pagan world, yet trying to set my mind on things above.  Somewhere in the midst of that struggle to remain between two worlds, God makes these adjustments and tweaks to the core of my being.  People around me notice before I do that there are qualities about me that are less about me, and more about God himself.  I become a tree bearing different fruit; fruit of the Spirit rather than my spirit.

It would be glaringly obvious to even the most casual observer that my cynacism, skepticism, sarcasm, and hautiness are probably not those "fruit".  So, the Gardener has a long way to go with this stubborn tree.  "More discipline, please," I murmur as I hold out my hands to my Master.  And with a sigh of resignation, but with a tinge of hope, I enter again into another day.  Perhaps today I will show progress and bear at least one example of good fruit.