The Beauty of Holiness

We have been in the Birmingham/Talladega area of Alabama for a couple of weeks now. My wife and I are really enjoying the beauty of the mountains along with the trees, flowers and lakes. It's just beautiful here at this time of year.

Right behind the church where we are parked, there is a great view of the mountains. You know, the kind of view people pay hundreds of dollars to see from a cabin or lodge window. The funny thing is, when we mention the beauty of this area to the locals they brush it off by saying, "That's just the way it is here."

As awe-inspiring as we find the beauty that surrounds us, those who have grown up here see it as ordinary and pedestrian.

Today my mind goes to those things I have grown up with in my life. The surroundings of my life, such as: The church services. The prayer meetings. The Saturday outreach efforts. The time spent at church camp and holiday youth convention. The Sunday School teachers. The Pastors we have been privileged to submit ourselves. The youth pastors. The nights spent in prayer. The days spent working and cleaning around the church. The precious moments spent teaching a Bible study. The wonderful feeling of allowing the Lord room to speak a conviction into your spirit. The times I have watched my parents weep in an altar.

All of these beautiful things could become, "just the way it was," if I am not careful.

Then I am reminded of the stories my parents have related about their childhood. The stories of a father treated wrongly by his father, and the way he had to leave home at 15 just to make something of his life. Stories of a failed marriage, and a daughter who was taken from him and never allowed to be in his life. I am reminded of the tales of nights on dance-floors and mornings with hangovers.

I am reminded today, of the almost two-year search my mom and dad went on to find the truth about God and His promised help for whosoever thirsts. As they waded through the falsehoods, formalities, and word-games of the denominational leaders. Which led them nowhere. Then only to find out later that these 'trusted men of God' knew the correct answers to their questions all along, but would have jeopardized their positions if they spoke the truth of being baptized in Jesus name, or the true power of being filled with the Holy Ghost-evidenced with speaking in other tongues.

So today I am relishing the beauty of the life I get to live. I never want to lose the beauty of what I have been given just because I grew up in it. There have been many go before me that have suffered to be able to hand my generation an understanding of living in the beauty of holiness.

I refuse to lose the appreciation of what we have today. Contrary to popular belief, holiness is not ordinary nor pedestrian; it is a beautiful surrounding, and a gorgeous habitation that many would give their life to have if they could just see it for themselves.

The Favor of God? It doesn't feel favorable...

The in-thing today seems to be a constant talk of being "highly favored" and how that gives us all the things we want in life.

Some will say things like this is my season of God's favor... So I will not be sick, I will not need anything, only good is coming my way, etc.

However, when I look at the people God favors, I don't see a "rosebed" life.

Joseph was highly favored, by both his earthly father and heavenly father- but his life was anything but easy.

Noah was as favored as anyone could have been- but he was dealt a life of toil and a ministry of ineffective preaching.

Job, the most blessed man to walk the earth in his day. A life of blessing and increase, highly favored of God. But we know the rest of his story.

Moses was a man who was hand-picked and born with favor upon him, but the life he lead was not one of royalty and ease.

Daniel- a man who with the great favor of God found himself face-to-face with hungry lions.

Mary was highly favored above all women, and she had one of the most unpleasant lives a mother could lead.

John the Baptist- talk about favor, to be hand-picked as the forerunner of Jesus Christ. To lead the way and baptize Jesus himself. But we know the end of this life of favor as well.

Jesus Christ- if favor could exist it would have to be in him. But he had a life none of us would really want... Right?

Steven, Paul, Peter, John... You know it is hard to find anyone who was a difference-maker in the kingdom, without this thing called favor.

In my own life I have questioned many of the events that I have had to face. None that I felt I had deserved, but in hindsight it simply looks like favor.

No one could possibly know the pains, hurts, seeming misfortunes that I have faced. Just like I could not know yours... But at the end of the day, it was my choice to be placed on a potter's wheel, it was my fervent prayers that demanded to be used in the kingdom of heaven, on earth. It was me that asked for the favor of God, he chose to honor my plea.

The course is set, I must decrease so that He can increase. I must be placed in what seems a prison in order to be able to preach a gospel of freedom. I must carry the greatest truth in this world, or any other. I can only do it with the favor of God. Even if favor means pain, suffering and injustice. I am honored to be called worthy of His divine favor.

If this post is unsightly to your spirit, please do not pray to be different, never pray for the favor of God upon your life and ministry. You will never be happy until you come to the great revelation of what the favor of God really is. Favor is the process He uses to make you into a weapon of mass destruction aimed at the forces of hell. It is what makes the difference between soldiers of the Cross and spectators of the Cross.

Unfortunatly, favor is not a pain-free ticket to paradise, but it is a life full of joy. Jesus said he went to the cross... "for the joy set before him."

Most may not understand this post, but I hope to understand it more and more each day.