How Beautiful is the Holiness of God!!!

I love God’s Word. I love studying it. I love reading it. And I love how the Holy Spirit speaks to us through Scripture. I’ve been doing a lot of studying lately. Studying the archeological history of the Bible (how it originated into the form that we know), studying 1st and 2nd Kings, and the history of Israel- before and after Christ’s ascension. I study not to convince myself of Biblical truths. But so that I have an answer for those who may ask questions I have never been quite sure how to answer.

Yet studying all of the above has increased my faith in God. God is so faithful -and I am realizing this more and more every day I walk with Him. I am realizing the extent of His holiness, and therefore the magnitude of Christ’s sacrifice. The more I learn of God’s law, the more I am awed by His grace. Without the law why would anyone need God? No one knows really what the love of God is all about until the Law comes in. What a magnificent, holy God we serve! And we owe Him nothing less than our lives….

In studying through 1st and 2nd Kings I am awed. What wicked kings Israel and Judah had! And oh how God hates sin! Every time Israel and Judah sinned, they were punished. And yet God kept the promises He made to those who walked in His will. It’s beautiful to see the consistency of God’s holiness. Israel sins; Israel is punished. Israel walks in the ways of the Lord; God blesses the nation. Over and over they turn from God. Over and over they are punished by the hand of God. And yet He is faithful to the promises He made to Abraham, to David.

I wonder….so often we focus on Christ’s love. But so often we stay away from talking of God’s holiness and righteousness. Why?

All throughout the Old Testament God’s holiness is proclaimed. Too often we shut this part of Scripture out, saying “ that’s the Old Covenant.” This may be true, yet the Old Testament is in God’s Word for a reason. I believe it’s there to remind us of the righteousness of our Holy Creator; to show us the extent to which He hates sin.

It’s true that “By grace we are saved, and not by works,” but it’s also true that “faith without works is dead”.

Studying the Old Testament has increased my desire to live a blameless life before God. I see His holiness and His love of righteousness, and while I know that I am not saved by works, I desire in the deepest way to be holy, as He is holy- and this is portrayed through my works. I desire holiness because I love Him. Because I see what He loves and I desire to be more of that. Not to be loved more, but to love Him more through my actions, through my life.

Ye are Christ's." 1 Corinthians 3:23

"Ye are Christs." You are His by donation, for the Father gave you to the Son; His by His bloody purchase, for He counted down the price for your redemption; His by dedication, for you have consecrated yourself to Him; His by relation, for you are named by His name, and made one of His brethren and joint-heirs. Labour practically to show the world that you are the servant, the friend, the bride of Jesus. When tempted to sin, reply, "I cannot do this great wickedness, for I am Christ's." Immortal principles forbid the friend of Christ to sin. When wealth is before you to be won by sin, say that you are Christ's, and touch it not. Are you exposed to difficulties and dangers? Stand fast in the evil day, remembering that you are Christ's. Are you placed where others are sitting down idly, doing nothing? Rise to the work with all your powers; and when the great sweat stands upon your brow, and you are tempted to loiter, cry, "No, I cannot stop, for I am Christ's. If I were not purchased by blood I might be like Issachar, crouching between two burdens; but I am Christ's and cannot loiter." When the siren song of pleasure would tempt you from the path of right, reply, "Thy music cannot charm me; I am Christ's." When the cause of God invites thee, give thyself to it; when the poor require thee, give thy goods and thyself away, for thou art Christ's. Never belie they profession. Be thou ever one of those whose manners are Christian, whose speech is like the Nazarene, whose conduct and conversation are so redolent of heaven, that all who see you may know that you are the Saviour's, recognizing in you His features of love and His countenance of holiness. "I am Roman!" was of old a reason for integrity; far more, then, let it be your argument for holiness, "I am Christ's!"

-Charles Spurgeon

I read this devotional a couple days ago. It was an incredible encouragement to me. I pray it's an encouragement to you.

Love long weekends

We went skiing for 7 hours on Saturday. It was incredible! Jason and his friend Pete, who came with us, are so much better at skiing than I am. They were flying down the hills, spinning, and skiing backwards... then there was me. Thankfully they were amazingly patient as I was perfecting my skills :) I've only been skiing 3 times in my life and I've never had the proper skiing stuff. (Goggles are a necessity for me since I wear contacts). It was so much fun though and before I knew it I was going down "black diamonds" -not horribly fast by any means, but getting down them nontheless.

The most adventurous part of it, though, was the weather. It was raining...hard! Freezing rain. All the hills were nothing less than puuuure ice. 30 minutes after we got in it started raining sleet. There was no way we were going to blow $80 by leaving so we toughed it out. Jason looked like a glazed donut and the rain cleared most everyone outta there- which meant less lines on ski lifts yay!

We had so much fun and I wish we could go more...it's just SO expensive.

We went to a wedding this weekend also. Jason was the usher in his friend's expensive wedding and I just tagged along to the rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding ceremony, and reception. It wasn't fun for me since I knew virtually no one. But such is life.

We played SO much Settler's of Caatan this weekend and introduced 5 people to the game! They all loved it! We also played some good ole' rook, which we're also crazy about.

Last night I talked with my little bro for 2 hours. I love my brother! We have such great conversations. I love that we're so close. I just hope we stay close- even when they have a girl in March :) We talked about the whole Calvinism/Armeniesm argument. Fun to disuss, but rather pointless to a degree. People think they can figure God out, failing to realize we can't know everything about God. All we need to know is that God is sovereign and all things are under His control. He knows who His children are. End of story!

So that was my weekend in a nutshell. My body is aching from skiing Saturday. I almost called in sick today, but I'm proud cause I didn't :)

Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 3:18

"Grow in grace" -not in one grace only, but in all grace. Grow in that root grace, faith. Believe the promises more firmly than you have done. Let faith increase in fullness, constancy, simplicity. Grow also in love. Ask that your love may become extended, more intense, more practical, influencing every thought, word, and deed. Grow likewise in humility. Seek to lie very low, and know more of your nothingness. As you grow downward in humility, seek also to grow upward -having nearer approaches to God in prayer and more intimate fellowship with Jesus. May God the Holy Spirit enable you to "grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior." He who grows not in the knowledge of Jesus, refuses to be blessed. To know Him is "life eternal," and to advance in the knowledge of Him is to increase in happiness. He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thrist for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus - as the deer panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, "Nearer, nearer." Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. Seek to know more of Him in His divine nature, in his human relationship, in His finished work, in His death, in His resurrection, in His present glorious intercession, in His future royal advent. Abide hard by the cross, and search the mystery of His wounds. An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us is one of the best tests of growth in grace.

Charles H. Spurgeon

CNN

*Sigh* Perhaps I shouldn't go onto CNN's website and read people's comments on various issues. I try to go on the website to keep up on news- World and US news. Anyways, Obama decided to pick Rick Warren to deliver his invocation at the presidential inauguration. Personally, I could care less who he picks to deliver that speach and am neither ecstatic nor bummed that he picked Rick Warren. I could honestly care less. But what bothered me about the article was reading the posted comments referencing it. The biggest issue people had with Obama choosing Rick Warren was over the fact that Rick Warren opposes gay and abortion rights and he's "religious." In choosing Rick Warren, people felt like Obama was compromising his liberal stance he claimed to have during the election process. Anger built up inside of me when I read people making mocking comments toward God and Christianity. God is a loving, merciful Savior, but more often than not people think He's a prideful God of war, who is out to condemn, judge, and send to hell anyone who doesn't do what he wants them to do. FRUSTRATING! I know I shouldn't let it get to me- those who do not have the Spirit will not understand the Spirit, and I can't expect them to. Better they be this way than to claim to know Christ, while living a life of hypocrisy.

Often times I don't know how to respond to those who fight so hard for things that are so obviously against God's design. And I don't know how to respond to those who so deliberately curse God. The Spirit inside of me gets so angered by it, and yet at the same time my heart aches.

God is loving, merciful and gracious and the gift of salvation He offers through His Son, Jesus Christ IS available to all. Irregardless of nationalality, race, education, or social position, Christ IS available to all (Colossians 3:11). Yet people are not seeing this. People are seeing condemnation and judgement. ...And yet I know this is not a new thing. Satan is influencing our world and will and has always decieved people into distrusting God. And he will use those he's decieved to decieve others.

We have to have a balance in understanding God's mercy and righteousness and as humans, limited in our understanding, that balance can be hard to find. We can focus too much on His grace and mercy, neglecting His impending holiness, or we can focus too much on His righteousness and hatred of sin, neglecting His love and grace. Neither extreme fully reflects who God is. In witnessing to others I do believe we have to reflect this balance. God is righteous and we desparately need Him to save us from the judgement that will result from sin, and yet in His righteousness God is also loving, gracious, and merciful.

I wish people could see clearly both beautiful characteristics of God, and I wish we knew how to purely reflect it to others. Thanks for letting me vent :)

Random Recent Photos

This is a recent picture of Jason and I with our very first Christmas tree ever! It was quite the experience hauling it in, struggling to straighten it, decorating it, and now trying to keep it alive. It has 600 lights and brightens up our whole living room!

This is my wonderful husband at Lover's Key Beach in Florida! Such a remote beach- we loved it. Not far to the left of Jason there's a crazy drop off. The tip of this tree dangled over the drop off. I crawled as far as I could and could see schools of fish. God is amazing!

Yep, it's me in this car! While we were in Florida we found a European car place. This was my fav. I'm sure we annoyed the heck outta the car salespeople- but thankfully, if they were annoyed, they didn't show it.

Sorry these pictures are in no particular order! This is a picture from Lover's Key Beach. Jason, being the alpha man that he is, decided to pick up this dead blow fish. Call us retarded but we were excited about it -the first blowfish we'd ever seen in real life!

Monumental Occassion: I made my first pie! -At least the first one I've made that's been edible. When we were in Florida, Grandma-my female role model, taught me some things about cooking. Mmmmm...a piece of apple pie with a little ice cream...sooo good.

This is another picture from Florida. -One we took with Grandpa and Grandma the day we left :( Grandpa was trying to look "spiritual." His words: "Don't take it yet, Reva... I have to put on my spiritual face." He's hilarious. Jason and I were trying to pose for the picture but were having a hard time cause Grandpa was making us laugh.

I miss them :(

I Was Reading Last Night....

I was reading, last night, a book about the importance of knowing Scripture. Here are some quotes from the book to think about:

"There is a prevalent conviction that the faith the church has confessed in the past is not adequate for a post-Enlightenment culture; the idea that faith must be accommodated to culture has undermined the teaching of the church's faith. Popular evangelical faith has developed a bias against theology (not to mention the intellect) and has elevated the bias to the level of a virtue, defending it as vigorously as democracy. This is reflected more and more in the pulpits of professing evangelical churches. Doctrine...is purposefully avoided...

They focus on practical matters, such as family concerns and personal growth, not doctrine, sometimes mixing psychotherepeutic concepts with biblical teaching. They often emphasize religious experience. They seek to feel God's love, not understand church theology, a theme that plays well with the decreasing importance of denominational doctrine among baby boomers."

And another:


"Most importantly, God chose to communicate the Truth about Himself and His world by words contained in the Scriptures and the language of the Heavens (Psalm 19). God's words do not depend upon a reader's interpretation. Instead, the reader is to interpret the Bible according to God's intention. The Apostle Peter is clear when he writes, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1: 19-21).

To correctly understand the meaning of any text of Scripture, we should heed Paul's advice to Timothy: "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth" (2 Timothy 2:15). By acknowledging that God has communicated in language Truth about the real world, and by diligently studying the Bible, you can know the truth that sets you free (John 8:32)".