God is Holy

When you think about God being Holy, what do you think of? Some of us think about God judging us or His wrath. Some of us think of Him having an ego and being distant and not caring for us when life gets hard. But, if God is distant and doesn’t care about us or if all He does is judge us or release His wrath on us, why are we still here? Why hasn’t He destroyed us? Why does He allow us to remain? If the wages of sin is death, we all deserve to be destroyed. (Psa 103:8-12)

Jackie Hill Perry ministered tonight as part of the Desperate for Jesus (#DFJ2024) conference and she asked that question. It caught me off guard, because I’ve asked myself why would God put up with us or why does He love us so. I felt ridiculous, because the answer was staring me in the face. God is Holy – He is different than everyone and everything else (Isa 5:16). He is separate. His very nature is set apart from all things that were created – He is by nature GOOD. Not what we think of as good, by giving us the things we selfishly want or desire. He is GOOD and He is always being GOOD (Psa 100:5).  He works on the things in and around us that matter most – building us to be like Christ and trust Him like Christ trusted Him even until death. 

While we were created in God’s image, we can be tempted and give into the things that influence us. We have such limited understanding, we often reflect the miniscule knowledge from our experiences on God, not understanding what an insult that is to Him. God cannot be compared to anything else we know. He is far above anything we can think. His will is not consistent with ours (Isa 55:8-9).  He is the standard. That is why our minds must be renewed. The renewing of our minds is necessary for us to be transformed into the image of Christ (Rom 12:2) – back to the original. 

Because God is Holy, He cannot lie (Num 23:19), therefore He cannot lie to us. Because He is Holy, His Word is true. Because He is Holy, He is Merciful and that is why we are not consumed. There is none like Him (1 Sam 2:2). We take Him for granted, but He still shows us mercy that we do not and can not deserve. You may ask why I say that. When was the last time you looked at God as the standard and saw your weaknesses and sin? How did you stack up? Exactly! 

As you think about God’s Holiness, it should give you great comfort that He can be trusted (Heb 10:23). That He cares about the things you care about. Because Jesus is Holy, He loved us all enough to die for us to pay for our sins that we could be reunited with the Godhead. Even knowing the tremendous costs, Jesus (King of Kings and Lord of Lords) humbled Himself and stepped out of eternity to become a man to die for us – willingly. Because of God’s Holiness, we are not destroyed. Jesus paid the price and was destroyed in our place. Then, He got up with all power in His hands. He is Holy and Righteous and because He is, we are adopted and chosen (Eph 1:4-5). 

Praise God for His Holiness. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts (Isa 6:1-5)!

God's Will, Not Mine

Over the past week, I’ve really given some consideration to what it means to live in God’s will vs. my own. What I realized is that what we’re really talking about is obedience vs. rebellion to God’s authority. We are born in sin and our very nature is the opposite of God’s will.  Sure, we may be “good” people according to worldly standards, but we still have utterly wicked hearts (Jer 17:9-10) and are essentially all about ourselves. Given the right set of circumstances, without Jesus, we are subject to do anything. Even with him, we will on occasion step out of who we are in God in rebellion to seek our own. For every act of rebellion against God there are negative consequences, the biggest one is the separation it causes between us and our Heavenly Father. Rebellion is sin and wages of sin are death (Rom 6:23). We get a glimpse of the consequences to our rebellion to God’s authority in Gen 3 with the Fall of Mankind.

So, God’s Will is obedience to Him and His word and to act when He tells us to……to have such faith that we don’t worry about what the future holds and take the step that is directly in front of us knowing God has already worked out the details. When we move like He tells us to move, we show we trust Him with everything. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is saying “yes” when we don’t even know what we’re saying yes to, because we trust His leading and His love for us. 

When we strive to know Him better and we are transformed as we study His word and learn what His will is for us (Rom 12:1-2), our will changes to be more in line with His will (Psa 37:4). Our obedience is directly related to our level of trust in God and our belief that He loves us and has our best interest at heart, as well as, our understanding that He knows better than we do. When we disobey, we are really saying we know better than God does – just like the teenager who explains to their parents they don’t know anything the teenager is going through. Just like parents have lived what teenagers are facing and have good advice for how to navigate, God clearly already knows everything we are going through and will go through the rest of our lives. 

So, we have choices to make about whether we will seek to do God’s will – love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, body, etc., and love our neighbor as ourselves, or will we seek to do our own will – be all about ourselves and what we can get?  God is faithful (1 Cor 1:9) and He keeps His promises (Heb 10:23), but there are consequences when we go our own way and if we die in our sin, the ultimate consequences of death and hell. Accepting Jesus as personal savior, studying God’s word and following it is the best way to stay in God’s will. His will is that none would be lost (2 Pet 3:9), but that is a choice we get to make. We get to choose Him or not. Can you imagine what He can do with a willing heart and an obedient spirit? Open doors beyond measure and Him getting the glory as you walk out His calling on your lives, since we remember and acknowledge we are nothing without Him (John 15:4-5). 

Choose His will over your own and watch what He will do with your life. 

Faith and Works

How many times in your life have you let fear keep you from moving into something you believed was for you? How many times have you let life’s circumstances deter you from making a change? How many times have you allowed what others said to keep you from taking a risk? There have been many times I’ve taken a risk and it didn’t pan out, but I tried. Maybe those were the right choices, maybe not, However, I know I tried. 

It is impossible to please God without faith (Heb 11:6). So, we must believe in Him and believe that He will do exactly what He says (2 Pet 3:9-11; Rom 4:21). One thing I’ve learned over the years is that I can trust God to take care of me (Matt 6:26). From my first move to Florida to my latest move to Kansas City (which was not in my life plan), I have trusted that God had my best interests at heart. When obstacles come, I know that I will make it through them because I am His child and I am in Christ Jesus. 

Pastor Craig addressed faith this morning in his message based on the movie “Air,” about Nike signing Michael Jordan. It was very insightful to see how faith in the Lord can provide guidance for the way through. A couple of the types of faith mentioned during the message resonated with me. 

The faith to believe there is a way to accomplish something was one of them. I believe I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13) because God’s word says so. I don’t question whether I can – I really only question whether I truly want to. Don’t get me wrong – there are some things God has called me to that I didn’t want to do, but I did them to be obedient to Him. In the same way, there have been things I didn’t know how to do, but I believed He would guide me and He always has. 

Another type of faith was the faith to take a risk. When I accepted the position in Kansas City, I had never been to the area and knew nothing about it but what I’d found on the internet. I had no idea whether I would like it or not. I just knew I was supposed to be here. I had no idea how it would turn out, where I would live, how the job would go, nothing. I only knew two things – God was calling me to it and I was going to be obedient. Within that knowledge was also the fact that I knew if God was calling me to it, he would provide what I needed to do it (Prov 2:6-8). 

Remember, you can trust God, you can stand on His word and His direction. The problem is making sure you’re standing on His direction and not your own. Many times, we decide we want a certain thing and we step into it without waiting on or listening to God to move (Prov 3:5-6). God should be our first call not our last resort. If we listen and obey, we won’t have to make the sacrifices in the future (1 Sam 15:22). God is good, but we must operate in faith to please Him. Make sure your works (actions, decisions, etc.) align with His word (James 2:26).