The Beauty of Holiness

I woke up this morning with a phrase in my heart: the beauty of holiness. Then I opened up my Bible to the Psalm of the day (Psalm 29 for the 29th day of September). "Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness."

Ultimately, I have very little understanding of this. What I do know is this: the Greeks worshipped the holiness of beauty, whereas the Jews found beauty in holiness. The Greeks found beauty as something to prize and adorn. But how do we define beauty? Is beauty objective?

I can't fathom that beauty would be objective. Actually, I assume that it is not. In the Greek form of beauty, we aren't going to be able to define what beautiful truly is. I like brunettes, but does that mean that blondes are not beautiful? Obviously it would be absurd to say that. But why would it be absurd? In the Greek mindset, beauty is skin deep. Beauty is the ultimate, and never the penultimate. The absolute end to humanity is to strive to be beautiful. Whatever that means, that is one of our primary objectives in life. If we are naturally beautiful, then we have been blessed by the gods.

There is another way to look at it. The Hebrews saw it that there is beauty in holiness. The phrase is actually, "the beauty of holiness." Beauty does not come from appearance, but from substance. A sunset is not beautiful because of the colors, nor the blend of those colors. A sunset is beautiful because of what it is: a reflection of the Divine glory (Psalm 19:1). Peter tells wives to not adorn themselves like the pagans do. You don't need all of that make-up and jewelry. Put on the beauty of holiness. What does that beauty look like?

"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of old who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear," 1 Peter 3:3-6.

Dear brethren, this is not a text for women only, but for us who are the Bride of Christ as well. It is as much for we men to gain learning of how we ought to obey Christ as it is for wives to obey their husbands. I'm not going to get into that now, and I'll instead focus upon what it says for we who are Christ's Bride. What is the 'beauty of our inner self?' Peter defines it as a gentle and quiet spirit. But gentleness and quietness don't mean timidity, shyness, or weakness. You can be gentle and yet be strong. You can be quiet and yet make powerful statement.

This is the beauty of holiness. In the Old Testament, Divine holiness and beauty are encountered in the sanctuary. But now there is no Temple built with human hands - we are living stones built up together for God. We are the Temple. God dwells in us. The Divine holiness and beauty are not found by going to a sanctuary, but rather found in the day to day interactions between the saints. When we behold one another's faces, we are beholding the very image and glory of God. In my life, and in my character, and in my conduct, I display Christ. When I don't, it is known by all who see me. This is part of what it means to be community. I need the brethren to tell me in love when I am in fault.

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of His holiness." Isn't what is truly being asked here is to worship Him in spirit and truth? We cannot do this in our own strength and ability, but instead through the truth of our relationship unto Him and unto those other believers He has placed around us. We worship in the Spirit that God has sealed us with. Our worship is not our own, but ultimately stimulated by Him. As John puts it, "He has loved us first..."

While I sought to understand the phrase, "the beauty of holiness," I am actually coming to the idea that maybe what I need to understand is beauty. Beauty itself is not something external, but rather internal. The scandal of beauty is that we don't "see" it, but intuit it. Some of the women that I know that are not physically attractive are some of the most beautiful women after you get to know them and their heart. I noticed in high school that the more I got to know the girls I was crushing on, the more attractive they became.

To some, our beauty is actually an affront. The character that we live from is something to despise. Gentleness and quietness are things that the world sees as weak and foolish. They don't see the strength in weakness. They don't see the statement in quietness. They don't see the authority in gentleness. They don't see the beauty of holiness.

We ought to be of a different caliber. Our hearts and lives covet the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We don't desire the strength of the world, but rather the adoration of our Husband. Christ Jesus is the one we are submissive to. Because He had the servant heart displayed manifestly unto the world, we too display that servant heart. It is grotesque when the Body will then take a servant's heart and use it as a term meaning that we are to abuse our brethren.

The beauty of holiness is the beauty of God with us. It is Christ in us - the hope of glory.

Persecution - the Heart of Davidic Worship

            When we desire to understand the heart of David’s worship, there is no better place to turn than to the Psalms. In Psalm 56 and 57 (to only examine two), we find them both starting with persecution. The one is persecution from the Philistines, and the other is persecution from Saul. In this we have symbols of persecution from the world and persecution from the backslidden Church. I find it interesting that even with both of these two very different oppressors, the first few verses in both the Psalms reference David being “trampled.”

            “Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me; fighting all day long he oppresses me (Psalm 56:1). He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me (Psalm 57:3).” This is the unfortunate fate of a “David.” David symbolizes the man of faith – which is ironically the one that always gets trampled upon by men of the world, whether religious or otherwise. Though in both Psalms David is being trampled, his cry is to God and God alone. He does not raise his voice against the Philistines or against Saul.

            In Psalm 56, we find that verses four and eleven repeat one another. In verse 11 we read: In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? In another translation it uses the word “flesh” instead of man. What is the “flesh” and who is the “me” being spoken of? We have already seen from verse one that David is being trampled upon. So obviously flesh is doing something to him. Not to mention, if David is taken, there is a lot of torture that man can do to another man. Yet David insists that man can do nothing to me.

            The “me” must mean something more than the physical body that can indeed be harmed by men.  However, what he is in God, the essential David, cannot be harmed. In this we have the basis for why we shall not fear. This is the basis for worship. Who we are in God cannot be taken from us. We are something very distinct and different from our bodies. Though we are contained within our physical bodies, the reality of who we are is not destroyed with our body. This is why in the midst of persecution we can find solace in God.

            In all of the saints of old, whether Old Testament or New Testament, we read that the glory of God is revealed in both their lives and their deaths. Martyrdom is not merely in death, but a lifestyle. When we can live as though we have already died, then we are truly living. Our lives are not our own. God is somehow in control and is bigger than our lives. Everything we do is to the glory of God. Nothing is for self.

            In this, our death is taken in a way to say, “There is something more important than self-preservation.” In order to die at the hands of persecutors and make that kind of statement through your death does not come at the end of your life. You aren’t going to somehow find the gusto to endure pain. This kind of manifestation is displayed through your life – your death is only the final enactment. Any persecution that is faced, whether to the death or we live through it, will display full well the wisdom by which we truly are governed.

            King Zedekiah was promised his life if he surrendered to Babylon. There was a problem. He feared men more than God. Because he feared what the people of Israel would say, he was brutally tortured and ultimately killed. His death was not valiant. Isaiah, tradition says, was cut in half while hanging upside down. While they hacked him asunder, he was still prophesying. Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego took “death” (fiery furnace) without wavering. They claimed, “Even if God does not deliver us, oh king, we still will not bow down to your stupid antichrist statue!”

            When we view Acts 16, we see the story of Paul and Silas. These two men are beaten and thrown in prison unjustly. At midnight, they start singing songs of praise to God. In the midst of their worship, the prison doors swing wide open. What is it about the worship of Paul and Silas that would cause for such a phenomena? When you can give testimony of God like that to the world in the midst of adversity and trials, then you have given the ultimate witness of God that glorifies God and can be used as a witness to save the nations.

            When our worship comes from a heart that knows God’s character and that He would not allow anything to befall us if it did not glorify Him, we have stepped out of the realm of music as worship and into the realm of Davidic worship. Even in the midst of prison and death, Paul and Silas rejoiced in the God who saved them. Death could not keep them from Him. Why fear? If we die, we go to see the Lord. If we are tortured, then we should count it privilege to be found as worthy vessels to take the same torment that Christ received. Isn’t this why Peter and John rejoiced after being beaten by the Sanhedrin in Acts 5:40-42?

            Probably the greatest travesty of our age is the use of manipulation during worship to rile up the emotions and senses during the music time. True worship should be a spontaneous expression of a reality that has been obtained corporately, by a people who have been long enough and intensely enough together to obtain it. Choruses should be the expression of joy, not its substitute. Music can be a powerful thing, but when music becomes a means to feeling, we have forsaken the holy worship in Spirit and truth.

            There is a wickedness beyond human capacity, which is of the principalities and powers of the air. If we do not recognize (and wrestle) them now, then we will not recognize them during the time of persecution. We will assume that mankind is purely corrupted, and in that we will possibly lose heart. But what do we lose heart in? It is ultimately that we lose faith in God, and we therefore lose our own humanity as well.

            Our lifestyle must be born out of the real belief in a soon coming Tribulation and return of the Lord. With this, our view is properly centered to not fret with the things of this life, and to endure patiently until the end when we shall receive reward. My struggles in daily life are things to rejoice in. I know that the tougher the struggle the greater the work of sanctification it will bring. I rejoice that in pain there is comfort, in struggle there is ability to overcome, in persecution there is endurance, and in torture there is a crown.

The oil of the virgins

In our charismatic Christian "concerts" that we call worship, I believe that this story in Matthew 25 is paramount. I don't mean to call names, nor do I mean to point fingers, but I must admit that I see this more in the Pentecostal and charismatic scene than anywhere else. During Sunday services, we play music for the worship time. This isn't wrong in any way. What is wrong, however is that we will rev up our amplifiers and crank up the bass in our sound systems to try and make an atmosphere that is separate from the anointing and presence of God. In our loudness, we hype up the audience. Even in the preaching, by saying certain words or phrases, such as, "I can really feel the Holy Ghost tonight," we deceive those listening who are either ignorant, or naive enough to believe that all words spoken are of truth. It is obvious that by attending a few meetings and revivals, any good actor could become an evangelist and make millions.

In Matthew 25, starting in verse 1, these 10 virgins have oil in their lamps. 5 of them have enough oil to last until midnight, and the others have an abundance. The 5 without ask the 5 with to share their oil. They are denied, and so the 5 without oil must go buy more. While they are gone, Jesus returns. The 5 return and see a door. The other 5 had already gone through this door, and so the remaining 5 knock and ask to be let in. They are told, "Depart from me, I never knew you." And, of course, this is our Lord Christ Jesus answering.

I believe the oil is the anointing of God to be able to minister with His Holy Spirit, and the power that comes from it. This oil is obtained from anything that requires a cross to bear, such as prayer, accepting rejection from those you speak to, denying yourself pleasure of this world, etc. Essentially, its a suffering that is born in obedience to the Lord. Now, the fact that Jesus said, "I never knew you," begs the question of what kind of oil did the 5 without have? Was it some kind of synthetic, "surrealist" oil? Or, and this is my belief, maybe they had gotten the oil in prayer and petitions that were only for their own need.

The "residue," or abundance, of oil would be those prayers that go beyond our need and to the needs of God. They would be the offerings to not ask God to sacrifice of Himself for our behalf, but for us to offer ourselves as sacrifices on God's behalf. A perfect display of this is to listen to testimonies. Most of the time, it is a testimony of how God has done something for them, and they not only expect, but require God to keep doing things for them. This is self-centered, whereas we should be God-centered. The true testimony is not of what God has done, so that we almost say that He is the giver and never asks of anything. It is true, and I've been a recipient of God's giving, but when our whole Christian viewpoint is upon what God not only has done, but will continue to do for "me," it is a surreal authenticity. It is a copy of the real, but is in the end a mirage.

What is sad is that even when believers pray for revival, what they really mean is a hype, or a shot in the arm that would benefit and bless them. They are willing, and desperately hungry enough, to allow anything that seems "real enough" to be brought before them so they may obtain this blessing. If people are falling down, if there are shouts of tongues, if there are testimonies of healing and miracles, then we equate that with God, when we can read in Matthew 7 that that might not be the case. "Many will say to me in that day, 'Have I not prophesied in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and done many wondrous works in your name?' And my response will be, 'Depart from me, I never knew you.'" Now, that is not to discredit healing or miracles, but to say that we need to use a bit of discernment. If the person praying over you is embedded in carnality, that which he/she has can, and will, be imparted unto you. What kind of shows were they watching the night before the "revival?" What kind of music do they listen to? What kind of character do they emit when outside of the church arena? If it is not authentic Christianity, according to the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, don't let them touch you.

I must admit, there is a lot more to be said, but I have nothing else to write. I hope that this is something you can ponder over and enjoy digesting while celebrating the Christmas and New Years.