Holy?

God is holy. Be ye holy as He is holy.

 

Last night in church the question came to mind, Can one be very holy? Or super holy? Or exceptionally holy? Or just a little bit holy?

 

Then the response, No, you’re either holy or you’re not.

 

It’s like salvation. Either you’re saved by grace, or you’re not. You can’t be a little bit saved; born-again. You can’t be 99% saved. You’re either saved or you’re lost, no gray area. If you believe you’ve given 99% of your heart to God, in reality, you’re clinging to 100% of your heart, trying desperately to figure out what to do with it.

 

There’s only one safe place for your heart and that’s in Christ. There’s only One Who can fill the voids in your heart, that’s Jesus Christ. To continue to refuse Him entrance there commands that you continue to live life without meaning and purpose; searching. And it’s great that we search, but too often we run around the world looking for the treasure that’s found in our own backyard.

 

At dictionary.com we find one definition of holy that reads:  specially recognized as or declared sacred by religious use or authority; consecrated.

When we give our whole heart to Jesus, we become holy. Not just a little bit holy, simply holy. Consecrated (set apart)  for Christ, by Christ. We are recognized as holy by God’s authority; not because we live good lives or say good things, but because God Himself declares us to be holy, because He declares us to be His.

 

When I go out and purchase something for myself, it becomes mine. When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, He paid the price for our sin, He bought us with His love and with His blood. We belong to Him. But He doesn’t lay claim to our love until we give it to Him. He gives us the right to withhold that love from Him, to try to fend for ourselves in a life He created to be lived in His power. Without Him, we are lost; we are unholy.

 

What holds you captive? What holds you back from giving your heart to the One Who created you and loves you and provides all the power you need to live abundantly?

 

//

Leviticus 20:7 Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. (KJV)

Control

Beginning again but we’ll try

something new

We should have started this way before.

In our hearts we know more than our minds can imagine

That’s why we attempt this once more.

In our hearts is a voice that says,

“Listen to Me.”

But our mind says, “I know what I’ll do!”

We start out again to arrange

things our way

In the end it’ll look misconstrued.

Everyone who will turn

and will give us the time

Can easily see what we’ve done

Perhaps not out loud,

but they’ll laugh when they see

For we’re right where

we’d thought we’d begun.

“Try again,” we’ll feel prompted

and sigh and sit down

And we’ll try it a new way today.

Once again in our hearts

that ol’ tugging we’ll feel

As God prompts us to do things His Way.

But our head tells us differently,

“Try it like this!”

And our heart tries so hard to chime in.

But it knows deep inside

that this way will not work

And we’re doomed to repeat it again.

So the struggle is getting our mind to obey

What we know in our hearts we should do.

For our mind says to do things

the way of our past

And our heart says,

“Let’s try out the new!”

In the past we were sinners

so lost in our way

But then Jesus came into our heart.

But we’re trapped in the ways that our minds used to think

Forgetting we get a new start.

So first we must stop and just listen to God

And determine what He has to say,

If we take time to pray about all that we do

We will hear when He tells us His Way.

The instructions He gives us may not

sound quite right

But that’s where our faith must come in.

If instead we turn back and search out

our own way

That’s not only dumb, it is sin!

So to add to the problems of doing our task

Planning out the right path we should take,

We drag in a bag that we can’t even see,

The conscience convictions we make.

Now the planning gets harder

and harder each time

And the grip of our sin just gets tighter,

If our minds would just stop

and try listening to God

We would find that the burden gets lighter.

But our mind is accustomed

to being in charge

And our hearts have to fight tooth and nail.

For our heart knows a joy it is dying to share

But our minds dig up fears that we’ll fail.

So we struggle with words like,

“Renewing our mind,”

And it tears us apart at the soul.

But the secret is simple,

our hearts know it well

~Give up and give Jesus control!

~Helen Williams! c 2002



Smell....

A sweet smelling savor….

Springtime is filled with some of our favorite aromas; freshly cut grass – especially the first of the season, floral and leafy scents on the breezes. Maybe it’s not so much the individual fragrances, but the fact that we’re so much more aware of them. Spring signals newness and rebirth. If we’re not too busy we’re more aware of ourselves and our uprising desires for a new season after a long, perhaps dreary, winter. Smells can awaken us from slumber, whether to morning breath or cinnamon rolls.

Our nose does so much more than make it easier for us to breath. We’re told to stop and smell the roses or wake up and smell the coffee. Odors and fragrances can agitate, they can invigorate, they can soothe, they can arouse. They can even cause time travel; taking us back to buried memories, as can all of our senses.

There are memories tucked away within us that may never be exposed, but our God-given senses trigger and ignite memories by design. Exploring and understanding what God has already brought us through can prepare us for the new seasons of our lives. Winter, a time of dying or sleeping, always precedes springtime.

Hidden treasures -costly sacrifices, are not always pleasant, but yielded to God, He will use them for His glory.

Just as He saves our tears: Psalm 56:8 “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book” (NLT)…

He keeps our prayers: Revelation 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. (KJV)