Holiness = Happiness

Proverbs 3:5-10 sums up the attitude of holiness (dedication to God) which leads to holy acts (deeds for God):

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty . . .

I think of holiness as choosing to be on God's side. Holiness is leaving the world's side on issues of faith and morality and allying with Jesus and the Bible in all things at all times with all people. Holiness is saying with Joshua, "Choose this day whom you will serve, . . . But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (see Joshua 24).

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A story which made the rounds through cyberspace just prior to America's bold step to exorcise a host of terrorism (viz., Iraq and its diabolical leader Saddam Hussein) comes to mind:

Once upon a time in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. Coincidentally, both were blind from birth.

As the bunny was hopping through the forest one day and the snake was slithering around, the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down.

"I'm sorry," said the bunny to the snake, "but I've been blind since birth. I can't see where I'm going. More than that, since I'm an orphan, I don't even know what I am."

"It's O.K.," replied the snake, "because I'm blind and orphaned too; and I don't know what I am either."

The snake paused and then said, "I've got an idea. I'll slither all over you and figure out what you are!"

So the snake slithered over the bunny and then said, "Well, you're covered with soft fur, you have long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. So I'd say you're a bunny rabbit."

"Thank you," said the bunny, "and now let me paw all over you and figure out what you are!"

So the bunny pawed over the snake and then said, "Well, you're very smooth and slick, you have a forked tongue, no backbone, and no strength. I'd say you must be French."

It takes spine to be holy!

Holiness is the devoted determination to be God's without reference to the cost. It's like the pastor who had just been called to a church. He was asked, "How do you expect to please so many people?" He answered, "I did not come here to please so many people. I came here to please One!"

Martin Niemoller comes to mind. He was a German Lutheran pastor who helped organize the Confessing Church of Germany which opposed Adolf Hitler. He was arrested by the Gestapo on 1 July 1937 and imprisoned at Sachsenhausen and then Dachau. Reflecting on what happens when holiness is compromised by worldliness, he said,