World Changers Biloxi, MS: Day 3-4: How do you respond to the holiness of God?

As I write this on Wednesday afternoon (our off night), I can’t help but think that God has taught me so much just from preaching through this series of lessons on His holiness.

Summer Staff celebrating Daphne's (far left) 21st birthday!

Monday was our first day on the work sites and the students (and most adults) were pumped about finally “getting to work!”. We had the “great send-off” twice since we had our four roofing crews leaving at 6 AM and the rest at 7 AM. Our plan has been for the roofing crews to leave early and come home early to try to avoid the heat as much as possible. Temperatures have been hovering around triple digits all week.

I visited a bunch of the sites with Neal (music guy) and Jonathan (tech guy) before returning after lunch to prepare for worship service. Tuesday I did more of the same… visited sites then got ready for Concert of Prayer.

Concert of Prayer was incredible, which I will probably address in the next post.

But for now… here’s how we dealt with Monday.

The major question we were to answer Monday night was: “How do you respond to the Holiness of God?”

There’s great variety in responses to things/situations that may seem “other-ly” (ie. meeting some celebrity, viewing a national landmark, observing nature from a unique perspective, etc). While variety in these areas may make for interesting conversation, there’s really only one response that we should have when we encounter a Holy God.

I. When we see the holiness of God clearly, we see how UNWORTHY we really are. (Isaiah 6:5)

Every time. Every one of us. We should be humbled. There should be a confession of His greatness and our failure to reach that standard. When we see how marvelous God is we recognize our own finite being as well as the dramatic difference in our character and God’s, there’s no better response than one of humble confession of desperation. We have to claim, like Isaiah, that we are RUINED or DESTROYED…. simply saying that there is nothing we can really offer up to God that’s worthy.

When Isaiah came face to face with the holiness of God, he realized exactly who he was: RUINED. UNDONE. UNCLEAN. UNWORTHY.

Unfortunately, for many of us (myself included) we believe (deep down) that somehow God is excited to be standing in OUR presence. We don’t say this of course, but we live it out. We walk up to the burning bush and ask God to take of HIS sandals… We’ve lost the awe. We’ve reduced God to some fuzzy feeling we get “every now and then” rather than the God who spoke all things into existence and allows us to move and breathe.

God is not a fuzzy feeling.

II. We really only have two options: CONFESS and REPENT; IGNORE and WALLOW (Isaiah 6:5; 2 Samuel 12; Psalm 51)

Isaiah had a choice in this story. He could of walked away from this encounter. He could have justified his “sin” or simply blamed everyone else. He could have left feeling like he was some hot-shot since he saw the holiness of God. But he humbly confessed his undoing and his desperate need for the Holiness of God in his own life.

David faced a similar situation. After his sin was exposed by the prophet Nathan (2 Samuel 12) we find David’s immediate reaction to be of the Isaiah-kind. He said, “I have sinned against God”… no blaming, no justification, simply CONFESSION. It did not end right there for David for we see in Psalm 51 his intense desire to be in right standing with God. He longed for a “clean heart”, a “steadfast Spirit”, joy, and to be washed “white as snow”.

Confession always drives us to repentance. When we see ourselves clearly compared to the holiness of God, we must confess and change our ways. Period.

The glorious part about seeing the Holiness of God and our own “ruin” is that God still restores the broken relationship.

III. God initiates the restoration process (Isaiah 6:6-7; Hosea 2:14-23)

Notice that the seraphim flew to Isaiah. He did not beg. He did not manipulate. He humbled himself and God did the rest. God took the initiate upon Himself to offer forgiveness and cleansing. The same thing happened with David. Immediately following his confession, the prophet Nathan tells him that his sins have been forgiven (although there would still be great consequences for his sin).

The most beautiful picture of this restoration and God’s desire for His children to be in a right relationship is in Hosea. What a life he lived. Marrying an unfaithful wife as an illustration of God’s relationship with Israel if not the highly sought after “prophet-position” on monster.com.

An interesting thing happens in the text in Hosea chapter two.

Hosea 2:6-9   6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.  7 “She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; And she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, For it was better for me then than now!’  8 “For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, Which they used for Baal.  9 “Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time And My new wine in its season. I will also take away My wool and My flax Given to cover her nakedness.

God is serious about her disloyalty. God does not shy away from the consequences, but He says that He will set up a “hedge of thorns around her” in order to guide her back to her first lover. He also has been the one to provide for her even in the middle of her harlotry.

How can we not be moved by the compassion of God who loves us despite our unfaithfulness? How can we not be humbled at the thought of a loving and righteous God guiding us back to our first love?

But it gets so much better.

Hosea 2:13-20  13 “I will punish her for the days of the Baals When she used to offer sacrifices to them And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD.  14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness And speak kindly to her.  15 “Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.  16 “It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me Ishi And will no longer call Me Baali.  17 “For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.  18 “In that day I will also make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, The birds of the sky And the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, And will make them lie down in safety.  19 “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, In lovingkindness and in compassion,  20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the LORD.

God says he will punish her… but then draw her to the wilderness to speak kindly to her.

The word “allure” means to present yourself in such a way that someone cannot resist. This is God’s chose of action. Punishment, yes. Reconciliation, absolutely.

God “allures” us. He draws us. He does not drive us. He does not prod us. He makes Himself so appealing that we cannot chase after other “lovers”… we must run to Him. And God will restore us. He draws us so that he can speak kindly to us. Did you see that part? He wants to speak kindly to us.

Oh, how many of us need to hear that? How many students have stared blankly into the mirror wondering if God hates them? I pleaded with the students to hear God speak to them. I begged them to know that God still “allures” them. He is more desirable than anything else. And above all, He still wants to draw them into the wilderness to speak kindly to them.

God will “betroth” us to Him in his righteousness, justice,  lovingkindness, and compassion FOREVER!

Wow. Even in our mess, God draws us to Him. What an amazing God.

How do you respond to the holiness of God?

For me, I just cry out: “I’m ruined!” But praise God that He still speaks kindly! What a Savior. What a God!

~ by crosseyedministries on July 1, 2009.