And I have no problem admitting there is much…I do not know. I may struggle at times trying to convey something that I see or have learned.
I often identify with that blind man we read about in John 9. He was just sitting there one day…being blind. Jesus approached him, made some ‘clay’ with his spit and some dirt, rubbed it on the blind man’s eyes and then told him to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash. For some reason, scripture includes the meaning of the name ‘Siloam’ as meaning ‘sent’.
We are then told in verse 7 “so he went and washed, and came back seeing.” His neighbors were a bit taken back and perplexed and asked what happened.
He told them, repeating the account and being told to ‘go wash…so I went and washed and I received sight.” (vs 11)
And it only got more complicated after that. It created quite a stir there in the community. The theologians were brought it to investigate and again, he recounted the very brief exchange of words: “He (Jesus) put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” ( vs 15)
They were not impressed. So they grilled his parents to verify if he was indeed born blind. They verified this but chose not to elaborate.
Scripture implies they were afraid they might lose their church membership. (vs 22)
So the Pharisees once again interrogated the man who could now see. He did his best to suggest it was a ‘God thing’. And again, they were not impressed. So they threw him out of church. My version uses the expression ‘cast him out’. (vs 34)
It can be a challenge, I would imagine, trying to explain what it is like to see for the first time.
As I mentioned above, I can identify with this guy’s experience. As I shared in previous posts regarding my own ‘awakening’ or ‘seeing the light’ 23 months ago, I was just back there in my office one day being busy (and blind) when He just kind of tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘It’s Time.” And I knew what that meant.
He wanted me to go ‘wash’.
Do you know how we do that? It’s through the word. Ephesians 5:26 talks of how Christ ‘cleanses us through the washing of water by the word.’
Can I just tell you…without sounding like I am boasting that it has been one heck of a bath. I’m serious. I’ve never been so immersed in His word which He ‘sent’ me to. He even told me to lay off filling my mind with all the noise and distraction that came out of my TV and I’ve not bothered to watch it for the past 23 months. I can’t get enough if His word.
And I am just seeing lots of things…that I’ve never seen before. It’s been life changing, to say the least. There is a freedom and peace I am walking in unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before to this degree. All I know to tell you is “He told me to go wash, so I did…and I can see.”
I’m seeing lots of things…especially in His word. Verses I have read hundreds of times before…could quote and ‘Amen’ if heard it read…nod my head in agreement…yet…just not ‘see’ it.
Take ‘holiness’ for example.
That word is in the bible a lot.
Peter writes in his first letter that as ‘obedient children’ we should no longer be living according to our former lust-filled ways serving the flesh and such and that “as He who called you is holy, you may also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy for I am holy.” (1:14-15)
Allrighty then… who wants to step up to the plate first and tell us what it means to be ‘holy’.
How would you explain to a ten-year-old what the word ‘holy’ means and then go on to explain HOW one is to ‘be holy’?
I mentioned the other day being raised in the catholic faith where as a young lad I served as an altar boy during the mass. I wore these long flowing robes and would ring bells in the service and help light/wave incense. I use to ‘feel holy’ doing that. But I don’t think that really ‘made me holy’, do you?
Again, I am no theologian but it seems to me that if we are told to be holy, it might help to first know what that means and then second…how do we go about ‘getting there’.
May I offer up a few more verses to suggest why this might be kind of important to know?
We are told in Ephesians 5 that Jesus is coming back for a bride (church) that is ‘holy’ and pure and blameless and without stain or wrinkle. Would that describe today’s church to you?
In Hebrews 12, we are given insight to how God ‘chastens’ us or disciplines us…IF we are true children. He does this because He loves us, we read in vs 6. I remember one of the first churches I got planted in early on use to scoff at this idea…of God ‘chastening’. Not sure why…maybe the pastor had some bad experiences with that concept.
But we are told right there in verse 8 that if we are without chastening, then we are ‘illegitimate’ and not sons. (KJV uses a colorful word there).
But wait… it gets better. Verse 10-11 tells us that while chastening may be unpleasant at times (no duh) He does it for our profit “that we may be partakers of His holiness.” And to ramp up the seriousness of this another notch or two, vs 14 says “without holiness, no one will see the Lord.”
Huh?
But wait…don’t we just automatically ‘become holy when Jesus came into our hearts and gives us His Holy Spirit?”
Apparently not…. I’m guessing. Because there are more interesting verses we should go look at again and…’see’.
2 Cor 7:1. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (care to explain this process to a new convert or your own child?)
Rom 6:22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. (If someone asked You…what does ‘fruit of holiness’ look like…what would you tell them?)
Ephesians 1:4 tells us that “we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”
Col 1:22 talks of how He wants “to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight”
And of course, as a NT believer, you understand the concept that God no longer lives in buildings made by men’s hands but that We, us…are His temple, yes? So when we read in 1 Cor 3:17 where Paul writes: “If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are”, that should get our attention, yes?
(Do you remember what Jesus taught as to what truly ‘defiles’ person’s heart? Go read Mark 7:20-23 real quick for a reminder.)
Maybe that is why that verse in 2 Cor 7:1 is alluding to about us cleansing ourselves and ‘perfecting holiness in the fear of God’.
So John writes that when He returns, “we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is and everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.” (1 John 3:2-2)
We keep hearing reference to ‘seeing Him’ or ‘without holiness no one will see Him’. Do you think it’s possible that Jesus may have given us a hint or warning in Matthew 5:8 that it is the “pure in heart” that will see God?
That would then make Paul’s statement in 1 Tim 1:5 more clear as he writes the ‘purpose of this commandment or instruction is to have love from a pure heart’.
I don’t know about you, but when I started ‘seeing’ all this, I kind of felt like that college freshman who had been told if he just showed up in this one class all year with perfect attendance that he’d pass the class with no problem. Then about ¾’s of the way through the course, he learns that the assigned ‘research paper’ will be due in a few weeks which will account for 50 percent of his grade.
Huh?
Do what? I just thought I was suppose to show up? You mean there is something else that should be happening here?
Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father (Matt 7:21) Have you ever stopped to ask just what is…’the will of the Father in heaven’?
That too would be a good question to ask.
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