Sabbath Sanctuary: The Holiness of God's Name

Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine. Leviticus 20:26

For the Scriptures say, You must be holy because I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;
Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.
Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,
Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;
Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.
By looking to Jesus, like Him thou shalt be;
Thy friends in thy conduct His likeness shall see.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;
And run not before Him, whatever betide.
In joy or in sorrow, still follow the Lord,
And, looking to Jesus, still trust in His Word.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,
Each thought and each motive beneath His control.
Thus led by His Spirit to fountains of love,
Thou soon shalt be fitted for service above.

~William D. Longstaff

~ Any form of holiness that leads to someone looking like they just drank a gallon of vinegar is not biblical holiness; it is more likely Pharisaism. The Church has lost something of this notion of holiness as happiness. We need to look at the Jews celebrating the Sabbath, their holiest of times. Men gather in the streets, linking arms and dancing. Home is turned into a place of wonder, mystery, and glory as families welcome the Sabbath. How much more should the Church now celebrate holiness joyfully, knowing that the Messiah Jesus has in one day, by his death for us at Golgotha, taken away all our sin? ~ Simon Ponsonby~The Pursuit of The Holy

Kedushat HaShem- Holiness of God’s Name 

Throughout all generations we will declare Your greatness, and to all eternity we will proclaim Your holiness. Your praise our God, shall never depart from our mouth, for You are a great and holy God and King. Blessed are You, O Lord the holy God. You are holy and Your Name is holy, and Your holy ones praise You daily (Selah). Blessed are You, Adonai, the God who is holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory (Isaiah 6:3). ~ The Amidah

Shabbat Shalom!

In His Grace,

 

Piper's Pen and Prose: The Pursuit of The Holy~ My longing is to see the Church transformed

The Pursuit of the Holy by Simon Ponsonby

Chapter One- The Longing to be Holy

~ No, my longing is to see the Church transformed so that we might transform society.

~ “The darkness is deepening.” So said Gandalf in Tolkien’s classic The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. And so it is for us. Faced with an unconvincing Church, society is looking to alternatives.

~ And yet, while sinners are certainly responsible for their own sin, I don’t entirely blame the world. They merely do what is in line with their natures: They Sin. You cannot be surprised when sinners act sinfully- they have no power to purify themselves. Can a godless society be expected to be godly without seeing what godliness is?

~ The Church has all too often blended in in with the world rather than revealed Christ and his ways to the world.

~ Somewhere along the line we have forgotten our vocation—to be a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9). Jesus said it is part of the Church’s role through conforming to him and conveying him to the world, to be a sanctifying, salting, influence in society (Matt. 5:13-16).

~ No one will listen to our gospel if we aren’t living it. We cannot influence or infect society with something that has not yet infected us. A saltless salt cannot savor and flavor. The Church cannot light a fire if she is not on fire.

~ We need reformation, a revival—and holiness will be at the heart of it. The Church must again find and follow Jesus—not as a doctrine to be believed but as a Lord to be served and a life to be lived.

~ A holy Church can influence an unholy world. Where Christ is seen, he is attractive, wooing and winning people to himself.

~ And as Paul said, “Through us [God] spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him” (2 Cor. 2:14).

~ The world looks on hateful, self-serving, undisciplined, greedy, impure people who never the less claim to be the people of God and says, “You lie.”

~ It is not as if we are addressing a marginal issue here—it is central. In the latest celebrated “revival” in the West, a feted evangelist suddenly walked off the stage and walked out on his wife. Claims of numerous extraordinary miracles could not be substantiated—not even one. I attended churches and watched ministers manipulate money out of church members for the promise of miracles. Pretense, fabrication, and nonsense were rife. Nothing new here, of course, but I groaned along with many others in the Church: where was the bride of Christ, making herself ready for Christ (Rev. 21:2)?

~ Isaiah spoke more about holiness than any other prophet. It was part of his ministry to call the nations to holiness.

~ The prophet had preached the nation’s guilt only to see his own.

~ And lest we be hypocrites, we ought not do that before we have applied the message to the sinfulness of our own hearts.

~ We must go on to know, as Isaiah knew, a deep cleansing from God’s fire and a commissioning for his service. I do not believe that Isaiah had been a hypocrite—he had said what he saw in the world and what he heard from God; but lest he fall, thinking he stood tall, God also showed him himself. Now his message could be tempered by self-awareness a much-needed humility in the face of burning-coal grace for the sinner.

~ I confess, I resign myself to the presence of sin and weakness rather than feeling wretched or wrestling against it.

~ God is holy. Holiness is his nature and character. It is not an attribute: it is who he is.

~ The language and practices of holiness have atrophied under the impact of modernity and secularization.

~ The holy life is a foretaste of heaven on earth. It is not God’s burden for us but God’s best for us.

~ Any form of holiness that leads to someone looking like they just drank a gallon of vinegar is not biblical holiness; it is more likely Pharisaism. The Church has lost something of this notion of holiness as happiness. We need to look at the Jews celebrating the Sabbath, their holiest of times. Men gather in the streets, linking arms and dancing. Home is turned into a place of wonder, mystery, and glory as families welcome the Sabbath. How much more should the Church now celebrate holiness joyfully, knowing that the Messiah Jesus has in one day, by his death for us at Golgotha, taken away all our sin?

~ The traditional places for the Jewish woman to articulate holiness were in her home and in her diet, making a distinction between the sacred and the profane, offering her life and work as worship to God.

~ Holiness is about having the right clothing to be with the King of Kings (Matt. 22:11-12).

The Wonder's of God's Word Part IV: Christ revealed ~ His Holiness

Within the last couple of years, I frequently view Criminal Minds (I know, real poetic right?). It is not because I enjoy gruesome murders and serial killers, it is the psychology and the forensics which fascinates me (though I have had to cease viewing—my dreams became a bit dark and disturbed). I am intrigued by the process of the discovery of a small bit of evidence, and the process by which the Behavioral Science Team is able to assemble a profile on the “unsub” and by the end of the show, know everything about the suspect and why he committed the crimes.

This fascination has infiltrated my study of the Bible. No, I do not compare the Bible with Criminal Minds. But as we examine the Old Testament, we find clues of the promised Messiah, and find ourselves in the middle of a beautiful tapestry of God’s Word, His Logos. By the Revelation—the end of all history, we know exactly who Christ is and why He died and rose again, and why He loves this wretched human race, we know the end of the story. We witness the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament spoke concerning Him. 

C.S. Lewis passionately wrote concerning the Old Testament, 

“But this is one of the rewards of reading the Old Testament regularly. You keep on discovering more and more what a tissue of quotations from it the New Testament is; how constantly our Lord repeated, reinforced, continued, refined, and sublimated, the Judaic ethics, how very seldom he introduced a novelty.”[1] 

I have expressed it before, but the point cannot be overemphasized, the Old Testament lays the ground work for the New. Without the clues (prophecies) concerning Christ woven in the Old Testament Writ by the poets and prophets—we would not be certain that Jesus is who He claimed to be. The Lord in all His wisdom created the world and set forth a path, a story to follow; His passion for humanity and the promise of redemption for a despairing, discouraged, dying people. His story begins in Genesis. 

“Since in the end we are to come to baptism and the Eucharist, to the stable at Bethlehem, the hill of Calvary, and the emptied rock-tomb, perhaps it is better to begin with circumcision, the Passover, the Ark, and the Temple for 'the highest does not stand without the lowest.' Does not stand, does not stay; rises, rather, and expands, and finally loses itself in endless space. For the entrance is low: we must stoop till we are not taller than children in order to get in.” [2] 

I pray that as you read the prophecies concerning Christ and their fulfillment, that the Holy Spirit awakes in you a love for the Word. A love that fills your heart to overflowing and unstops the wells of living water down inside you.

Christ’s character will be revealed to you through these poetic prophecies. Everything you need, Christ is—He is good; trustworthy; He is just; guiltless and obedient. He is patient and benevolent; He is full of Mercy and Grace and longs to pour it upon you like rain. Let’s begin with His holiness….

His Holiness

Prophecy:

Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders? Ex. 15:11 NASB

But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain. Psalm 2:6 NASB

Fulfillment:

The angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:35 NASB

Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me? John 8:46 NASB

For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Acts 4:27 NASB

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens. Revelation 3:7 NASB

I pray that The Holy Spirit hover over you as you read the Word fulfilled; that He whisper into your ears and awaken you to His glory.

And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. Isaiah 6:3 NASB

And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME. Revelation 4:8

[1]C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (San Diego: Harvest/HBJ Publishers,1958), 26.
[2] Ibid., 88.

The Wonder of God's Word: The Prophecies of Christ's Birth Part I 

The Wonder of God's Word: The Prophecies of Christ's Birth Part II

The Wonder of God's Word: The Prophecies of Christ's Birth Part III

Piper's Pen and Prose: I Write For The Glory Of The City of God~ .Augustine

City of God- Saint Augustine

Book I

Chapter II.

It was not in fact, the men who were pressured by the image, but the image by the men. How, then, was she invoked to defend the city and the citizens, she who could not defend her own defenders.

Chapter III

I will briefly, and to the best of my ability, explain what I meant to say about these ungrateful men who blasphemously impute to Christ the calamities which they deservedly suffer in consequences of their own evil ways, while that for which Christ’s sake spared them in spite of their wickedness they do not even take the trouble to notice; and in their mad blasphemous insolence, they use against His name those very lips wherewith they falsely claimed that same life that their life might be spared. In the places consecrated to Christ, where for His sake no enemy would injure them, they restrained their tongues that they might be safe and protected; but no sooner do they emerge from these sanctuaries than they unbridle these tongues to hurl at Him curses of hate. 

VII

From them none forcibly dragged; that into them many were led by their relenting enemies to be set at liberty, and that from them none were led into slavery by merciless force. Whoever does not see that this is to be attributed to the name of Christ, and to the Christian temper, is blind; whoever sees this, and gives not praise, is ungrateful; whoever hinders anyone from praising it, is mad. Far be it from any prudent man to impute this clemency to the barbarians. Their fierce and bloody minds were awed and bridled, and marvelously tempered by Him who so long before said by His prophet, “I will visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquities with stripes; nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from them.” 

VIII

For the good man is neither uplifted with the good things of time, nor broken by its ills; but the wicked man, because he is corrupted by this world’s happiness, feels himself punished by its unhappiness. Yet often even in the present distribution of temporal things, does God plainly wince His own inference. For if every sin were now visited with manifest punishment, nothing would seem to be reserved for the final judgment; on the other hand, if no sin received now a plainly divine punishment, it would be concluded that there is no divine providence at all. And so of the good things of this life; if God did not by a very visible liberality confer these on some of those persons who asks for them, we should say that these good things were not at His disposal; and if He gave them to all who sought them, we should suppose that such were the only reward of His service; and such a service would make us not godly, but greedy rather and covetous.

Chapter IX

These selfish persons have more cause to fear than those to who it was said through the prophet, “He is taken away in iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” For watchman or overseers of the people are appointed in churches, that they may unsparingly rebuke sin-nor is the man guiltless of the sin we speak of…

Chapter XII

Carnage then occurred, the bodies could not even be buried. But godly confidence is not appalled by so ill-omened a circumstance; for the fruitful bear in mind that assurance has been given that no a hair on their head should parish, and that therefore, though they have been devoured by beasts, their blessed resurrection will not hereby be hindered. The truth would no wise have said, “Fear not them which can kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul,” if anything whatever that an enemy could be detrimental to the future life.

And so there are indeed many bodies of Christians lying unburied; but no one has separated them from heaven, nor froth that earth which is all filled with the presence of Him who knows whence He will raise again what He created.

XXIX

For the family of Christ is furnished with this reply; our God is everywhere present, wholly everywhere; not confined to any place He can be present unperceived, and be absent with moving;

But who are you, that we should design to speak with you even about your own god’s much less about our God, who is to be feared above all gods? For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” Ps. XCVL 4, 5.

XXX

That those who complain of Christianity really desire to live without restraint in shameful luxury.

For why in your calamities do you complain of Christianity, unless because you desire to enjoy your luxurious license unrestrained, and to lead an abandoned and profligate life without the interruption of any uneasiness and disaster? 

XXXIII

Scipio wished you to be hard pressed by an enemy, that you might not abandon yourselves to luxurious manners; but so abandoned are you, that not even when crushed by the enemy is you luxury repressed. You have missed the profit of you calamity; you have been made most wretched, and have remained and most profligate.

XXXV

In truth, these two cities are entangled together in this world, and intermixed until the last judgment effects their separation. I now proceed to speak, as God shall help me, of the rise, progress and end of the two cities; and what I write. I write for the glory of the city of God, that being placed in comparison with the other, it might shine with brighter lustre.