“Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”
Psalm 29:2
CBS, which broadcast the Grammy Awards show sponsored by Pfizer last Sunday night, posted and then removed a tweet that promoted the controversial performance of the hit song “Unholy” by Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Prior to the performance, Smith tweeted the caption “This is going to be SPECIAL”, to which, according to the Christian Post, a CBS verified account replied “you can say that again. We are ready to worship!”
I can only guess that the “we” in the reply meant everyone watching the event, and the object of their worship was definitely unholy. I was not one of those watching. Not necessarily because of this one performance. I haven’t watched the Grammys in years because I am a part of the bride of Christ. As His bride, I choose to be HOLY instead.
Why does holiness matter for the bride? Because it is a consecration – I am His and He is mine! It is holiness that sets us apart from the ordinary to the extraordinary! Less and less we are wrapped up in pleasing man and worrying what others may think. More and more our hearts tune into pleasing Him and only Him. It is in this gradual process of dross removal that we enter into a greater realm of worshiping God in spirit and in truth.
You may have heard it said God cannot tolerate sin in His presence. Consider that it may be the opposite. Because He is holy, sin cannot tolerate being in the presence of a holy God.
To give you an example of the picture I’m trying to paint, think of a submarine. The deeper a submarine goes down, the greater the risk that it is crushed by the pressure and weight of the surrounding water. So in like fashion, the closer sin gets to the presence of Holy God, the more it also is crushed by the glorious pressure and weight of His holiness.
When we choose to believe in Him and accept Him as our Savior, His holiness is imputed to us, enabling us to stand in His presence without the pressure of His holiness crushing us. Through the redemptive work of Christ, for the first time people are free to be holy as He is holy. Our direct connection and fellowship with Him have been restored, whereas before this was not possible.
In The Passion Translation weekly devotional by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriguez I read “Nothing is more pleasurable to the human heart than the love of Jesus. Nothing is more delightful. Nothing can compare to the caresses of his love – it awakens our hearts in the most unexpected ways. It makes us feel alive and fills us with joy… Once we taste of this love, we know that nothing else could ever fulfill us.”
In the progression of working out the holiness He has given, we should never let go of our passion to be holy in His eyes, allowing it to become a sacred obsession that sets us apart from others!
To choose to be holy is to choose life. Will you choose life with me today?
Alabastersky 
I, also, have not watched the grammys for years, but a friend blogged on it, and it was what the CBS text said: it was a WORSHIP service, only they were conspicuously NOT worshipping The God Who Is.
America is facing either a Jonah moment or a Nahum moment. I suspect Nahum has the more likely word for our nation today. So sad, but Jesus is coming soon. Pray for those who do not know Him as time is short.
❤️&🙏, c.a.
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I think the moment you are describing can be summed up nicely in this passage:
“I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God.”
Ezekiel 22:30-31
I believe He has been saying this to our nation for the last three years, and I see vast evidence of so many of us awakening and responding. But one thing I learn from this passage is that what CAN happen is not always what WILL happen. God gave the nation of Israel the opportunity to repent, but they did not. As a result, their ways paved the path for His wrath. But it didn’t have to be that way. I don’t think it has to be that way here, either. I think He’s giving us an invitation for His wrath to be stayed. The scary part is, if this is right, there are many Christians like yourself (perhaps the majority) who believe America is doomed and we can do nothing to stop that. What does that mean for us should the Lord tarry longer than we anticipate? How many generations are NOT going to have freedom of religion here as a result? It’s a sobering thought.
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Spontaneous revival has broken out on Asbury U campus since yesterday, and students and faculty have been praying around the clock since 10am yesterday! “If my people will humble themselves and pray…”
At any moment that His children respond to His Sovereign authority over our lives, He will turn away from His fierce anger and redeem even the most debauched.
Perhaps He will if we are in a “Jonah” moment and not a “Nahum” moment; This Saturday’s blog!
Pray, pray and pray some more!!
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Amen and love it 😄❤️ I look forward to reading the Moments blog!
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“To choose to be holy is to choose life” . . . Amen Alabastersky! . . . We are our choices.
“But until a person can deeply and honestly say, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday”, that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.” – Stephen Covey
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OOH nice quote Fred, amen and thanks for sharing!
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