Thursday, December 04, 2014

Keep them clean!



My wife keeps a clean kitchen… and I am glad!  Certain utensils are for food preparation only. They are ‘holy’ in the sense that they are set apart just for that purpose. I am NOT to use the sharp scissors in the utensil drawer to cut the dog’s hair.  I object that they can be washed thoroughly, but there is no argument.  If it is used for serving our food, there is no other use allowed.

God made you and me to be holy, vessels of His Spirit. Paul says that the Lord places His "treasure in jars of clay.”  (2 Corinthians 4:7, NIV)  Despite being very ordinary vessels, the Presence of the Spirit in us gives us great value and holy purpose. Question is – do we live nobly, holy, honoring Him?

Belshazzar, the profane king of Babylon, gathered a thousand of leading citizens of the city for a party.  The Persian army surrounded the city but the king was unfazed, believing his citadel beyond breach.  As the party went on with the wine flowing and the debauched behavior growing, he sent a directive to liven up the event. He "ordered that the gold and silver chalices his father Nebuchadnezzar had stolen from God’s Temple of Jerusalem be brought in so that he and his nobles, his wives and concubines, could drink from them." (Daniel 5:2, The Message)  "They drank the wine and drunkenly praised their gods made of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone." (Daniel 5:4, The Message) Cups that were to be used exclusively for holy rites in the worship of the Lord were desecrated – and quite purposefully.

God took note!  The party atmosphere fell deathly silent as a supernatural Presence invaded the hall. "Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote." (Daniel 5:5, NIV)   In terror the king asked for answers from his advisors.  “Read the inscription. Tell me what it means,” he demanded, but none could. Then the queen mother remembered Daniel, now an old man, long retired from the palace service.  “He told your father the meaning of his dreams,” she said.

Daniel was found and when he arrived, he told the king he knew the meaning of the handwriting on the wall.  Before he read it, he issued God’s indictment. "Look at you, setting yourself up in competition against the Master of heaven! You had the sacred chalices from his Temple brought into your drunken party so that you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines, could drink from them. You used the sacred chalices to toast your gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone—blind, deaf, and imbecile gods. But you treat with contempt the living God who holds your entire life from birth to death in his hand. " (Daniel 5:22-23, The Message)  He finished with the judgment – “God has numbered your days and they’re over. Your life has been weighed and found wanting. Your kingdom is done, divided and given to another.”

That night the Persians entered Babylon and Belshazzar perished, the Assyrian empire done.  And it was arrogance, pride, and refusal to honor the living God that brought the judgment.

We are saved by the blood of Christ, baptized into His life, and filled with His Spirit. The Word urges us to remember - "that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives. The Spirit is in you and is a gift from God. You are no longer your own. God paid a great price for you. So use your body to honor God." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, CEV)  If we fail to use these vessels to honor Him, if we corrupt them with sin, He will not ignore our willfulness. He is a holy God who corrects us for our good and His glory.

So let’s look at the dramatic end of Belshazzar and let it speak to us.  Here’s the word from the Word. "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18, NIV)  "For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." (2 Corinthians 4:6-7, NIV)
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Refiner's Fire

Purify my heart,
Let me be as gold
And precious silver.
Purify my heart,
Let me be as gold,
Pure gold.

Refiner's fire;
My heart's one desire
Is to be holy,
Set apart for You, Lord.
I choose to be holy,
Set apart for You, my Master,
Ready to do Your will.

Purify my heart,
Cleanse me from within,
And make me holy.
Purify my heart,
Cleanse me from my sin,
Deep within.

CCLI Song # 426298
Brian Doerksen
© 1990 Mercy / Vineyard Publishing (Admin. by Vineyard Music USA)
Vineyard Songs Canada (Admin. by Vineyard Music USA)

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