Marriage is like...

19 days from today, I’m getting married. I’m very excited, and naturally, a lot of my thought over the past few days/weeks/months has been about marriage and how marriage relates to everything else I’m doing in my life.

The infusion of “Holly” into my bachelor-pad has been an interesting transformation. I’ll be honest, the place looks better, and it probably smells better too. She’s added some of her own touches to the apartment over the past few weeks as she prepares to completely move in and make it her place too.

We have a lot more stuff now, than we did, most of that is the result of three bridal showers in a two week span. The sheer amount of gifts that we received from our biological families, church family, adopted families and friends has been absolutely overwhelming.

Enough about that, though. I was thinking about marriage and sanctification. Yes, I’m such a Nazarene that even when I’m thinking about marriage, I’m thinking about entire sanctification and holiness. It really is in my blood, I think.

A few weeks ago, at our weekly prayer breakfast on Tuesday morning, Pastor Izzy and I were talking to a guy in the group about holiness. He had some misinformed thoughts on the doctrine of Entire Sanctification, and Izzy and I were working with him to help him better understand the doctrine.

So, how do they match-up? What are the similarities?

Well, I’ve given it a lot of thought and here’s the big one.

Every morning, when I wake up, I have to make a choice. I choose every day to love my fiancé. In the same manner, I choose every day to love God.

I think holiness is all about loving God. Just like marriage is all about loving your spouse. When I say “love” here, I’m not referring to an emotional response; I’m talking about a choice, every day.

Every day, we need to make a choice to love God more than we love everything else. Just as when you made that commitment to your spouse, you committed to love her only and nobody else.

So, in being holy, I love God more than I love everyone else. I’m going to say Yes to God, and No to everyone else.

In 19 days, I’m making an eternal commitment to Holly. I’m not only saying Yes to her. I’m saying No to every other female that ever comes my way. Although, in my defense, it’s not like females have ever been beating down the door for me.
Holiness is exactly like Marriage.

Every day, you have a choice to make.

Every single day.

What’s your choice today?

Can you or can't you?

Sorry, I missed last week! I'll catch back up on the series I am working on for Tuesdays. So, here's a special Monday post that has no relevance to the series I've been working on!

I've been doing my daily devotions through Oswald Chambers' magnificent daily guide called My Utmost for His Highest. If you've never picked this book up, I highly encourage it. He's a brilliant thinker and he really challenges me sometimes. Today was one of those occasions. There's a sentence right in the middle of the reading that got me thinking.

He says, " If we have received the Holy Spirit, God expects the work of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in us."

He prefaces this statement with a paragraph about the servant saying to his Master, "I can't" and "You expect more than you give me the power to do!"

Aren't you glad that it's not like that with God? In my ministry here at High Street, I'm realizing that I am trying something that is big! I realize that God has called me to do something huge.

There are some days where I leave this place and feel like saying to God, "You expect more than you give me the power to do!"

It's on those days that I fall on my face before my Master and beg for his forgiveness, because I am positive that I am absolutely wrong.

Today is a good day for me. I've been extremely encouraged in the past week by the people around me. If you're working around a youth pastor, let me tell you, there is a lot of value in encouraging that person. She will thrive on your encouragements. Take some time this week to send her an encouraging note, letting her know that you appreciate what she's doing with the youth in your church.

So, in light of the fact that I'm having a good day, let me tell you, it's clear to me that the things that are happening here at High Street are because of God. I usually take the blame for failures, but give all the praise to God after a success.

Right now, I feel successful.

Back to the original statement from Chambers. Have you received the Holy Spirit? Does your life manifest Holy Spirit-work? The Holy Spirit is a power-bringing entity.

If you have received the Holy Spirit, you have no right to say to God, "I can't." Because, with the Holy Spirit, you can. If you feel like you can't, ask God to remind you of who He is, and just how big He is. You won't be disappointed!

Day By Day

In my pursuit of God, I search for Holiness. Because of my neurosis, I live my life in the fear of falling apart. I live my life in a constant state of unease and worry. I am constantly worrying that my failures are going to keep me from Heaven.

I do continue to wrestle with whether I think perfection is attainable in this life. Jesus called the woman caught in adultery to “Go and sin no more.” Why would he call her to that if it was an impossible goal? He didn’t say, “Okay, go, try your hardest not to sin anymore!”

The early church fathers also believed that it was possible to not sin. The earliest Christian works are ripe with calls to perfection. They believed that after baptism, people would stop sinning.

Let’s be honest, it is much easier to be a Christian when we don’t believe that we have to be perfect. Is this why we have such a difficulty with Christian Perfection?

And you can see why I am crippled with fear. I don’t understand.

Here’s what I do understand. I am fully aware of the fact that I am supposed to give everything I have to God. I’ve always made these commitments to God. The most popular one for me is, “I’ll commit to reading my Bible every day for the rest of my life!”

I’m so sincere. I really want to read my Bible and practice intimacy with God. But I always fail.

Seriously, I have yet to make it through that commitment.

So, what’s my problem? Am I not holy enough? Am I not perfect enough? Have I not been Entirely Sanctified?

Perhaps it’s a daily commitment to God.

Lord, I commit to practicing intimacy with you, today.

Tomorrow, I’ll make a similar commitment.

Is that what holiness is?

Maybe they were right when they said that the three things to pray daily were to see God more clearly, to love God more dearly and to follow Him more nearly. Perhaps that’s true holiness, doing it each and every day.

These three things, I do pray, day-by-day.

What if I stumble?

I’ll start this post off with an incredibly honest statement of fact.

I live my entire life in fear.

You read correctly. I, a child of the King of Kings, live my life in fear. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the Lord is my rock and my salvation. I believe the Lord when he tells me I have nothing to be afraid of. Well, I try to believe anyway. But if I were to be completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that I live my life in fear.

So, this begs the question, what am I afraid of?

I wish it were something simple. I wish I could say that I was afraid of heights or spiders. You know, those are things that are easy to be afraid of.

John Wesley is credited with reviving and/or authoring what we call the Doctrine of Assurance. To put it simply, Wesley believed that we could be absolutely assured of our salvation. I do feel assured that my salvation has been found in God. I’m not afraid of that.

I am crippled by the fear that I’m not good enough.

I realize that the reality of the situation is that none of us can ever be good enough to reach God. I understand that. But, because of my denominational background, I’m stricken with this absolute need to be perfect. The entire belief system of my Church is that of “holiness unto the Lord. “ I’ve been taught for years that holiness is perfection and perfection is holiness. We’d have debates in theology classes about whether or not it is possible for a person to not sin.

Well, if it’s possible to not sin, then why do I find myself doing it? I’m terrified of what happens when I slip up. I’m terrified that when I mess up, it’s going to be the last time.

What happens if I stumble? What happens when I fall?

I’m crippled by the fear of the knowledge that I am not good enough.

I find myself asking, will the love continue, when my walk becomes a crawl? What if I stumble; and what if I fall?

From the Cradle to the Cross to the Crown?

As you may be able to guess about me, I enjoy listening to preachers. I always take notes, and I’m always trying to learn new things about the career I find myself in. One time, I heard a preacher mention the trip that Christ took from the Cradle to the Cross to the Crown. It made me think about the way I see Christ.

Is that all His life was about? Did he only come to earth to go from the Cradle to the Cross to the Crown?

I don’t think so.

If we reduce the life of Christ to those simple three steps, we’re committing robbery.

Don’t get me wrong, I am fully willing to affirm the importance and the theological significance of those three parts of Christ’s life and death. But it seems to me that if we remove the section that happened between Cradle and Cross, we will have completely missed the point.

I refuse to believe that Christ came simply to die. Yes, I believe his death was part of the purpose for his coming. But he came with more than one purpose. He also came to teach us how to live. In fact, I think he spent a good deal of time talking about the way we should live.

As a Nazarene, the life of Christ holds an incredible amount of importance to me. Because, it is in His life where he shows the example of holiness.

Without the life of Christ, the time between the Cradle and the Cross, we would not have the example of a life lived well. We wouldn’t have the example of holiness.

When you’re thinking of Christ, don’t limit your thoughts of him to “Baby Jesus” (As Ricky Bobby so wonderfully showed us), and don’t focus your vision of Jesus as a man dying on the Cross. Instead, focus on a life well lived. Focus on the perfect example of holiness.

And while you focus on Christ’s life, ask God to make you more and more like Christ every day.

Holiness

I recently had to write my manifesto on holiness. Since I am a Nazarene, it seems that holiness should be a major part of my life, and since I call this The Revolutionary Nazarene, I decided to post it here. It's somewhat long (2 and a half pages single spaced), but I'm interested in putting it out there to see what others think. So, without further ado:

...

Holiness is possibly one of the most misunderstood words used in Christian circles. Holiness is used to define many things from a personal lifestyle to an entire movement of church growth. People take classes to define and discuss the term holiness. Pastors preach sermons on holiness. Men and women write books about holiness. So, why the confusion?

People are confused about holiness because it has been taught many different ways. For every person who claims to be a holiness thinker, there is a different theology and definition of what holiness actually is. That is why a member of a Nazarene Church may have heard five or six different ideas and thoughts on holiness. It gets confusing. Is there a way to determine who is correct? Is it possible that holiness does not have on static meaning?

Any good student of Wesley (or any of the Reformers) will begin her theology of holiness (or any theology for that matter) with Scripture. Scripture is given the primary place of importance because it is God’s Word, thus making it the primary source for all arguments, especially theological arguments.

But, with what Scripture should a good holiness theology begin? A good place to start is in the Torah. God tells his people to, “be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44, quoted by Peter in 1 Peter 1:16). Jesus also admonishes his followers to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). There is no doubt that there is a Biblical calling to each individual to be holy, or to be “like God.”

So, what does it mean to be holy or like God? What defines God? Throughout history, many adjectives are used to describe God, but one stands out above the rest in a Biblical sense. The apostle John sums it up very well when he says that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

This would lead to the logical conclusion that holiness is in some way equal to love. The Old and New Testaments speak in one accord on this topic as well. When asked what the greatest of all the commandments is, Jesus replies with a saying that was known as the Shema. He says that the greatest commandment is to, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Jesus is quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, specifically Deut. 6:4-9.

The Shema, therefore, becomes the cornerstone of holiness. What is holiness? Holiness is love placed in the right place. Holiness is loving God with every part of a person’s being. John Wesley, regarded as one of the greatest holiness thinkers placed this verse into a place of importance also. In his famous work A Plain Account of Perfection, he quoted this verse more than any other, 17 times in his short document explaining, defining and teaching holiness (Olson 45).

There can be no argument that one of Christ’s chief concerns was in the way His Followers loved God (and in a natural progression, that love would overflow into the way those followers treated the people around them, see Matthew 22:39).

A follower of Wesley would, naturally, move from Scripture to what Christians in history have to say about holiness. What does Tradition speak to, regarding holiness? Some scholars compose entire works connecting the holiness doctrine to the tradition of the church, including the early church fathers from as early as the first and second centuries. In his work Exploring Christian Holiness, Paul Bassett says, “We must remain true to the past” (16). Traditionally, holiness has been imperative to the growing Christian. As early as 150 AD, holiness was described as the “norm” by Shepherd of Hermas (Bassett 30).

The Shepherd regarded sinless living as the norm for all baptized Christians. Sinless living often raises questions, especially in light of Scriptures such as 1 John 1:8. Is it possible for a Christian to live, in this life, without sin? A Wesleyan-Arminian thinker would say yes, it is possible. Is it the norm? It seems that tradition (and even Scripture to some degree, see Paul’s inner struggle in Romans) disagrees with sinlessness being the norm.

If holiness is the norm for Christians, and holiness is living up to God’s standards, but living without sin is not the norm for all Christians, then is holiness truly the norm for all Christians? It does not seem to be the norm.

But it could be.

Holiness speaks to the hope that Christ can radically transform each and every Christian completely. It may not be the norm for each Christian to live without sin, in fact many peoples’ experience would point to true holiness as the exception rather than the norm, but it is possible. If holiness is possible, then there is hope in this life to live without sin.

Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, in 1973, spoke to the experience of many Nazarenes in her book A Theology of Love. Mark Quanstrom, in his book A Century of Holiness Theology, dedicates an entire chapter to what Wynkoop called “The Credibility Gap.” Essentially, the credibility gap referenced the fact that holiness was not the norm for Christians (Quanstrom 137-169).

If a majority of Christians experience called into question the normalcy of holiness, then the rationality of a doctrine of holiness would also be called into question. Why should holiness be preached if it is an impossible standard? Should the standard be lowered? Should the doctrine be dropped completely? Experience was showing that holiness was not working as intended. The doctrine was flawed.

Unfortunately, many Nazarene pastors still preach a confusing doctrine of holiness, even 35 years after Wynkoop’s book. This causes people to be confused about holiness. Quite often, those confused people completely disregard the call to be holy.

2008 finds the Church in a difficult position. Should the doctrine of holiness still be taught as it has for a century (within the Church of the Nazarene), or should it be updated?

The Scriptures make it clear that since God is love, holiness is love. Holiness is, at its core about the way Christians relate to God.

Holiness and sin are primarily about relationships and about love. Holiness is best viewed as a right relationship with God. It is true that all Christians are entered into a personal relationship with God, but holiness is about more than that. There is a difference between simply a personal relationship with God and a “right” relationship with God. The call of Christians is to love God with their entire heart, their entire strength, their entire mind and their entire soul. It is when a person loves God with everything in them that they enter into holiness.

This is because holiness is the absence of sin, and sin is also defined by relation and love. Sin is loving other things (primarily self) more than God. The first commandment of the Ten Commandments is to have nothing above God. Nothing. Anytime a person puts something above God (whether it is another person, an image of another person, the country a person lives, money, etc), he or she is sinning.

So, love God. Love God with everything and in everything. Only when this happens can sin disappear and holiness becomes a reality. When a person loves God, holiness takes over.