All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings.
Dust Buckets, Destiny and Holiness – Part 3
I used to think that being holy meant that I had to be perfect: sacred, spotless… a living sacrifice, right? It was something to live up to and then painstakingly and very carefully maintain.
Isaiah 63 says, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory…”
God is holy.
1 Peter 1:15 says, “Now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.”
God wants us to be holy.
1 Peter 1:2 “God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy.”
God has made us holy.
Jesus has shown us how we are holy: really, he's shown us that we have been holy all along: connected and filled with the divine – the natural and the supernatural combined: holiness.
2 Tim 1:9 says, “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. We had nothing to do with it. It was all his idea, a gift prepared for us in Jesus long before we knew anything about it.”
To be holy means to be “sacred and set apart.” Do we behave holy to be holy? Or are we made holy? Is it ‘works based’? Or a work of grace? Or is it something even a little more organic?
God formed Adam out of dust. Picture his hands scooping up dirt, shaping it, carving out arms and legs, caressing a face into being… Adam remained a beautiful pile of dust until one thing happened: God breathed into him.
The moment that the breath of God connected with this shape of dirt, life ignited within Adam, and he BECAME. It is the breath of God that manifests His holiness in the earth. These dust buckets we call bodies are filled with the holiness and sanctity of the Divine, keeping us alive. When we die, the breath leaves our bodies, and they return once again to the dust.
We have more than a connection with God – His breath fills us all, whether we know it or not. Some of us – we understand that we have this treasure in “jars of clay”… we realise that we are the temple in which God dwells. (1 Cor 3:16-17). Through Jesus, the ability to become aware of what we have within us is attainable. We can live free from the disconnect of the knowledge of the Holy. We can peer underneath the physicality of life into the realm of the spirit, the divine, the supernatural… God. Jesus is the way.
This is holy living. Knowing that we are connected to God – acknowledging that he sustains us and holds us together. And this, in turn, connects us with one another – the same breath that fills our lungs, fills the chests of our neighbours and enemies alike. It is a sacred and holy knowing.
This awareness, given by grace and received by faith, compels us to respond with our lives.
In Lord of the Rings, Gandalf told a saddened and discouraged Frodo, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
‘Holy' is not what we do, but how we decide to live – aware, awake, alive.
What will we do with our time now that we know it is indeed holy?
Go to Part 4 – Infinite, Limitless Riches »
[vcex_image_grid columns=”3″ pagination=”false” thumbnail_link=”custom_link” link_title_tag=”true” custom_links_target=”_blank” overlay_style=”title-category-visible” columns_gap=”5″ img_hover_style=”fade-out” image_ids=”20934,20935,20937″ custom_links=”https://itunes.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1239768002?pt=118656308&ct=blog%20footer&mt=8,https://www.pktfuel.com/dailyemail,https://www.pktfuel.com/support” img_height=”350″]