Treating the Holy as Common

 "They will teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common, what is ceremonially clean and unclean."  Ezekiel 44:23

"When large numbers of adherents in the Christian churches come to believe that God is different from what He actually is, that concept becomes heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind!  When the Christian church surrenders her once lofty concept of God and substitutes for it ideas so low, so ignoble as to be utterly unworthy, her situation is tragic indeed."  A. W. Tozer

Yesterday I came across this quote from Tozer.  Then, this morning I was reading chapters 43-44 in Ezekiel.  In the beginning of chapter 43 of Ezekiel, when Ezekiel saw the glory of the Lord, the Scripture states that he fell on his face.  In the very next chapter, Ezekiel encounters the glory of the Lord once again, and his response is the same.  He falls on his face in reverence and awe of the Almighty God.

The modern church, I am afraid, has lost its sense of reverence and honor for Who God is.  In our efforts to make God a personal God, an approachable God, we have made Him common and ordinary.  There is no longer a sense of God being high and lifted up.  Instead, He has been placed on the same playing field as the human race.

Yes, the veil has been torn, and we can now go boldly before the throne of grace, which means we do not need to be afraid to come to God in our time of need.  What it does not mean is that we can enter before Him any way we see fit with casual attitudes and no concept of Who He is.  The God Who is a loving and personal God is also a holy and righteous God, and we cannot approach God in any manner we choose.  The priests of the Old Testament had rituals, certain clothing, and a purification process they had to adhere to before they could minister before the Lord.  Even though the veil has been torn and we have been given access to go before the Lord, just like the priests, we must come humbly before Him.  We must purify our hearts and come before the Almighty with reverence and honor.  "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?  He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully."   Psalm 24:3-4

God is still God, and we are still mere humans.  He is exalted high above us.  We must not in our attempts to make God approachable lose our sense of majesty, holiness, and reverence.  Proverbs 1:7 states, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction."  Some interpret that as reverence rather than actual fear, but either way you interpret it, there is very little fear or reverence for God in our churches today, and we have become a very foolish generation indeed!

There is a song whose lyrics are "Come just as you are."  Not only must we come to God just as we are, but we must come to Him just as He is, not to something or someone we would like Him to be or to someone we have created in our own imagination.  He is Who He is. Whether we can "relate" to Him or not, He does not change.  Hebrews 13:8 states "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever."  God will always be Who He is since before the beginning of time.  He will not change Who He is to become "culturally relevant" or so that we can "relate" to Him.  The problem, therefore, is not with Him, but with us.  Instead of attempting to change God into someone we can "relate" to, we need to pray that God would change us, change our hearts, so that we can learn to come to Him as He truly is. 

Dear Heavenly Father,
 Forgive us.  Forgive us for taking our relationship with You so lightly, for treating You so casually, for losing our sense of reverence and awe of Who You truly are, for treating what is holy as if it were common.  I pray a sense of reverence and a correct view of the Almighty God would return to our churches again.

In Jesus' Precious Name,
Amen