Worship The Lord
In The Beauty of Holiness
When I was growing up, we attended the holiness church. We were taught that a number of things were sinful and was not permitted for us to do. Such as, women couldn't wear pants. Women couldn't cut their hair. Women couldn't wear make up, or dresses above the knee. We couldn't wear short sleeve tank tops. I was not supposed to go to pep rallies at school. We were not permitted to go trick or treating on Halloween. We couldn't go to a movie theater, and there were so many more.
As soon as I turned 18 years old, I moved on from church and never looked back. I got rid of all my dresses, and only wore pants.
My grandparents had 11 children, so we were a large family of church folks. Years after my grandmother passed, some family members decided to have a memorial service in her remembrance. It was scheduled at a Sunday morning church service in February 1999. I went to the memorial service to honor my grandmother, not to worship God. When church was out, I found myself wanting to come again, and over the next few weeks, I kept coming again and again. By the end of Spring, I had accepted the Lord and became a full time church member. That was 26 years ago. I remember when church service was over, tears would still be rolling down my face.
The Lord has brought me so far from my frame of holiness thinking. Today, I hardly ever wear dresses. The Lord had to actually deliver me of being offended with dresses. I don't hate dresses anymore, but I still wear pants most of the time because that is my personal preference.
The beauty of holiness is not what we do externally. It is actually how we honor God internally. And as we we worship God in the beauty of holiness, our outward behavior automatically causes us to walk upright. The love we have for Father God, causes us to walk in the Spirit, and not fulfill the lust of the flesh... or to do anything that will offend our heavenly Father. And when we discover that we have walked outside of His will, we immediately repent and get it right.
The beauty of holiness is not following a list of do's and don'ts. It is:
- a consecrated state of mind toward God
- a demeanor of reverence toward God
- inward purity without hypocrisy
- exercising faith and fervency in spirit
- honoring God in love and sincerity
I love my heavenly Father (whom I call Daddy). He is my all in all. The love I have for Him propels me to do the right thing — not a set of rules and regulations. The children of Israel had the Ten Commandments and failed to keep those.
I believe with all my heart, that a love relationship is what God's wants from those that accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." He yanked that monkey of legalism off my back, and we have developed a beautiful father/daughter relationship that I would not trade for anything in the universe. I love You Daddy. Thank You for loving me.
We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
SONG: Take My Life (Holiness)
Blessings everyone, go in peace.
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove †