Pondering His Holy Word

A Priesthood of God

1 Peter 2:4-5

As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

As humans, we can’t become holy through our own works. To become holy, an Outside Force, mainly God, has to interject Himself into our timelines and set us apart. He did this numerous times in human history. 

Now, we are creations of God. In the beginning of creation, God set humanity apart from all of creation because He created us in His image. When we encounter every person, whether we agree with them or not, whether we like them or not, whether we oppose them or not, we have to acknowledge that we are all created in the image of God, so despite what we may think of that person whether good or bad, that person that we will encounter is an image bearer of God. I believe we must be careful not to thumb our noses down at a person God loved enough to create. 

After the flood, Abraham was the first of humanity that God set apart. God said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). The LORD set Abraham apart to be the father of a great nation. At this point in history, the world back  had fallen into idolatry, and Abraham’s family lived in a region steeped in Babylonian religion. Yet, God set Abraham apart to be the father of nations. Then, He renewed that covenant with Abraham’s son, Issac, and Issac’s son, Jacob (Israel). Then, he set all of Israel’s descendants apart to be a “treasured possession among all peoples,” and they would be a “kingdom of priest and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Israel is still a treasured possession of God, and He will redeem them.  

However, God did not simply call Israel a holy nation in name only. He delivered the people of Israel from Egypt (the world power at the time) “with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds and terror, with signs and wonders” (Deuteronomy 26:8). Not only that, He brought them into the land of Canaan and conquered the Canaanites. 

Yet, God did not end there. He called out David to be a ruler over Israel, and promised that the Messiah would come through David’s bloodline. Jesus set apart the 12 disciples to proclaim the gospel to the ends of the earth. Those who believe were given the same command. However, we should know that God is not just around us, His Spirit is within us. He is forming us in the image of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:18). As I said before, justification is one act by the Holy Spirit that justifies us before God. Yet, in the same manner, justification is one act that takes place in eternity. On the other hand, sanctification, the process of becoming holy, takes place in the temporal sense, which means it takes place throughout our life. 

Temperament Revisited. 

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes and had to begin taking medicines and checking my blood sugar. One of the first things my primary doctor told me was to seek diabetes education and visit a nutritionist. The diabetic educator, a nutritionist, was very friendly and patient, but at the same time, she was frank; she said that I have to cut carbs. As I decrease carbs, I should increase proteins as I ramp up the veggies. I was like, cool, I can live with that. Yet, she said she didn’t want to deceive me into thinking I would eat a lot of meat to replace the carbs. The plan was to increase the vegetables and ultimately decrease the meat back to the regular portion. 

Now, why did I disclose this story about my health? I should have added a disclaimer within the first blog of this series in which I discussed temperament. Now, I know that I said that our temperament will remain more or less the same after we become Christians. I would like to add something to this statement. Since we are now children of God, His Spirit lives in us. As a result, we are constantly being changed into the likeness of Jesus Christ. So, although some core personality traits will be used in our new selves, somethings about our personalities will be left behind. Parts of our temperament will decrease as our new nature increases. 

God gave us a new living nature, which is conquering our old dying nature. Make no mistake: our old nature will not die without a fight, so we are waging war within our minds (Romans 7:23). Do not be deceived; our temperament will be affected by the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit. Some of our old nature dies quickly and goes without much of a fight, but much of old nature puts up a fight until the very end. When we begin our walk with Christ, we are not only declaring war on Satan and this world’s system, but we are declaring war on our very nature. 

Sanctification is life in the Crucible.

God justified us to be righteous before Him, but He also sent us back out as enemies to the world to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. He didn’t immediately remove us from this world after He called us. He didn’t even pray for us to be removed from the world, but he prayed that we be kept from the evil one (John 17:16).

Peter uses the analogy of purifying gold to describe trials and testing. “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:6-7). In the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul describes the process of man’s work being tested by fire. “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). Jesus uses this imagery as well in Revelation, “I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich” (Revelation 3:18). The imagery of purifying by fire is used quite a bit in the bible. 

The method of purifying remained relatively the same throughout history. One of the oldest ways to refine gold is by fire. The process begins by extracting gold, which is mixed with a bunch of other metals in a rock called an ore and placed in a crucible. In ancient times, craftsmen sat next to the heated crucible, a vessel that could withstand high temperatures. He would stir the molten gold and skim to remove the dross, or the impurities, that rose to the top. The melting point of gold is about 1,943 degrees Fahrenheit (1064 degrees Celsius). What is the purpose of heating gold to its melting point? It is to liquefy the gold to remove the impurities. 

After we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus Christ, our faith will be tested by fire. God, the Spirit, is melting our faith so that He can remove all of the impurities from it. This purification is a lifelong event. 

Now fire implies heat; heat suggests that it will be hot; hot means that it will burn, and burns implies that it will be painful. Walking with God is not going to be an easy walk. Anyone who tells you differently is lying to you. Walking with Jesus means that we are walking contrary to the world and contrary to our very nature. Now, some things will be easy to let go of and will need to be purged with fire. 

To stand before God, we must be purified and made in the likeness of Jesus. Neither our morals, ethics, or good works will save us. The only thing that can save us is our holiness, and holiness in our fallen state is not something that we “do”, but God makes us holy.

Pruning Will Hurts

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:1-2). 

The Father prunes us so we can bear more fruit, but understand that pruning consists of cutting away dead or overgrown branches or stems. Cutting away things that were once attached to us hurts. We will feel the pain of the pruning. Yet, pruning is an essential aspect of vine dressing. If we have dead parts that no longer serve a purpose, it will limit the fruitfulness of our branches, so God, the Father, prunes those dead branches.

Similarly, the Lord turns the crucible up to very high temperatures so that He, the Craftsman, can stir the molten gold so that the impurities would rise to the top. Then He can remove the dross. There, the gold that is our faith would be pure. Sometimes, a lot of ore will produce a little gold. The Lord refines us so that He can produce a little gold. 

I’m using a lot of imagery to explain the process of sanctification, but these images provide the best picture of this process. God is sanctifying us so that we can appear before Him pure and holy. Sanctification is a challenging and, in many cases, an unpleasant process. The Holy Spirit is literally removing all of the impurities within us so we can create in the image of Jesus Christ. 

When we are in Christ, we are no longer of the flesh but of the Spirit. Both the flesh and the Spirit are opposed to each other. Moreover, since we are in the Spirit, we no longer gratify the things of the flesh, but we submit to things of the Spirit. As Christians, we are to crucify “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 6:16-26).

My Musical Collection Testimony 

Throughout my life, I accumulated several thousands of dollars worth of secular music. And I’m not talking about neutral secular music, but some of the most vile music. I’m not just talking about rap. My music taste involves musicians who were openly witches and satan worshippers. I used to listen to this music any free time that I had: on the bus, on breaks, doing homework, grading papers, etc.… I didn’t agree with the music’s or the artist’s message; it just sounded nice. I built my music collection as soon as I could afford to buy CDs at 14 years old. 

I kept much of the music throughout the years. I went to sleep listening to this music. As soon as I was able to, I uploaded my music to the cloud so I could listen to it on Google Music, and I purchased much more music from iTunes and Google Music (I know, you can see my age). I had a playlist of music that I’d listen to to fall asleep. I would not exaggerate if I spend well over $2000 – $3000 on music. 

Then something changed. Nothing within my personality changed. The Lord began revealing what I was actually listening to. The problem was that I still liked the sound of the music. I enjoyed listening to this music. I did not want to let it go. But the Lord continued to reveal what I was allowing into my spirit.

One night, I was listening to Spotify to sleep, and then a song of an artist, who I know is not a Christian, played, and it woke me up. I remember the exact song, but it was the first time I heard it, and it sounded so nice. However, I was at the point where I knew that this artist was not a Christian. As much as I wanted to add that song to my playlist, the Lord would not let me do it. He made me face something that I liked and got rid of it. It was dross that needed to be skimmed out of the gold. The problem is that I still need to get rid of all of my old music. I didn’t want to add new music, but  I simply mixed it with gospel music. 

It was in 2019 as I was reading through the bible and I read 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” Even though the context of that verse was discussing sexual immorality, Paul’s words stunned me. This was the first time I understood God, the Spirit, lives within me, and I am His temple. Some things had a hold on me that I had to let go. My musical collection was a stronghold. For a long time, I stopped listening to that music. It was just a dormant collection on my now YouTube Music library. I didn’t listen to it. I started adding contemporary Christian artists and gospel artists and created a new playlist. 

I can’t exactly point out when, but I think it was before the beginning of my second year of teaching that I ultimately deleted all of the music and even some of the gospel and contemporary Christian music from my YouTube Music library. 

I speak of music because it has played an essential role in my life. Moreover, I still struggle with it. Every so often, a song pops into my head, and I start singing it before I catch myself. Even nearly five years later, I still struggle to listen to this music.