Exploring the Holy - 06/11/2019

WARNING PREACHY… 

Exploring the Holy -  06/11/2019

When I became a Christian I did so basically because I didn’t want to go to hell when I died.  I initially investigated God because I knew I was going to see Him sooner rather than later and I realized that God was the one area of my life that I had best not get wrong.  So, I simply cried out to Him and said that if He existed I needed to know who He was.  God then answered that prayer and within about a month I was face-to-face with the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  At that time I committed my life to Him and have struggled in my faith walk ever since.

There is a problem…

The problem is, that I started from a point of saving my own skin, getting out of going to hell when I die, and without even knowing it I have been the point of the Christian faith ever since.  I may have said things like “Jesus is the reason for the season” but the reality is that if Jesus does not answer all of my prayers in a timely fashion in the way I want those prayers answered then I tend to get gloomy and begin to doubt Him and His goodness.  It’s quite possible that I am unique in this; but I doubt it – just look at the Nation of Israel in the book of Exodus.

I’ve been a Christian for 25 years and just recently God has put it on my heart to press in and get to know Him in His Holiness, so this is what I have been doing for the past few months.  As I blog my thoughts here I don’t claim to know it all but I have been reading deeply and praying a lot; I pray you might find my thoughts helpful to inspire your own journey so that you might  Explore the Holy as well.

A Brief Description…

The topic of God’s Holiness is far beyond the human ability to describe as well as the limited area of this blog-space; however I believe a brief description is necessary.

The word holy means that something is separate from the other.  A holy people means that those people are different from the rest and a holy God means that that God is different from the others.  However, God is not just separate from other gods but He is described as Holy, Holy, Holy (Isaiah 6:3).  The emphasis with the three repetitious words is an indicator that God is a being unlike anything else and when He is examined it is learned that his infinitude is quite beyond my human ability to actually describe.  However, my human imperfection is all I have to work with and so this is what I work with.

However, as God is not limited by my inabilities, I press on and trust that by His Word and Spirit I will get a glimpse of the wealth of His innate and intrinsic essence.  By faith I trust Him to reveal Himself.

QUESTIONS:  

Why did you accept Jesus as your savior?  Was it to avoid hell and go to heaven when you die?  Was it because you had problems in your life and God offered a solution?  Was it because God is Holy and you recognized His innate beauty and sovereignty in your life?  Too often we accept Jesus like we vote for the President of the United States of America: we tend to vote for the person who we think will make our lives better or we vote for the lesser of two evils; our American culture has prepped us to always consider what’s in it for us individually.  

The Eerie Day Immanuel was Born – 12/24/2018

WARNING PREACHY…

I remember vividly the events of 9/11/2001, I think because the scene was not of a place and location that was unfamiliar to me but rather I had known the towers of the World Trade Center, I had seen them in real life and even ran my hand along their sides as I walked by them.  The images I saw on 9/11 of the buildings having jets flown into them and then collapsing down into piles of rubble had a great effect on me, not like the war scenes from strange and faraway places; these images were real and personal to me.  

I was at college that day watching the events unfold and the video of the planes crashing in replayed a thousand times.  When I finally emerged and stepped outside I was struck with eeriness because the world was quiet.  I looked in the sky and there was no air travel: no helicopters, no puddle jumpers landing at the airport next door, and no jets way up high visible by only their jet streams.  In fact, the sky was completely empty of jet streams that usually filled up the sky’s palette of blue.  It was eerie as if without the sky’s clutter the world became amazingly quieted.

I wonder if the world experienced this sort of hush when Jesus was born?

The babe born to Mary was Immanuel which means “God with us.”  It seems to me that this single event must have been felt by both believer and non at the same time, though with varying effect and understanding.  I can imagine the Wise Men getting a strong urge to step outside and look to the stars when Jesus entered the world.  I wonder if they felt it, the eeriness of something cosmic happening?  I suspect they were spiritually in tune like that.

Do you feel it?  As we remember and celebrate the birth of our savior do you feel the echoes of the world’s rejoicing?  Doesn’t the very thought of God becoming Flesh boggle the mind and cause you to awe?  Do you worship with the common-man shepherds or with the nobility, the wise men, and the kings?

As we celebrate the birth of God this Christmas, let us look to the sky recognizing how the cosmos reverberates with His entrance into the world and rejoice with all creation in reverence for our new born King.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Love For Jesus – 12/14/2018

WARNING PREACHY… (preaching to the choir)

In his excellent book Six Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living[1], Dr. DeVries wrote in the fourth chapter “Love people until they ask why.” 

  

In 1994 I moved to N.J. for work and I met a young family that basically adopted me and gave me a segregate family since mine was so far away.  I was a 23 year old kid from Detroit and yet they still took me in as one of their own.  Even to this day I am amazed that they loved me as they did.  They loved me because they were Christian and through their love I saw clearly the reality of Jesus and I became His disciple.  All these years later I’m still amazed because it could have gone badly for them as I was quite rough around the edges if the Jesus bit hadn’t stuck.  I never needed to ask “why” they loved me but because they did my life was radically transformed with a visible demonstration of Jesus.

I’m personally challenged by DeVries’ fourth lesson as I know that the love of Jesus is sacrificial in nature and I struggle to love others as He first loved me.  So I suggest that you get a copy of DeVries’ book as it is sure to challenge you to develop the mind and mission of our Lord.  

(Order a copy from Amazon here:  http://a.co/d/1CropEG)

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[1] Six-Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living: 100 Six-Word Lessons to Align Every Believer with the Mission of Jesus by David DeVries; http://a.co/d/1CropEG

Search For Jesus – 12/13/2018

WARNING PREACHY… (preaching to the choir)

In his excellent book Six Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living[1], Dr. DeVries wrote in the third chapter “People are searching to know Jesus.”   

I remember when I was young, every September I would sift through the Sears catalogue and circle every toy I just had to have for Christmas--in December.  During the process I would wind up circling everything but there was always that one-thing I just had to have and I would spend three amazing months fantasizing about it.   I was very much like that kid that had to have the Bee-bee gun for Christmas.  Well, Christmas morning would arrive and more than likely I would not get that new dirt-bike, but once in a while I would get something I just had to have.  And you know what, after a few minutes that thing that I just had to have lost its luster and I was back looking at the other toys in the Sears catalogue.

As I grew up this pattern grew with me and I found that my relationships with the women in my life was very much like all those toys I just had to have; none of them satisfied for very long before I was looking at the catalogue again.  It wasn’t until I met Jesus thatI discovered reality and a love that lasted, it was not until then that thewomen in my life were no longer play-things and people to be loved, cherished,and died for.

Not everyone’s story is like mine, but I believe DeVries is correct, people are all searching for Jesus and they don’t even know it.  Get DeVries’ book and join in the work of the harvest.  

(Order a copy from Amazon here:  http://a.co/d/1CropEG)

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[1] Six-Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living: 100 Six-Word Lessons to Align Every Believer with the Mission of Jesus by David DeVries; http://a.co/d/1CropEG