Holiness and thoughts from a friend

As iron sharpens iron I have found an exceedingly blessed friendship with a man in our church who quite frankly, asks the hard questions. I do not believe we can share the love of Christ without caring for the welfare of the other person beyond our comfort or public image. That is to say, often the fear of man keeps us from doing our best in the best interest of others.

Yet this relationship of iron against iron has taken time to get to where it is. You can have two men wielding logs in their eye trying to help one another. But if they don't remove their own logs then you have a Three Stooges Discipleship. Here we look for a partnership of mutual consideration and teamwork. So over time, the honesty of sincerely spurring one another on to the glory of Christ has been that which I call rare, and fortuitous.

So Tuesday we met for prayer and hard questions. The question came about as to what I mean about pursuing the holy. Is it for pride? For acknowledgement, for some other reason? What specifically am I wanting to gain from this pursuit?

As I pondered these further under scrutiny, I have been evermore refining my objectives. This is not to become a boast or self assuredness. Mainly, for the good of my church and family I am wanting to further remove logs, specks, and wounds, anything that keeps me from knowing God or being a tool in His hand. He did say "Be holy for I am Holy", and that was not a suggestion.

Holiness and its Workings

In seeking holiness, I want to see the hand of God at work. I pray that within our church we see things that can only be explainable by God. Thus He is glorified. Sunday night, after having had a week where we looked upon God in our suffering, our prayer request time was more about praises than requests. Wow.

Why Holiness?

One of the aspects in seeking God and holiness in my life is simply a desire to put the world behind and seek God. There is a wonderfulness in the journey. I see this being part and parcel with Romans 12, the renewing of the mind.

It is hard to build a sandcastle when the tide keeps rolling in. That is to say the worldly influences will continue, but to build a good castle you need to move beyond the tide line.

One of the beauties of this is also reliance upon God. I don’t believe I have done that to a point of honoring and glorifying Him. So again, this is not to elevate me above anyone, that is not a concern, but it is to find that of God which I have been missing out on. I want to know the joy of being a people separated unto God.