Holy, Holy, Holy

There are many unspeakable and utterly indescribable mysteries in God. God is too far beyond us to really remain anything but a mystery. Yet we can know Him through the truths He has revealed in creation, in His Word, and through Jesus an...d the Holy Spirit within us.

Many of these mysteries have been named: Trinity... God's omniscience... omnipresence... omnipotence... His unchanging nature... But just because we have named it does not mean we have grasped it. And just because we cannot explain or understand something about God does not mean it isn't true.

We have put God in the box of our own pat answers and tidy theology so much that we have lost our wonder. We want to grasp God, because to understand Him is to be able to predict (or even control) Him. But instead of trying to grasp God, we are meant to worship Him. And academic study does not bring us to an encounter with the Living God or His promises. Worshiping Him in His undiminished glory and holiness does.

 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness

 

Psalm 29:2

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Holier Than...?

"He that sees the beauty of holiness... sees the greatest and most important thing in the world" - Jonathan Edwards

"Happiness, not holiness, is the chief pursuit of most people today, including many professed Christians. They want Jesus t...o solve their problems and carry their burdens, but they don’t want Him to control their lives and change their character. It doesn’t disturb them that eight times in the Bible, God said to His people, ‘Be holy, for I am holy,’ and He means it" - Warren Wiersbe

"If I had my choice of all the blessings I can conceive of, I would choose perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus, or, in one word, holiness" - Charles Spurgeon

In our effort to avoid being “holier-than-thou”, we’re not holier than anyone. The life of holiness is life as God's treasured possession, living at peace in His care. We are desperate for this life, and the world is desperate for God's holy people to show the way to the Holy One who is worthy of their worship.

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Questions for Jesus: What Shall I Do, Lord?

When Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was confronted with the reality that the current purpose of his life was in direct opposition to the truth.  It's a terrifying thing to know that you're talking to the Lord and still have to ask, "Who are you?"  Paul's next question was "What shall I do?"  Jesus' answer and Paul's obedience shows us how to start and finish the calling God puts on our lives.

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The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

On Sunday evenings, we will be going through a study of the "attributes of God."  Most of the material for this study (and a good deal from the next sermon series on holiness) will be taken from the book Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer.  The book is available for free online in PDF form at this link.

I highly recommend this book.

Questions for Jesus: How Can We Know the Way? (John 14:1-6)

Jesus was about to be betrayed and crucified.  Before these events, he spent some time at their last meal comforting his disciples.  These words of comfort have been used at funerals for centuries since that night. He told them about his Father's house, the place he would prepare, and that they knew they way.

We cannot imagine leaving this world and going into the presence of God.  Especially in an era of human history where science is seen by our education system as the only valid way to find reliable truth, the idea of life beyond the grave is seen as a comforting tale for those who grieve, nothing more.  Science can say nothing about it, because it cannot be experienced by the living.  We can't imagine it.  We don't really know the place.  So how can we know the way to get there?  That was the disciples' question, voiced by Thomas, and it is asked just as urgently by people right now.

Jesus answers that the disciples know the way because the Way is Jesus.  He answers with himself, just as he has answered every other question that we have studied.  When we study this answer, we can see all the teachings of Jesus (especially in the book of John) come together to one definitive truth: Jesus himself is the answer, and there is no other.  Whether we are talking about in this life or the next, we cannot know the destination but we can know Jesus, who is the Way.

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