You must not worship the LORD your God the way the other nations worship their gods, for they perform for their gods every detestable act that the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters as sacrifices to their gods. [Deuteronomy 12.31]
Used to... men never wore hats or ballcaps in church services.
Used to... tattoos were hidden in church services.
Used to... the music at church in no way resembled the music of the world.
Used to... women's cleavage and bare legs would not be seen at church.
How much of what goes on in the church today is the result of the world's influence as opposed to God's influence? Shall we take inventory? I think we dare not!
Lest it seem I have lapsed back into Old Testament teaching and theology, I am reminded that Jesus taught us a very important principle in His teaching about prayer in the New Testament.
Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. [Matthew 6.9]
The first thing Jesus taught us to pray was, may your name be kept holy. Should we think this phrase was randomly placed first in the list of things Jesus taught us to pray? Holiness matters. It is incumbent upon us to keep God's name holy and we do that by how we live.
Jesus was also very clear about the goal of holiness in us in His own prayer to God in John 17:
Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth. [John 17.17-19]
What does "holy" mean? As it pertains to man, and for the sake of brevity, suffice it to say, holiness means fit to come into God's presence. We may 'put on' a lot of stuff to come to God, but we should understand that unless we have put on Jesus, we have no access to God whatsoever.
Here's the deal: holiness is about compliance. So much of what people present to God with their lives is non-compliance - and they (we) call it individuality. It starts innocently enough, but, as we see in the subject passage above, it ends with gross and detestable acts that God hates. Therefore compliance must be maintained to a standard. The standard is Christ.
If anything in our life doesn't look like Christ, and there is a question about it, it needs to go. The moment a question is raised about any issue and it is compared to Jesus, then how it compares to Jesus reveals our own obedience or disobedience. Oh, be sure this idea will reveal some rebellion!
While it may seem safe to avoid looking like the world, one is only truly compliant to God when he looks like Christ. It is not enough to simply not look or act like the world! True worship of Almighty God is to come to Him in Christ. Everything else is the way the world worships God...
Let's think on this a bit...
Father, as much as I have tried to be good or holy, it really has no bearing on anything. Help me to be in Christ and have Christ in me so that I might dwell in Your presence and please You. Help me to see that faith is the only way I might be in Christ and therefore please You.
No comments:
Post a Comment