Continuing Chapter 9, God's Holiness; We left off in the section, "The Holy One And The Sinner", on page 171, 3rd paragraph:
We come into the presence of God with tainted souls. We come with our own concept of morality, having learned it from books, from the newspaper and from school. We come to God dirty—our whitest white is dirty, our churches are dirty and our thoughts are dirty—and do nothing about it!
[Consider some thoughts below about the above paragraph and the next one in the book.]
Our Assignment:
Re-read the following (it's been a month since we last met):
- Chapter 9, God's Holiness, pp157-175.
- The Study Guide, Section 10 on Chapter 9, God's Holiness, pp85-89.
Yet, if we came there trembling and shocked and awestruck in His presence, according to His nature, He would no doubt strip us of our dirty filthiness, and put a robe on us fitting for His presence--His robe of righteousness. That’s the doctrine of salvation, which requires the acknowledgement of Christ, as well as, a repentant and contrite heart!
The application for my life? Do I sometimes fall into that mindset with respect to the presence of this Holy, Awesome God, and think, "What's the big deal?" If I do, and if I survive, it's only because of His abundant mercy and compassion, and His unchanging nature and character.
The fact that He loves me ought not to make me relaxed and complacent in His presence. It ought to make me all the more reverence and blessed and thankful and awestruck!
But ultimately, I don't ever want to fall into such a callous state of mind! This is the ALL powerful, ALL consuming, ever existing God condescending to me, a wretch beyond all wretches! And thus, I hold to Tozer's statement: "I want God to be what God is: the impeccably holy, unapproachable Holy Thing, the All-Holy One. I want Him to be and remain THE HOLY. I want His heaven to be holy and His throne to be holy." Amen!