A Call to Holiness

As I completed a grocery store run for my wife and entered the parking lot with my two toddler boys seated in the red race car shopping cart I thought to myself, "Job well done." I grinned as I thought about just how "responsible" I was becoming as a Father. Before my ego had time to blow my head to smithereens, I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking gently to my heart. Within a flash of a moment I understood the message.

"Being responsible is good, but I've called you to more than that. I've called you to holiness."

Suddenly my sense of pride wilted like a head of lettuce left out in the hot Sun, losing all of it's glory and splendor. A couple scriptures soon came to mind.

"Be Holy, for I am holy." (1 Peter 1:15)

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:11)

As I continued on in my day with my sons, I started to meditate on this word from the Lord. I realized that God desires holiness more than anything else.

It's not that being responsible is a bad thing, of course not. As long as being responsible doesn't come in the way of being holy, then it is a wonderful thing. And that holds true for any other noble virtue.

If God has given you a good sense of humor, then use it to his glory, just as long as you don't break the greater standard, that of holiness, by telling off colored jokes.

If God has made you industrious and a good worker with your hands, then work diligently. Just don't allow pride to rob Him of glory and deplete your true calling to holiness.

If you have a very sociable personality and have no problems making friends or being a conversationalist, great! Praise the Lord for your beam of light. Just don't lose sight of holiness and become the center of your world and everyone else's attention.

A second realization came to me as I meditated on God's call to holiness. Sometimes even as Christians we forget that God's standard is much different and higher than our own human benchmark. Jesus did not come to die for "pretty good people". He came and died for sinners. At the core of the gospel is the fact that we will never measure up to God's criterion of holiness on our own, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". (Romans 3:23)

The good news, (ie the gospel) is that through Christ, we are justified (made right) with God and by God's grace we are redeemed (accepted back) by God. The above verse goes on to say,

"being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His rightousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:24-26

As I consider the things that "drive" me to do what I do and say, I must ask myself this question. "Is the value that's driving me at this point in time in any way contrary or lower than God's call to holiness?" If so, I must adjust my priorities and seek God's gold standard, holiness.

After another trip to a local play center, I got my kids in the car and headed home. I realized I was running late for a meeting I had to attend. My focus and priority became being on time. As my sons started to squabble with one another and whine for me to make another stop before going home my voice and temper began to rise.

"Remember", nudged the Holy Spirit, "it's all about holiness."

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For further study and meditation, consider the following verses:

2 Corinthians 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Ephesians 4:20-24 But you have not so learned Christ; If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That you put off concerning the former way of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 Now God himself even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you. And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: To the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.