Are We Holy Enough?
What do we really want to get out of life? Love? Happiness? Comfort and maybe a few rewarding Relationships? Or maybe our hopes and aspirations are loftier? Perhaps toward fame, fortune, power or influence? Let’s take this list of wants one at a time. Love isn’t some thing we can go get, it’s something others give. Happiness is an emotional reaction, measured against less rewarding times. Comfort is a temporary reprieve from physical and emotional trials. All of our earthly relationships have an expiration date, however rewarding or challenging they are. I’ll lump fame, fortune, power and influence together for the sake of this article. These aren’t paths to destinations, they’re drivers and vehicles intended to take us away from places where we’ve felt incomplete or unappreciated. When we strive for any of these final four, the places where we end up provide far less satisfaction than what we had hoped for. This is confusing to many who spend their lives pursuing these drivers, hoping they will offer the solutions to their deepest needs.
There are two questions people have been asking for countless generations. If we believe in some kind of God, why are church, submission, faith or a spiritual relationship even necessary? Will any or all of these get me any more than what I’ve already been promised for “just believing”? The first answer is provided within our lifespan. Hope has more emotional dimensions than love, happiness or comfort. Hope is an unlimited, renewable source of human energy. Without the hope that God offers, our lives become machine-like, with a time stamped 3 dimensional purpose. Faith, takes us beyond our human lifespan, adding eternity, thus offering more dimensions to Hope. If we don’t know God, hope is reduced to desperation. If we don’t fully understand God, hope is one dimensional and life becomes the same. Through His human death, Jesus proved to a doubtful world that Hope is warranted. Matthew 27:51-53, “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people“. “Holy people” as referenced above are those with clear consciences, pure motives who are also humble and honest in serving God. There is more to know about “just believe” than these two words suggest.
JC Calkins with COMMON SENSE 4 UNCOMMON PEOPLE
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