Daily Devotional For Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Well, it’s terrific Tuesday. I pray your week is one that God is using you to build His kingdom and share the difference Christ is making in your life. We live in an age of high technology and medical care. What used to take days, even weeks, is now is either instantaneous or in a day. We used to have to wait for the evening news to learn about the weather and what is happening around the world. Long time CBC anchorman Walter Cronkite used to end each night’s broadcast with, “And that’s the way it is. I’m Walter Cronkite, Good night.” 

Now, we can instantly use our cell phones and tablets to get any news, weather reports and etc. Think about hospital stays, surgeries and recoveries. Now, you can get a hip replacement in the morning and go home that afternoon. Now, you can get a heart stint in the morning and go home that afternoon. I am amazed at the knowledge and technology that is now available in every realm of life. To some simple-minded people like me, it is unbelievable, amazing and overwhelming. 

Have you ever noticed that some Christians seem to only want to learn through the “school of hard knocks?” They come to church regularly and hear the truth of God’s Word, but they never apply it to their lives. As a result, they have to live with the horrible consequences of their stubborn rebellion. Seems like the Hebrews and Jews in the Old Testament, doesn’t it? Even when family and or friends warn them, they ignore the warnings and intentionally choose to rebel to what they know is truth. 

The Book of Hebrews uses the word “simple” or “simple-minded” to refer to some people. For example, look at Proverbs 1:22, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” (ESV). The Hebrew word translated as “simple” is [פֶ֥תִי, peti]. Chuck Swindoll explains well the meaning of this Hebrew word:

“This word means “to be spacious, open, wide.” It carries the idea of being completely open, undiscerning, unable or unwilling to distinguish between truth and falsehood; of being easily misled, quickly enticed, and easily falling prey to deception. The naive are susceptible to evil and easily influenced by any opinion. They are usually unable to cope with life’s complexities, especially if the situation requires a great deal of mental effort. In Hebrew culture, children are expected to be simple-minded. They lack the education, experience, and training to be discerning. Therefore, parents had the sacred duty to protect naive young ones from deception and to equip them for adulthood. Few tolerated simple-minded adults, however. Except in cases of mental impairment, adults remained naive by choice and therefore deserved to suffer the consequences of their simple-mindedness” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Living the Proverbs: Insights For The Daily Grind, Kindle Edition, p. 184).

Yet, many times in the Bible, the “simple” or “simple-minded” are seem as being rebellious and sinful. Look at Proverbs 7:6-9, 22:

“For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, (7) and I have seen among the simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti], I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, (8)  passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house (9) in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness . . . (22) All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast” (ESV). 

We see the same description of the simple in Proverbs 9:4-6, 16-18:

“Whoever is simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti], let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says, (5) “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. (6) Leave your simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti] ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight . . .  (16) Whoever is simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti], let him turn in here!” And to him who lacks sense she says, (17) “Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”(18) But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol” (ESV).

We see the same description of the simple in Proverbs 14:15-18: 

“The simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti], believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps. (16) One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil,  but a fool is reckless and careless. (17) A man of quick temper acts foolishly, and a man of evil devices is hated. (18) The simple [פֶ֥תִי, peti], inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge” (ESV).

How easy are you to fool or trick or how naive are you to the dangers and consequences of your sin against God? The tragedy here as Christians, we have been called to a life of holiness. Sadly, many Christians live by what I call a “Christian cultural holiness.” Meaning — they look at the Christian culture or Christians around them and then adapt or live their lives by the standard other Christians are living. But they are not the standard, God is. Because God is holy, He has called us to be holy.

God has not called us to be like our culture, but like Christ. God has not called us to be like other Christians around us, but to be like Him who lives in us. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God, Read the following quotes:

• Holiness “is characteristically Godlikeness” (G. B. Stevens, in Hastings Bible Dictionary, as quoted by W. E. Vine in An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words [1940; single volume edition, London: Oliphants, Ltd., 1957], p. 227). 
• Charles Hodge, writing on the phrase in Romans 6:19, righteousness unto holiness, said, “The proximate result of obedience to God is inward conformity to the Divine image” (Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans [1886; reprint edition, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1955], p. 209). 
• A. W. Pink said, “Holiness...consists of that internal change or renovation of our souls whereby our minds, affections and wills are brought into harmony with God” (The Doctrine of Sanctification [Swengel, Pa.: Bible Truth Depot, 1955], p. 25).
• Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, (p. 22): “As used in Scripture, holiness describes both the majesty of God and the purity and moral perfection of His nature. Holiness is one of His attributes; that is, holiness is an essential part of the nature of God. His holiness is as necessary as His existence, or as necessary, for example, as His wisdom or omniscience. Just as He cannot but know what is right, so He cannot but do what is right.”

This means that holiness is the absence of evil. God is holy. This is why the Apostle John writes this in 1 John 1:5, “This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all” (ESV). This means that all of God’s thoughts and actions are consistent with His character. God is NEVER INCONSISTENT with His character. And as we strive to be holy as God is holy, then our thoughts and actions become consistent with God’s character also. 

The absolute holiness of God should be of great comfort and assurance to us. If God is perfectly holy, then we can be confident that His actions toward us are always perfect and just. We are often tempted to question God’s actions and complain that He is unfair in His treatment of us. This is the devil’s lie, the same thing he did to Eve. He essentially told her in Genesis 3:4-5, “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. (5) “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil” (NLT). It is impossible for God in His nature to ever be unfair to us. Why? Because He is holy, so are all of His actions.

This means that when bad things happen to us, we must not blame God or think He is being unfair or unjust. To do so is to malign His holy character. In the 17^th century, Stephen Charnock wrote this:

“It is less injury to Him to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it; the one makes Him no God, the other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God...he that saith God is not holy speaks much worse than he that saith there is no God at all” (Source: Stephen Charnock, The Existence & Attributes of God, p. 449).

Scripture says that one of the ways we acknowledge God’s holiness is to praise God. We see this in Revelation 4:8, where the four living creatures around God’s throne never stop saying, “Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty— the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come” (NLT). 

After God used Moses to get the Hebrews out of Egypt and from Pharaoh’s pursuit of them, Moses said this in Exodus 15:11, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord glorious in holiness, awesome in splendor, performing great wonders?” (NLT). God is often called in Scripture by such names as the Holy One, or the Holy One of Israel. Holy, is used more often as a prefix to His name than any other attribute. Holiness is God’s crown. Imagine for a moment that God possessed omnipotence (infinite power), omniscience (perfect and complete knowledge), and omnipresence (everywhere present), but without perfect holiness. He could no longer be described as God. Holiness is the perfection of all His other attributes: His power is holy power, His mercy is holy mercy, His wisdom is holy wisdom. It is His holiness more than any other attribute that makes Him worthy of our praise. Consider the following:

“Many have never heard of Spruce Pine, North Carolina but this remote area is tremendously important to the rest of the world. It's the mineral found here—snowy white grains, soft as powdered sugar. It's quartz, but not just any quartz. Spruce Pine is the source of the purest natural quartz—a species of pristine sand—ever found on Earth. This ultra-pure material plays a key role in manufacturing the silicon used to make computer chips. In fact, there's an excellent chance the chip in your laptop or cell phone was made using sand from this obscure Appalachian backwater.

Making today's computer chips is a fiendishly complicated process requiring essentially pure silicon. The slightest impurity can throw their tiny systems out of whack. Finding silicon is easy. It's one of the most abundant elements on Earth. The problem is that it never occurs naturally in pure form. Separating out the silicon takes considerable doing.

The sand is blasted in a powerful electric furnace resulting in 99 percent pure silicon. But that's not nearly good enough for high-tech uses. Additional extreme processing is required because computer chips need silicon to be 99.99999999999 percent pure—eleven 9s. "We are talking about one lonely atom that is not silicon among billions of silicon companions," says geologist Michael Welland” (Source: Vince Beiser, "The Ultra-Pure, Super-Secret Sand That Makes Your Phone Possible," Wired (8-7-18).

Modern tech devices require material that is of the greatest purity possible and producing it requires intense refining efforts. God also requires His unique people to be of the highest purity, to be uncontaminated by the world, and He spares no effort in our refining process.

Questions To Consider

1. Why do you think some Christians have a low view and acceptance of being personally holy? Do you? Why or why not?
2. What do you think life would be like if God was not holy and took His anger out on us or our unholiness against Him?
3. Read again Genesis 3:4-5 above. God was not being unfair to Adam and Eve when He forbid them from eating from that particular tree in the Garden of Eden. So, why do you think God put it there and how does this relate to His holiness?
4. Do you live by a “Christian culture of holiness” as described above? Why or why not?
5. The Hebrew word translated as “simple” means “to be spacious, open, wide.” It carries the idea of being completely open, undiscerning, unable or unwilling to distinguish between truth and falsehood; of being easily misled, quickly enticed, and easily falling prey to deception. Does this describe you in any way? Why or why not? 
6. I started this devotional talking about Walter Cronkite. If he were to say: “And that’s the way it is about (insert your name)’s holiness” on the evening news to the nation, what would he have reported about your holiness?

Scripture To Meditate On: Hebrews 12:14, “Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, if the greatest form of my worship is to praise You for Your holiness, I want to praise You now for Your holiness. Jesus, I am a sinner — a sinner simply saved by Your grace and mercy due to Your holy forgiveness. As the Bible says, there is nothing good in me at all. I want to be holy as You are holy. I want my character to be like Christ’s character. I do not want to be part of the “Christian culture of holiness” —living my life with sinful thoughts, actions, and words like other Christians. I want to be distinct, different, and bring You glory. I ask that You help me do this for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! -- Pastor Kelly