Righteousnes-Peace-Joy

And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Matthew 23:9

I have no problem with recognizing the need for spiritual authority and I have found that in this “fatherless” generation, people are in deperate need of true fathers in their lives. Why would Jesus then say not to call anyone father, or teacher, or master? If you look at the entire passage of Matthew 23, you will see that he is adressing people who call themselves teacher, and master and father, but have no desire to lead people into the path of righteousness. The reason is that one can not lead down a path that they will not walk. Many times people set out a list of rules, or a check list, to simplify “discipleship”, and by doing so create religion. They set out a list to make it easier for people to follow them, or perhaps to make it easier to corral people into their specific way of thinking. It becomes easy for leaders to prefer uniformity over individuality because it is much easier to direct people who all think and act the same. The problem is that everyone is different. God made us different because He is so good. He made us free so that we can rule from the dominion of heaven with the authority of joint heirs. What true fathers do is walk with their children. True fathers come along side and encourage their kids every step of the way. True fathers constantly find ways to set their children up to recieve and multiply their inheritance. The Greek word παράκλητος, paráklētos, “one who consoles, one who intercedes on our behalf, a comforter or an advocate”, is the word used in John 14:16 when Jesus said he would send another couselor… Holy Spirit. I believe that as many of us look to find spiritual parents, we must make sure that they are a person who has the great counselor Holy Ghost along side of them. Not that they run flawlessly, but that they are commited to the journey. Amazing parents are those who are committed to process, even if it is messy, even if they risk being hurt along the journey. In context, Jesus was not saying that no one should ever be called father, what he was saying was that no one should ask to be called father unless they are willing to live the selfless existence of a parent, toward their spiritual children. How I long to love my biological and spiritual children in a selfless fashion. How I long to acrue a vast treasure of spiritual depth, and mentor those around me to not only inherit but to create spiritual wealth that will increase from generation to generation. How i wish to be mentored and mentor by LOVE.

So I began reading a great book the other day entitled “the Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges, and I must say that so far it is a very good book. For me the very idea of the topic of holiness is something that I have steered away from to a certain degree. I do know that God is holy and I admire that about him, even though I don’t know that my mind has enough juice to wrap  around the concept at times. I have been leery of this word for a while because one: I didn’t really understand what holiness really is, and two: it seems as though many times people to often take the cookie cutter approach in the application of holiness to real life. This has never seemed to be ok for me. I’ve wondered why we simply present a certain list of prohibitions, and label the adherence to such behaviors as holiness. Could holiness simply be a list of rules? God is holy,  and I know that it is His desire that we His lovers are holy. However, holiness can not be relegated to certain items that people chose to engage in or abstain from. So what is it? Holiness, in my understanding, can only be found in the covenant relationship that we develop with Holy Ghost. I will explain… I have a friend, who whenever we leave a restaurant and hop into the car says… “Ok Holy Spirit, what do you want to do next?” This could seem to some a silly thing to do, but it is truly in my friend’s heart to know God’s answer. Holiness is like this. “Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.” (Jerry Bridges) What is on His heart at any given moment? If we ask and He answers, and if we do what he said, we will be in perfect alignment with His holiness. So would God smoke a cigarette? Would God drink wine? (I think Jesus sipped some syrup) I don’t really know the answer to these questions. But I know that as we walk with God He will lead is into His holiness. If we are attentive to his voice (that speaks in many ways, yet most of the time softly to our conscious), We can not be deterred from walking in alignment to His holiness. Its is true that many times our flesh and our desires are not the desires of God for us. Sometimes we willfully disregard His word. At times it can be as though we are trying to tame a roaring lion, made up of wild passions for all the wrong things. We might find ourselves getting our butts kicked by a laundry list of reciprocation resembling shameful tail behind our equally long list of poor choices. So, how do we remedy this? How do we come into alignment with the holiness of God and once and for all dismiss all of the attributes of our character that we don’t find in common with the stuff attributed to God’s character? How do we even know the extent of God’s character? I say that we must ASK! We must ASK! And, we must ASK, until we know what is on His heart. Paul said: pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17). What does that mean to you? To me it doesn’t mean to stay pent-up in a room clutching your pillow crying out to God in hopes that He might some day answer you. To me it means to never stop talking to Him. Ask Him all day, what is it that you would have me do this minute that will best reflect your character to the world around me? You know, God’s holiness is not for Him… God’s holiness is for the world… it is for us! He is holy for us and we can learn to be just like Him. We can learn to be the exact reflection of that character. He wants us to be the exact reflection of His character. The reflection of His character is what will change the world. So, I charge you today walk in his shadow. walk in a love connection with Him. Walk in His holiness.

Because it is written: Be holy, because I am holy… 1Peter 1:16