Hiking the Hills

Hello again

I gave a mid-term today. I'm braced for disappointment. : )

I had a great response to my Chapel message, despite it's challenging nature. I include it here in case you are interested. Several have asked me for copies and/or came to consult with me about it. The day is not lost!


A Pilgrim’s Guide
Hiking the Hills of Holiness with Jesus at Your Side
Dr. James W. Gustafson

Key verse: I Peter 1:16 You must he holy for I am holy, says the Lord.

Jesus lived a perfectly holy life. We are destined to be like him when we see him as he is. Meanwhile we must strive to be different from this unholy world.

“Holiness” means “set apart for special use.” We are set apart for God’s use. Holiness is that attribute that applies to all the other attributes of God. His power is a holy power, his love an holy love, his justice an holy justice and so on. God gave an example of how he looks at our unholiness when Ananias and Sapphire conspired to lie to the Holy Spirit.

I have been a Christian for about 50 years. I entered by the narrow gate and began to hike the narrow way with Jesus many years ago. By now I should be nearing the summit where the Father’s House beckons me. But I am still in foothills. My progress is so slow. Why am I not more holy?

A.W. Tozer once said that we are each as holy as we want to be. In other words we have no excuse. God is willing. It is we who allow distractions. The world is too much with us.

Augustine said “Make me holy—but not yet.” He was enjoying the “pleasures of sin for a season.” So often we are settling for the paltry pleasures of this world when we could reach for the lasting satisfactions of the spirit. Bonhoeffer said that as Christians we have already forsaken the world. We live in the world but must not be of the world. This world is not my home, I’m just a –passing through, says the songwriter.

Too many of us say, “I prayer the sinners prayer. I accepted Jesus. When I sin (and that’s not all that often) I have access to forgiveness 24/7 I have my ticket for the heavenly banquet that Jesus purchased and gave me.”

Really? God accepted me—and only because Jesus stood in my place. And I am ver fortunate that God looks in favor upon me and delights in me. I signed on to God’s program. It’s more like joining the army. You belong to the commanders, who tell me when to arise, when to eat, when to march in parade and train on the field. And it may cost me my life! We do not become Christians to lounge in the Officer’s Club sipping chai! We are in the trenches getting dirty and bruised and wounded.

What a mess our world is in. War, genocide, immorality, people proud of their sins. And even in the Bible churches, leaders fall into disgrace through sexual sin or a greedy exploitation of those who trust them. I pray that if ever I fall into public disgrace God will take me off the field at once lest I do more damage to the cause of my Lord.

Some say that I don’t understand how hard it is to be holy these days. Temptations come to us all the time through TV, ads, movies, news. Society tolerates depravity more than in the past? Really? The church flourished in the Roman world which was even more degraded than today. We can have no excuses.

I Corinthians 6:19 says my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in me and I must honor God with my body. Think of it, everywhere I go everything I think and do, God has to be there because he is in me. That should motivate me to better effort.

Ephesians 4:21-24 to put off the old self and to put on the new self created to be like God in holiness.

Colossians 3:5-10 commands me to put to death sexual lusts and greed for money which is idolatry.

I Thessalonians 4:3-8 tells me not to let lust control my body but to live a holy life.

And especially Galatians 5:19-25 lists sins having to do with sex, those having to do with attempts to control events by witchcraft and the power of idols, those having to with nasty relationships with other people. People living that way “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” We are to show the fruit of the Holy Spirit—love, joy , peace, and so on.

This is repeated so often we must take it more seriously. Our God is a consuming fire. He has high expectations. He provides all the assistance we need—his own being within us. I need to be more serious about this.

How can I make more progress, hiking in the hills of holiness toward the Holy City?

Monitor your mind when it is idling, that is, when you are not concentrating on anything in particular. What does my mind drift to? Is it pleasure, money, ambition, worldly dreams, comfort, escape? Am I rummaging through the garbage of life?

When I am out on the trail and a bug flies into my mouth, I just spit it into the bushes. But if it happens in your house or in a cathedral, I won’t just spit it on the floor? Why not? Because your house is special, a church is holy ground. But Scripture says inside me is God’s holy presence. How often do I keep this before my eyes?

When I was courting Ellie many years ago, did I have to write notes to myself to be sure not to forget about her during the day? Of course not. I thought about her every time my mind relaxed from a task I had to do. Why? I loved her; I was crazy about her. I thought about her all the time! Do I love God? Is he the default position in m mind? Do my thoughts go readily to him? Philippians 4 tells that keep thinking about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy? I have a long way to go on the hills of holiness.

When someone cuts in front of me in the queue at the bank or the market, I find myself judging that person—what’s wrong with that so and so? Do I think maybe he has just lost a child in death or that she may have lost her job or gotten bad news, so that I give them a break? Why am I not more like Jesus in this? I am not as holy as I should be.

What about time? Is it harder for me to pray and read my Bible than it is to watch TV, chatter on the phone, gossip with friends, follow sports, surf the Internet? What is it that will satisfy my heart? The things of this world? No—I am happy when I ma making a difference for God.

What about money? I am strategizing how get more? Am I dreaming about a fancier lifestyle? Greed is idolatry. Covetousness is sin. I should be content with what God provides. All in this world is rubbish or destined to be rubble. Why do I divert my focus?

What about home? A Christian home should not b like a typical home in the culture. Is it a god-filled home, where we live in humility, mutual forgiveness and love? How do I judge my spouse, parents or siblings? Do I want God to judge me that way? As a husband am I to expect her to serve me? My job as a husband is to help my wife fulfill the gifts and calling has given her, to build her up. Her job is to do the same for me. We live not to be served but to serve.

What about my goals. What do you want to be when you have walked on the trail with Jesus for 50 years or more? The key question every day is this: will what I am doing advance my progress upward in holiness?

The world flatters us: “It’s all about you!” God says “it’s all about me. In me alone is life, health, shalom.” All who are godly in Christ Jesus will suffer. Am I lounging in the officers club or fighting in the trenches? Watts wrote this hymn: Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while other fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?

And when the Holy Spirit comes in power, changes are astonishing.

Peter was an “I don’t” person. I don’t eat unclean food; I don’t’ go into Gentile houses. God dragged him kicking and screaming into the house of Cornelius, a gentile. God humbled him so that would accept the rebuke of Paul when he drew back from fellowship with Gentile believers.

Paul was an “I do” person—a religious terrorist, rounding up infidels and putting them to death. He had to become blind so he could see Jesus. And he used his energy to reach the Gentiles. He was willing to be reconciled to John Mark after their falling out.

John, brother of James was a son of thunder. But wanting to have power at Jesus right hand so as to lord it over others, he was cowardly enough to get his mom to ask Jesus for the seats of power. But when God was through him he was in a prison camp on Patmos, powerless and gentle as a lamb.

You may say with me, “I am not good at this holiness program!”
Question: is you heart in it? If you want to be good at football, your heart must be in it. Or music, you must devote yourself day and night. Or to paint or cook or parent or write.

You belong 100% to God. Is he your passion? Am I yielding to the Holy Spirit, concentrating on that holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

As we pray now, close the eyes. Let us each give God permission to be the Commander not only of the Hosts of Heaven but of our lives. Are we willing for God to deploy us anywhere He knows we can help the kingdom cause? Is it OK if he takes me or my loved ones home to his headquarters?

Truth is, I do not need to be wealthy. I do not need to be healthy. I don’t need my prestige, my position, my respect. I don’t need to be smart. I don’t need my family and loved ones. I don’t even need to live—if I have God and God has me. Jesus is all I need. Like Jesus is all I want to be. Jesus is holy. And holiness is all I long for, holiness is all I want to achieve.

Be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord.

Benediction: Now unto him who is able to present you faultless before His throne, to the only God our Savior, be glory and majesty authority and power through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.