Happily Holy

The past month or so I seem to have been going through a dry spell. Which, to me, inevitably means that I am in sin. I can see the down spiraling of my actions and decisions from decent to bad to worse. As I actively choose sin over the love of Christ I, like everyone else who trust/loves/follows Christ end up far away from Him.

It has taken much for God to pull me back to Him and sadly enough, I am still nowhere near where I was or where I wish I was in my relationship with Him. Through recent events with a few of my friends who have also been going through dry spells, who have also seen the results of sin in their lives, Christ has shown me my own sin against Him and against others. Each one of us, in our own way, have actively chosen to pull away from our first Love. We have chosen to stray off that narrow way and try to hop the fence to get on the wide path that looks so appealing to us. Yet, God stops us and reminds each of us that we are His. He reminds us of the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7). When we, as the sheep did, stray from Him He will come find us and rejoice over us. He does not need us. He wants us. He chooses us for no other reason than to bring Himself glory. Yes, you … He chooses you to bring Him glory. The word chooses is not a typo, He actively chooses us everyday. He wants to make you righteous and holy and wants to remind you that you are loved and cared for by Him. This is not just a feel good message like the “Uncle Sam Wants You” campaign; no this is the God of the universe who wants to use you for His glory. But He declares us righteous when we are identified with Him.

Reading through Exodus proves to be difficult once I start trekking through the end of the book. All the information about how the temple was to be built and what was to be plated in gold. All the different tools and metals used and all of the measurements, OH the measurements!! But then I came upon chapter 29. Not necessarily very exciting to me, at least not until I came to verse 34 and 37. What do those two verses say, you may be asking yourself. Well I will tell you!

“It shall not be eaten, because it is holy” ~verse 34 c

“Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” ~ verse 37

These verses are obviously referring to the rules about sacrifices. This particular way of preparing a sacrifice was only good enough for Christ. This sacrifice could be consumed on the day it was made set upon the altar but if there was any left over it was not to be eaten because it was holy. They could not eat it because it was holy. Holy means it was set apart, different, godly, pure quality. Holy has a whole slew of meanings and this is scratching the mere surface of the depth of the meaning. For now, we will leave it at “set apart” and “different.” This sacrifice was completely set apart. It was only for Christ, it was good enough for only Him. No one below the level of pure godliness could consume this. It was by far different than all the other sacrifices in the way it was prepared and what was to be with it at the end of the day.

We get down to verse 37 and see that the altar was to be consecrated and atonement was to be made for seven days. At this point the altar was considered “most holy” and “whatever touches the altar shall become holy.” After it had been declared holy, anything that touched it became holy as well. When we come to the Lord we are declared righteous and holy. He wants us to be holy as He is holy (Lev. 11:44 and I Peter 1:16). Whatever touched the altar that had been declared holy then became holy. Oooooo how I want this to be reflected in my life! If I am like Christ, who is holy, I should give off holiness. Those around me should be pushed to holiness and become more holy. All because Christ is holy! People rub off on me very easy. I pick up on mannerisms and quirky traits and even patterns of speech. When I think about rubbing off on others, this is what I want others to be getting. I want to love God so much that I would do anything to be holy as He is holy. Those that are around me (or as our pastor would say, in my sphere of influence) should be picking up on holiness more than anything.

Christ has called those who follow Him to a higher standard. We are to be holy as He is holy. Heck we should desire to be holy! Many times I catch myself wanting to be awesome as the world calls awesome rather than seeking Christ-like characteristics. Four and a half years ago I officially began my journey with Christ, well that is when I willingly began to journey with Him for He had already begun working in my heart long before then. My life is completely different from what it was 5 years ago. It is completely different than it was one year ago. Every year, month, and day I should be growing closer to Christ and being conformed to His image. This has not been an easy journey, then again nothing worth it ever is (still planning on writing a separate post about this quote).  We will never reach perfection and yet He still wants us to try. The closer we get to Him the more we should desire this. My appetite for holiness is far different than it was a few years ago as is my appetite for certain foods (ask my friends, I now eat egg rolls… crazy I know!). Just as we crave particular foods we also should crave the things of God in our love for Him.

Coming out of this particular dry season, God has taught me what it means to crave holiness and to crave Christ-likeness. Through a verse near the end of Exodus 29, He reminded me that I am to be holy as He is holy. God’s greatest concern for us is not that we are happy; it is that we are holy. People seem to interchange those two short words when they indeed should not be used interchangeably. The two are completely different. John Piper was quoted, recently, saying, “If God’s love for his children is to be measured by our health, wealth, and comfort in this life, God hated the apostle Paul.” Do you realize it pleased God to crush His own Son? God is not worried about how happy we may be while on this little journey here on earth. He wants us to be made like Him. Being made like Him does not necessarily include being sad, lonely, and depressed. I have known many who love God and have not met the adversity that Paul or Peter or many others have faced. On the other hand, I have known just as many who have experienced the tough trials and sufferings. God has a plan for each one of us and His plans for each person differ. Paul seemed loved God and was thankful to be found righteous in His eyes. I would even say he was happily holy. This too I desire to be.

To Be Called Beautiful

Almost every little girl I know wants to be called beautiful by their daddy. As little girls we want to be our daddy’s little princess. We will put on our cutest dress and play make-up and add our little crown. “Daddy, don’t I look pretty?” little girls will say. At such a young age we may not clearly know what beauty is defined as but we want to be it to our daddy. Then as we enter into our teenage years and beyond we want to be beautiful to those around us. We want others to see us not just pretty but something to be desired by men. We want to be wanted. Even in my walk with God I have found myself wanting to be called beautiful by my Daddy. Reading through scripture has brought me hope of becoming beautiful in the sight of my Father.

”...let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” I Peter 3:4

As women we will do whatever it takes to be beautiful by worldly standards. Within the extremes we starve ourselves to be thin, then once we are thin we need new clothes so we buy new clothes to fit in with what is hot and young, once we have the clothes we need the haircut, after the haircut we realize we need the phone and the car and the shoes to match the clothes. We realize that keeping up with the beautiful people around us is almost a full-time job. We will end up spending our energy, money, and time on being beautiful. But here is the kicker, God’s word which is holy and perfect says we are to “let (our) adorning be the hidden person (in) the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious”. Did you catch that? Our beauty is what is within us. So all the old ladies at church were right… it is not what is outside but what is on the inside. Not only that but it is “very precious” in the sight of God. So we have let the world tell us a big fat lie! Yes, I just called the world and it is no joke! Our beauty is not merely skin deep, it goes much deeper than that.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” Romans 10:15

Scripture also tells us that we are beautiful when we take the gospel to the lost. Right before this verse it says “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” (verses 14-15). God finds us beautiful when we are working for Him. When we are laboring in the fields, with sweat dripping, no make-up on, in our dirty work clothes, God finds us beautiful. Our Father finds us the prettiest when we do not try to be this outwardly beautiful person yet when we are working hard for Him with our beauty hidden within our gentle and quiet spirit, we are His beautiful daughters.

Now, do not get me wrong… I do not expect you to find a husband being dirty and filthy all the time so if that is what you are looking for, know that I am no match maker. But, what I am saying is if we are looking to the Lord and seeing His beauty and He sees ours, we are far better off than spending bunches of money on beauty products and new clothes and such. God is perfect and has perfect timing. He will provide a significant other in right timing if He so desires. He may have you single for the rest of your life, who knows… well, He does but you know what I mean. Sisters, I urge you to keep on pressing closer to Christ. Trust in Him and know He is good. He is faithful. You are beautiful!!

The Great Gift of Ruin

Ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation- Quote from the movie Eat, Pray, Love

A few months ago, the ladies in the office I work in and I decided to go see the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I had never heard of the book or even the movie, but I went along anyway wanting to spend time with the lovely ladies I work with. The scenery in the movie was amazing. The places Liz (Julia Roberts), the main character, went and the food she ate... I would love to be able to go and do and eat haha! Anyway, the point here is not about me. The movie is basically about Liz discovering happiness and spirituality in Hinduism. Although I do not agree with that, one of the greatest quotes throughout the entire movie was "ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation."
This quote immediately made me think about my relationship with God and how I came into a relationship with Him. In order for me to come to Him, He had to completely break me. He ruined me of myself and brought me begging on my knees to Him for Him. I wanted nothing less than Him. In being broken and ruined II Corinthians 5:17 reminds us, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." To become a new creation it has to be transformed from the old creation. The ruin of ourselves is a gift. It is the greatest gift we could ever receive, it is the gift of salvation. Ruin is not only a gift but it is the road to transformation. John 3:30 says "He must increase, but I must decrease." We have to be constantly seeking Him and Him increasing in us to become more like Him. We cannot just expect to be little Christs (Christians)if we are not spending time with Him, seeking Him out in prayer, and begging Him to make us more like Him. We become like those we spend the most time with/around. So if Jane (random name for this) is spending most of her time praying, fasting, in His word, reading books about His character, etc. then she is going to become more and more like Him. Her lifestyle choices, movies, music, books, and all other entertainment of sorts will reflect her convictions based on His word. His desires will become her deisres. The things that break His heart will begin to break hers. Her life will look radically different than it did before she started spending time getting to know Him.
This brings a whole new light to Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." I am going to skip over a major part (to be writen about later...) to keep going on transformation. The more we are in His word, praying, seeking Him, desiring to glorify Him...the more we are being transformed. Our minds are being shaped into Christ-like thinking and we are being transformed into Christ-like people. We will not reach perfection this side of eternity, however, we should not stop striving for Christ-like perfection. Do not forget that your "ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation." Keep pushing on toward Christ-likeness.

God Bless!!