Being Made Holy

Hebrews 10:10, 13-14
And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.


Well, for those of you who don’t already know, my husband and I are expecting Baby #2, a little boy, in just a matter of weeks. We are both thrilled and excited, and I am definitely getting large, and feeling all the pains and discomforts of pregnancy, as well as the poking and turning of a little one inside. It never ceases to amaze me how I am allowed to be such an intimate part of a miracle that God is, at this very moment, performing. Inside of me, He is knitting together a child – a person that will be complete, and altogether separate. The thing that really strikes me tonight is that I really don’t have to do anything. Oh, I know I need to eat right, get plenty of rest, take care of myself, but in the actual forming of the child, my body just does what it needs to do – God just does what He needs to do. I am simply trying give Him plenty to work with in caring for myself. Otherwise, it’s all Him. And the really remarkable thing is that even if I wasn’t taking care of myself all that well, He could still complete the work perfectly within me – because it’s all Him.

Then it hits me – just as it is with the child inside of me, so it is with those of us in Christ. We think we have to really strive to become better people, more like Christ. We tend to think that it all has to do with following the rules, and doing all the right things, as though it is up to us to become holy. But that is not the case. We have to take care of ourselves spiritually – reading the Bible, praying, obedience, fasting, all the spiritual disciplines – but it is not in doing those things that we become holy. They just prepare the soil, so to speak, for God to come along and do all the work – it’s all Him. Just as I don’t have to think about making a baby, and what comes next in the process, so it is with spiritual growth. God does the growing, He is knitting us together spiritually, and He knows exactly what comes next. He brings hardship at just the right times, and He brings us joy as well. He provides us with exactly what we need, at exactly the right times, so that we will grow into the people He designed us to be. Just as the verse above says, we are "being made holy." We are not working to become holy – this implies that we are being worked upon.

So, let’s give God the best to work with – preparing ourselves, and staying healthy, spiritually, as best we can. Then, we can rest in the fact that He is in the process of making us holy. He is changing us, knitting us back together, into the perfect likeness of Christ. It is a job for God, not us – praise His mighty name!

One True God

Psalm 145:18
The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.


Saint Augustine wrote, "Grant me, Lord, to know and understand which is first: …to know You or to call on You? Who can call on You, not knowing You? For He that does not know You may call on You as something other than You are. Or, is it rather that we call on You so that we may know You?"

There are so many people in this world who pray to "god." I would imagine they call him by some of the same names we use – god, lord, master, whatever – but are they praying to our God? No. Because they have in mind a god that is other than the one true God.

However, might I suggest that we may have the same problem, on a bit more minor of a scale? Shocking? Yes. But I wonder how many of us have in our minds an idea of God that is other than that which is the truth. I’m sure I’ve got a few. The problem with this is that when a situation arises and we believe that God is going to act in one way, but it is really against His nature, then we could be flung into doubt. God is who He is, whether we believe it to be true or not.

On the flip side, God knows our hearts, and He can see when someone is truly longing to know Him, to see Him, and to know the truth. We can call on Him in ignorance, and He will reveal Himself to us, that we would know Him. But again, do we even have hearts like that? Or do we like to sit blissfully by, thinking that God is what we think He is, not caring to change our minds?

"My god is a loving god – he would never get angry about ______________," or "he would never expect me to ___________." How many times do we hear this sort of thing? "My god." And that’s really what we have, our own made-up god who may resemble the Almighty, but in truth is just a fraction of who God really is.

God is very complex – I doubt we will ever come to know all there is to know about Him, or really, fully understand Him, until, perhaps, we meet Him on the other side. We can try, though, and I believe He delights in our getting to know Him. He is anxious that we would come to know and love Him in His full nature.

We need to get to know God – His every nuance, sinew, and shade. We need to let Him saturate our entire being, and fill us with His very nature. We need to let Him teach us all He is, and all that makes us His. We need to know Him in complete truth, even if that means giving up all of our pre-conceived, ill-informed ideas of who He is, or who we want Him to be. Let’s make it our goal to learn something new about the one, true God each and every day.

Rejoicing With Those Who Rejoice

Romans 12:15
Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.


Unfortunately, I am the kind of person who gets a little jealous when someone else gets something I desire – a new car, a new house, the list could go on. But God has really been convicting me on this one!

When we talk about a good friend, we often talk about how they were there for us during a difficult time, and that is great. God tells us to mourn with those who mourn, and someone who will stick by our side when we are needy and clingy, is an awesome friend indeed. But don’t you have to admit that it’s pretty easy to feel bad for someone in their loss, whether it’s a parent, a spouse, or even a job, or a house? It’s relatively easy to feel their pain – we just imagine what it would be like to be going through their pain.

Rejoicing with them during the good times, however, tends to be another story altogether, doesn’t it? We are in a society where we are constantly working for bigger, better, more. So, when someone else gets something we desire, that jealousy wells up in us, and the rejoicing just drains out the bottom. I believe that this can be the true test of friendship – if we have a friend that is truly excited for us, even if it is something they would desire, then we have a true friend indeed.

I find it helps to think on all the times when I was on the receiving end of a great opportunity, or new house, or whatever, and I think about how I desire for my friends to rejoice with me, because I was given something great, something I’m excited about. How hurtful it must be when I let the little green monster get the better of me! I would imagine that it takes away from the joy of my friend, and I don’t want that. Do you?

Let’s work to be good friends! When something great happens to someone we know, let’s truly rejoice with them, praising God for His wonderful generosity, and love, that He would grant us so many wonderful things!

Fulfilling God's Purpose

Psalm 138:8
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever- do not abandon the works of your hands.

I’m curious, how many times have you wondered whether you will fulfill God’s purpose for your life? I know that I have so many times, I’ve lost count. I think it probably crosses my mind at least once a day.

There are so many times when God gives us an assignment that we do not feel qualified for, and we begin to fret and wonder how we’ll ever get it done, especially up to His standards. And then there are the times when we feel as though we really have no "great purpose" in life, at least not yet, and we begin to think "What if I’ve missed it? What if I had my chance to fulfill my great assignment for my time here on earth, and I overlooked it, somehow? Will I die and hear God say, ‘you missed the boat, baby’?" Perhaps you’re not in one of those places right now, but I can tell you that I am. That is why this verse comes as such a great comfort to me.

I know that my greatest purpose is to praise and glorify God – there is nothing greater, there is nothing better. He created us for His great pleasure, and I really try to keep that in mind. But I also believe that He plans for us, before we are even born, assignments, so to speak, jobs on this earth that we are uniquely qualified to do. He formed us, and knows us so much better than we even know ourselves, and so, He laid out for us some things to do that play into His good plan.

The problem comes in the fact that we have no idea what He may have planned for us, and we never know when He will bring those opportunities our way. And so we watch and we fret, worried that we’ll miss them, or mess them up (or perhaps already have). So, is it not great comfort to you to know that God will fulfill His purpose for you? Read it carefully – the Lord will fulfill His purpose for you. It doesn’t say that He will make sure you fulfill it; it says that He will fulfill it.

Amen and hallelujah! Praise the Lord God Almighty! We haven’t missed the boat, because God won’t let us. We won’t screw things up, because He will do it through us (Remember, He qualifies the called!). We don’t need to worry, we just need to say to ourselves (and perhaps everyone else around us – hey, let’s scream it at the top of our lungs, and make the neighbors think we’re really weird), "the Lord will fulfill His purpose for me!" And then look to God and declare "do not abandon the works of Your hands!" Because God is not looking for the brave, or the brilliant, or the one who has a bunch of PhD’s under their belt, and a thousand credits to their name – He is simply looking for the willing, and the ready. I’m pretty sure we’re all willing, so let’s be at the ready for the moment when God turns to us and says "you’re on!"

Hiding From God

Genesis 3:6-9
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"


I’m glad to see (maybe I should be disappointed) that nothing has really changed in the several thousand years since the creation of the world. People still sin (oh don’t we ever!), and when we do, we still run from God.

I am continually amazed at how often I will run from God, hiding in the nearby "bushes" because I "hear Him coming," so to speak. Then, because of my precarious position, I begin to plead and beg "Where are You Lord?!" All the while I am the one hiding. I am the one who is shut off from Him. He knows what I’ve done, and it really, unfortunately, doesn’t surprise Him (I wish it was the exception – I’m working on that!). Yet, He continually comes looking for me, asking "Where are you, Andrea?"

Oh, that we would learn to run into His healing, sufficient arms when we are in trouble, whether it’s of our own making or not. He is the only One with the answers. He is the only One who can help us out of any and all situations. For Adam and Eve, He still made them some clothes, and provided for them, before booting them out of the Garden. And now that Christ has opened the door for us to hang out with Him again, walking hand-in-hand on the paths of the garden of life, we should be thrilled to take advantage of His presence, His healing, and His love.

Let’s run into His arms today, or perhaps fall at His feet, rather than hide in the bushes, as He calls out our names. Be blessed, dear one, to walk with God today.

Faith Equals Action

James 2:17-22
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that–and shudder. You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.


This can be such a confusing portion of scripture, I know that I’ve meditated on it much over the past year or so. I pray that God will reveal to us the truth behind it all, as we attempt to dig deep with few words.

The problem, for most people, stems from the idea that faith is simply defined as "belief in something" – belief that it exists, that it is what it is, and nothing more. But let’s think about that. When we have "faith in someone," it means we trust them, and as a result of that trust, we act upon it – telling them our deepest secrets, allowing them access to our inmost thoughts, giving them approval to act on our behalf, to use our stuff, etc. When we truly have faith in someone, or something, that faith is naturally backed up with action.

That is all this passage is saying. It is not saying that we have faith by our actions and our deeds, but that our actions and our deeds reflect where our faith truly lies. If we believe that God has asked us to do something and that He can come through for us, we shouldn’t hesitate. Just as Abraham knew that Isaac was the one through whom God would build his family, he went forward with offering Isaac up as a sacrifice, because he knew that God would follow through with His promise.

So much of our faith being complete, however, lies not in ourselves, but in our knowing who God is – knowing His nature, knowing His promises, knowing Him deeply. We cannot trust One whom we do not know. So, we need to spend time with Him, in prayer, in study; we need to align ourselves with Him and let Him change us, let Him saturate us with all that He is. I think we will find that as the inside changes, our actions will begin to change as a result.

I think we should remember, however, that it can be a slow process. Abraham had been friends with God for many years, before he was asked to sacrifice his son in faith. So, let’s remember that it’s not an overnight change, for the most part. But that’s OK – we have our entire lives, and we should be ready to use each and every day. Let’s start today!