2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Friends,
In this series of messages the Lord has been leading me to look at how He reveals His attributes to us through our obedience to Him. There are some words, like holiness, which are not easy for us to understand. Yet, God wants us to reach beyond the limitations of our physical world toward a better understanding of this intangible issue. It’s a lot easier to conceptualize a word like provider, for example, than it is one like holiness. You might even ask, “what does this have to do with obedience?” But, with the path the Lord has taken me on, this should be made clearer. One way to reach a better understanding of what the Father wants us to know is to keep in mind the two parallel truths, God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility to respond to it.
In an effort to make the issue of holiness clear in my own mind, I began by looking it up in the dictionary. Holy: sacred; consecrated; Godly; pious; devout; appropriated or dedicated to God; entitled to veneration or respect by association with God. All of these definitions are man’s attempts to appreciate what sets God apart from all other beings greatly limited by the shortcomings of both our ability to achieve Godly perception and our language. However, those shortcomings are no excuse for not trying to stretch ourselves spiritually to reach closer to what God perceives. We are always brought closer to Him by doing that and made better by it. A great example of how we can do this is by looking at Colossians 1: 15 which sheds light on two of the persons of God, the Father and the Son. “Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born Son, superior to all created things.” We are told here that the limitations of our human perception will not allow us to see God in a material way. However, we can perceive His second person, Jesus Christ, and through relating to the Son, we can come to a closer understanding of the Deity. We can do this all the while knowing that Jesus Christ is superior to all other created things, because God is. Considering God’s supremacy and righteousness, that’s pretty awesome! While God, the Father, is a mystery to us, it is remarkable that He has found a way to let us know Him, through Jesus Christ, without losing His ultimate and supreme authority over us.
Supernatural holiness is a huge issue. One of the citations which gives us a glimpse of this is in Moses’ first encounter with God on Mt. Sinai when he sees the burning bush. EX 3: 5-6, “God said, ‘Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ‘ So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.” I’m sure this fear was a combination of physical fear and utter reverence. As you all know encounters with God are God-sized, and this one was certainly no exception. There are times, and this was one of them, when an ordinary person encounters God and is given a God-sized assignment. Many times the person given a command by God is not only humbled by it but questions whether he can do what God asks. Moses does this in (11) by responding, “I am a nobody. How can I go to the pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” Of course, we all know that God, Who alone could do this, equipped Moses to carry out His holy commission. Without this supernatural intervention, Moses would have never been able to do this task, and the course of human history would have been quite different.
God gives us God-sized assignments to provide us with an opportunity for spiritual growth. He also gives these assignments to use us in carrying out His will. Moses’ limited human perspective undoubtedly kept him from seeing all the future ramifications of his obedience beyond the release of his fellow Israelites from slavery. That is how it is with any person who has an encounter with God, is given and accepts God’s commands to him, and carries them out with God’s help. That is why it is so important for us to obey God. We may never know personally the blessings to everyone ever affected that result from our obedience. The only way we can see that is by looking at the Scriptures and learning about the benefits to mankind that came out of the obedience of ordinary people like Moses. The excellent quality of Moses’ faith in God led him to sing this verse in EX 15, the Song of Moses. EX 15: 11, “Lord, who among the gods is like You? Who is like you, wonderful in holiness? Who can work miracles and might acts like Yours?”
After David’s victory over the Philistines, the Ark of the Covenant was moved to Jerusalem. This was a major event, certainly made possible by David’s obedience and God’s supernatural intervention. Herein is another example of where God’s sovereignty and man responding to it brought about the carrying out of God’s will. Afterward, David gave Asaph and his fellow Levites the responsibility of singing a song of praise to God. Look at how God reveals to man an understanding of His holiness in 1 CH 16: 29, “Praise the Lord’s glorious name; bring an offering and come into His temple. Bow down before the Lord when He appears in His holiness..” The quality of faith God gave David is further exemplified in PS 47, The Supreme Ruler. PS 47: 8-9, “God sits on His sacred throne; He rules over the nations. The rulers of the nations assemble with the people of the God of Abraham. More powerful than all armies is He; He rules supreme.” By his obedience to God, David came to know many of God’s attributes. Because God loves us, we have access to David’s writings and those of the other Biblical authors, so we can learn them too.
PRAYER: O Lord, You want us to make the effort to reach beyond ordinary human perceptions toward Yours. While we can’t reach Yours, You have given us a way to prepare ourselves for the joy of eternal life in fellowship with You. By our obedience and willingness to accept commissions You give us, You reveal Your holiness to us. You want us to eventually share in that holiness and bless us by equipping us to carry out these God-sized assignments. Those are all the actions of a loving Abba Who wants nothing more than to bring His children closer to Him. For that, we honor You. To You belongs the praise, honor, glory, adoration, and thanks we offer. In Christ’s name, amen.
There will be more to share on God’s holiness tomorrow, Dear Ones. For now, know that your Father in heaven loves you and so do Peter and I.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn