God Is Holy

From The Captivating Pressnce by Albert Edward Day

When we say that God is holy, we are not naming an attribute among many others such as love and mercy and wisdom and power. We are attempting to designate something that applies to all his attributes, something that gives them an awesome dimension. We are saying that he is the changeless one. His love never fluctuates; his mercy is inexhaustible; his wisdom cherishes all that is truly good; his power can always be trusted to act redemptively. The supreme wonder and unrivaled glory is that he is all that he is, unchangeably.

"In him is no variableness", is the New Testament assurance.

So we need not speculate what will be his response whenever we turn to him, whether it be from an hour of victory or from a night of defeat; from an act of which we are proud, or from one of which we are heartily ashamed. Our heads may be held high or bent very low. We may come jubilantly to thank him for what he has done or to barely under a faint cry for help. It matters not who we are or where we are, a holy God is a God in whom there is nothing to adulterate or diminish or alter the transcendent qualities which our weakness or our sinfulness need. He is always God. Nothing is ever missing from him if he is to be what all mankind must have to make and keep it truly human on the way to its fulfillment in him. Sometimes the best of us have days when our dearest friend must say, "you are not yourself today". The fact gives them a hard time and sends them away deprived of what they should have from us.

BUT GOD IS ALWAYS GOD. 

Notes from Thursday Evening's Service

Family Camp 2014: Thursday evening service - Pastor Mark Van Valin

1 Corinthians 10:1-11;  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 

Exodus from Slavery is a 5 Act Play:

Act 1: "Slavery" (Exodus 1:12-14) The Israelites had been in Egypt - in slavery - for 430 years. In this 430 years they had lost everything - their vision for the future and their vision for any freedom. The only vision they had after 430 years was a vision of slavery - 24/7 work and bondage. The Apostle Paul writes that we are all in slavery. John Wesley preached that we are asleep. 

Act 2: "Awakened Cry" (Exodus 2:23-27) When we are awakened from our slavery - or our sleep - we cry out. This awakened cry is a cry for acceptance and repentance. However, a person never cries out for what could be until they first catch a vision for it. In the same way, we are all content in our sin until we catch a glimpse of God's grace, holiness, and glory. 

Act 3 (scene 1): "When I See The Blood" (Exodus 12:13) When God sees the blood of the lamb He will pass over our slavery. This "passing over" by God comes through the blood of Jesus. This is our justification. 

Acts 3 (scene 2): "Baptism through the Red Sea" (Exodus 14:13-15) Baptism is a new birth. It is not enough to be promised deliverance from slavery - we must be delivered and baptized in a new birth. 

Act 3 should have been the last act. But it is not the end, it is not even the middle. In the same way that "finding Jesus", accepting His salvation, and being baptized into the family of God is not the end of the story for us. 

Act 4: "Wilderness"(Deuteronomy 8:2-5) For 40 years the Israelites walked in the wilderness. For 40 years they tried to recreate Egypt in the wilderness. For 40 years God aimed to discipline the idolatry out of the Israelites. We can be taken out of the slavery situation but it is a process of taking the slavery mindset out of us. 

In 1 Corinthians 10 The Apostle Paul writes about a wilderness that exists past an individual's salvation.

We must ask, why do we choose to stay in the wilderness. John Wesley erote that is came down to negleglct - from prayer and Scripture - sin - we can't imagine a life away from it - or ignorance - we don't know a life apart from it. 

Therefore our options are threefold; we can choose to go back to "Egypt" - that is our venue of slavery, idolatry, and sin (Exodus 16:3), can stay in - and die in - the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:5), or we can take possession of the promised land. 

Act 5: "Take Posession" (Deuteronomy 8:1, 6-9) This is the land that God has promised to each one if us. This is the land of sanctification and holiness that God is calling us to. 

Notes from Tuesday Evening's Service

Family Camp 2014: Monday evening service - Pastor Mark Van Valin

The theme of this week's Family Camp is "Holiness: coming home again". At the foundation of our faith as Free Methodists is holiness - a life of holiness which is totally devoted to God. 

Tonight we looked to John 16:5-11; ...but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 

The "Advocate" - that is the Holy Spirit - convicts us of sin just as a good Doctor makes a diagnoses.this conviction of sin is a true gift from God. First the Holy Spirit reveals God's beauty, His holiness, His majesty, and His love. Then the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sin - our desperation from God and from God's beauty, His holiness, His majesty, and His love. 

In all of this, the Holy Spirit speaks to us in specifics. Satan always speaks in generalities - you're not good enough, you're strong enough. But when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, He speaks to is in specifics - of our jealousy, our dishonesty, and our pride.

But first the Holy Spirit reveals God's glory to us. Only after we catch a glimpse of God's glory - and begin to comprehend what God's glory is - can we truly recognize and completely understand that we have sinned against God and His glory. 

Romans 3:23 states; ...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Let us consider four stages of sorrow - grief - over sin. 

First, we grieve over how our sin affects us. Sin can seem okay until there is a consequence to my sin that hurts me personally. This first stage is not a sorrow brought by The Holy Spirit and it does not lead to true repentance. 

Second, we grieve over how our sin affects others. Sin that is hurting - ruining - our relationships may bring about sorrow because we are affecting others that we care about. This stage is the beginning of repentance.

Third, we grieve over how our sin separates us from God. A gap exists between us and God - a gap brought about by sin. As sin in our life increases, the gap - separation - between us and God increases. This third stage is a sorrow over din that is brought about by the Holy Spirit and it will lead us to true repentance. 

Fourth and finally, we grieve over how out sin grieves and dishonors God. Very few followers come to this point of sorrow over sin. However, when we reach this stage, we find true repentance and a desire to please, honor, and glorify God. 

Until you reach this fourth level of grief - of sorrow - you will never reach God's holiness.