holiness, day 3

Come to Stillness:
Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Gracious and loving God, you know the deep inner patterns of my life that keep me from being totally yours. You know the misformed structures of my being that hold me in bondage to something less than your high purpose for my life. You also know my reluctance to let you have your way with me in these areas. Hear the deeper cry of my heart for wholeness and by your grace enable me to open to your transforming presence in this time. Lord, have mercy. (Invitation to a Journey by Robert Mulholland Jr.)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 99

Scripture for the Day: Colossians 1:19-23

Reading for Reflection:

We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by (Exodus 33:21-23).  We must take refuge from God in God.  Above all we must believe that God sees us as perfect in His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may be partakers of His holiness. (Knowledge of the Holy by A. W. Tozer)

Holiness in human life is a reflection of the holiness of God and, therefore, has always been associated with the religious experience.  Holiness is a special word that suggests not so much a particular quality of the divine, as the essence of the transcendent mystery which for the believer stands at the center of human existence.  The word holiness carries with it connotations of the numinous, and therefore includes the experience of awe and wonder and power—all of which cannot be clearly defined.  Holiness always implies something more— pointing to that mystery which can never be contained.  More than any other word in the history of the language, it speaks of the essence of religious experience. (Invitation to Holiness by James Fenhagen)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Holy, Holy, Holy

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;
Holy holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee,
Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea;
Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee,
Which wert and art and evermore shalt be.

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide Thee,
Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see,
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in power, in love, and purity.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
All Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!
God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

Closing Prayer:
Thank you Lord, that you see me as holy because of the gift of your Son. Help me to celebrate the holiness you have given me by being wholly yours this day. Amen. (JLB)