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. 

Stay Connected

I was reading through John 15 this morning. Jesus is speaking to His disciples and the chapter begins with an illustration of His - a vine and its branches. Jesus stresses the importance of staying connected to God for life and for power, apart from God we can accomplish nothing and we are worth nothing. Jesus then begins to talk with His disciples about the importance of remaining connected to God's love, apart from God's love there is no peace and there is no joy. Jesus continues by telling His disciples to stay connected to God through obedience, all wisdom comes to us through God and He has a greater plan in mind, desiring us to live a fruitful life and bear fruit that will last.

So, stay connected. 

From Merton's Palace of Nowhere by James Finley; "Mertton once told me to quit trying so hard in prayer. He said: 'How does and apple ripen? It just sits in the sun.' A small green apple cannot ripen in one night by tightening all its muscles, squinting its eyes and tightening its jaw in order to find itself the next morning miraculously large, red, ripe, and juicy beside its small green counterparts. Like the birth of a baby or the opening of a rose, the birth of true self takes place in God's time. We must wait for God, we must be awake, we must trust in his hidden action within us."

So, once again, stay connected.