What the Heck is Holiness? - Part 3 - Being Light in Darkness

Hey folks, do check out Part 2 before you get into this one!

Who Called Me?

     This isn't about earning salvation, it's about living in the fullness of the relationship Jesus died to give us. One preacher recently helped me to see the difference between holiness and righteousness. I thought they were the same thing before! He said holiness is to do with uniqueness and separation and righteousness is about being sinless. God calls us to be both. Again I'm not talking about the righteousness that Jesus gave us that changes our standing before God but rather what the presence of that righteousness in us does to our day-to-day behaviour. Have you ever watched a film again after years of not watching it since you were younger or before you got saved and thought "Yikes! I don't remember that being in there!" You can't enjoy the film like you used to because something in you is just telling you to turn it off. We're being made more and more like Jesus everyday as the Holy Spirit works in us and it means that our appetites will change also. Stuff that used to entertain, amuse or satisfy us starts to pale in comparison to His face and His voice! I'll stop at this point and say that I'm still very much on this journey myself so I'm not talking down to you. But I do want you to ask yourself if you're standing in the way of His change.

     We probably all have TV shows, movies and songs that we love that we know are a bit dodgey. Maybe it's obvious and people are having sex in every other scene or maybe it's more subtle and there's just that one character who loves to recount his "conquests". Most sitcoms today, trying to become more popular than Friends, have pretty much turned sex into a sport and we find ourselves cheering them on! Also we listen to all sorts of music that is full of violence, sex and blasphemy (yep, I went there). There's usually a single feature to shows, movies and songs that we hold on to and use to justify our enjoyment of them:

• It makes me laugh. 
• It's not like this all the way through. 
• It has a good message behind it. 
• It's really catchy. 
• I don't really listen to the lyrics. 
• It doesn't really affect me.

to name just a few of the usual suspects. At university a non-Christian friend once spotted an RnB song on my ipod about sex and said "You shouldn't have that on here!" Busted! And she was right! I endured some painful itunes culls on several occasions! Ouch. All of these things however do really affect us but I think I'll take another blog to break that one down.

     As we walk in righteousness we die to sin, we become holy i.e. separate from those around us who are living in and indulging in sin. Why's that important? People need to know that there is a higher call, whether they are a Christian or not. God wants us to walk in closer relationship with Him regardless of where we're up to now and frankly sin gets in the way! The Church is called to be the light of the world and to guide people out of the darkness of sin and selfish living into something greater that's not achievable by mere human effort! We can't do that if we're doing the same things as them! That's hypocrisy and we get pulled up on it by the world ALL THE TIME!! Some Christians argue that we're all sinners, Christians and non-Christians alike. Often we believe this is a message people will be able to relate to. The thing is, I don't think our lifestyle is supposed to be easy to relate to, I think our testimony is. We testify that we were lost and helpless in sin but Jesus saved us from it and now His Holy Spirit lives in us empowering us to overcome sin. People shouldn't look at our lives and think "I can do that" because we shouldn't be the ones doing it! Let's live lives the Holy Spirit is happy to take credit for! Personally I don't refer to myself as a sinner any more. If I believe I'm a sinner, I'll sin by faith instead of defeating sin and temptation. Sinning is an action but being a sinner is an identity that produces actions. It's that old trick the devil uses to get you to think your sin is who you are (see the previous post).

Got To Be Real
     I struggled with being true to what I believed about rude jokes, films and songs etc because it often made other people feel bad. I didn't want to make people feel bad and I especially didn't want people to not like me! I like to be liked! Who doesn't?! What was I supposed to do? I've heard some Christians say that we need to be like the world in order to reach the world. Swearing with people who swear, smoking with people who smoke etc. That just sounds a little too much like 1John 4:5 to me though. Jesus spent some of His time hanging out with sinners and they let Him! He didn't change His behaviour to fit in with them. He remained the Son of God in all of His holiness and righteousness but He oozed love! He didn't excuse or condone their sin but pointed them in another direction. A lighthouse is designed to shine brightly on the coast warning ships about dangerous rocks nearby. The lighthouse isn't worried about shining too brightly in sailors' eyes and offending them because its job is to be seen and reveal danger so that sailors can make wise decisions.

     As Christians I really believe we need to learn how to live in the fullness of the righteousness and holiness God has called us to while still radically loving people who aren't living like us. Honestly I spent a lot of time just judging people, Christians and non-Christians alike but as the saying goes, people don't care what you know until they know that you care. The world needs us to live righteous lives that reflect on corruption. People should be able to see their own sin in the reflection of our righteousness like a mirror. Not so that they can feel condemned, but so that they can be convicted (convinced) and answer the call to walk in intimacy with Jesus and and get free from sin! Shoving it in their faces doesn't really help them see that. Have you ever had someone say "HEY LOOK AT THIS" before shoving something so close to your eyes that you can't even tell what it is? You immediately push it away!

     If you know me or you read my blogs, you know I like analogies so I'd like to finish with one that will help us ask ourselves some questions. Imagine your heart or mind is an apartment that you share with the Holy Spirit. The two of you live there together. What sort of pictures do you put up on the walls? Are they the ones He would choose to put up? What do you put on the radio? Does He like it? What would you put on the TV when you're sat together on the sofa? Who would you invite round? Which books would be on the shelf? These questions aren't supposed to create guilt, they're supposed to help us (me included) to look at the things we encounter each day and allow to influence the shape of our hearts. The thoughts and images we allow to linger in our minds. The music and films we let in. The Bible says your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:19). If He said "Hey, I don't really like this picture you put up" would you take it down? If you were watching the big screen of your imagination and He asked you to change the channel, would you? (I think the Holy Spirit is saying someone who is reading this blog has had a dream similar to this but didn't understand what it meant. If that's you, please contact me) If this experience would change anything, it may reveal some interesting stuff.

     First of all it may reveal that I don't feel that close to the Holy Spirit and so I don't know how He feels about certain things in my life. It may reveal that I don't care what He thinks about those things, they're mine not His. It may reveal that I've grown callous towards His voice on these topics because I've ignored Him for so long because everyone else was doing it. Who is the interior decorator of your heart? How attached are we to crude humour and are we willing to sacrifice greater intimacy with Him for it? To those of us who feel as though their level of intimacy with the Lord is undeterred by the rude and lewd, ask yourself, what if there's more? What if the living water flows better through a pure vessel? What if your gifting and anointing could actually increase in a life without mixture? Remember I was still able to move in the gifts of the Spirit while living a life of compromise. Why not try it? Why not take some time away from the borderline and see what happens?

Holy Spirit we love you and we want live lives worthy of the calling we have. We want to give ourselves over to You to continue to make us holy as You are holy. We want to pursue lives of holiness and righteousness out of love for you and not out of legalism. We want to answer the higher call of intimacy and walk on the highway of holiness. We need your help to not settle for pleasures that hurt your heart and taint our witness. We need your help to love others passionately without compromising for the sake of comfort. We need the grace of Jesus! Create in us a passion for purity and stir in us a desire to protect it so that the world can truly see what Jesus and life with Him look like. 
Amen

Thank you very much for reading. I hope my heart got across to you. If there is anything you'd like to discuss with me feel free to message me on facebook or comment on this post or if we're friends, why don't we grab a drink? Much love,
Tony

BTW Jesus is madly in love with you.