Devotions

Moses was all alone on Mount Horeb herding his father-in-law's sheep when a strange sight grabbed his attention — a bush was on fire. As he stepped forward to get a closer look, God called to him out of the bush.

"Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn. So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush" (Exodus 3:3–4).

God was present in the bush and that’s why it was burning, yet was not consumed. It was a visual representation of God's holiness.

The Lord told Moses, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Most of us skip over this verse without understanding its tremendous depth of meaning. And it has everything to do with how to be holy.

You see, Moses was about to be called into God's eternal purpose for his life — to deliver Israel out of bondage. But first God had to show Moses the ground upon which he, the Lord, is to be approached. It has to be holy ground. In short, Moses was being called to a face-to-face communion with a holy God, and he had to be properly prepared for it.

Moses was afraid as God spoke to him: "Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God" (Exodus 3:6). Why did he fear? Because he received a revelation of the awesome holy ground on which God must be approached!

The New Testament contains a corresponding verse: "No flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Corinthians 1:29).

This verse from Paul isn't just a New Testament truth. It was also true in Moses' day. Moses had to know for himself that God's work isn't accomplished through human ability but by total trust and dependence on the Lord. Holiness is not something we can attain or work up. Rather, it is something we believe by faith and trust in Jesus' work.

Jesus Christ, our Savior, stands alone in perfect holiness. Because only Jesus is holy and perfect, God does not recognize any other person. Therefore, if we are ever to be received by the heavenly Father, we must be in Christ, solely by the grace of Christ and through no merit of our own.

"That He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity" (Ephesians 2:16). "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace" (2:15).

Because of Christ's work on the cross, man could no longer attempt to be holy by keeping God's law. He couldn't become holy by good works, righteous deeds or any human effort. Instead, the Father would accept only one man as holy: the new, resurrected man.

When this new man presented to his Father all who believe in him, the Father responded: "I receive them all as holy, because they are in my holy Son” (see Ephesians 1:6).

We comprise the body of this holy, blameless man. "Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are made bone of Christ's bone and flesh of his flesh and are adopted into his family: "We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Romans 12:5).

Because we are in Christ, we are made holy. "If the root is holy, so are the branches" (Romans 11:16). "I am the vine, you are the branches" (John 15:5).

The path to holiness is not through human ability, but through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful answer to the anxious cries of multitudes who thirst to be holy. We are holy as we rest in Christ's holiness! Our holiness is his holiness — flowing to us, the branches, from the root.

Religious people have a tendency to focus on the darkness rather than the light. I hear so many Christians spouting bitter words: “The culture is to blame,” or “The government is at fault,” or “That special interest group is a negative influence.” If you walk as Jesus did, you won’t curse the darkness because you are focused on the light you bring. Let me illustrate.

Imagine sitting in a church service when the lights suddenly go out and the entire place is plunged into total darkness. If a maintenance worker turns on just one small light in that room, it is immediately seen by everyone in the congregation, no matter where it’s placed. Friend, that is a picture of you in a totally darkened world. No matter how vast the dark space may be, your light can be seen by everyone in the vicinity. It cannot be hidden, so let it shine! Then there is no need to be caught up in anguished conversations about our culture.

This kind of walk not only moves you out of religious mode but transports you into the love of Jesus. That never happens as a result of religious performance. As John reminds us, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

If we try to accomplish the work of God in our own strength, apart from his love, there won’t be any power behind it. Paul points out, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13:1).

By contrast, Christ’s love gives us a pulpit everywhere, with the everlasting power of heaven behind it: “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect [love] comes, the partial will pass away” (13:8-10).

In the third chapter of Acts, after Peter and John had healed a crippled beggar at the gate leading into the temple, a number of onlookers stood in amazement at the sight. They had known the man for years, and the healing was undeniable. When the people questioned the disciples about it, Peter said to them, “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we have made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus” (3:12-13).

When God decides to display his power in the presence of unbelievers, he does it for a reason. The intent is to glorify Jesus, to draw people to himself, to give us a small glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. He wants to demonstrate the amazing possibilities that lie ahead for those who choose to serve him. He’s displaying his complete and encompassing authority over the natural world and when he chooses to do that, it isn’t our place to question or manipulate the situation. We are to accept it and give him the recognition and praise he deserves.

Sadly, I’ve found more resistance to God’s supernatural power from within the body of Christ than from outside of it. Many believers are skeptical because they have not seen God working such miracles in their own lives and they doubt that he does so in the lives of others.

This used to worry me a lot, but now I choose to just push forward, to continue ministering and preaching and moving in God’s Spirit. If others seek God’s power and Spirit, he will reveal it to them.

Purpose in your heart that you will not miss out on the joy and power that Christ can bring into your life. Open up and accept it!

Nicky Cruz, internationally known evangelist and prolific author, turned to Jesus Christ from a life of violence and crime after meeting David Wilkerson in New York City in 1958. The story of his dramatic conversion was told first in The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson and then later in his own best-selling book Run, Baby, Run.

The love of God is conveyed to us only through Jesus Christ. According to John, all of God's love dwells in Jesus: "Of His fullness we have all we received" (John 1:16). You may ask, "What's so important about knowing that God's love is conveyed to us through Christ? How does this affect our everyday lives?"

This knowledge is more than just a biblical concept. Knowing that God's love is conveyed to us through Jesus has everything to do with how we keep ourselves in his love. You see, it's not enough for me to know that God will always love me and won't stop loving me through all my struggles. He also wants his love to have a certain effect on me.

So, how exactly does God's love impact our lives? We can't look to man's example. There are licentious Christians who would turn the revelation of God's love into a license to sin. They convince themselves, "God loves me unconditionally. He has to keep loving me in spite of all my drinking, adultery and pleasure-seeking. His grace is greater than my sins." Such people do despite to God's love.

We have to look to Christ as our example. Jesus has already told us the Father loves us in the same way he loved the Son. So, what impact did the Father's love have on Jesus? The fruit of the Father's love was in Jesus presenting his body as a living sacrifice for others.

John writes, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us" (1 John 3:16). Here was the fruit of God's love in Jesus. He gave himself as a sacrifice for others. The second half of this verse tells us the purpose of God's love in our own lives. It reads, "And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (3:16). God's love leads us also to present our bodies as living sacrifices.