Luke 11:2

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

I was reflecting on the second point of the Lord's Prayer, "hallowed by Thy Name", and spent some time thinking about the nature of holiness.  What does it mean that our Lord is holy?  I think this passage in Exodus, in which Moses encounters the Lord in the burning bush, give me some things to think about.

Exodus 3:5-7

Then He said, "Do not draw near this place.  Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground."  Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."  And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God.  And the Lord said; "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows." 

Note:  We approach the Lord His way and in His timing.  He chose to wait until Moses was 80, and told him to stand at a distance and to be vulnerable, removing the sandals from his feet.  Moses was afraid, and if we understand the holiness of the Lord we should be in awe as well.  God is the God of his ancestors, and ours.  We stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us and they should be remembered.  Our Lord is also the Lord who knows, intimately the sorrows people feel today.  He knows them as if He experiences them Himself.  Even in glory He is a "man of sorrows, acquainted with grief."  He is authoritative, august, yet intimate and well aware of our challenges and difficulties.  We need to grasp both sides of this to understand His holiness. 

Wednesday, November 9, 2016-

Luke 9:27  "But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God."  (New King James Version of the Bible)

And now for a blog entry that has nothing to do with politics. 

Jesus, shortly after He said this, took Peter, James and John to the top of a mountain to pray and there was transfigured before them.  His appearance was altered, made bright and the disciples saw Elijah (representing the Prophets) and Moses (representing the Law) in consultation with Jesus.  Their presence affirmed that that the mission of Jesus supported the Law and the Prophets, and vice versa.  I have wondered, however, how the disciples were able to recognize Elijah and Moses?  Still, this episode strikes a nerve with me because I want, in both my private devotions and in the public worship of the church I serve, to experience the Kingdom of God. 

If the assertion that some would not taste death before they saw the kingdom of God was fulfilled in the Transfiguration, then could we consider that the kingdom of God involved the Presence of God with power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including visions?  If we experienced the Kingdom of God in some fashion in our lives, would it not also possibly involve the same power and gifts involved with the Presence of God, if not an actual vision just like the one the disciples encountered on that fateful day?  I don't want to overstate my desire here and be overly enamored with "experiences" but I yearn to meet with God when I pray, and when we worship on Sunday.  I want people to walk away from worship feeling like they have, in a profound way, truly met with God.  But then I noticed the subject of the conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

It's interesting to note that the topic of discussion between Jesus, Elijah and Moses was Jesus' death in Jerusalem, literally His "exodus".  The vision, power and Presence sounds wonderful, but the topic was death.  Am I ready to face death for the Presence of God in the here and now?  How far have I gone in dying to self?  In an attempt to gauge "death to selfishness" I considered the places where my mind will wander.  All those times I dreamt of "what if I had done this with my life?"  I've wondered what would have happened if I had made one or more different choices?  Are they not all self serving?  Are they not all attempts to glorify self?  

Imagination can be a good thing, but I need to face life as it is right now and die to self-serving wishful thinking.  That is one small part of dying to self.  Perhaps my next step to a deeper spiritual life, a deeper experience of the Kingdom of God, is to meditate and pray about death to self.  How far have I gone with this?  I suspect that I have a long way to go.