The Power of a Holy Life

Piety seldom gets attention these days. Some don’t really have a sense of what it means. As a culture, we find religious practice and discipleship increasingly secularized to reject personal and corporate piety as insignificant. Modalities of religious experience that reflect this include the mass cult-styled events, where religious behaviors are called to mimic the cultural responses of the age. We make noise to avoid the silence. We interrupt sharing a message in order to substitute a cacophony of sound that avoids allowing the message to be heard. We connect with the beat of our rhythms and social customs, but often refuse to bow before the Lord our God. We enter into conversation using every known appliance for communication, but do not speak of God or his love or his grace.

Perhaps the time has come for retraining ourselves in the way of those who found listening to God as important as shouting at him or suggestions. Bible literacy has fallen to new lows in the face of ever-rising sales of bibles aimed to appeal based on color matched leathers and magazine style illustrations and pop theologians’ cliché’s mixed in. Publishers and editors far too frequently reinvent the scriptures under a “marketing scheme” rather than to emphasize a respect for content and understanding. Different versions are called to appeal to the political statements of the time rather than the witness of divine revelation. We cast about using the bible as the proof text for our pre-stated prejudices and ignore its invitation to transformation in the power of Christ Jesus our Lord.

A holy life is a life attentive to God…it is a life yielded to God’s purpose and leading…it is a life of shared experience with Christ. It is a life of fullness and joy, purpose and direction, truth and justice and bold expression of faith in the face of every challenge to substitute the lesser for the greatest gift of all, life in Christ.

If yours is not a holy life, consider the mess you are in…heading down a road you already know leads to the wrong destination. Entrust your heart and mind and soul to the one who came to save you. His righteousness will sustain you and change you, for the glory of God.

Holy Interruptions

The Psalmist reminds us that “the heavens declare the glory of God.” We don’t have to look far to find a witness of God’s incredible gifts to all of us. The magnificent pallet of color seen in an evening sunset, the glorious beauty of trees bursting with spring flowers…everywhere we turn, the presence of God’s work is evident. What is often missing is our attention to the giver. What is often missing is our thanksgiving and praise to the one who has provided us with such a blessing of beauty and wonder. God has allowed us all at some time or another to become startled into awareness of his mighty acts; and in doing so, we have opportunity for honoring Him. Acknowledge the holy interruptions of your day with prayer and praise and public expressions of “blessed be the name of the Lord.” He is worthy of worship and praise and our wonder and awe in the presence of his glory.

With God

Life is always interesting; and many days quite challenging, but I find an incredible assurance in the relationship that God has invited me to share with Him.
To live with God each day is to recognize His daily gifts. Taking stock of God’s blessings is an opportunity to spend every minute of every day for the rest of my life expressing thanks. God has shown us in Jesus Christ a way of living that distinguishes those who follow Him in ways that bring glory to God. Jesus teaches us the most amazing truths that apply to every generation of believers. Learning from him is to be constantly shown opportunities for positive directions and actions. Jesus reminds us that to follow him is to put God’s way first. To follow in that path, Jesus said meant taking up a cross, denying self, and following daily. It meant to face the world’s standards and to recognize them as sub-standard to the divine initiative being shown toward us in God’s love. To follow Jesus means learning the characteristics of Christ and embracing them as our lifestyle. It is not the action of the disinterested experimenter; it is the action of faith, trusting God, and walking with Him. To live with God is to know a relationship that will not fail. To live with God is to know His presence and His provision. To live with God is to understand that the love of God is what secures our place with Him. With God, life is abundant and filled with joy forever.

The Popularity of a Popular Message

The role of the Old Testament prophet was often a difficult one. Many times the message they were called to bring was poorly received by the multitudes of their day. At times the message was confrontational, and precipitated a violent reaction from those who rejected it. At other times, it was well illustrated, clearly understood, but ignored in light of the “good times” being celebrated. Repeatedly, such events were followed by the painful result of rejecting the word of the Lord.

Today, we find the multitudes uninspired by prophetic voices. The preference is for those who espouse an “easy to hear” message. Lost are the warnings and implications of sin, instead replaced with the welcomed invitations to double prosperity and worldly success. Multitudes flock to the stadiums of “happiness” to be inspired by corny jokes, bumper sticker platitudes and affirmations of desires to get something for nothing, to find prosperity as the aim for life apart from any talk that includes Christ’s call for repentance, service, commitment, and sacrifice. Such pulpits to not proclaim Christ crucified, buried, and resurrected…instead they call for investment, instant success, and wealth.

Today, biblical illiteracy is at an all time high, in the pew and in the culture at large. People take Ben Franklin’s quotes as “scripture” and “take the language of scripture and adapt it to the latest advertising campaigns” We are told to find our “sole” in the shoe department; to have faith in our used car salesman; to wear diamonds that are “forever,” and to discover our “security” in the latest home protection company.

While the Psalmist reasonably asks “Why do the nations rage?”(Psalm 2); we find our nation of prosperity being ever linked as the initiator of conflict in a world that longs for peace. It is time to listen to the prophets again. To ignore their truth-bearing witness is to fall prey to the political machines, the manipulating marketers, and the sin which will always bring its consequences.

Peoples across the globe are engaged in cultures of conflict that will only be transformed in the power of Christ to bring a new mind and heart for God and for others, instructed by His word. Justice must move from the courthouse mandate to the common life of every believer. Truth must not be heralded as an ambiguous compromise of vague never-to-be-known values, but must be centered in the heart of God by hearts of men and women and children turned to God for guidance. Our unpeaceful world longs for God’s peace. The common lack of civility and the bloodlust for power seen in so many corners of the world can only be changed by the power of God at work in and through his people.

The voices of the prophets are called to remain faithful “in season and out.” The truth of their message will always come to light in the testimony of history bearing witness to God’s faithful revelation. As Jesus said, “Those with ears to hear, let them hear.”