Ganeida's Knots

A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" Isaiah 40:6

A highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness...But only the redeemed will walk there, & the ransomed of the Lord will return. Isaiah 35: 8 & 9

The most important work of the Christian, the work with the most potential to impact the world around them, the work that is given as a command [1 Peter:16] is the work of personal holiness. I am not talking here of the poor counterfeit version with it's lists of man~made dos & don'ts but the heartfelt cry of a soul that so desires God it cries with the prophet Isaiah & the apostle Peter, " Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

Everything else flows from this basic understanding. We have been bought with a price, ransomed, set apart ~ not for our own salvation though we get that too, but as priests & vessels of the Lord & the Lord will not use the unclean thing.

I'm not knocking the work of prayer or outreach or mission but in my view it is plain that these are adjuncts to the primary work of holiness. My reasoning is simple. Nothing is as attractive as holiness, genuine holiness. If we want to reach our unsaved neighbours, unsaved family, unsaved children then we need to have something they want. No~one wants to be someone's outreach project. No~one wants to be someone's prayer duty. No~one wants to be someone's mission. It is insulting. Really, it is. Everyone is attracted to Holiness. They can't help themselves. It spills like light into a dark world. It draws people like a moth to a flame. How do I know? Jesus was God come to Earth as man, the son with whom God was well pleased, the perfect keeper of the Law & the holiest man to ever walk the earth. The people flocked to him in crowds: men, women, children.

To stand in the presence of genuine holiness is to be made aware of how far we fall short of the mark but it is a calloused heart indeed that does not hunger after that righteousness for from it spring all the fruits of the Spirit. Without holiness we will not see heaven.

Now I'm as human as the next person. I have a filthy temper. I struggle to perform many of my daily duties because they bore me to tears & I really object to being bored; it is so unnecessary & there are far more interesting things to do. Left to my own devices I would wax fat on coffee, chocolate & thick books. God knows this about me even better than I do. The holiness mandate still stands. It is not optional.

A peculiar people, a royal priesthood, called out, set apart, A gift both from the Father to the Son & the Son to the Father [see John 17] ~ & why we desperately need to be people of the Spirit because only the Spirit can empower us to walk the Way of Holiness. We can no longer compromise with the world. We cannot have it both ways. It is time to choose & become once more salt & light in a world that knows not God.