Published by admin on 25 Jan 2013 at 01:02 pm
HOLY IS THE LORD
One of the first things that comes to my mind when I awake each day is, “Holy is the LORD, and most worthy to be praised.” That sets the theme for my entire day. It’s telling me that God is not like a man who sometimes breaks his word when it is not in his power to perform it. Even a man of the highest integrity does not have all power to make his word good. There are circumstances beyond the control of even the best of men that can cause them to not be able to make good on a promise; for example, when a man tells a woman I will always take care of you. Then he becomes disabled and not only cannot take care of her, but cannot even take care of himself. Was it his intention to break his promise to her? No, it was out of his control. But when GOD makes a promise, there is NOTHING that can prevent Him from fulfilling it!
That brings me to the second part of “Holy is the LORD, and most worthy to be praised.” Because He IS holy, fail-proof, and unable to lie, He IS most worthy to be praised. Regardless of YOUR circumstances, the LORD is still on the Throne, unchangeable forever. That means even when YOU are at your most desperate place in life, unable to cope on your own power, there is One who is not limited by your problems, whom you can run to for help. Now of course, everyone knows God CAN help them, but the question remains, WILL HE? Ahhhh, that is the number one question to be answered, isn’t it?
You see, I could be the richest person on the face of the earth, having more money than I could ever spend in my lifetime, but that doesn’t mean I would give YOU any of it, no matter how badly you were in need. Having resources does not necessarily mean willingness to share them. There are many rich people in the world, politicians and movie stars and sports figures and the like, but that doesn’t guarantee any of them are willing to help those less fortunate. That is not the nature of God, though. God’s resources are infinite, while man’s resources are not. That means if a man has a billion dollars and he gives it all away, he is broke. And while he may be able to regain wealth in time, he is not guaranteed to be able to do so. God on the other hand cannot go broke. He created the entire universe as we know it and yet His resources are not diminished in any way.
But what about God’s willingness to help us? Think about something here; there is nothing on the face of the earth that God did not put here first, either as a creation or as a raw material for us to make things from. Yet, mankind has created absolutely NOTHING from scratch. If God were not willing to help us, we wouldn’t have any of this stuff at all whatsoever. Did God create the earth to benefit Himself? No, He did it for us, however, He created US for Himself to have fellowship with. He created mankind in His own image, according to Genesis 1:26-27,
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Well, we seem to have the “dominion” part down pretty well, but we don’t have the “in the image of God” part down very well. Why do I say that? Because if we really behaved ourselves “in the image of God”, there wouldn’t be selfishness, wars, murders, greed and all that bad stuff. All we have to do is look around, and we can see how mankind is running this earth “his way”, how we constantly fail to do good for our fellow man, how we absolutely fail to uphold ourselves in God’s image in the world, even though we were all created to do so from the least to the greatest. I’m not going to preach on that part right now, that’s for another time. For now I’ll concentrate on God’s attributes of holiness. He doesn’t have the faults of mankind, and that’s why we have hope for His help.
There is an account about Jesus and a leper in Mark chapter one I would like to use today:
Mar 1:40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mar 1:41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
Mar 1:42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
Mar 1:43 And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away;
Mar 1:44 And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Mar 1:45 But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.
Here we see the leper knew Jesus COULD help him, and that’s the way most people think yet today. Even the fact that Jesus was moved with compassion and reached out and touched the leper, was not enough to remove the leper’s question if Jesus would heal him. It took Jesus actually saying, I will; be thou clean, to actually cancel the leper’s “IF THOU WILT”. You will notice the leper didn’t have to keep trying to talk Jesus into healing him. He didn’t have to present fifty scriptures to Jesus to move Him to have mercy on him, nor show any reason whatsoever from the Bible that he should be healed. Isn’t that AMAZING?
Jesus didn’t ask him, Have you repented from your sins? Or, Have you paid your tithes?, or Have you forgiven those who have sinned against you? What did Jesus do?
He healed him…..How can this be? Can a sick person really be healed with so little fanfare, religious ceremony and ado? Apparently God thinks so….
Don’t you think it’s time you let Jesus remove your “IF THOU WILT”? He has healed multitudes since He walked here in His earthly ministry, yet, His healing power has not diminished. Remember, He is the Son of God, doing all things in the image of His heavenly Father, perfectly after His likeness, unlike other men. If it was really God’s will for mankind to be sick, don’t you think God would have created Adam and Eve sick to begin with? Don’t you think Jesus would have left the sick just the way they were, rather than “defy His Father’s will” by healing them? Rather, wouldn’t Jesus have gone about making people sick, if it was God’s will for people to be sick? I think it’s amazing how mankind’s thinking has become corrupted over the years. Instead of seeing how God sent Jesus into the world to show us how merciful God REALLY is, we would rather try to bring God down to mankind’s level of insanity by saying it isn’t always God’s will to heal. Jesus clearly showed it IS God’s will to heal. And He healed ALL who came to Him, never refusing even ONE. Doesn’t that tell you something????
So the question I always hear is, “Then why isn’t everyone healed?” Well, according to the Bible, all who came to Jesus WERE HEALED without fail. But there is something they saw back then that we fail to see and understand today, and that is GOD IS HOLY AND MOST WORTHY TO BE PRAISED. People today have stripped God of His holiness, they won’t believe His Word, and they even question if He is worthy to be praised. That’s because they try to compare God with mankind. Mankind is certainly NOT worthy to be praised. Therefore, they judge God’s holiness and worthiness to be praised by their own lives, their own standards, which by the way are at an all-time low. God is not a man that He should lie and I’m so thankful for that. Don’t look in the mirror and think God does stuff the way you and I do, because He doesn’t. His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
Why don’t you just for once literally take God at His Word? He isn’t going broke, His kingdom is not in recession, He never breaks His word, and He doesn’t need you or me to make Him holy. He is ALREADY holy. And because of that, you live and breathe and He wants to help you live life abundantly, to the fullest. Know this: God gives you the freedom to remain as you are if that’s what you really want. You are free to live WAY under the standard that God created you to live by if that’s what you want to do. You can stay sick, oppressed, broke, depressed, downtrodden, and generally bummed out, if that’s your choice, and God won’t take away your freedom of choice. But there’s a better way! Let God cancel your “IF” right now just like Jesus did for the leper long ago. Fear not; believe only. “Holy is the LORD, and most worthy to be praised.”
Lorie Leahy on 25 Jan 2013 at 3:25 pm #
Thank-you for your words of praise. God is good all of the time. Hello to you and Jenny!
Ted on 26 Jan 2013 at 10:26 am #
Pastor Jerry, thank you for helping us keep focused.