Holiness

 Some time ago, I "finished" a book by Henry Blackaby entitled, "Holiness." I encased finished in quotation marks because I haven't finished it at all. It still speaks to me, loudly and strongly. It's been said that we don't "read" the Bible, that it reads us. This book was much like that.

It's barely 100 pages long, but it took me some time to read it. Anyone who's read anything by Blackaby knows that he writes and speaks to the heart. His words are powerful and convicting. At various time of the week, many of us will attend some kind of spiritual gathering and do so in His name. We'll rejoice in His victory over death and sin on the cross. We'll celebrate in various ways His resurrection. Sermons and teaching will abound, a number may even be listened to. Many types of music will be played and songs sung, and then.....we'll go home. But how much of the life He came to give us do we leave with? How much of it is really ours? On the cross He cried, "It is finished!", but has it really been finished with and in us? Are we experiencing and living out all the life He gave us on the cross and in His resurrection?

I have been a pastor in a denomination that is considered a "holiness" group, part of the holiness movement. A movement that His Word calls all who follow Him to. His Word tells us, "Without holiness, no man will see the Lord." It is not a lifestyle that follows a rulebook but a Person. Following that Person, that Jesus Christ, will always mean carrying our own cross to our own Calvary. It will mean following His heart and life into His holiness. A holiness that is much more than a manageable list of do's and don't. It's a way of life. His life. It's a lifestyle saturated by His life and His holiness. It will affect every relationship and how we speak, think, see, and choose. It doesn't just observe the life, death, and resurrection of Christ,, but participates in it. The question for us is, have we been mere spectators of that life, watching from a safe distance. Or, have we been consumed by His life, immersed in Him and all that His life offers and is?

In the 6th chapter of John, Jesus has called His followers into wholehearted commitment to Him, His life, His walk, and His holiness. Verse 66 says, ".....as a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. I don't believe they just turned and walked away. I believe they were greatly torn, gazing at Him with longing. Part of them wanting to continue on, but the greater part afraid, unsure, and seeing at the same time, all that He was asking of them. Calling them to.They were willing, yet unwilling. I think this is so for many of us when it comes to walking with Him in all of His ways. Willing....yet unwilling.

I'm reminded of the demon possessed boy in Mark 9:24, who when told by Jesus to believe said, "Lord, I do believe. Help me in my unbelief. I think we need to take our torn hearts to Jesus and cry out, "Lord, I am willing to follow you into all the depths of Your life. Make the parts that of me that are unwilling, that want to turn back....willing." 

He calls to us. He calls us to come out of our areas of compromise, self-justification, and conveniently overlooked waywardness, and come to the cross, to His life, to His holiness....to Him. Lord, I am willing. Help in those areas where I am so unwilling.

Blessings,
Pastor O