Without Holiness No One Will See the Lord

I am always long on what I want to say and short on time. I came down with a sinus infection out of nowhere and I have a busy weekend of work. Rod has been hunting since Thursday (he killed two deer) so he should be home today to help out a little with that ball full of energy!

Hebrews 12:14
14Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

I would have to say that overall holiness is not a big topic that is very popular but it is so important to God. It is to our good that we live a holy life. Some of my favorite words are wrapped in Isaiah 6:

3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

"Isaiah's commission began with a vision of God's holiness (vv.1-4). This vision terrified Isaiah and made him feel totally inadequate and unclean...When the angel touched Isaiah's lips with the hot coal from the altar and said that his sins were forgiven (vv. 6,7), Isaiah was fit for service to God."

The Lord used the coal to purify Isaiah and for us under the new covenant we are washed by the blood of the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. We can not be made right apart from His sacrifice and believing on the Lord Jesus unto salvation. We can earn nothing from God by our works...it took the Lamb. Our righteousness is as filthy rags before His Holiness. The Hebrew word used for Holy (speaking of God) is the word Qados meaning: "to consecrate. Consecrated, sacred (ceremonially or morally), selected pure, holy. As a substantive, the Holy One (God)...Essentially denotes what is intrinsically sacred and distinct (even opposed to) what is common. God is seperate from all evil (Isaiah 17:7), death, and idolatry. He can not tolerate sin. His majestic holiness is without equal and is completely perfect...no one is as holy as He (1 Sa 2:2). He is the Judge of what is right and pure (Ps22:3). Because He is holy, He is free from the moral imperfections and failures associated with mankind (Hos 11:9). He is reliable; He will be faithful to His promises."

Ok I will stop there on that definition but there is so much more good stuff. Back to Hebrews 12:14
Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. The Lord calls us to live holy lives. Lives that are set apart for His good use. However, we are forgiven but we still have a daily sin problem. For me if I am not in a regular state of confession and repentance it becomes hard for me to have fellowship with the Lord since our sins separate us from God. We have to call sin for what it is and stand in agreement with the word of God and pray for godly sorrow that leads to repentance if we want know Him. When I say know Him I mean the continual gazing of the soul to Christ. Have you ever opened the word and felt like you needed to hide or wondered why you couldn't hear from Him? I have many times and then I would have to stop and ask the Lord to search me and show me any sin or anything that was offensive to Him and confess it and seek repentance so I could be in uninterrupted fellowship. When we refuse to deal with our stuff it will deal with us. We can be led into all manner of deception without confession and turning from our sin and turning to God. Do you remember Milly Vanilly their albums rocked the charts and then got revoked because it really wasn't them singing on the record? I think often about the blame game and the song from one of their albums "Blame it on the Rain" come to mind:

Gotta blame it on something,gotta blame it on something.Blame it on the rain that was fallin', fallin'.Blame it on the stars that shine at night.Whatever you do, don't put the blame on you;blame it on the rain, yeah, yeah.

Isn't that fitting. That is so what we do. We do not want to take blame or responsibility for our sin when it is easier to blame it on someone else. Half the time we want to blame everything on the devil when it is our flesh, our sin nature doing its thing. Adam did the same thing in the garden...he shifted blame on Eve. In our natural man we are the same way. God wants us to take responsibility for our own sin and own up to it so we can be right with Him and others.

The word for holy is Hebrews 12:14 is Hagiasmos meaning: "to sanctify, make holy, treat as holy. Sanctification, the process or work of making something holy; sanctified behavior, holy living. The -os indicates an action rather than a quality or attribute." The definition in the lexical aides goes on to describe how sanctification is a work of the Holy Spirit since Christ died on the cross for our sins, then it goes on to say this: "Thus it describes the spiritual atmosphere in which they are living; despite the hostile, outward, circumstances, God's spirit provides an inner, spiritual realm of grace for the soul."

Thank you Lord for making a way through the cross. It is impossible for us to come to a Holy God without the cross. I love the last definition I just listed it spoke this to me: God IS by Definition Holy. That is who He is and He wants us to live a life that is set apart to Him in actions because of us being made right with Him through receiving Jesus as our Lord and having the help of the Holy Spirit. He is perfect in holiness and He wants our life to bear testimony to His holiness not in mere words but in action.

1 Thess. 4:3 uses the exact same greek word for holy in the word sanctified.
3It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; 4that each of you should learn to control his own body[a] in a way that is holy and honorable, 5not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; 6and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. 7For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. 8Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

Here it tells us to obstain from sexual immorality. God's plan for sex is holy when it is in the confines of marriage alone.

Then jump down to vs 11 I think this is a product of living set apart to God.
11Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, 12so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

Then Paul goes immediately in the next set of verses to the Coming of the Lord. We have got to be set apart because Christ is calling the Bride of Christ to make Herself ready in Holiness and Purity. I was at the mall last night and saw some of the most indecent clothing and thought once again...the enemy is turning it up trying to get us to live at the world's status quo. His desire is for our ruin. God's desire is for our Holiness.

Begin to pray for this and seek God over it that you would love Him, and fear Him in reverence and Awe, but that your life would be holy and wholly set apart to Him.

I want to be the servant who is ready with her light on, dressed and waiting for her Master to return (Luke 12)! The Lord wants us to be vessels that are useful to Him for His service. There is so much joy and inner peace that flows from that. How do I know? Because I know what it is like to live in obedience and to have lived in rebellion.

God help us to be solidified in our pursuit of holiness. Help us to be set apart and to have an undivided heart that fears Your Name. Lord help us to put our trust in You...You are so good and so worthy!

1 John 2:15-16
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.

-all of my quotes are from the Key Word study bible.