My wife and I were able to travel to Atlanta this weekend to watch one of our close friends get married. I was able to keep up with my reading because of flight time, but didn't bring a computer so wrote my daily thoughts down on paper instead. I thought about trying to play catch-up, but no one wants to read 3 days worth of writing in one sitting - at least I'm pretty sure that's not what people expect to see when they click on a blog to read it, so I'm just going to pick my favorite one. It's my favorite because I think it's the most important. I think the church is losing sight of who God is because of the mercy and grace of Jesus that we find our hope in.
It's definitely not wrong to celebrate that Jesus came and forgave us for all of the sin that we commit in our lives. It's definitely very clear in the New Testament that things like animal sacrifice and similar ways of showing obedience are no longer necessary due to the new ways we can show love and obedience through Christ. What we forget is that there is still a Father, and He is still the same person He was before Christ came and changed who we are!
He's the God who is so Pure and Holy that when He commanded Lot and his wife to not look back at Sodom and Gomorrah burning up, He killed Lot's wife for her disobedience. He's still the same God who in Exodus 19 told Moses to make sure the Israelites understood that if they or any of their livestock were to touch Mt. Sinai while God was talking to Moses on it, that they would be put to death. He's still as Holy as He was in Exodus 3 when He asked Moses to remove his sandals before approaching the burning bush. He's still as holy as He was in Exodus 33 when Moses asked to see Him and He told Moses to hide in a rock as He passed and then he could turn and look at God's back, because no man can ever look at the face of God.
I believe that when we're talking to our Father now, and approaching His throne, He still deserves the same humility and understanding of Holiness that He did before Christ came. I don't disagree that all are welcome at the throne of God, regardless of where they're coming from - no matter where you are in life, what wrong you've done, or what sin is in your life. I think that anyone who approaches the throne of God with love is going to be received because of Christ, but I think the character of God would receive the most honor from those approaching Him in humility and honor similar to the way He asked those to approach Him before Christ came.
God's holiness is not something that we should rush into. In 2 Samuel 6 the Israelites are carrying the Ark of the Covenant which God had ordered that they must never touch. The oxen carrying the Ark had apparently caused it to shift where it was possibly going to fall and a man named Uzzah stuck his hand out to catch it. God struck him down instantly. The presence of God's holiness is something that is more than we can possibly absorb and take in if we rush into it or try to approach it too closely.
The church has grown into a body that wants to show outsiders that they are accepted no matter who they are, how they look or where they're coming from, and I am 100% behind that goal, but I think there is a time and a place to be cool and look approachable, and there's a time and a place to be that weird Christian that understands that being on your knees and praying without your hat on is where God gets the most glory.
I have a pet peeve about hats in church that I just need to tangent on real quick. Wearing a hat to church is cool - no big deal, just like wearing a hat to a baseball game. But there's a moment during that game where you take your hat off to show HONOR to the American flag. If we can take our hats off to show honor to a flag... how much more does God deserve that honor when we're praying to Him?!
So, just like Jesus ate dinner with the tax collector's and blended in with them as much as He could without falling into sin, we should do the same in our efforts to draw people closer to Christ and the Church. But, just like Jesus got weird sometimes and snuck off into the wilderness to pray, cursed a fig tree for not having figs, or told demons to enter a group of pigs, we might need to let the cool Christian vibe go to the backseat sometimes so we can get down on the floor in the presence of our God and worship Him the way He has asked to be worshiped.
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