This is Holiness

Have you ever noticed that a sound technician goes unnoticed until they make a mistake? When a microphone fails to be unmuted or the feedback squeals, everyone turns around to look at the person at the sound board. It is easy to notice what is wrong, but it sure is difficult to know how to do the job of the sound technician well.

In fact, a lot of people can tell you what Holiness is not. They have long lists of things they claim aren't real holiness. It ain't holiness if it does not meet their standards. They can hear the spiritual "feedback," but they cannot seem to present a clear picture of what holiness actually looks like... only a critique of what it is not.

The truth is that there are no different brands of holiness, only counterfeits to scriptural holiness.

The word holy simply means set apart for God's purposes. The verb sanctify means to make holy. Our responsibility in terms of holiness is to consecrate ourselves to Him so that He can set us apart for His purposes.

The difficult thing about holiness is that we tend to adopt caricatures of holiness that are incomplete or even faulty pictures of true holiness.

For example, some people have distorted the definition of love so that it is approval of anything a person does or is. Holy love, however, desires God's best for the person who is the object of that love. 

Kindness has come to mean that uncomfortable truths are ignored. To state inconvenient truth has been considered unkind. But authentic kindness will not shy from the truth that will transform, redeem, and restore. To refuse to share this kind of truth, is anything but kind. Simply put, do not allow the fruits of the Spirit to be a watered-down version of political correctness.

There are some who would characterize the only real action for social concerns for the poor are there opinions. They would claim that the only legitimate holiness was one that proposes the same action as a political party and instituted by government entities. They have been influenced by political pundits rather than biblical exhortations. 

So what is holiness?

It is heart cleansing that changes the outward persona and purifies the heart!

Holiness is meekness, but not weakness. It is strength in submission to the Spirit. 

Holiness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees. It cleansed the outward and the inward person!

Holiness is empowerment for fulfillment of the Great Commission. (Oh how our churches need Spirit filled believers for service!)

Holiness is full surrender to the will of Jesus. Holiness is dying to self with its desires, longings, and will so that we might live completely into His will and way.

Holiness nurtures fear of God and courage in the face of man. May we see people fill our churches and be sent forth who fear nothing but God and boldly stand upon the promises of God's word.

Holy men and women will boldly speak to those in power and authority according to the ordinances of God.

Holiness includes both introverts and extroverts. God can sanctify every combination of the Myers-Briggs personality spectrum.

Holiness is separation from sin. Holiness is rejection of worldliness. Holiness is redemption empowered.

Holiness is removing the plank in your eye and not ignoring personal sin.

Holiness is finding the courage to stand and proclaim the excellencies of the ways of Christ. 

Holiness is believing that God's ways are better than the ways of the world.

Holiness refuses to tolerate sin. It gives no quarter to that which is enmity to God.

Holiness is generous. It gives all for the sake of the Kingdom. Position, power, resources, and time are all laid at the feet of the King. Reputation, intellect, education are submitted to the mind of Christ. 

Holiness is clarity about the Gospel. Clarity about biblical morality. (Ambiguity is the trait of a politician and not a prophet.)

Holiness does not look to the law for salvation, but loves Jesus with all the heart so that obedience is supreme. The law is not written on tablets, but on their hearts!

Holiness is willing to turn tables over in the face of immorality among God's people.

Holiness is walking in the Spirit. A life focused on the spiritual rather than the physical. 

Holiness hates sin voraciously. Holiness loves sinners redemptively. 

Holiness brings division in families, churches, and culture. (I can give scriptural references by the way.)

Holiness is missional. There is an underlying desire for God's will (not than any should perish, but that all should reach repentance). 

Holiness shepherds others into maturity and not complacency. Holiness does not seek to control others, but to point them to the Savior.

Holiness has been God's plan from the beginning. It is not a doctrine copyrighted by a denomination, but a biblical truth that flows from the character of God.

Holiness brings the bride into unity to the groom. Holiness does not compromise God's truth. 

Holiness is enacting church discipline. Holiness is confronting false teachers and preachers.

Holiness is the life of power borne of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Holiness trusts God. Holiness does not fear sin, the sinner, or the things of this world. Holiness is a cleansing work!

Holiness is being crucified with Christ. Dying out to self will and living for Christ above all.

Holiness is the circumcision of the heart; a cleansing of the sinful/fallen nature.

Holiness operates with a pure heart and a motive to glorify God above all.

Holiness rejects cheap grace. Holiness embraces transformational grace.

Holiness is willing to give all to God. Holiness is willing to go anywhere for God. Holiness is willing to speak up for God. Holiness is willing to be silent before God.

Holiness deals in hope for the sinners and those who suffer from evil. Holiness never stops short of others experiencing holiness.

Holiness is refusing to give into worldly ideologies. It is experiencing transformation through the renewal of the mind.

Holiness is a scriptural experience with a scriptural description.

Holiness is innately evangelistic. It is compelled by love to reach the lost and share the Gospel with them.

Holiness is renewing to its environment. It brings spiritual awakening and revival in its wake.

Holiness is not passive aggressive. It deals directly and clearly in conflict. 

Holiness contends for the truth. It will not settle for a watered down truth or a counterfeit holiness.

Holiness loves God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. Holiness loves its neighbor as itself.

Yes, this is holiness... and so much more.

Check out these other articles:

I Fired Jesus

I Judge People

A Better Way Than the Middle Way

When Did Holiness Theology Shift to Calvinism?

Have You Planted Any Seed?

It was March 7, 2019 in the early afternoon. I was in the Orlando International Airport preparing to fly home after having been at the Exponential Conference (a Church growth, planting, and health conference held annually) that I had attended. Inundated with ideas and possibilities, I was looking forward to returning home to family and my local church so that I could pray and seek the leading of the Lord for direction about the future.

My District Superintendent, Dr Tim Crump, had dropped me off at the airport early so that he could arrange the ride for others from our District who had attended. Security was a pat down and an x-ray before I found myself at the correct gate a few hours before departure time. Lunch had been skipped between the end of the conference and travel to the airport so I decided to find something to eat and moseyed over to the Burger King inside the airport terminal.

As I stood in line I struck up conversation with the man in front of me in line. It was an extra long line and we had plenty of time to tackle the standard airport conversational topics: Where are you from? Where are you going? Why are you traveling? What do you do for a living?

I do not usually start conversations with strangers touting my occupation and calling. "Pastor" tends to shape the conversation early on in ways that create barriers to authenticity if not outright alienation at times. But I was asked the question and my response brought input from the man in line behind me.

His name was Jason and as I began to shift conversation to him, it became apparent that he was not completely sober. The smell of alcohol permeated his breath. The conversation took a turn into inquiry of his spiritual condition to which he informed me that He didn't really have faith in God. 

"Jesus changed everything for me. I would not go through life without serving Him."

We ordered our food, waited with a few others as our orders were fulfilled, and as I prepared to pick up my tray with food, Jason asked: "Can I sit and talk to you a little more?"

To be honest, I was not really interested in talking as I wanted to look over some notes I had taken and think prayerfully about my local church assignment in Mackey, IN. The conversation had not been real fruitful and conversations with drunks do not tend to be very intellectually stimulating. 

"Sure. Come and find me when you get your food."

I sat at a small table in the terminal after finding some napkins to accompany me. Jason arrived soon after I had sat and I asked him if I could pray in thankfulness for the food. He obliged.

Our discussion involved faith in God, being a Christian, and other spiritual queries. Sometimes as I responded to his question or opinion, it seemed that he was almost zoning out of the conversation. 

As we finished up our meal and began to close out our conversation I took out one of my business cards and turned it over to the back which is blank. "I want to recommend two books to you. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer." I wrote the book titles and authors on the back of my card and handed it to him assuming that he would never remember most of the conversation we had or any book recommendations due to his inebriated state.

We parted ways and headed to the gate to catch our flights. I never thought that I would see or talk to Jason again. It is just the nature of airport acquaintances and conversations.

I got home from the Florida trip and on the following Sunday stood and preached a message from John 20:19-22 that included the story of my interaction with a man in the airport in Orlando. "Jesus is sending us to share with the world the Good News? Have you planted any seeds?"

Fast forward time to December 31, 2023. My family and I were visiting my in-laws in Florida for Christmas break. We had attended church with them at Lehigh Acres Church of the Nazarene, came home, ate lunch, and had just cruised the neighborhood on bicycles. My cell phone rang indicating an unsaved Florida number was calling me. 

I normally would not answer a call as I was on vacation and the number was unknown to me. Since it was not saved in my contacts, I assumed that it was probably a spam call of some kind.

"Hello?"

"Hi, is this Jared K Henry?"

"Yes sir. Who is this?"

"My name is Jason. We met a few years ago. Do you remember me?"

"I'm sorry Jason, can you be more specific?"

"We were in the airport in line at Burger King and we started talking about God. I was only half sober."

My mind clicked and I immediately remembered Jason. His description including "half sober" was the trigger. "I do remember you."

Jason poured out his testimony to me as I listen in astonishment at the work of God that had unfolded in his life! He had hit his lowest point about a year after I met him in the airport. In those low moments he rediscovered the business card I had given him with the two books written on the back. He purchased the books and read them both. The Holy Spirit spoke through Bonhoeffer's book and Jason made a decision to be a disciple like "The Cost of Discipleship" had spoken of: not via cheap grace, but costly, authentic grace!

He sobered up, worked hard, found a church to attend, joined a men's Bible study, was baptized, and shared his testimony with his church family. God worked in His life powerfully and transformationally!

One day as Jason was relaying his testimony to his pastor, his pastor encouraged him to reach out to the person who had talked with him at the airport if he still had the contact info from the card. It would be encouraging to him. Jason later worked up the nerve to make the call and dialed my number.

I was encouraged. I was blessed. And I was challenged to continue to plant seeds everywhere I go!

Have you planted any seed? Of course not every person I talk to in the airport has called me with a life changing testimony. Not every seed spouts. And not every seed's development is relayed back to me. But I want to plant seeds. I plan on talking to more people like Jason in Heaven, because I plan on continuing to sow seed.

I do not have to get the call back that the seed has borne fruit to continue to plant seed everywhere I go. I am only responsible to cast the seed wherever I go.

Have you planted any seed?

Check out these other articles:

Transformation is Available

All Out For Souls

So You Want to Make A Difference?

God Showed Up on November 23, 2008

A Missionary to the Nursing Home

The Study of God

"Doing theology" is an endeavor to understand the Divine. Theology literally means the study of God. It certainly seems a little audacious that someone would attempt such a lofty venture. Thankfully, we do not attempt to study God in a vacuum. 

How do you study God? Where do you start? These are good questions.

The work we do to understand God is aided, if not enabled, by two realities:

1. God has made Himself known to us. This is revelation. God reveals Himself to humanity. God wants to be known, because He desires for humanity to be in a loving relationship with Him. It is His intent to be known and not be hidden from those He loves. 

2. God has given us the Bible which is completely inspired and is accurate, reliable, and true. It clearly articulates the character of God, His intent in creation, the problem of sin, and how to be in relationship with Him. The Bible inerrantly reveals everything we need for salvation (redemption from sin, entire sanctification, glorification, growth in grace, and on going fellowship with Him).

Theology is a pursuit of the truth that God has revealed to us. It is not a philosophical idea we can manipulate or change on a whim. God's nature and expectations do not change based on geographical area, cultural settings, or trending fads. This is not to say that methods are stagnated, architecture is forever set, or written/verbal communication has no fluidity. But God, and who He is, never changes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. 

Here are a few problems that give rise to bad theology.

1. Some who "do theology" do not like who God has revealed Himself to be. They do not like certain characteristics. They often view God's revealed nature or the plan of salvation as something that is a turn off to them or people they know. Bad theology arises from the intent to serve as a public relations manager for God rather than a mouthpiece of truth.

2. Some people seeking to understand God are actually trying to fit God into their own narrative. Cultural ideologies permeate their pursuit to the degree that they are unwilling to release their biases to embrace unchanging truth. When human narratives replace divine truth as the object that we are seeking, falsehoods take center stage.

3. Many are pressured by the world to capitulate unchanging truth for temporary priorities. As finite beings we can easily be tempted to ignore the infinite God's priorities and commissions. There is much pressure to kneel at an idol of human ideology or trending fads. Much of our theological focus has prioritized issues that never make a page of the New Testament.

The general rule is that theology beginning with the human experience leads to error, but the theology grounded in Biblical Truth is guided by the Holy Spirit. Are we seeking God first or humanity first? Are we prioritizing love through obedience or compromising for comfort's sake? Is our understanding of the divine Christocentric or humanistic?

Are we recognizing that we were made in the image of God or are we trying to make a god in our image?



Check out these other articles:

Yes, God Can

Signs of Maturity

A Better Way than the Middle Way

I Fired Jesus