The Holy

What if today turned out to be epic to you?  Something crazy good happens. 

What could that be?  I doubt many would have the first thing come to mind be "God."  Instead we probably think "I'll find a $100 on the ground!" Or "I'll find the love of my life at a random coffee shop!" Or "I'll be asked, no begged, to work at my dream job!" "My school debt will be cancelled!"  "(Insert sports team name here) will win!" 

Meeting with God is as regular as putting clothes on.  It's uneventful and hardly something worth noting.  The only time, if ever, we get excited about meeting with God is at a praise night or Christian conference, but certainly not in our other, outside of the Christian bubble lives.  God is where we know we He is, at church, in song, at a prayer meeting or while reading the bible, and if we're honest most of the time even those things are absolutely Capitol Boring.

When did God become boring?  The moment we lost sight of what the Holy part of Holy Spirit means. 

In the Old Testament we have an entire book about offerings that must be made for holiness.  Holy clothes, holy days, holy people, holy places, and holy ways.  

Many of us might wonder why there is a book so boring as Leviticus or numbers or Deuteronomy in the bible.  Cuz it seems to be all about stuff that no longer is relevant for Christians today.  SEEMS.  Because we each have our idea what we need or need not know.  Genealogies, skip.  Battles that happened 2000 years ago, pass.  Hymns, poems, and songs about harps and lyres, boring.  Ancient descriptions about a temple, no thanks.  

We think we know how to handle our lives, our actions, and even think we know what we want.  And then when something bad happens we want to blame someone or something.  When the pain gets too intense we, by God's grace, suddenly get a glimpse of how actually weak and dim witted we are when we don't listen to God.  God steps in with pain to often help us see the error of our minds and make us not want to continue in that way.  This is an ongoing process until we reach perfection when nothing can hurt us because we surrender fully to God's command.  We are being made into a people that will enter His Kingdom, heaven being a place filled with people who desire to have God as their King.  

So before I go into a seemingly irrelevant and boring passage from the Old Testament I want to bring to light what I just said.  We don't know what's good for us, and by a gift from God we have the Bible, the entire bible to teach us what is. 

"Then Moses presented Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, wrapped the sash around him, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. He put the woven band of the ephod around him and fastened it to him. Then he put the breastpiece on him and placed the Urim and Thummim into the breastpiece. He also put the turban on his head and placed the gold medallion, the holy diadem, on the front of the turban, as the Lord had commanded Moses. Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and everything in it to consecrate them.

So Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord had commanded through Moses. (Leviticus 8:6-10, 36 HCSB)

"By innumerable distinctions God taught Israel the difference between holy and unholy. There were holy days, holy vessels, holy garments. There were washings, sacrifices, offerings of many kinds. 

By these means Israel learned that God is holy. 

It was this that He was teaching them. 

Not the holiness of things or places, but the holiness of Jehovah was the lesson they must learn."

-Tozer

How important was this lesson?  This directive regarding holiness.  Important enough to repeat the same words over and over again in the Old Testament section about what priests have to do every time a sacrifice is made.  You'll find the same exact paragraphs even repeated from chapter to chapter.  It's crazy!  Why would God give us a bible so repetitive and far removed from our culture and society that we live in today?  We don't have priests or farm animals to kill or wear turbans.  Some people do, but certainly not everyone.  Is the bible meant to have some parts for some people while the rest of us Americans just stick to the New Testament?  Clearly we all know the answer to that is no, but practically most of us can attest to not ever really considering the way in which we aw to live with the fire of the Old Testament in our hearts. 

God started where Israel could learn.  When he brought them out of slavery, when he brings us out of slavery, it's not so we will be out of slavery and hallelujah that's it.  That's just one very very small and almost insignificant part of it, just like when you get married it's not about you no longer being single.  That is one awesome aspect of marriage, to no longer be single or alone, but it is nothing compared to the better part of being in an intimate relationship with someone, being loved and in love.  Sharing life with someone, because we all know that when something is funny it's so much more enjoyable to be laughing about it with someone over than by yourself.   Likewise, God was offering them the gift of intimacy with Him.  He wanted to teach Israel that being set free from bondage by the Egyptians was just the beginning of the far surpassing joy of knowing what freedom in a friendship with God was like.  God started with His presence in a cloud and a pillar of fire that guided them.  Then He dwelt in a temple that He instructed them to build. After that He had them offer sacrifices, observe certain days, have certain feasts, and wear certain things because He was slowly teaching them what holiness meant.  To set apart some days, set apart the temple as a place of sacred worship, set apart certain unblemished animals as the only ones to be offered, and set apart certain people as priests--this was all to teach them about Himself, our Holy God so set apart and special and perfect among all other things.  Because to know how Holy God is is to know how awesome it is that such a God loves and desires us!  An understanding of God as holy is to see something about ourselves more clearly as well.  You and I are loved by God, the perfect and most beautiful Holy God, our value and worth is tied to this.  

There's a reason why people want money, comfort, beauty and to be adored by others.  We all seek our value to be validated by the idols in our hearts.  If you're pretty you're more valued.  If you're rich or have a stable job you're more valued.  If you're influential or known by a lot of people (friends on FB or Instagram, Twitter, snap chat) you're more valued.  Maybe for some it's your ability to stay quiet and never found at fault that makes you more valued.  If any of your value is found outside an intimate love relationship with God-- it is a lie.  It's like dating someone who you thought loved you only to find out that that person is actually a blown up plastic doll slowly deflating into nothing.  Just like in the movie "Lars and the real girl."  The character Lars walks around with an inflatable girlfriend he bought off of the Internet and continues dating a balloon because inside there is something in him that is so afraid of a real relationship, of truly experiencing love.  But we all need love, because God made us to be in love with Him, He is Love itself, and even Lars knew this but because fear and other lies clouded his ability to get real live he settled for a plastic doll.  The only problem is plastic dolls will never reach the need for love deep within our hearts.  We all desperately hold on to lies while inside we are rotting away.  

We delude ourselves into thinking "I need to be in a relationship, I need to look good, I need to have money, I need to do this, get that, go there, be this, have that, twist it, bop it, pull it, push it...."  Whatever it takes to either numb or make myself feel like I'm meeting the need for love and value deep within myself.  

This is crazy.  We are doing this everyday, walking down this destructive path until we see the holiness of God.  What is it about God's holiness that changes us?  

In Old Testament when the priests were commanded by God to separate and cleanse and purify things before offering them to God, the people practiced these rituals and habits because in doing so God was helping them see the vast differences of common compared to holy, inferior to superior, normal versus divine, good versus epic, time versus eternity, light and dark, clean and unclean.  

All were practices in and of themselves merely teaching them about how vastly different God is compared to everything else.  That was the purpose.  That is the purpose of our lives on earth, to desire the highest love life with God.  

But we have grown confused and unable to see the differences.  We live a double life instead.  One as sacred and the other as secular rather than one holy life.  We think prayer and going to church is one thing while eating, dancing, playing with our friends at school or work is another thing.  We tend to keep God in a box or maybe in our closet, so we can conveniently reach out for Him when we have a need to, but also can keep Him quiet when we just want to do what we want without His glaring bible commanding eyes on us.  

The problem here is that we think God only loves good people.  So in order to stay on God's good side we go to him when we are prepared to look humble or sorry or hard working or happy.  But when crap hits the fan or our lustful passions and selfish desires for value come raging out we try and close our eyes and run away from the presence of God.  We are ashamed and we don't want to expose how guilty we feel, so we just shut Him out of our minds.  Out of sight, out of mind.

No holy and perfect love life here.  We would rather not look at God in the face during our "other-worldly" moments.  Only during our Christian moments.  And that's how we live double lives. 

Even now as I write this I am confronted by my own double life.  How I turn my gaze toward God when I need to feel loved and forgiven rather than because He Himself is beautiful to gaze upon over anything else.  We don't look to God to be saved, we look to Him because we are saved and we know His love, we drink from His love deeply, and we are enamored by His love even in eating, napping, driving and meeting others.  It's THAT VASTLY different and set apart.  

God is teaching us this very truth about Himself just as He did for the Israelites when he brought them out of slavery.  Out of fear and into love.

He sent His son to remove our sins so that guilt and shame become beautiful doors that we walk through freely to meet with God.  What appears is not what is.  We are no longer slaves to sin, even though we still sin and we experience difficulty in the renewing of our minds by the Holy Spirit, all this is to bring us closer to Love Himself.  Our sins are what remind us that He loved us so much to die for us, our gazing at Him is something we find we start naturally doing because He is beautiful to look at, and our hearts desiring and walking in obedience to His commands is the by product of having fallen more and more deeply in love.  Suddenly we find ourselves in a place where nothing separates us from the love of God.  No trial, since trials are what strengthen the very faith that enable us to experience communion with God, no reward since all things begin to dim when we see the vast value and holiness of knowing God intimately.  Nothing but God remains beautiful in our hearts, minds and eyes.  

That is what is happening to you right now.  To me.  To all those who belong to our most Holy God.

The reason we pray and set aside days for church and fellowship with people and times to read the Word of God is not because those are holy things that make us holy.  They are to teach and remind us who the Holy God is, these commands fix our gaze on the holiness of God.  And the more we fix our eyes on Him, falling asleep, sinning, and forgetting at times along the way, the more we practice the more natural it will become.  To form a habit of looking at God is to form the habit of intentionally seeking Him, which is to offer our whole life for the gain of entering a love relationship with the greatest love of all.  

To worship the Holy God in spirit (the part of us that is within) and in truth (honesty), offering what we have as small and weak as that may be.  

Look at Jesus.  Look at Him!  Don't take your eyes off of Him even when you sin.  But look at Him.  Even when you take a nap or go for a swim, look at Him.  Even when you are in pain, feeling hurt by the words of a friend, look at Him!  Even when your mind runs wild with bodily cravings for money, sexual pleasure, addictions, fame, recognition, comfort or anything else, quickly look at Him!  Keep looking at Him.  When we see Him as He is, we see ourselves as we are, loved and most valuable.  Our idols will begin to lose their shimmery glow, because it was only by our worship of them that they had any power in the first place.  We give them power and the ability to shine when we keep staring at them, but when our eyes look at Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, we see how holy and vastly set apart His beauty truly is.

  "Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there." - Tozer

So holy is He that we want Him. 

We must see how beautiful He is if we are to stop worshipping the lesser beautiful objects in our hearts.   Look at Him intently.  May the Holy Spirit lead your clouded hearts to make every effort to turn your gaze to Him more and more as the artificial lights from the idols die down and you begin to be awed by the clarity of His beauty, the One who loves you. 

Jmegrey