Skip to main content

When God Makes a Point

For the last couple of weeks I have been following my normal routines and am detecting a pattern or theme that God is bringing to my attention. I can be as dumb as dirt so He's left all subtlety behind and is using a holy 2x4 at this point. Let me explain. I just read a fabulous post on holiness on Steve Camp's blog. I recommend it, you can find it here. Earlier today I attended a community bible study where the topic was on God's holiness and our sin. Sunday my pastor delivered a sermon that was both convicting and encouraging. He was preaching on Philippians 2:9-11 and tied it to the holiness of God. Just before that I was asked by a group of women to define the holiness of God. See what I mean? One of the principles of hermeneutics is when God repeats something, it's important. It seems apparent to me that God wants my attention and He wants it focused on His holiness.

I know I was going to write more about confrontation, but when God keeps bringing something to your attention it is best to listen. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe that God has providentially placed these people and circumstances in my life to snap me to attention. So here I am, Lord and I am listening.

The holiness of God is a truly awesome and terrible thing. The only way to begin to understand His holiness is in juxtaposition to my sin. No matter how I try I cannot really comprehend the absolute righteousness, perfection, and goodness of my God. I think a nanosecond of seeing Him in all of His holiness and glory would vaporize us. Isaiah was undone, Moses' face and hands shone after spending time with God and God protected Moses from seeing Him. (Isaiah 6, Exodus 34). The holiness of God will lay you out flat and make you tremble. Sitting here thinking about it has moved me to tears.

God, in His merciful providence, is allowing me to see how great a gift I have been given in my salvation. If I could, I would run from Him. I know who I am. I know the wicked heart I have. I know that He is the one person I cannot trick into thinking there is something good in me, other than His Holy Spirit. I know my bent for sin. I know that even after this glimpse of His holiness and the way I tremble here and now, in the next moment my flesh can rise up. And yet, for reasons I will never understand let alone never merit, He has called me to be one of His own. Jesus Christ, my Savior, has paid the penalty for my sins past, present and future. Knowing exactly how many times and ways I would fail Him, he has imputed his righteousness to me.

Recently I asked God to help me desire heaven. I think His answer has come in reminding me of His holiness and seeing my sin for what it truly is. My salvation is secure and I am free from the penalty of sin. My sanctification continues as I am freed from the power of sin. When I serve Him in heaven I will be free at last from the presence of sin.

Wow.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fear Down, Hope and Peace to Go!

Last night I had the honor and privilege to present some information to the women of my church. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate them. The seminar I did was on fear. God is clever and He had me present the information to them because I needed it. It's not that I don't want to study things for my own benefit and growth, but whenever I do a topical study to teach it, I see how badly I needed it and how much more I have to repent of than I realized. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. That's a topic I want to return to in another post. I want to talk about the ladies for a moment. They are an incredibly loving group of women. Women who seek God and are teachable. They have gone out of their way to include me and love on me, which speaks volumes of their characters because I am not all that lovable. I am not being self-deprecating here. I am a mix of endearing and maddening qualities like anyone else. What I am telling you is ...
1 comment
Read more

Be yourself- don't waste your blog...

So... I read an article on my friend, Carla's blog . I have written about her on my blog before and have recommended her before. In this particular post she talks about one blogger's vision for a directory of Christian bloggers to help promote accountability. Which, on the surface sounds all good and 'Christianly' but Carla has reservations. Then I read the comments for her article and Steve Camp of Camp onThis fame has responded. I have also recommended his blog a number of times. For those of you who don't want to click the links, this is a brief synopsis. Some guy wants to have a Christian bloggers directory for accountability purposes, Carla questions the need since accountability begins in the bloggers local church, and she fears it will set up a click of bloggers who are "in" and those who are "out." Steve drives the point home and signs his comment "Don't waste your blog..." That's the part that has me spinning....
4 comments
Read more

Super Church a song for the Emergent-sy

In the early 70s I was in a youth choir at my church. Our youth pastor was a musician and his way of connecting with us as a group was through the choir and music. Somehow there was an affiliation between him and The Continental Singers, New Hope and Jeremiah People. He was worked with Moishe Rosen of Jews for Jesus too, I think. Are any of these names familiar to you? Though I remember the church fondly I was a profoundly lost and troubled young woman during my years there. That and time have muddled the memories quite a bit. Today I was digging through some old paperwork and one of the books to the musical we did. It's Getting Late For the Great Planet Earth, a folk rock oratorio by Cam Floria. Yes, that's right. Cam Floria put Hal Lindsey to music. There's a lot to laugh about and some to groan about but as I was looking through the songs and remembering, I found this little ditty and I only wish I could sing it for you. Just remember that this is circa 1972 and even th...
8 comments
Read more