Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness... part 2.1

Worship the LORD in the Beauty of Holiness...

Well, we’ve started on this journey to discover what this concept means, and in part 1, I hoped that the Holy Spirit would enlighten us a bit… I think He is doing so, as this concept is immense.  I pray I can be faithful to capture what He wants for this time and space.  In part 2, we are going to look into the BEAUTY of God, and I encourage you to use it as a stepping stone to spend time in worshiping Him, through the pictures and links I share, but also find your own, that are meaningful and beautiful to you…  at the end of part 1, I shared there are several understanding of what the “beauty of holiness” might be referring to.  Since God is amazing, and infinite, I believe it can be multi-dimensional, and He longs for us to meditate and ponder with His Holy Spirit who makes His word living and active, powerful and sharp, to see what He has for us, now, in this time and space.

One thing I have desired of the LORD, that I will seek; that I will dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the BEAUTY of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple…

 Psalm 27:4

This was King David’s heart cry, this was his ONE desire…to gaze upon God’s beauty, the glory of God, and to know Him.  He was a “man after God’s heart”, as in seeking after Him, pursuing Him.

What is the beauty of the LORD?  We will first look into visual beauty, what we see with our eyes...

the colors of a beautiful sunrise or sunset...

mountain majesty...

the sweet innocence of a child...

the Divine design in the universe (a whirlpool galaxy)…

and this is just a very, very, small glimpse of the infinite Beauty of the LORD.  Take some time to reflect on some beautiful pictures that you might find, remembering they are just a taste of the Beauty of the LORD, as He is immeasurably more than we can imagine… and remember, we don’t worship the creation, we worship the Creator, and the beauty in creation points to Him.

His entire creation is worshiping Him continually, the rocks and trees, the skies, the seas, the mountains, the streams, the air we breathe.  There is something supernatural when we worship Him in the midst of His beautiful creation, worshiping in sync with nature. 

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.

Psalms 63:3-4 

All the earth worships You and sings praises to You; they sing praises to Your name.”  

Psalms 66:4 

Bringing Abuse from Darkness into the Light...

Into the Light...

One of the original compelling reasons for starting this blog is based on John 3:19-21; which I shared here... http://lightshininginadarkplace.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-light-of-world-jesus-christ.html

Another scripture that has been especially meaningful to me over the last few years is Ephesians 5, with several phrases being especially emphasized in that passage including v11... Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, instead expose them... bringing things that have been hidden in darkness into the light. This is God's way.  The enemy's way is keep it in the dark. I will get back to this, but first, just a brief personal update on why I haven't posted anything since mid August...

I have taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging... in August, our vacation ended in E-vac-U-ation, and our friend's cabin that we were staying at burned down due to forest fires. No one was injured, but we have spent additional time processing the loss and taking steps to help our friend rebuild next Spring. I have continued to study and write, just haven't posted things here. So just a bit of explanation on why I haven't posted anything for over a month..

Ok, now back to the point of this post.

Over the last 4 years or so (2012-2015), it has come to my attention, that there is a horrific amount of abuse going on in the Church. And far too often, in response, the leaders respond with damage control and cover up through abusing their positions of power, instead of doing the right thing in accord with the Word of God. Sadly, the Church often does the exact opposite of what God calls us to do and keeps things in the dark, twisting and distorting scripture to justify doing so. In my research, I came across this website/blog of Rachel Held Evans (RHE) that is a wealth of information of resources and I want to share that here...

http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/abuse-resources

and then here is a series RHE did in 2013 called into the Light...
http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/abuse-series-intro

Excerpt from RHE interview with Boz Tchividjian:
RHE: What are some of the most common mistakes churches and Christian organizations make when it comes to responding to abuse? 

BT: The greatest failure of the church/Christian organizations when it comes to responding to abuse is institutional self-protection. Too often Christian institutions have been willing to sacrifice the individual human soul in exchange for the protection of their own reputation. What makes such responses even more heinous is that they are often justified in the name of “protecting the name of Christ”. Such a justification is nothing but a pious attempt at self-protection.  It may come as a surprise to some but Jesus does not need us to protect His name! In fact, it was Jesus who sacrificed Himself for the soul of the individual. Tragically, in all of its attempts at self-protection, the Church too often completely misses this beautiful truth. As a result, many abuse survivors in the Church are pushed away from the arms of Jesus and prevented from experiencing glorious Gospel love. EOQ

So Church, let's be the salt and light that God calls us to be. Refuse to be silent about the injustice that is going on in the Church. Bring awareness and expose what is in darkness. For His glory and our good.

Worship the LORD in the Beauty of HOLY-ness... part 1

Worship the LORD in the Beauty of HOLY-ness

I love this phrase that is found in scripture, there is something about it that deeply resonates... In fact, I just looked at my Google calendar and was reminded that I have had this scripture as a recurring entry for every Sunday morning since I started using the calendar… but honestly, up to this point, I have not really taken the time to understand what it means and I don’t recall ever hearing or reading any teaching on it.  

So I'm thinking maybe it's time to study this concept since the word “holy” became the ONE key word to describe God, and wow, I am way over my head! 
http://lightshininginadarkplace.blogspot.com/2015/08/god-is-holy.html

Of course, we cannot do justice to this concept (or anything, for that matter, related to God), until heaven, and we can only get glimpses of this worship here on this earth. And those glimpses are already amazing. He’s amazing!

I also want to study this concept, because “holy” might be an intimidating word for people and so I want to share that Holiness is beautiful, not something to necessarily fear, but definitely more than worthy of our respect. Here in Part 1, we will look at several scriptures that include this phrase. Like I said, I don’t think anyone can do justice here, but I’m going to try to tackle it to some extent anyway and get what glimpses we can for this time and place, and I hope through this, the Holy Spirit will help reveal and enlighten us a bit more on this incredible concept.

Even though there are only 5 times this particular phrase is found in scripture (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, 96:9, 2 Chronicles 20, and Psalm 110), the concept is much broader and multi-faceted.  I am convinced this is a concept of “high praise”!

http://network.crcna.org/worship/what-exactly-high-praise 

It can be about incredible, intense worship!

King David uses this phrase for the first time that we are aware of, in 1 Chronicles 16:29 as part of the Song of Thanksgiving he offers as worship to the Lord upon the safe arrival of the Ark of the Covenant to the tabernacle in Jerusalem. This was a very significant event in King David’s and Israel’s life. Spiritually, I think this was one of his highlights. You see, the first time David attempted to move the Ark, it ended tragically with the death of one of the men assigned to help move it and David was devastated (another story I might share another day). David realized he had missed some of God’s protocol for moving the Ark, and remedied the plan for the 2^nd attempt to line up with God’s prescribed order, and the 2^nd attempt was successful.

Scripture tells us King David danced with ALL HIS MIGHT amidst the RESOUNDING joy and SHOUTING of the people praising and worshiping the LORD God of Israel, the LORD of Hosts, YHWH Sabaoth. This was intense worship! The intensity of their worship would put any sports event, including the superbowl to shame. It would probably surpass most of our modern day worship, including concerts, even with technology amplifying sound. It was an incredible day, including sacrificing oxen and fatted sheep every 6 paces along the way, and then numerous burnt offerings and peace offerings upon arrival at the tabernacle. The entire house of Israel was present, the worship was LOUD with shouting and numerous instruments, David blessed the people in the Name of the LORD, and also gifted every man and woman in Israel with bread, meat and cake. Once the Ark was set in the tabernacle, Levites continued to worship before the Ark.  It was probably the biggest celebration in God’s honor that Israel ever had that we know of. David knew how to worship YHWH! David and all Israel were worshipping God with ALL THEIR MIGHT! And this is the context for David’s Song of Thanksgiving to God, which includes the phrase…

Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!

Parts of this Song are repeated in Psalm 29 and 96. This concept of worshipping the LORD in the beauty of holiness, along with another phrase from the same Song, “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever!” are specifically used by the Levites in the story of King Jehoshaphat and Judah being attacked by three hostile nations in 2 Chronicles 20. (I love this story, and I hope to blog about it in the future sometime, at which point I will link it here =) The phrase is also included in Psalm 110, a Messianic Psalm prophesying the reign of Jesus.

One more point before wrapping up part 1. There are different takes on what beauty of holiness refers to. Some theologians say it’s the clothes/garments of the Levites, referring to the fact that the Priests, the Levites, were to be dressed in beautiful God ordained robes to worship, or for us, that we are wearing the God ordained “robes of righteousness” given to us by Jesus. Others say holiness is referring to the tabernacle as the place of worship, and representing God’s presence, and some understand it as God’s holiness and “His” is added to a number of translations so it reads…

Worship the LORD in the Beauty of

HIS Holiness

(emphasis mine)…

and a song for you to worship with...  Kadosh/Holy sung by Paul Wilbur  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsiLjfZoHLo

Living in His Light...

Jesus describes Himself as...
 the Light of the World.

It is one of the 7 “I am” statements of Who He is.

Do we long for the Light of the World to shine His Light into our lives so that He can reveal and eradicate whatever is hidden in the dark corners of our hearts?  I hope we do, because if we don’t want that and allow sin to hide in the dark, we are giving the enemy fuel to control us through fear of whatever it is being exposed (John 3:20).  This can compromise our lives and what we do... how instead of doing the right thing, we will want to operate in damage control. trying to protect our reputation.  This breeds deception, lies, and abuse of power when it involves leaders trying to cover up their sin and wrong doing.  It is the exact opposite of what God calls His people to do.  Why would we walk in the enemy’s ways of keeping things in the dark?  Fear.  Let’s not walk in this fear.  God’s way is to bring things into the light, He exposes and reveals.  This is healthy for us.  Yes, it might be hard and painful, but we are to expect that when we are disciplined, as Hebrews 12 tells us, but we will learn, and grow and walk in peace and righteousness once we are through it.  That is His promise.

 

  But he who does the truth, comes to the Light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.  John 3:21

 

God is Holy...

Last Sunday evening, in a conversation with a brother in the Lord, we were discussing the possibilities of what might be THE ONE key word to describe God.  Suggestions included God is just, God is love, and God is worthy.  Of course He is infinite, so no one word can capture Who He is.  But it was something to think about...

I continued to ponder this concept over the next several days.  I was leaning toward staying with “God is worthy”, as that has been my main word to describe God for the last several years, but open to another word.  On Monday, I kind of remember thinking about the word "Holy" as an option, because it is the word God has the angels repeating over and over, day and night, throughout eternity.  As far as we know, He doesn’t do this with any other word, but I wasn’t convinced it should be THE ONE key word yet. 

Until…

...during a prayer time on Tuesday with several believers, we were reflecting on the “hallowed be Your Name” phrase of the Lord’s prayer.  Having just thought about this His holiness the day before, I prayed about how the angels were repeating “Holy, Holy, Holy…” in Isaiah 6, and the angels are still repeating it in Revelation 4 which tells us, day and night, they never stop saying:

 

 “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come.”

 

and as I was praying, I was thinking "hmmm... maybe the ONE word is "Holy".   The very next prayer, a brother (who was not a part of the discussion a few days earlier), specifically prayed. “God, if there is one word to describe You, it is that You are...

 

 “Holy”!

 

That this brother used the phrase "one word to describe", was a confirmation for me to consider making “Holy” THE #1 word.  Again, “worthy” is the main word I have used and stuck with for several years, based on Jeremiah 10:6-7 NKJV…

 

Inasmuch as there is none like You, O Lord,

(You are great, and Your name is great in might),

Who would not fear You, O King of the nations?

For this is Your rightful due.

For among all the wise men of the nations,

And in all their kingdoms,

There is none like You.

But as I spent time processing and pondering “holy” which means "sacred". "set apart". ** I realized this verse is also a perfect description of how God is set apart, of His holiness, and realized that because He is set apart, that is why He is worthy.  Which I will make #2 =)

You are worthy,

 O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power;

 For You created all things,

 and by Your will they exist and were created.

I also thought about how His Spirit is called the "HOLY Spirit"...  that's pretty good reason to make "Holy" the #1 word to describe God, if God Himself uses it as one of His main titles.

 

So I started a Top 10 list of my favorites of Who God is:

 

He is holy

He is worthy

He is the Lord of Hosts

(YHWH Sabaoth)

He is love

He is sovereign

He is good

He is gracious

He is faithful

He is generous

He is infinite

I encourage you to make your own list with your favorites… I will probably keep going and make it a list of 20, 30, 50...=)

**  here's a blog on the meaning of holy...

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christiancrier/2014/05/24/what-does-the-word-holy-mean-bible-definition-of-holy/

and in another confirmation... last night, I was listening to a message and some worship online, and at the end of the service this song I had never heard before was played and it is called...

"You are Holy"! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vosprI9WV3U

God So Loved...

These are some of the most well known and well loved words in our world.

 

They were originally spoken when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who came to Him at night.  Covert.  Secretive.  Furtive.  Fearful of being seen talking to Jesus by his suspicious and controlling colleagues.  Yet compelled to do so.  Risking his reputation.  Risking his position. 

 

Jesus specifically says to Nicodemus 3 times (v3,5,11)...
 

 "Truly, Truly I say to you..." **

and then He speaks these incredible words of love and promise to him first, these eternal words that will be repeated billions of times throughout the ages .  

What an honor.

 

Did Nicodemus have any idea of the enormity of what Jesus was saying to him?  I think he got a few glimpses over the next few years, because Nicodemus became one of the 2 men who had the privilege of preparing Jesus body for His burial.  Both Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had been secretly following Jesus.  But with His death, He brought their faith in Him into His healing Light.

 

The Love and Light of God are Infinitely Beautiful!

 

** I find the Greek words fascinating "Amen, Amen lego soi..."

 

the Light of the World... Jesus Christ

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 
 ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 
²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

John 3:16-21

New King James Version (NKJV)