The bush burned with fire, but the bush was not consumed. . . . God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses! . . . Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Exodus 3:2, 4-5).
THEME
GOD'S HOLINESS
The great baseball player Stan Musial once hit a single, a triple, and a home run in his first three times at bat. The pitcher Bobo Newsom, however, didn't think Musial was a perfect hitter. He quipped, "He can't hit doubles."
Neither in baseball nor in any other activity can we mortals attain perfection. We are flawed and marred, tainted and defaced, until God transforms us in eternity.
Nor can contaminated humanity comprehend God's holiness. Holiness means to be set apart, and God is separate in His perfection from all His creation.
The beauty of the burning bush was not just its fearsome portrayal of a holy God but its awesome revelation of the flawless Father's concern for His captive children. Speaking from a common bush, He told Moses His plan for rescuing them.
Some of Christ's disciples saw Him in His transcendent glory at the Mount of Transfiguration, but they also watched Him hunger, weep, and die. In His holy humanity, He called us all to burn with His holiness.
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FEB 19
PROVERBS 23:15-22
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God
(Exodus 3:6).
According to a doctor at Johns Hopkins University, man is constituted "in nerve and tissue and brain cell and soul" to function best on faith. In other words, God made us so that we realize our greatest potential when we are free from the devastating effects of fear. Yet all of us have fears. Those who deny this are being dishonest with themselves. We are afraid of others, ourselves, the future, the past, unemployment, public opinion--the list is endless!
The Bible mentions no less than two dozen words relating to fear. They range in meaning from terror to timidity, and most carry a negative connotation. But one kind of fear--the fear of the Lord--is positive and health-producing. Scripture tells us that it is the "beginning of knowledge" (Pr 1:7), that it is "clean" (Ps 19:9), that it gives "strong confidence" (Pr 14:26), and that it is "a fountain of life" (Pr 14:27). But most significantly, we can choose to be controlled by this fear (Pr 1:29).
Moses expressed this kind of fear when God confronted him from a burning bush that was not consumed. Moses "hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God" (Ex 3:6).
The fear of God is reverent trust. We stand in awe of God, His power, and His holiness. We believe His warnings, His commands, His promises. We hold His character in such high respect that we choose "to hate evil" (Pr 8:13), knowing that all His commands are for our good. By fearing Him we express our devotion to Him. It is the one fear that overcomes all others.
--D.J.D.
Only the fear of God can banish the fear of men.
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FEB 20
COLOSSIANS 3:18-25
Servants, obey. . ., fearing God (Colossians 3:22). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).
Jesus commands us to love God (Mt 22:37), yet Paul enjoins us to fear Him (Col 3:22). But if we love God, shouldn't we be free from fear? Doesn't perfect love cast out fear? My own experience can help answer this question. I love the Lord, but I still have some fear when I think of the day I will stand before Him. I'm not afraid He will send me to hell; I know that Jesus paid the price for my sins. Yet the thought of standing in the presence of a holy God awes me. This element of fear helps me to try to please God. The kind of fear that is cast out by love, though, is a cringing dread of eternal punishment. God has delivered me from that.
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS, a children's allegory by Kenneth Grahame, illustrates the love-fear relationship. Two animals, Mole and Rat, meet Friend and Helper, who personifies God. Mole shakes as he whispers, "Rat, are you afraid?" "Afraid," murmurs Rat, his eyes brimming with unutterable love--"Afraid! Of him? Oh, never, never! And yet--and yet--oh, Mole, I am afraid!"
Daniel the prophet must have experienced that same feeling. His love for God was great, yet when he met the Lord in a vision he collapsed in fear (Da 8:15-27). One glimpse of God's holiness overwhelmed him with a sense of his own sinfulness.
We must love God, but we must also stand in awe of Him. The combination of love and fear is the key to holy living.
--H.V.L.
He who doesn't fear God should fear everything else.
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FEB 21
PSALM 89:5-17
For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? (Psalm 89:6).
Just east of Atlanta is Stone Mountain, the largest outcropping of exposed granite in the world. On the side of the 1700-foot mountain are carvings of Stonewall Jackson, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee. To demonstrate the immensity of these figures, workmen once set a table and chairs on the scaffolding over Lee's shoulder. Then several people ate lunch on that huge projection of carved granite. Although this monument is enormous, it doesn't appear as impressive from a distance as it does when seen up close. Its greatness overwhelms close observers.
The words of Ethan in Psalm 89 suggest a similar truth about getting to know God. The psalmist's inspired song is filled with praise to the Lord. The writer magnifies His greatness, His mercy, and His faithfulness. The psalmist could say these things because he enjoyed a close personal relationship with God. Such a vision of the Almighty comes only to one who draws near to the Lord and is overwhelmed by His greatness.
The same is true for us. We come to appreciate the greatness of our God more and more as we come into closer fellowship with Him and experience His presence. Ethan could sing of Jehovah, "You have a mighty arm" (v. 13). But that knowledge translates into blessing for those "who know the joyful sound" (v. 15) and walk in the light of the Lord's countenance.
The nearer we come to Him the greater He becomes to us.
--P.R.V.
God can take the place of anything, but nothing can take the place of God.
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FEB 22
EXODUS 19:1-19
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling (Psalm 2:11).
My father was a stickler for showing reverence to God. He became indignant when someone quoted a Bible verse in a humorous vein or referred to God lightly. He insisted that all his children sit up straight when he read the Bible at the table, which he did at every meal. He addressed the Lord in a manner that demonstrated his wonder that we as sinful creatures could communicate with the holy Maker of all things. Thus, he instilled in all eight of his sons a healthy fear of God--an attitude that led to sincere worship and grateful obedience.
The Almighty God wants us to call Him "Father," and He invites us to come boldly into His presence. Yet hundreds of Bible passages in both the Old and the New Testaments make it clear that we must never lose an attitude of reverential awe. Exodus 19 records a unique combination of awesome events that gave the Israelites a proper sense of reverence. God caused a huge fire to rise from the top of the mountain. He produced deafening roars of rolling thunder and blinding flashes of fierce lightning. He made the mountain quake. He generated a trumpet sound that grew louder and louder. And the sound of His voice when He spoke to Moses filled the people with profound respect and reverential fear.
How great and holy is our God. How small and weak are we humans. A continual awareness of this contrast will cause us to "serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling."
--H.V.L.
True worship acknowledges the true worth-ship of God.
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FEB 23
JOB 42:1-6
He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry (Matthew 3:11).
As we become more like the Savior, we become more deeply aware of our own sinfulness. This paradox is not the result of morbid introspection nor evidence of a warped self-image. It's an honest recognition of who we are, who Christ is, and how much we long to be like Him.
The caretaker of the home where Beethoven spent his final years led a group of tourists to the room that housed a stately old piano. Lifting the cover with an air of reverence, he said, "This was Beethoven's piano!" A young woman stepped forward, sat down on the music stool, and began playing one of Beethoven's sonatas. Concluding, she spun around and said to the shocked caretaker, "I suppose many people who visit here like to play Beethoven's piano." "Well, Miss," he replied, "last summer the world famous Paderewski was here, and some of his friends wanted him to play, but he said, 'No, I am not worthy.'"
After a glimpse of God's holiness, Isaiah cried out, "Woe is me!" (Isa. 6:5). At the end of his suffering, Job humbly confessed, "Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:6). And John the Baptist said of the Messiah, "He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry." A healthy sense of our unworthiness before God makes us rely more than ever on the worthiness of Jesus. That's the secret of becoming like Him.
--D.J.D.
It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.
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FEB 24
PSALM 48
"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory" (Isaiah 6:3).
God can do nothing that conflicts with His holy character. What He is determines what He does. Since He is holy by nature, all His attributes share in that perfection. Consider the following:
1. As a holy God, He is perfect in His righteousness. We can fully surrender to His will, because we are confident that He will always do with us what is right. The answer to Abraham's question in Genesis 18:25, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" is an unmistakable yes.
2. As a holy God, He is perfect in His justice. We can know that His judgment will be unquestionably fair. The believer will be judged "according to what he has done" (2 Co 5:10). And at the Great White Throne, the wicked will be judged "according to his works" (Rev 20:13).
3. As a holy God, He is perfect in His truthfulness. We can take Him at His Word. Numbers 23:19 says, "God is not a man, that He should lie. . . . Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"
4. As a holy God, He is perfect in His faithfulness. We can depend on Him. He will never let us down. We read, "Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness"
(La 3:22-23).
We can have absolute confidence in our righteous, just, truthful, and faithful God. He is holy.
--R.W.D.
The holiness of God that convicts the sinner comforts the saint.
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FEB 25
JOHN 4:9-25
Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
God, the infinitely holy One, is worthy of our worship. He is our Creator, Sustainer, and Savior. Without His loving care and guidance we would have no hope. We must therefore take the time and put forth the effort to worship Him in a way that brings honor and glory to His name.
When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, He said, "God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." In the devotional classic THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD, Brother Lawrence explains what this means. "To worship God in truth is to recognize . . . that God is what He is; that is to say, infinitely perfect, infinitely to be adored, infinitely removed from evil, and thus with every attribute divine." Brother Lawrence then added, "What man shall there be, however small the reason he may have, who will not use all his strength to render to this great God his reverence and worship?"
We need to ask ourselves if this is the way we worship the One who made us. Do we reverence and adore Him from the deepest part of our minds and souls--from the heart? Are we totally honest before Him about what we are? Do we acknowledge who He is? To give Almighty God the honor of which He is worthy, we must approach Him "in spirit and truth."
--D.C.E.
Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.
