Beyond the Weekend: GOD IS...
People have a lot of thoughts about God. Some say he is angry and vengeful. Some say he is a buddy or best friend. But what does Scripture tell us about God?
Understanding the character of God matters. It changes how we meet him in our everyday lives. It changes how we understand the world around us, and his work in it. And it changes our prayer life and how we talk and hear from him. Understanding the character of God leads us to living lives of obedience and worship.
Join Pastors Aaron Buer, Jeff Manion and Brad Holmes in our 10-week series GOD IS ..., a study on the identity and character of God, and learn how your faith can grow as you know God better.
God Makes Us Holy
Read:Isaiah 6:6-7 Listen: Isaiah 6
With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." Isaiah 6:7
Isaiah stands before God and recognizes he is sinful and not holy. He confesses his unclean state. Isaiah realizes he can do nothing to make himself holy before God. Then something incredible happens: God purifies him. An angel touches his lips with a coal, signifying his guilt is removed and then says Isaiah's sin is atoned for. Amends were made. Only God could do that.
We can easily get caught in a trap of believing we can make ourselves holy. We may think God will accept us if we serve enough, give enough, or go to church often enough. We may think that if we can be good enough or read our Bibles enough, we will be okay with God. The reality is, like Isaiah, we cannot make ourselves holy. Only God can make us holy. The way to be made holy is through faith in Jesus's death on the cross and resurrection. We can never earn or achieve our holiness. God makes us holy through faith in Jesus.
TODAY: Thank God for the holiness offered to us through Jesus. Join the Ada Bible Church Worship Team as they sing "We Fall Down." Declare that "we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus" out of gratitude for what he has done.
JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT:
Read Isaiah 45-47.Highlight anything that points to Jesus. Consider the Father exalted Jesus and "that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Philippians 2:9-11).
