Of Passion and Holiness

Passionate is how many people describe me.  I guess they might be right.  I see what I am as normal.  I don't understand dis-passion.  When they say, "I love your Passion" I say to them, "You can live like this".  They don't for the most part.

 

It's all about being certain of certain things.  I'm certain in Jesus for instance. People have said that I act like what I believe is right (about anything).  Well, If I believed it I must think it's right, RIGHT?

 

People have said that I apparently believe I have the answer to some things.  If I believe, and if I am convinced I am correct and if I have Passion.......

 

That has been true in my love life.  When I knew that I knew regarding Peggy I was not going to question what was true for me.  Oh, I was stupid a few times but Loving Peggy has been a correct belief I will not back down from.

 

Some might say I am unevolving.  I guess I am.  I don't change things I know to be true unless something, an event, or supernatural persuasion causes me to rethink.  That is less easily executed as time goes on.  I am not open to ideas that do not fit into the passion I have.  In fact, a pretty good post about that appears on Barry Kolb's blog.  It's just a thought.  Thinking on things can cause you to stumble.

 

This brings me to the core of this whole thing.  I am very suspicious about "Christians" who are not Passionate.  Oh, they don't have to be wild eyed radicals (Although I like wild eyed radicals).  They just should exhibit some passion about Jesus beyond the minimum needed to go to heaven. 

 

I have lots of friends, in and out of church.  If I am in conversation with them for 10 minutes I can tell what their passions are.  I am feeling the same thing that Jesus felt.  I don't mind if they couldn't give a rip about things of God.  I have friends like that.  We talk of other things.  Politics, environment, getting older. 

That's ok.  I enjoy them for who they are.  I think God is like that.  He loves every one.  He sent his Son Jesus to suffer and Die for them.  HE is concerned for them and even if they are still sinners and consider themselves enemies of God they are still on his mind.  He cares about them and what they care about.  He loves them.

 

There are those who are sold out passionate lovers of Jesus. Poke them at 3AM and that's what they talk about.  Sure they are flawed, clumsy, sometimes stupid.  But they are in Love with the Lover of their souls.  Jesus is who they talk about for the most time.  They talk about experiences they have had in him, revelations they have received about him from the word and from His Spirit, sense of his presence around them all day long.  They live in God concienceness.  Everything that happens to and for them happens inside of what God is Doing.  It's all miraculous.  I love being around people like this.  I love being a person like this. 

 

Jesus however is sick to his stomach of the dispassionate.  He said so.  Cold or  Hot.  That's OK.  Lukewarm.  Nausea.  You know the passage.

 

That's how I feel when I am around people that on a multiple choice quiz would self identify as Christian as opposed to Atheist going to hell or Muslim.  They treat Jesus casually, without much fire, he isn't what they think about all day long.  They have compartmentalized Jesus to a few hours a week of "Church Stuff".

 

It makes me sick.  It makes Jesus sick.  He would rather they just admit the truth and quit playing the game. 

 

Misty Edwards sings a song: You are always on my mind.  He is always on your mind, You are always on HIS mind.  And permutations there of.  The idea of the song is God's attitude toward you.  Your attitude toward him.

 

I don't think you can teach it.  You either have passion for Jesus or you don't.  The fire is either burning or it's going out.  It's not a choice.  It's a fire stirred up by the Spirit of God.  I am suspicious that dispassionate people are not even saved.  I can't understand people being dispassionate and casual toward Jesus and still believing they are saved.  This is about to change.

 

Here's a prophecy. 

 

The winds of change are blowing hard on the body of Christ.  It will either fan into flame the fire of God or it will blow out the coals till they are dead. 

 

Jesus is not going to stand for a cold dead church.  She will either come alive or die.  There is no middle ground.  It has already begun.  It is about to accelerate.

 

A few weeks ago someone sent me this passage from Philippians 3. 

Pressing on Toward the Goal

 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

 15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

 17Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  (NIV)

 

I am wondering if it isn't a message for all of us.  If the people you hang out with aren't on fire, find some that are.  Join with them.  Feed on another coals from the Altar. Those passive people you hang with now are about to be extinguished spiritually, don't be found among them.  

According to the passage above they are enemies of God with their mind on earthly things.  What fellowship does Christ have with belial?

2 Corinthians 6:14 You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. (new century version)

To be Holy is to be separate, different, unusual from the world, a peculiar people, not formed by them, formed and hard after God.  Is that you, is that who you hang out with, is that those who you fellowship with in Church?  Now the question is, What do you do now?

There is no passion without holiness, there is no holiness without passion.