Be Holy As I Am Holy

God doesn't give us a set of rules to live by like with Israel; they had rules for holidays and sacrifices; how to make contracts, what to eat, how to clean mildew out of a house (Lev. 14!!), and what to wear to the tabernacle/temple.  God has changed His tone with us; He strikes more at the heart of the matter, because the heart is what matters!
   Peter tells us in I Peter 1:13-15 to "be holy, for God is holy."  This is a quote from Leviticus, when God was giving Israel the law to  follow and guidelines for living; He paused several times to say, "Be Holy as I am Holy."  This theme from the OT is carried forward into the NT, so we don't get to write it off!
   What does it mean to be holy?  Conforming to God's standards; totally devoted to God in everything; set apart from anything worldly; thinking the thoughts of God. God didn't give us rules under His new covenant for how to clean our houses or even what to eat; He didn't give us lots of structure to help us see for ourselves how to be holy, but He did come out again in the NT telling us to do it.  So what do we see that can help us?
   The root of this Hebrew word means "to be clean, ceremonially and/or morally."  Why?  Why does it matter so much to God that we are clean?  As a parent of young children, I was always ready with a wet washcloth or wipe to keep my girls clean; after playing outside in dirt or with the neighbor's dog I was always ready for a bath.  Why?  I wanted to make sure they were free of any germs they might have picked up and brought with them. I didn't want them getting any sickness from something dirty they had encountered.  What if - dirt was something we were allergic to in our house?  What if it was absolutely imperative that we not touch anything with dirt on it?  Then my girls would have had to change their behavior - I could not have enjoyed the bubble-blowing fun or building dirt volcanoes with baking soda and vinegar.  We could not have enjoyed cutting flower bouquets or braiding them into wreaths for our hair.  The dogs would have been totally unwelcome!!
   I suggest this is the relationship God has with "dirt." He is holy, and by His very nature cannot be around unholiness of any kind.  When He tells us to be holy, it is because He cannot come near if we are not.  He knows how bad that is for us.  One of my favorite illustrations of this principle at work comes from a science project we did in elementary school.  We discovered that if you sprinkle pepper onto a bowl of water, and then you take a bar of real soap and let it touch the water, the pepper runs away.  It cannot stay near the soap; the soap cannot be made to touch the pepper.  Picture you with pepper on your soul, and God the soap trying to be near to you because you are His beloved.  He cannot do it.  It is impossible.  He is too Holy.
   An example of this in scripture, I believe, is found in God's dealing with Moses.  He comes to Moses and recruits him to be the spokesman for Israel to Pharoah.  After being convinced, Moses sets off for Egypt.  On the way, Exodus 4:24 that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.  Whaaaa??  Isn't Moses doing what God asked?  The answer is in the next few verses - Moses had failed to circumcise his own sons in the way God had established for His people way back in Gen. 17.   Fast forward to Ex. 19.  When God is instructing Moses in how to tell the people to come near to Mount Sinai, He says in v22 "tell the priests who come near to consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them."  In other words, God said He could not be near them unless they were consecrated, which was also one purpose of circumcision.  Perhaps Moses' neglectfulness of his son's consecration almost cost him his life.
    So how do we achieve holiness?  One key is found in Paul's words in 2 Cor. 10:3-5.  Paul says we are at war, but our weapons are not physical.  He says we are to destroy fortresses (NAS) or strongholds (NIV) or obstacles (NLT) that are human, and we take captive every thought for Christ.  That suggests that my thoughts are naturally for something other than Christ.  It suggests they didn't come to be on Christ's side on their own.  They have to be taken captive.  Why?  Because we live in a world that tries to steal our thoughts.  According to this passage, our thoughts are where we are to start our warfare.  People who are unbelieving are described as having corrupt minds (Titus 1:15:, as those who lie awake making evil plans (Micah 2:1).
   In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus says sin does not start as an act of murder; it started with anger and angry thoughts.  Mark 7:18, 20-23 tells us that from inside man's heart come evil thoughts, and those are first in a list of sins.  He says in v 18 that what goes into a man does not defile but what comes out.
   That brings in another idea  - Jesus says what goes in does not defile, but what comes out.  James 1:14 says our own desires cause us to be tempted, nothing outside.  That starts with our thought life.
   Maybe being in the world but not of the world, having the thoughts of God to be holy like He is holy - maybe it is as simple as only letting our minds have good things going in.  Then there would be less bad to come out.  Phil. 4:8 gives us good advice - the things we should dwell on (NASB) and think about (NIV) are things that are true, honorable, noble, pure, admirable, lovely - Paul tells us the key to having a pure thought life, to helping us take our thoughts captive - is keeping our thoughts on things that God would think about.
   Jesus said that what goes in does not defile; this means that I Cor. 6:12 is also true - all things are lawful, but not all things are good (profitable - NASB; beneficial-NIV).  Paul says watching a TV show with gay characters is lawful; listening to music that glorifies sexual immorality is permissible (NIV); watching movies that glorifies selfishness are allowed (NLT); but they are not all good for me.  What comes out of me defiles me, and feeding the fleshly nature means it grows stronger.  If you watch things or listen to things that cause you to think less than the thoughts of God, you need to turn those things off.  Paul said it is not good.  Why would you waste the time you have on something not profitable?  Paul goes on in Eph. 5:1 to tell us to imitate God, like dearly loved children imitate their parents.  Have you ever seen a little girl wearing her mother's shoes?  Carrying a play phone up to her ear?  She is imitating her mother who loves her dearly; she wants to be like her.
   Scary feeling as a mother - but that is what children who feel loved do.  Paul says we are to imitate our Father just like that.  Later in vv 15-17 he challenges us to be "careful how you walk, making the most of your time (redeeming the time - NASB, NIV) because the days are evil."  You don't have time to waste on things that are unprofitable!  Time is short, and satan wants to make sure you waste a lot of yours in unprofitable things.
   Remember satan is prowling like a lion (active hunter) seeking who he can devour (I Peter 5:8).  God warned Cain back in Gen. 4:7 that sin was crouching at his door, and Cain needed to subdue it and be its master.  He could not slay it, but he just needed to subdue it.  It is an interesting side note that Peter pictured the enemy as the same animal that Christ is pictured as - they are both compared to lions.  Christ of course is the lion of Judah - the leader and protector of His people.  However, we know satan loves to imitate truth, and this picture of him reenforces that.
   We cannot pretend that sin is not present - that the devil is not crouching at our door waiting to devour us - that simply leads to us fading away, as Casting Crowns points out so poignantly in their song, "Slow Fade."  We are to give God our physical selves as a living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) and avoid looking like the world (v 2) by letting God transform the way we think.  Transformation is not a small change - it is metamorphosing (metamorphoo in Greek).  This word is the basis for our description of  a caterpillar into a butterfly.    He will change your character (which is not in line with His on its own - remember we must take it captive) to be as different from your natural self as a butterfly is from a caterpillar.  He is not after just another color caterpillar - He wants butterflies.
   We see basically 2 choices:  to conquer evil with good or to be conquered.  If we aren't choosing to redeem our time by putting our minds on the right things, by letting God's ways of thinking transform our way of thinking, then we are not conquering evil with good.  There is no 3rd choice of ignoring it or pretending it doesn't affect us.  God doesn't leave that option open.  If we are engaged in activities that are not beneficial, then we are engaged in activities that are destructive.  There is no neutral.  If you are not trying to go somewhere on purpose, you are going somewhere else.

Connected To So Many

I am often struck by how we all are connected to so many other people, even at our most independent. If I have a normal day, I have depended on the people who wove the cloth in my clothes, the people who built my car, those who made the light bulbs I used in my light fixtures, the people who put in my wiring and work to keep electricity flowing. I am indebted to those who work to keep us safe in our streets and over the seas,to those who work to provide water in our town, for those who built the roads I drive on, those who own and run gasoline stations so I can put more fuel in my car. Then there are all those who cleaned the public restrooms I used, mopped those hall floors at the office building I went into and the one that mowed the beautiful grass out in front. If none of those people did their jobs, my life would be amazingly different. I acknowledge that I pay most of these people for their work, but the fact remains that if they didn't work at their jobs, I wouldn't have any of those things. Of course none of these people knew me as the reason for their work, but they knew there would be people affected. Because of this simple fact, it is my duty as well as privilege to try to turn around and provide what I am enabled to those around me, to pass these blessings on. If I sit on my pile of blessings and only come out of myself when something is wrong, I am robbing the world around me. Daily I need to think about what I am here to do for others. Not just those under my own roof, but all those I contact: the check out girl in the post office, the sweet family who work the vegetable stand where I buy produce, and the UPS man trying to deliver a package with my dog barking his wheels down my driveway. This is the only way to live: connected with all the people I come into contact with. This is the only way to fully respect all as creations of My Lord.

God's Presence In Our Storms

I recently suffered an accidental injury to my left hand, my pinkie finger, to be precise. While opening a glass bottle of buttermilk, the glass shattered, and my left pinkie was sliced through pretty thoroughly. Both the tendons that control movement, the main nerve on the outside of my hand, and the little artery were all sliced on the glass. I immediately noticed that I could not control the finger; it did not move for me. Finding out the extent of my injuries while getting stitches at the ER, I began to feel a little faint when I realized I was headed for surgery. Now, I don't have blood pressure issues as a routine problem, but when I am under stress (including routine doctor's checkups!) it tends to soar. In the ER that Saturday afternoon, it was spiking a little higher than we wanted it to! One of the issues I faced over the weekend waiting for surgery to be scheduled was what would happen to my blood pressure during the stress of surgery! Second only to that, I had to puzzle out things like getting dressed one-handed (picture it ladies!!) and writing out checks/bills (yes, I am left-handed!!). From Saturday to Monday, I prayed for the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and the nurses on duty that Monday to be rested and focused, and for my body to submit to the surgery without complications and also for God to keep His eyes on me and help calm me. For the surgery, I chose to have a shoulder block injection to deaden my entire arm rather than having general anesthesia, which meant I would be fully aware and awake. When we arrived, the calm and peace I felt during the entire prep process was completely outside my capabilities. The surgery would take about two hours, and my poor husband was to wait in the waiting room without a thing to do to help me out save praying. During the trip to the surgery suite, I chatted with the nurses and the surgeon's assistants. Thanks to my sweet girl who shared her ipod While in surgery, I watched an episode of a favorite BBC drama and listened to praise music. I answered a couple of questions of the surgeon over the drape; I spoke with the nurse stationed at my head; I watched my vital signs. My blood pressure never topped 130/80 and my pulse never raced. I truly experienced the Peace That Passes Understanding throughout my whole day. Whenever I felt a twinge of anxiety, I prayed for my Father to hold my hand; He really has never been more Present to me than that day! The nurses remarked about my calm; they joked about passing ipods out to all the surgery patients! I was able to share with one nurse that I listened to praise music. The whole day was amazingly stress=free for me!! I came home with pain medicines and took one dose that night as the shoulder block began to wear off; I took one more dose the next day and never took any more. The rest of my experience has been amazingly pain-free!! What a gift from my Lord! I have praised Him since then for being my Rock and my Shelter. While healing is still in progress, I praise Him that I wasn't hurt worse; glass flew all over me and could have hit my neck, face, or even wrists. I am thankful it was me and not my husband who would have had to miss weeks of work with such an injury; I am so grateful it was me and not one of my children, which would be much worse to endure. He has worked in me a work of patience and humility which I needed, and I am grateful that I will only bear a scar on a pinkie as a reminder (and maybe a little slower typing skill!). I just wanted to share this experience of the Lord's direct work so that others can see what a mighty God we serve. Praise Him!!

Innocence Ruined?

This story is about a teacher who informed her second grade class that Santa Claus is a myth and does not really exist: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/03/new-york-teacher-tells-kids-there-is-no-santa-claus/. This took place recently in an elementary school in New York state. I totally agree with the comments in the story; most relatives and others interviewed were very upset at the way this teacher wielded her influence over her class by "robbing them of their innocence" to tell them Santa isn't real. The thought that came to my mind was this: will these same children receive the same protection over other subjects; will someone be outraged when they are told that families don't need any structure; when it is ok to have "two mommies"; when they are told "safe sex" is the only requirement for indulging yourself? What about Christian children who are taught that creation is impossible to believe in; that God doesn't really mean what He said about Christ being the only way into heaven? I agree that teachers have way too much to say about subjects outside their expertise. I just think that list is much longer than merely Santa Claus.

Hezekiah-Blessed or Cursed?

In 2 Kings 18 we read the story of Hezekiah, king of Judah. His story is a great one for God: v3 tells us he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like his ancestor David. That is a great way to be remembered! The last part of chapter 18 tells us the story of Hezekiah's plea to God to save Judah from attack by the Assyrian king Sennacherib. The Assyrians openly taunted God and Hezekiah's trust in Him to the people of Judah. Hezekiah goes to the Lord and pleads with him with the help of the prophet Isaiah to deliver them from Sennacherib. God answers. He answers in a mighty way by striking down 185,000 of the Assyrian army overnight. This prevented the Assyrians from coming any further in their conquest of Judah. After this stunning defeat of his enemies, Hezekiah is sick and at the point of death, and Isaiah comes to tell him that he is going to die after all. Hezekiah pleads with the Lord to spare his life, and God relents and gives him 15 more years. In chapter 20 we see that Hezekiah did not manage to live out those extra years without consequence; he ended up leaving a curse on his descendants because of misplaced pride in his wealth. The point that strikes me about this story is this: if Hezekiah had simply died when God first decreed, he would have left his family curse-free. His descendants instead had to bear punishment for his misdeeds after he was gone. Sometimes God is merciful by allowing things we do not like. Sometimes His love lets things happen that we might be angry about. How hard it must be for Him to let us suffer and watch us wrestle with anger toward Him when from His point of view things were done with our best interests at heart. God gave Hezekiah the chance to die with honor, with history as his friend, but with his extra years of life Hezekiah tossed that chance out the window. I wonder if I do this to God: when a friendship is changed or cut off and I am mournful and hurt, I am quick to tell Him He didn't do this one the right way; I had things planned differently. When my family moved after my 9th grade year, I was quick to let God know how unhappy I was with His decision. However, less than 2 years after our move I had met my future husband. Our new town let me have the first real Christian friends I had ever known. My walk with God was forever changed because we moved!! Looking back, I have thanked God over and over for that unanswered prayer. He knew all along what was best for me in the long run. How could I have doubted Him? Yet I have doubted Him again and again - when circumstances are scary, when things don't go the way I had planned or imagined, I am quick to second-guess the Lord of All Things. I forget He can see so much further down the road and knows how He wants to weave my story into His story. If only Hezekiah had trusted that the Lord's judgment was for his own good, things would have been so much better for his familiy. Thank you God for examples like Hezekiah in your Word, to help us see things from your perspective just a little bit better.

Braces & Suffering

Ok, I never had braces. Both my daughters have, though, and I have learned a lot from their experiences. One thing that struck me recently is how braces have taught me about God and His relationship to us. Now, stick with me here. Yet another vague analogy, but here goes!!!

Braces are not pleasant. They involve things like headgear, rubber bands, new wires, painful adjustments, etc. However, the end result is really usually something more than just straight front teeth. In our cases, braces helped our children avoid TMJ problems and probable surgery before middle age, because their bites were so badly out of alignment. My knowing the end result did/does not always comfort them, however; in the middle of aching after an adjustment, my reminder that having braces is really a blessing, that we are blessed to be able to afford such a correction for their poor teeth, that so many people would really appreciate being able to have braces, etc., just seems to fall on deaf ears. That is not what is wanted. What is wanted is immediate relief from the discomfort, ok, pain, that is being felt at that time. Ibuprofen is just not instant enough!! Our last experience really slapped me with this thought: THIS IS WHAT GOD FEELS LIKE. HE always knows the end result that HE desires; HE knows it won't be comfortable to us; HE is the parent that sees the benefit of the experience we just wish would go away instantly; HE has to listen to us cry in pain and just listen, comforting us as HE sits with us, knowing that the results will be worth it all, because at the end of it we can look more like HIS Son than before. We were not born looking much like Him; we have so corrupted our hearts and our humanness that we are quite twisted from what HE made us to be, and so there is a time of shaping and molding to make us into who we are to be, for HIM. Braces are shaping my children's teeth into the right fit for their mouths so that they can always chew without pulling their jaw out of joint. I know what this will look like and what it will save them later, but in the middle of the discomfort they can't see that and don't want to hear about it, they just want me to fix it. I cannot do that; all I can do is sit and wipe tears and tell them to please trust me, that it will be all better soon. What I would like to do is fix their genetics so they wouldn't have to have such awful inconvenience, to remake their jaws so their teeth didn't need help; but I can't. They are formed already. All I can do is know it is for their good and hold their hands. Thank you God for this tiny insight into Your Heart. Please don't give up on me while I twist & complain about the tools you use to shape me....

Defining Love

When I became a mom, I spent lots of time thinking about what kind of mom I wanted to be: what kind of long-term relationship I wanted to have with my children, what I wanted them to remember about their childhood, what I wanted them to remember about our marriage, just lots of things.
About two weeks after our first child was born, I hit the end of the honeymoon.........this was not all about cutesy onesies and fun burp cloths. :) This was intense, demanding relationship with someone new to the world who I didn't know very well yet. It dawned on me one late night that one of the things I wanted to teach her was the meaning of love. She did not yet understand the concept; she just cried when she needed something and stopped when that need was met. Now, teaching someone else what love looks like means going to the One who Is Love; it means learning it myself first. He wrote us a definition of it right smack in the middle of His New Covenant; through His servant Paul He told us exactly what real Love looks like. Think back to what Paul said in I Corinthians 13:
Love is kind. Ok, I get that one. It is usually not too hard for me to show a baby kindness. Next.
Love is patient. whoa. Didn't take long for me to fall short. Not my strong suit (see previous posts!!) Can't I indulge a little impatience while trying to cook dinner????
Love does not envy. This one isn't too hard during infancy, but just wait til she prefers something she doesn't have!
Love is not proud. You better believe it isn't.....pretty hard to be too arrogant hanging over the Diaper Genie cramming in another full one.....whew!! That is REAL love!
Love does not boast. Not even a little? Not even when I am proud of that wonderful supper I made last night while still taking care of our little girl?? Not even if she IS really the cutest baby at the Harvest Festival??
Love does not seek her own. What if it's my car keys or cell phone? Can I seek them? Seriously, what about that "me" time? Won't I fall apart without a little time to just do what I want with no one else in the way?
Love is not easily provoked. This one is really hard when my blood pressure instantly rises at the 2 a.m. cry. I know you can't be hungry/wet/dirty/lonely again??!! However, I don't feel justified in showing her my provoked face....she will see that one when she's older!
Love rejoices in truth. wow. That one requires some investment. I think that means that it doesn't rejoice in non-truth. Hmmmm. We will be having some talks about truth and non-truth and knowing the difference. Lord, please help me with this one so I can teach it; I don't think I have learned it well yet.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Now I know I am out of my league. That is why Paul follows up these characteristics with a definition of maturity: when I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Maybe that is because to really love someone I have to be a grown-up. To bear, believe, hope and endure takes courage and a lot of help from the Lord. That is not my natural condition.
In fact, the LORD helped me with all of this. In order for our daughter to grow up knowing real love, I had some real work to do on my heart. I could not bear for her to experience a selfish or arrogant or impatient love; her first experience of love would come from how we treated her. That is a sobering thought indeed. God depends on parents to show children what His love looks like. If we fail in this, they start their own lives with a lower standard for love and a lower standard for what to expect out of their relationships. Knowing the definition of love and seeing it (of course imperfectly!) lived out will give them a head-start on knowing their Heavenly Father and understanding what He is to them. Really, truly loving my children takes all I have to give them and more sometimes, but it has been so worth the journey to empty out my childish thoughts and attitudes and try to do away with childish things. I think v12 tells us that we can't know all the ramifications of how our treatment of others will impact them ("now we see dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part but then I will know fully...."). We have to trust that God knew what He was doing when He put this chapter in scripture, and that He knew what He was doing when He gave us our children.