Day 3: Holiness
Scripture: The book of Acts is pretty wild. It is totally unpredictable and often shocking. Its laced with stories of a group of stunned, wide-eyed, bold followers of the Way, church planting-disciple making- jail bird- fussy- preaching- healing maniacs, if you will. Throughout the book, holiness is a constant undercurrent because honestly, it was such a challenge for the early church. However, it is so close to the heart of God for His people to “be holy as I am holy” (Leviticus 19) that He refuses to cosign on anything that smells of unholiness.
Throughout the book, we see that Jesus calls those gathered together to be faithful witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Not only does Jesus call this group of people to bear witness to the Good News, he tells them to go out filled with this new power, to testify, to declare, to heal, to deliver, to share themselves, to lay down their lives, to engage in radical hospitality.
Acts 27:33- 38 tells the near death story of Paul, while on a ship in the Mediterranean, experiencing a terrible winter storm. The boat was so heavy and water saturated that they ran a huge risk of running aground unless they made some major adjustments. The men onboard hadn’t eaten, scholars believe due to nerves, for two weeks when just before dawn Paul finally urges them to eat. They followed his instruction and then vs 38 reads:
When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.
Devotional:
They threw overboard the thing that they thought would sustain them, but would actually lead to their destruction.
I can’t really tell you the moment I became obsessed with holiness, but I can tell you why.
A few years ago on a very cold Spring morning, I walked to church alone and sat in the back row. During this time in my life, the Lord was doing some painful and much needed healing- sometimes with my permission, and sometimes without. This particular morning, the pastor was about halfway through his message on a topic that I can’t remember at all.. but I do remember this: I clearly heard the Lord say to me “there are still peanuts in your purse.”
Listen. Before I met Jesus, I was wild as the day is long. There are many things that just fell off of me when I responded to his gift of salvation and decided to follow him with my whole heart for my whole life. But, there are many things that have been a brilliant, painful, beautiful journey of repentance, healing, of learning to walk in integrity, purity, and holiness.
Until a few years ago, the word holiness carried so much baggage for me that I’d rather walk around all day with my zipper down and something in my teeth than even mention the word in public.
Me: Did you just say the word Holiness out loud?
Me to Me: Oh.. no… you misunderstood me I said “what is your enneagram number?..”
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Am I alone here?
Back to the peanuts in my purse.
A few summers prior to this day in church, I had gone on a day long kayaking excursion with some friends and over served myself on some Miller Lite. As my friend was driving us home that afternoon, we pulled over to get gas. I went inside to get myself a snack and helped myself to my most favorite one, boiled peanuts. 64 oz of them. Grinning like a dead pig in the sunshine, I walked back to the car, both hands around my beloved peanuts, sat in the car, and promptly spilled all 64 ounces into my very nice purse. Grease, juice, and all.
I never cleaned those peanuts out. I put that purse in the back of my car for a few weeks, then started carrying it around again. I would act totally normal, and turn the grease stained side towards me so no one could see that I had something inside my purse that was dirty, or simply did not belong. I just wanted for it to look normal, with as little effort as possible on my behalf to make things right.
Until a few years later when I was sitting in church.
What had happened to, and what was going on inside of that beautiful purse was exactly what was going on inside of me, inside of my soul. I still had the remnants of my past, of hurts, habits, and hang-ups (like the recovery community calls it) inside of me that had gone undealt with, zipped up, and hidden. Things that I thought would sustain me, but was most definitely about to sink my ship.
I went home, I cleaned that purse out, washed it as a prophetic act of agreeing with what God wanted to do in me. And then, I set up an appointment with a Christian leader who could walk with me through the journey of inner healing.
You see, holiness isn’t something we ever strive for. It is our response to the One who is holy.
It’s like Isaiah 6 when the seraphim touches Isaiah’s unclean lips with a coal from God’s altar. When God touches us, we become clean, we become pure, we become holy. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus touches impurity and makes it pure. And the people go off and respond like a person made pure, a person made holy, who is responding to the sanctifying holiness of the one who is holy. In his presence, we are made holy, and as a people who carry the transforming presence of God, who are filled with the HOLY Spirit working in and through us, our role in participating in the mission of God in the world is to be holy just like he is holy, because it is balm to a sin sick, hurting world.
The whole world is longing for spirit filled women and men to walk in a kind of simple but revolutionary holiness. A justice and mercy holiness. A holiness that permeates every square inch of your being.
The implications of a people who are holy look a lot like renewal, revival, and awakening.
This is why I am haunted by holiness.
Zacchaeus is like the poster child for all of this. Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus home, and ol Zach, as broken and morally corrupt as he was threw every impurity over board because the one who is holy touched him and purified his heart. As a result, he made things right with countless people and gave to the poor. Renewed. Revived. Awakened.
Holy.
Holy.
Holy.
Prayer: The men on that ship threw out the wheat. Is there anything you’re carrying right now that you thought would sustain you, that needs to be thrown out?
