A Homecoming

Ahhh…..Homecoming.

Where to start?

Simply put, a Homecoming is coming back to a place, group, or mindset where you had once “laid roots.”

If at a church, you are returning to fellowship with members you had once been in union with.

If with family, you and your distant relatives come together and reminisce over old family shenanigans, stories, feuds, and dysfunctions.

If for school, you and fellow alumni return to the Alma Mater to display your life’s achievements and engage in some friendly competition with fun (and ridiculously corny) games.

You get the point.

You’re returning to something that at one time meant so much to you, but something that you have departed from due to life circumstances.

You leave a church to follow a calling from the Lord, or at worst due to conflict.

You separate from family members after having started your own family, or at worst due to conflict.

You move on from school to pursue the very thing that school prepared you for, or at worst due to conflict.

Just keep up with me for a moment. I’m going somewhere.

So Homecoming comes-a-calling, and here you are racing around to prepare yourself physically, mentally, and emotionally for this “return.” You’re torn between excitement and anxiety, wanting to go and wanting to run away, ready to shine and willing to fade into the background.

So many emotions. So many choices.

And yet, you cannot help but hear the call.

Return!

Come back!

There is one Homecoming the LORD has been laying on my spirit lately.

It’s a Homecoming to Holiness.

His Holiness.

A return to a life separate from this world. A return to sanctification. A return to Him fully and without compromise. “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

And just like the examples I laid out earlier, so many emotions and choices come with this call. I think back on when I really began pulling away from holiness. 

What was it that drew me away from one the most important things about God?

Was is life circumstances or was it something worse? A conflict? A conflict between my soul and His word? A conflict in walking the walk in truth and Spirit? A conflict in surrendering my all physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to the very One who created me?

What was it?????

Was it fear of what others would think?

“Wow, she’s nuts. She thinks God is real and alive and that He communicates with her.”

Was it an unwillingness to totally surrender to God?

“Sorry God, but I just can’t do that. My family and friends mean way too much to me for me to just leave them behind and follow you.”

What was it????

What was it????

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

I love God. He is on my mind, in my heart, and on my lips continually. He is the first one I speak to when I wake up and the last one I speak to when I go to sleep.

All throughout the day I think of Him, what He’s done, who He is. I sing to Him and about Him daily. I read His word daily. I talk to people about Him daily.

So what is it in me that pulls away from His holiness? And why don’t I ever want to think about it?

We all have something that holds us back. For some of us it is more obvious than others.

Mine is trust. 

Though God has saved me, delivered me, helped me, loved me, and been everything I’ve ever needed, I waver in full surrender of trust. I certainly don’t mean to, but in me is a little part that just waits for the bottom to drop out. And what’s even more ridiculous, is that I know how ridiculous my issue is. Yet I cannot fix it. I keep lifting it up to God and leaning on His strength, mercy, and grace. And I chose to believe that one day this will not be a stumbling block for me. I choose to trust Him, even when I do not feel like it. 

And that really is the key to relationship. Choosing vs Feeling.

This I have learned through observation and experience, that the heart and mind of mankind is fickle at best and iniquitous at worst. We are so easily led astray from our convictions, beliefs, and moral foundations, due to feelings and imaginings, that to compare us to waves in the ocean would be an insult to the ocean.

One day we’re walking on water, the next day we’re in a hole on the ocean floor.

So what has the power to hold us and keep us from our own destructions?

Only one thing comes to mind.

LOVE

And I don’t mean brotherly love or carnal love, but God’s love. Agape love. Unconditional love. A love so great it conquered death. A love beyond feelings or thoughts. A love that prompts us to ask “Lord search me…..help me to overcome these things that hold me back from You.”

Right now you’re probably wondering “How did we get here?”

“What does love have to do with holiness?”

The answer may surprise you. It definitely took me for a loop!

Here it is:

When we begin to truly believe in and accept the awesome love of God, we can walk in the fullness of Christ. We can be like Christ, talk like Christ, walk like Christ.......you get it.

God’s love gives us the ability to be like Christ. It gives us the weapons and tools needed to overcome the battles of our flesh and the attacks of the enemy.

And you know where to start looking for understanding of His love?

It starts by acknowledging God’s holiness.

Most of us don’t believe in and accept the awesome love of God because we forget one of the most important aspects of His character, which is holiness.

Let’s just take a moment to view the scriptures about how holy our God is.

Two scriptures automatically jumped out at me.

Isaiah 6:1-3 says “…I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.  Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!””

And in Revelation 4:8-11 , the scriptures say “The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!””

I hope you get it. God is holy! He is so holy that the angels can’t even look at Him in all His glory as He is in unapproachable light. He is so holy that the angels proclaim it day and night, eternally! (Just a note: there is only one reference to silence in Heaven – Revelation 8)

God is so holy that mankind can’t see Him in all of His glory without falling dead. God told Moses that “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:20). But since Moses had found favor in God’s eyes and God knew him as a friend, Moses was allowed to glimpse His back. Not the fullness of God in all of His glory, but just a part of Him (Exodus 33:15-19). (Note that one day we will get to see Him as He is - 1John 3:2)

If you read on into Exodus 34, you’ll see the effect of Moses’ experience.

“Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (v 29-30).

From His communion with God and because of the relationship Moses had with God, Moses retained a bit of God’s holiness. And guess how the people reacted to being in the presence of God’s holiness?

The same way they do today. FEAR!

The people with Moses were so afraid of this “Holy glow” that Moses had to wear a veil when speaking with them. And the only time He lifted it was when he was in the Tabernacle before God. And thus they never had a glimpse of who God really is. They preferred the border between them and God, because it was comfortable. It’s much easier to stay the same and not change. There’s comfort in that. But the changes that need to be made in us, for us to have that close of a relationship with God leaves us very uncomfortable. And we fear that.

“You mean, if I want to be closer to God, I’ve got to change?”

Yes, Sally, you do!

We as Christians today take for granted the amazing grace of God that covers us. The fear (awe) of the LORD has left us and we go about our daily lives squeezing a little bit of God in here and there, not fully understanding WHO HE IS!

This holy God who does not sin, cannot sin; who does not tempt, nor can be tempted; who is pure, righteous, all-powerful, all good; who is HOLY….This God chose to wrap himself in flesh and live as a man on earth without sinning, truly loving, wholly righteous, and humble to the point of death. All in the name of LOVE. Remember that God is all powerful and thus has power over death. But He had a point to make! He had planned a grand display to show the world how much He loves us!

He walked with, talked to, and ate with sinners every day, never condemning them but allowing His glory and holiness to shine light on them which brought forth conviction and repentance.

God in the form of man did only what was good, yet He allowed the deepest of wrongs to touch him. He who created Heaven and Earth and all their inhabitants, allowed His creation to bring great violence against Him so that His even greater love would be made manifest as never before in history.

He was lied about for us.

He was mocked for us.

He was betrayed for us.

He was hated for us.

He was spit on for us.

He was beaten for us.

He was tortured for us.

And He died for us.

“Greater love has no one than this; that one should lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. These things I command you, that you love one another.” (John 15:13-17)

We honor Him and glorify Him when we choose to live a holy life. The more we look like Him, the more people will desire Him.

And I don’t mean a “holier-than-thou” life. That repels. But a life that resembles the life of Jesus. A life dedicated completely to God. A life that calls for holiness, separation from worldly things.

Right now, people don’t see Him in us. Right now the lost are looking for help and they can’t find it in Christ’s church. Right now, we as Christians, need to choose where we stand; because this straddling of the fence between God and the world isn’t working. It’s ugly. The lost can see it’s ugly and God says it’s disgusting.

Revelation 3:14-16 makes it clear that God is not pleased with our “lukewarm” walk. So chose now!

Heed the call to Homecoming. Heed the return to a holy life. Heed the warning that there are souls right now dying because the church has walked away from God and His commandments.

The Lord tells us in His word, “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Blessed are those who do His commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:12-17)

He’s calling us! Over and over.

He is warning us! Over and Over.

It’s a choice. It’s YOUR choice!

Chose this day whom you will serve! Because we all will be rewarded according to our works. And this doesn’t refer to those of you who are good people who do good things. The scripture clearly states that the reward is from Christ and it is up to Him to give. If you do not know Him, or if you have walked away from Him, you will not be with Him for all eternity and you will not receive His reward. Remember John 15 referenced earlier? Jesus is referring to His friends. Are you a true friend of Jesus?

And there’s your choice. With God or not with God? Heaven or Hell?

I urge you to consider this.

Eternity is a long time to suffer because of an emotional response. Let go of all the weights that bind you to this world. They will never last. People, objects, ideas….they will all fade away in time. But God is forever. And He can be forever yours and you forever His. It all starts with a choice.

So I pray,

Father God, I thank you for all that You do and all that You are. I thank you Lord that your love can reach to the deepest depths and farthest lands to save us, to help us, to keep us. I pray you help those who have been deeply touched by Your word and who may be wavering at that crossroad of choice: to choose You or walk away. I pray Lord that Your Holy Spirit guide them to your truth. Lord give them the faith to believe that You are all You say You are. Let them know that because Your love is without conditions, they were worth dying for and that there is nothing you cannot forgive them of. And God, I pray most of all that Your perfect will be done on earth and in us, as it is in Heaven. And all this I pray in Jesus name, Amen.