God has a standard - Part 2

Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah. Psalm 24:3-6

There is a standard. It is the only one way to holiness and holiness the only way to God. The good news is, we aren’t Holy alone. We aren’t perfect, but we are pressing. If we want to stand before God, we must follow His standard. He didn’t say to keep His commandments for no reason. They are called commands, not options, for those who answered the call to follow His Son.

Who is clean? None but Jesus. Yet, when we accept Him, He comes in to clean us up. He covers us with His righteousness.

We are cleaned from the inside out, not from the outside in. A preacher friend use to say; “we catch ‘em, He cleans ‘em.” We must the Lord do His inside work. He says for us to ‘rend our heart, not our garments.’ When the insides right, the outside will eventually catch up and align.

Side note: (We should be more worried about hearts and less worried about what we think it should look like for new converts. Especially when our hearts are in wrong place if we’re judging. Those who are more mature should be off of the milk and on the meat. Not judging the weaker, instead, being an example. The deeper rooted, should be helping the more fragile newly planted Christian. They are coverts, newly found, they are learning and we should be showing them. We should be pointing them to Jesus. Judgment pushes people away. Jesus arms and our arms stretched out, welcomes them in. God sent Jesus to do just that, to save, not to condemn. IF we are doing that, we aren’t leading anyone to Him. We are judged by the same judgment that we are judging by).

Let me just say, “the outside matters! It does, but it starts from within.” Holiness isn’t worn like a self righteous robe and it doesn’t turn its nose up. It starts with the right heart, and the right attitude, to do the right thing.

And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: Ezekiel 11:19

Remember, He only replaces us with a new heart once we remove the detestable things. We must stop the practices that keep us back from His standard and from operating is His power. In this world, we want everything quick and easy, we want it all to look appealing, but the Word clearly tells us that straight and narrow is the way that leads to God.

It’s hard to take the high road and go right when everyone else is going left. Why? Because that’s the standard that the world judges by and we often want to fit in. They are the majority, but we aren’t following them. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is our perfect example and our way maker. That road is narrow and isn’t going the same direction as the majority and it won’t be popular. We are called to stand out, like cities on hills. Many are called but few are chosen. Are we willing to follow?

That’s why we were ‘born again’, meant to leave that old life of sin and entering back in as a new creation through His Spirit. The broad way is the one that was leading us straight to destruction. That was the land of anything goes, but now there is a standard and we must follow.

THE STANDARD STILL STANDS! Where are the standers? We can’t manipulate that to what we want it to be, nor fit it into our mold. It is what God says it is and it reflects Him. If you couldn’t see Jesus, our perfect example and way maker doing it, then question it, whatever it is. If it doesn’t reflect Him, what or who does it reflect?

Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:26-27

I don’t want my religion to be in vain. I don’t want it to be just mere talk, but rather relationship. I’ve been there. I still struggle at times. I was raised right but veered left. I experienced a lot of religion, and eventually I didn’t want any part of that, but I did want relationship.

God is looking for hearts that are perfect toward Him. Not perfect action or perfect people. If the hearts right, our actions will follow and we will want to please Him. My heart was missing a beat somewhere. Even though I was raised right, somewhere along the way I got tangled up in the lie that sin doesn’t matter, and grace was greatly misused. It (the sugar coated lie and excuse to still sin) became a stumbling block to me and I back slid or “slid back from” the truth.

The truth is what sets us free and what will keep us free. So, we must keep walking in truth. If we don’t continue, are we still free or have we went back and got entangled in the same ole trap? Truth matters! Lies lead to compromise and deceit.

We must see that the cheese is all just the thing that leads us to the trap. It’s the lure or the bait and it never last nor will it ever satisfy. It comes in many forms, it always looks good and dressed as everything we want it to be. Looks can be deceiving. We were created for a good life and the good life isn’t living in sin or compromise as the world shows it. I use to think of holiness as a mule face Christian who just sits in church mad. Boy was I was wrong. We were made free and we should be celebrating the freedom in which we were delivered from the very sin that held us back.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

I now realize that I was created for relationship and truth. That means keeping myself unspotted from the world, reserved for Him. Sin only separated me from God’s peace, purpose and from walking in His power, until I realized the great need! We must come back to the truth and back to oneness with God. That is why we must remove the hinderances that separate us from the relationship with Him. He loves us. Nothing can take this fact away. He’s wooing us back in because we are the ones who strayed. I am the one that let a little half truth in that eventually became a full blown lie that I was walking in. I gave an inch and the enemy took a mile. I leave a little room and it becomes a compromise. That’s why we can’t serve two masters; one will rule.

Everything that we allowed in, we must kick out . Give it to God. Release it. Repent from it. Turn it over. Surrender it. That’s why we must not compromise with sin but abide in truth and measure everything by the standard of God, not the world.

There is a price to pay for sin, don’t pay it. Jesus already did. Why do we continue to suffer for it when we are called to walk in His truth.

I had mentioned backsliding: the action of relapsing into bad ways or error. We were all born into sin and the enemy wants us to stay that way, keeping us back from the truth. But once we know the truth, we are accountable for what we know. Whom much is given, much is required. That is why we must follow the standard.

We aren’t called for relapse once we’ve known the truth, but for growth. If we aren’t growing, aren’t we fading? This takes constant commitment and reliance on the Master Himself, God’s Spirit that’s abiding in and aiding you. To ignore His promptings is to lead to disobedience and a seared conscious.

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1 Timothy 4:1-2

Once our conscience is seared, we will no longer have feeling there anymore. We are basically numb and no longer aware of the conscious and convictions that we were giving to warn us of right from wrong. We can ignore it for too long.

Have you ever seen cattle branded with a hot iron or what is called a branding iron? It burns a unique brand in the cattle so that the ownership will be easily recognized and hair won’t grow back there so that it will stay visible. The enemy wants us branded by sin, he doesn’t want us to feel, and he for sure doesn’t want any new growth. He wants us to not only live with the reminder but doesn’t want us to feel remorse. He wants us to be known and reminded by the mark that it has left on us.

If we ignore God’s voice and dealing for too long, we will eventually believe or buy into the lie. We become numb to the truth. If we claim to know Him but do not follow Him and live by His standard, then it’s hypocrisy. That still small voice will fade, that sin will become more prominent and our conscious will no longer allow us to hear His voice. That’s what it takes to walk away from the faith. It’s a slow fade that begins with just one step, one choice, and one compromise that leads to another. Before you know it, you have walked away. God never walks away.

Don’t be fooled, the truth is what will set us free. Walking in it will keep us free. Repentance is preached all throughout the Bible to turn around. It still must be. Godly sorrow leads us to repentance/ we must feel the pain and repent, turning away from those things. When we repent, He relents. Don’t be numb to the truth, don’t ignore it, don’t be calloused by the sin around you. Instead, repent and be softened. The book of Hosea is the perfect picture of God taking us back in.

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. 1 Titus 1:15-16

We must get untangled from the very sin that causes us to slip and to be free from it. Or else, it’s not serving us, we’re serving it. We are called out of sin, not just to go back to it.. The only way to live free is to live In Christ and stay out of the trap.

No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. 2 Timothy 2:4

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5:1

If we aren’t walking in truth, then we’re living a lie. There is no in-between. God has made that very clear. There is a standard to keep.

MY PRAYER:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalm 51:10-13

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Scripture to study:

Deuteronomy 30:15-20