You must be Holy, because I am Holy

I've recently been spending my quiet time with my Bible and Louie Giglio. For those of you who don't know who this is, this is a great man of God. He's the founder of Passion conferences, a movement that desires to see the campuses of the world set on fire for Christ. He's an incredibly gifted and powerful speaker, I believe God is doing GREAT things through him, so I've decided to spend my personal study time in the Word with his online messages. Believe me, they are some LIFE ALTERING messages, I sit and soak in the words God is speaking through Louie and I just cry my eyes out because EVERY word is something that God has for me.

The message I watched tonight was part of a series Louie did called 'Tattoo'. Its a series about the markings of Christ on the life a Christian. He is absolutely right. The debate is a hot one, tattoos yes or no, and he doesn't give an answer either way, he, like I believes its a personal decision that needs to involve prayer and understanding and logic. Its not something that should be done to draw attention to yourself, if its gotten, it should be a personal thing, or, as he gives and example, just another way to Glorify God, as all of your decisions and actions should do anyway.

One thing that Louie pointed out was a verse in Leviticus 19:2

"Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.'

Read those words again..."Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.' Don't be holy for anything other than me. Don't try to be a god on earth, don't try to raise yourself up, no, you must be holy, because I, the LORD YOUR GOD am holy. Sets you in your place doesn't it? Think about this. This was Moses saying to the children of Israel, who were escaping Egypt, calling them to understand that they were free, that they were safe and taken care of because GOD desired it so. Is that not the same for you and I today? We are safe, we are alive, we are free BECAUSE GOD DESIRES IT SO. Not because you desire it, but because the Creator of the universe, the God of All, the Lord of EVERYTHING desires it so. Think, if God desired you to be trapped and confined and sick and dead, YOU WOULD BE SO. We're talking about the Guy who BREATHED THE UNIVERSE INTO EXISTENCE! The Guy who created something out of nothing, the Guy who created a living breathing man out of DIRT! If He desired you dead, you have NO CHANCE. And at the time the Israelites were forgetting the very God who had brought them out of captivitiy.

So what is God saying here? What is it to 'Be holy'? Well, look at it this way: is being drunk holy? Is promiscuity holy? Are drugs holy? Didn't think so. What God is saying is that you, when you accepted Him, when you said Yes to the Cross and realized that God was the Center of your universe, not you, but God, you were saying that He, not you, is the One to be like. Christ was blameless, a pure lamb sacrificed for a sick, demented, twisted generation of men. Every little thing you've ever done, every single sin everyone in the world has committed He took into Himself when He hung on that tree, when He suffered and died, everything He did WAS FOR YOU. You were bought with a price. Louie puts it best, Paul was writing a letter to the Galatians chastising them for being of both worlds, of Jew and Christian. For trying to bring everything together into what Louie calls, 'The happy hug'. They were blurring the lines between the Grace and Mercy of the Cross and the old Mosaic code given to the Jews in their wanderings. He said to them..

Galatians 6:11-17
'11See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. 16Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

17Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.'

What Paul is saying is that he himself bore marks on his body that illustrated his sufferings for Christ, Paul had been beaten, whipped with the Cat-of-nine-tails, stoned, all in the battle and for the cause of Christ, he physically bore the marks on his body of his sufferings in the name of Jesus. He was saying to these people, you must be a new creation. What you do on the outside means nothing. What matters is that your heart belongs solely and completely to God. What you do on the outside, yea, its great, tattoo, awesome, but what you require, what God desires, is that you are a completely new creation in Him. That EVERYTHING you do you do for His Glory and His Glory alone.

Powerful isn't it? Think about that for a second. God is the Creator of the universe, He created you and I for His Glory and His Honor alone. What does that mean? It means GET OVER YOURSELF, because if not, your going to have one crapload of problems. You are a blip in the history of time, your life is like a grain of sand on the side of Mount Everest. You are nothing, God is Everything. And yet, God bought you with HIS BLOOD. He came down from the Glory of Heaven, and lived 33 years on this Earth, in this stinking rotting flesh, He suffered the most painful of painful and humiliating and extreme deaths that has ever been imagined by this twisted and depraved human mind. Here's the thing, to quote my friend Nathan, 'check this out', that thing, that dying and coming from paradise to live, that, HE DID THAT FOR YOU. You. That blip in time, that ant fathoming a mountain. He did that for you. Before He created the world there was nothing and He knew your name and loved you so much that He came and died, He bought you with a great and terrible price BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU THAT MUCH. That being bought thing implies ownership. When you say Yes to Christ and that Grace and Mercy that is the Cross, you are taking ownership, you are saying Yes Lord, I AM YOURS, you are giving yourself to Christ FULLY AND WHOLLY. You are denying the decay and corruption that this world is and devoting yourself to Christ. Your being marked by Him. Like Paul, who carried those marks physically on his body, you are being branded with the Cross for all to see.

Let me challenge you with this, as Louie challenged me. Are you doing that? Are you giving up yourself fully and wholly to Christ, denying the world and this rotting flesh and saying, 'Yes Lord, to You I give myself'? Are you marked, are you tattooed for Christ? Are you willing to suffer at the hands of the world, to suffer that persecution for the Cross? Let me tell you, its a challenge. The worlds an inviting place to be, but what you have to ask yourself is, what is this instant gratification doing? Will it last? I'm here to tell you, No, absolutely it will not. You may be young and beautiful and think your immortal and infallible now, but one day your going to get old, your skins going to sag and wrinkle and your beauty will wither and die just like your body. You are 1 in 6 billion people on the planet right now, your one miniscule life in the great timeline of this world. You will die and your life is like a puff of smoke in the wind. You're not guarunteed one second beyond this moment. God is forever. He is All Powerful, All Knowing, Always. He is the beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega. He is and always will be. You, you are expendable and small and God is Vast beyond belief. And yet, before the world, before the stars and heavens, before anything was, He held you in His infinite hands and whispered in your ear 'I Love you with all of my heart, you are fearfully and wonderfully made, unique in every way, a glorious unique creation by the Creator of the stars and galaxies, and you, my love, are more beautiful to me than anything else in existence. I love you so much that I'm going to send my One and Only Son Jesus Christ to die on a Cross, just for you.' Your loved THAT MUCH. So I challenge you. Let Christ be your tattoo. Make it your lifes goal to say what Paul said, to say 'Take off my robes, see the markings of Christ on my flesh' Let the world see Who you stand for. Who you love. Because believe me. There is no greater love than that of your Savior for you. Man will fail you every time, man will beat you to the ground and kick salt into your wounds, but Christ, Christ will ALWAYS be there to pick you up in His infinite arms and carry you until your ready to walk again. Take that ownership. Accept that mark, trust me, It will be the most important thing you'll ever do, the rewards will be unfathomable.

I hear the Savior say,
Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leopards spots
And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Oh Praise the One who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead!