How we have made God a shrinking reality
DON’T BE AFRAID!
Have you ever wondered which hurts the most? Saying something and wishing you hadn’t? or Saying nothing and wishing you had? I guess the most important things are the hardest things to say. Don’t be afraid to tell someone you love them. If you do, they might break your heart...if you don’t, you might break theirs. Have you ever decided not to become a couple because you were so afraid of losing what you already had with that person? Your heart decides whom it likes and whom it doesn’t. You can’t tell your heart what to do. It does it on its own....when you least suspect it, or even when you don’t want it to. Have you ever wanted to love someone with everything you had, but that other person was too afraid to let you? Too many of us stay walled up because we are too afraid to care too much...for fear that the other person does not care as much, or even at all. Have you ever denied your feelings for someone because your fear of rejection was too hard to handle? We tell lies when we are afraid... afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing we fear grows stronger. Life is all about risks and it requires you to jump. Don’t be a person who has to look back and wonder what they would have done, or could have had.
Col. 3:1-10, 12-17
One of the greatest victories that has been won by God’s enemy is the power to persuade most people to think, Christians included, that there is no war being waged so we just need to relax, take it easy, feel good and have a party.
What has been done because the holiness of God has been reduced in size? A clear vision of God’s holiness will have a profound effect on people just as a faint, watered down vision will affect people adversely. If you will let me we can see how thoughts of who God is has slipped even into the thoughts of some Christians which takes a toll on the holiness of God. Have you heard of God being referred to as “the man upstairs", "Big Daddy" or "the good lord?” I do not believe that those who experienced God in the Old Testament ever would have used such words. Many trembled even at hearing His name Yahweh. In our day and age we do not tremble for our God is love and surely would not hurt people.
Let us look at six effects of reducing the fact that God is not a holy God:
1. Shrinking God’s holiness means there is no law for us to follow or obey. Simply put, with out the holiness of God there are no absolutes. If you have heard the news in the recent year because we lack absolutes the Catholic Church priests were caught with child molestations, the Episcopal Church has let homosexuals become ministers and we have churches that run on good feelings with little doctrinal structure. Without the law and believing we have to answer the One who made the law we have no fear as how we should live. Absolutes have to have a standard. There has to be Someone, somewhere who lives to display and enforce that standard. We can only improve when we have a standard to reach for. When God is not holy we bring Him down to being just like us and who are you looking at as a human whom you would set as a standard to live up too? I believe that most of us would believe we are all in process and have not arrived at perfection yet. If there is no standard then what do we have to live for. Barry Bonds hit his 600 H. R. and tied with his standard Willie Mays. What will be his next standard for his life is not over yet. There is a man name Nietzche said, “Where there is an absence of God all that is left is power.” There can be no law unless there is Someone fit to make and enforce such. Just one more thing on this point: God set down that he was holy a long time before He gave His law in Exodus.
Col 3:2 "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming."
2. Shrinking God’s holiness means there would be no sin. If God is not holy and setting a standard for man then men can live as they please and there is no sin. We can try to be good but have no idea what that means. Goodness could turn into hurting people whom we disagree with. If God is like us and not holy sin then becomes only an opinion according to our idea. Sin could be different for each person according to what they want to believe. Guilt would only be a roadblock to our happiness and freedom. Sin does not bother people who do not believe in God as being holy.
Col. 3:7"You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices."
3. Shrinking God’s holiness means there little motivation to change our conduct. Without a standard it makes little difference as to what we say or do or are. The question would be “Why should I change?” So as a baby "why change my diaper?" "Why should I walk when others will carry me?" "Why should I use a spoon my hands are just as good?" "I like my clothes and so not wish to change them."
When I view God and who He is I have to believe I need to change for I am caught up short in being like Him. Without God we become goodness in ourselves. Whatever is our thinking or opinion or action it is just as good as any other person. So do you know of any person that does not want to change? Could it be traced back to the fact they have a low view of God? Let us get a little more personal: “What is your motivation for change that governs your life?”
Col 3:10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
4. Shrinking God’s holiness means there is no Gospel or good news to give to people. We as a church have nothing to give to our world. Listen to 1 Peter 2:9 “But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are a kingdom of priests, God’s holy nation, his very own possession. This is so you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” This is God’s command for His people.
Without this, what do we have for the alcoholic, those in bondage to bad habits, in slavery to hate, envy or jealousy and those who have been hurt by physical and verbal abuse? What hope do we have for those who come to us with lives that have been ruined? If we cannot offer to them a God who is holy then what we give them is just another opinion.
Without God being holy we have nothing to offer to that one who is lost and sin and doomed for hell. But I read that the "gospel is the power of God for the salvation to everyone who believes." We have to offer them something more than ourselves.
Col. 3:12 Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 5. Shrinking God’s holiness means there will a low lever of commitment to Jesus Christ. If God is not holy there is little to compel us to give of our time and attention to what He wants from us. If God is not a “Consuming fire” then He has become equal to the girl scouts, YMCA, Boys Club or a member of the PTA. He is just another resource to help improve the community. The church becomes just another entity in our society with equal force to help lives as any other organization. It is from this I can say that the devil will have little trouble making us believe we do not need God.
Col 3:14 And the most important piece of clothing you must wear is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are all called to live in peace. And always be thankful.
6. Shrinking God’s holiness means the whole doctrine of what we believe about God collapses. The holiness of God backs up all else that we believe about God. In the book of Revelation and Isaiah we read, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the lord God almighty. Why is this repeated three times if it is of little importance? Ps 89:35 Once for all, I have sworn by my holiness-- . It is His command We read this in Leviticus 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7, 26; 21:8, 15; 22:9, 16, 32). 1 PT 15But just as he who called you is holy so be holy in all you do; 16for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."
Why would He say this unless it was his desire for this virtue to be recreated in us? If we take away that God is holy then we do not have another God we have no God at all.
Col 3:16 Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts and make you wise. Use his words to teach and counsel each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. 17 And whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Without His holiness listen to what happens. Love lack good judgment. Justice has no standard. There can be no mercy but only condemnation. There is no purpose or direction in goodness. God has no moral fiber and there is no goal to achieve for our life. It will do away with Him being Omniscient or all knowing, Omnipotent or all-powerful and lack love with only acting on a mood at any given time.
That God is holy we see that Adam and Eve hid, Moses covered his face, the Israelites stayed their distance, all of Job’s accusations melted away, Peter went and wept bitterly and Daniel and John fell down as though dead.
½ of the adults and 2/3 of our teenagers are seeking a purpose and meaning to life.
So many are winding through life aimless and exhausted, capable but unproductive, comfortable but not fulfilled and they do not understand why God crated them.
Let us get it clear that meaning and purpose in life is not an occupational choice, educational degree, marital status, financial security, personal achievement or leisure.
It comes when we know that God in a personal way and that we can know His calling on our life. When one tries to be something that God did not make them to be they can count on a life of frustration, dissatisfaction and failure. When you listen to the voice of God to discern what He has called you to be, then you are in line for the blessings that enable you to succeed in the responsibility for which He created you.
A mark of God’s purpose for our lives is that there is little chance of our accomplishing that purpose with our own human know-how.
Have you turned your life over to God?
