Human kind has tried some very interesting ways to be holy and pure ...Hair shirts are just one such example, hair shirts A garment of rough cloth made from goats' hair and worn in the form of a shirt or as a girdle around the loins, by way of Mortification and penance.
While this may seem silly there are lots of interesting traditions and practices that all seek to make oneself " pure and holy " there is only one problem with these practices.
Early this week I was very blessed to spend some time at lunch with a very dear Christian Brother , not only was the food good and the conversation great , but he picked up the Tab.
Anyway during our conversation we found an area we disagreed on ..not unusual we disagree on several things ..but we have learned to disagree agreeably. We disagreed this time on the use of Secular Music in Worship...and the singing of Christian songs by non Christians ...my friend things both of these things " profane and defile " the worship experience. I disagreed , but it wasn't until today's Church service that I fully understood why.
Today our Pastor began a new Sermon Series on Holiness, and he began with this Scripture from Acts 10: 9-15
Peter's Vision
About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
" do not call anything impure that God has made clean " Interesting....how often have you met Christians who refuse to celebrate Christmas , because of its pagan roots ? Or Easter , or refuse to have anything to do with Halloween ?
Aren't these well meaning worshipers missing a point about Gods Holiness ? Isn't my friend in this case ?
How are we made Holy ? How is a place made holy ? Can we create a place of Holy Ground ?
The answer has to be sneaking up on us. It is God who makes us Holy , it is God who makes a place Holy by His presence , and God can use anything and anyone for His purposes ....Did God choose an Aristocratic horse to speak , no he used a donkey, Did God speak out of a lovely rose bush to Moses ? or was it some nondiscript desert bush ? God could have used one of Jesus Disciples to go unto the Gentiles , instead He choose a Man who was known for his Brutality toward the Followers of Christ.
Most of us as Christians believe we are saved by Grace not by our works , and while we may fudge a little on the works issue , we do I think ultimately understand that Salvation is from Jesus First and Last. with no assistance on our own. We are told to seek to be Holy , but Only God can consecrate us. Sinners cannot call on God for Salvation unless God has already begun this work of making us Holy.
If we are seeking God with all our hearts , I believe God can use secular music , as easily as he uses sacred music to bring us closer to Him. In fact the reality is that God is in all and through all , there is no " secular and sacred " If we divide the days into one for sacred and six for secular we are short changing God six whole days.
If we celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Easter and Celebrate for Gods Glory , if we use these days to Praise God for Blessings ...will we be seeking God and His Holiness ? I beleive so.
This all makes me wonder ....while God can make Holy and use for His Glory anything and anyone, is there any chance that we as His servants can actually defile and profane Him by misusing the Holy ?
Here I am speaking of using the Bible to promote division , to promote consumerism , to promote Nationalistic ambitions . Most of us know that at one point the Bible was used to justify Slavery , there are some who use the Bible to Justify hatred towards Homosexuals , some use it to Justify the accumulation of wealth .... I wonder how God feels about that ?
Lets seek God with all our hearts , lets take every opportunity to tell others of His great love for us and lets Reclaim the Arts for the Glory of God .
I am looking forward to my next conversation with my friend and I plan to pick up the tab this next time , and I am looking forward to more discussions as well ....
Kenn
3 comments:
Hi Kenn. Once again I agree with everything you've written. I just didn't know that's how I thought until you spelled it out so clearly! Reading your blog is certainly making me think about my Faith in ways I hadn't before. I like the pictures you choose, too. Annelize.
Kenn, I, too am in agreement with you. God can and does use anything we can pick up with our 5 senses. The way a car took a curve in the road spoke to my sister one time about God's direction. Here's one that has amazed me for years.
We lived in Alaska for many years. Far away from old friends and family, I would be driving through our small town and would observe another driver and for a second, would thing it was "so and so", a person I knew in Ohio or Kentucky. On the double take I would realize that the driver looked nothing like my friend back home. So I'd pray for my friend, as I do when I think of people. I thought this was an interesting thing, as it happened a number of times. It happened one time, when I thought I saw Dave T. driving toward me. Of course it wasn't he, it was someone who didn't even look like him. So I prayed for Dave and his wife and family. I happened to talk to another friend from the same church that Dave goes to, about 6 weeks later. I mentioned that I had been thinking about him and Denise (his wife) and asked how they were. She told me that Denise's father had committed suicide about 6 weeks ago.
WHOA. Did I get a chill up my spine. That's when I realized that God uses that little exercise to remind me to pray for people who I otherwise might not think of. He knows that I am so nosy, I always look to see who is in cars as I drive. So he uses that to get me to pray. Amazing. He still does it.
It also is a prime example of how faithful God is -- to get people to pray when He knows we need it. I don't pretend to know why it works that way, but it does. He wants us to pray for one another.
Long way to say, yes, He can use secular music, TV commercials, traffic, ANYTHING He wants to. Sovereign. That's what He is.
God bless you and Lori,
Nancy
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