Let the Glory of Your Name Be the Passion of the Church

Let the glory of Your name be the passion of the Church
Let the righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns
Let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives
We believe You're all to us.      Chris Tomlin, full lyrics

This is so correct.  This is what we should all aim for.  What is our passion?  What animates and kindles our fires?  If we are honest, we would have to say that we are aroused, motivated, enraptured by things: earthly things, common things and even sinful things.  Things that are passing away.  We do not see that eternity is but a heart-beat away and it will last forever.  We are insensitive to the reality of the all-holy, all-mighty God, transcendent yet present everywhere in His creation.  We are completely clueless that next to our puny 3-Dimensions, Heaven lays open as a vast, immeasurable country where thousands upon thousands are joined together in rapturous song and worship as they surround the Throne with praises.

So, let us make sure that our passion is the glory of God's Name.  What does that mean?  One example is Phinehas in Numbers 25.  He saw the disgraceful sin that the Children of Israel were engaged in; he saw leadership start to take action against the sin; then he saw the wickedness continue.  That when he took matters into his own hands: following the command that the Lord gave to Moses (Num. 25:4), he killed the two who flagrantly and publicly violated the Lord's laws.  Note that

•   he acted within the guidelines of the legal code of that time;
•   he was motivated by a sense of zeal for the honor of God's Name;
•   he acted quickly and decisively.

Applying this to our lives, are we quick to cut off known sin from our own behavior?  Do we speak out against those around us who suggest doing something wrong?  We may not stop others, but we can certainly speak and refrain from joining in.

Then, let the Righteousness of God be a holy flame that burns.  These should not be mere, empty, idle words.  God's Righteousness.  That is all the Rightness and Correctness that is the natural out-flowing of being Holy should guide our thoughts and actions so that it figuratively burns up the unrighteousness that is in our lives.

Finally let the saving love of Christ be the measure of our lives.  How will they know that we are Christians?  By our love.  Not a warm, fuzzy feeling love, but a love first for God and then a love for one another.  But notice how God says we should love Him: with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength:

• Heart—our affections; 
• Mind—our logic and reason, employing our will; 
• Soul—that part which He made alive that can now respond to Him whereas before we were dead and unresponsive; 
• Strength—loving God takes energy and hard work, it is not a "if I feel like it" sort of love, but a laboring with all strength that He gives. 

And how does this love express itself?  By doing what is right and good in His sight.  What is that?  All His Laws and Commands.  We can only measure our love for God by actions.  That is why the Apostle John wrote, "let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth"  (1 Jn. 3:18).  Deed and truth.  With actions aligned with what is true; and what is true can only be found in God's Word for He alone is True (let all men be liars.)

If we do this in increasing measure, Jesus Christ truly will be all to us.

Remember the Sabbath

"Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy."
Here are a couple of quotes


==>  from Dwight L. Moody

I believe that the sabbath question to-day is a vital one for the whole country. It is the burning question of the present time. If you give up the sabbath the church goes; if you give up the church the home goes; and if the home goes the nation goes. That is the direction in which we are traveling....
No nation has ever prospered that has trampled the sabbath in the dust. Show me a nation that has done this, and I will show you a nation that has got in it the seeds of ruin and decay.
http://articles.ochristian.com/article18044.shtml


___________________

==>  and John Bunyan

John Bunyan's character 'Wiseman' in his book, Journey to Hell, correctly points out, The Lord's Day is a kind of symbol of the heavenly Sabbath above, and it clearly reveals the heart's attitude toward eternal holiness. More is seen in one's observance of the Sabbath than one's performance of earthly activities

http://www.banneroftruth.org/pages/articles/article_detail.php?1403

___________________

==>   And two additional references:
http://www.apuritansmind.com/thelordsday/JohnMurraySabbath.htm
http://www.newhopefairfax.org/files/30.%20Sabbath%20by%20Murray.pdf

The Lord Reigns

The Lord reigns, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he has girded himself: the world also is established, so that it cannot be moved.

Your throne is established of old: You are from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; 

the floods lift up their waves.

The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, 

yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

Your testimonies are very sure: 

holiness adorns for Your house, 

O Lord, for ever.

Psalm 93, modified KJV

This psalm starts with the Lord.  That should be the starting point of all our discussions, our focus, our logic and our action.  Start with the Lord.  See Him high and lifted up.  His train fills the temple. (Isa. 6:1)  

See the Lord.  This is the Covenant Lord, the One who of His own volition bound Himself to His people by oath and covenant.  This great power of the Lord is for us and is "to us-ward" Eph 1:19 KJV) and is available so that we may say that we can do all things through Him who strengthens us.

See the Lord clothed with majesty.  Not with something that is majestic.  No, He puts on Majesty!  He is arrayed in the essence of all that is Majestic and Brilliant and Resplendent.  "Not with emblems of majesty, but with majesty itself: everything which surrounds him is majestic."  (Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Ps. 93)

But see also that the Lord is higher than all.  The nation rage and the people image things in vain, plotting how to overthrow God's authority (Ps. 2).  But He is above all that.  The Lord sits in the heavens and laughs, scoffs, at such puny attempts.  His throne is from ancient—it is eternal because the Lord Himself is from everlasting.

Spurgeon writes upon verse 4:

"Loud the stormy billows spoke,
Loud the billows raised their cry;
Fierce the stormy billows broke,
Sounding to the echoing sky.
Strong the breakers tossing high,
Stronger is Jehovah's might.
True thy words; and sanctity
Well becomes thy temple bright."

 And that brings us to the last verse.

This Psalm starts with the Lord reigning in Sovereignty.  This Psalm ends with holiness adorning His house.  Isaiah saw the Lord in unimaginable Glory and Splendor and heard the angels cry out "Holy, holy, holy!"  If we are properly contemplating the reigning Lord our response will be to adorn our house with holiness.  The Lord will have a pure and spotless Bride.  He is making His Church clean.  And we must do our part to cooperate with Him to become more and more sanctified because holines is fitting of all God's people.

 

Calls to Holiness & Personal Progressive Sanctification

"You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."
2 Tim. 2:1

Paul includes so many different ways of saying that we all must make sure that we are moving on in holiness and continuing our sanctification.  It all starts with the overarching principle of verse one: we can't do it in our own strength.  We must be strong in the Lord!  Self-sufficiency will result in self-failure.  Therefore we must press into Him and into His Word.

The concept of:

• v. 4 — soldier—avoid civilian affairs; that is, do what the commanding officer says.  This implies obedience to human authority and a chain of command.  Be a disciple.  Don't be a loner and disconnected.
• v. 5 — athlete—compete according the rules.  Therefore, look into the Book to see what the rules are and then obey them!
• v. 6 — hardworking farmer—doesn't do things on a whim; instead follows patterns and plants then harvests according patterns and dictates of the seasons.  Be a person who understands the times and seasons to know what to do.  The goal is fruit: that is, personal sanctification as well as result of evangelism.
• w. 15 — workman / craftsman—this implies precision, diligence, hard work, quality.  It takes years of careful practice under a master craftsman as an apprentice.  Likewise, the Christian faith takes years of discipleship under a man or woman of God to train you in the way to go.

So many calls to holiness because:

• we are not holy.
• God is holy!
• without holiness, no one may see the Lord.
• the only acceptable worship is to worship Him in the beauty of holiness (1 Chr. 16:29 KJV).
• note: this means that holiness is beauty!—thus He adorns His bride with the most beautiful object He can find: holiness!
• Lam. 2:15b — we are called to be the perfection of beauty; the joy of the earth.  Only if we are holy can we truly give joy to the earth.  Being wrapped up in our unholiness is exactly as the world is and that does not bring joy.

Therefore, be holy!

What is a Charismatic™?

Every so often, TV evangelists come under scrutiny and by their sullied practices pull down the Name of Christ and cast dispersion upon all who would wear the label of Christianity.  Some would be more focused and just implicate "Charismatics" alone.

But the problem is that there are so many preconceptions of what "Charismatic" is—in addition to every arm-chair theologian's definition of *their* idea of what is a "Charismatic" and what makes them Wrong™ or Right®.

The chandelier-swinging, dawg-barking fools who trump Truth with his own version of Experience have hijacked the Biblically informed discussion.  There is no easy way to debate logic vs. emotion. But we can look to extremes and heretics across many denominations (including the modern Evangelicals in their push for divorcing Jesus as Lord from Jesus as Savior), so I would postulate that extremes are not the rule.

See this Adam4d comic on that point.

That the fools and charlatans behind most of the TV-christianity are patently wrong and leading people further away from God and probably even inoculating their listeners against the true gospel is a given. But it might be useful to examine what some consider Charismatic.

At its base, healthy, Biblical Charismata must be rooted in:

1. the Holy Scriptures and
2. the work of the Holy Spirit.

All of that MUST work to bring more HOLINESS into the individual's life. If the professing Charismatic has no experiential holiness—a profound sense of turning from past sins and an overwhelming sense of *Coram Deo*, living before the Face of God and in His presence—then this has nothing to do with the Holy Spirit and thus is not Charismatic in the traditional sense. 

There may also be other signs, including Gifts of the Spirit, but if the professing Charismatic only uses the Holy Spirit to "speak in tongues™" then he/she is like a huge train that gets a fire going to increase the pressure in the engine only to go "Toot-toot!" If the train doesn't go some place, it's a waste of power. Likewise, if the Christian doesn't progress in sanctification (holiness), it's a waste of the Holy Spirit's power and probably not really the Spirit of God in the first place.

Be Holy!

"And a highway will be there;
    it will be called the Way of Holiness;
    it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
    wicked fools will not go about on it.
No lion will be there,
    nor any ravenous beast;
    they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there..."
~ Isa. 35:8-9

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."
~ Heb. 12:14



Ev'ry good and perfect gift
   comes down from heav'n Above
from th'eternal Father God
   and filled with light and love.
In Him are no doubt nor shadows—
   He is e'er the same.
He commands His people likewise live
   and to burn with Holy Flame

   Be holy, be holy!
      live life all for Him and blameless in His sight.
   He is holy, so be holy!
      without which you will never see His light!


Walking by God's just commands,
   the way of holiness;
No unclean nor fools thereon
   and nothing to distress.
This is then the Father's will
   we walk this way with Him;
So be done with ev'ry worldly way,
   and be purged from ev'ry sin.

   Be holy, be holy!
      live life by His law and live forever blest.
   He is holy, so be holy!
      without which you will never enter rest!



Jesus lived this way on earth
   and told us live the same:
"Be holy as your Father God
   to wear His righteous Name."
We can never earn a place
   to live in heav'n Above;
but if we can't follow His commands
   then we dwell not in His love.

   Be holy, be holy!
      live life all for Him and by His love and grace.
   He is holy, so be holy!
      without which you will never see His face!

- D. Benning

"If you love me, keep my commands."
~ John 14:15