Holy

ἅγιοι ἔσεσθε, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἅγιος

Be holy, for I am holy.
1 Peter 1:16

It seems that no matter where I go, or whom I come in contact with, the fact that I esteem and hold the Word of God above my head and everything else automatically positions me in a state of enmity. This has always come as a shock to me; I consider the scriptures greater than all, and so I always thought that because of this, people would trust me and honor me. Instead, they either want to challenge me on all points or end up simply despising me because of the Testimony that I simply will not waver from.

They refuse to understand. I am peace, yet they consider me to be war. They refuse to understand. I want His decrees, His commands, His precepts, His statues, yet they think I am self-righteous, narrow-minded, rash, unkind.

My witnessing is considered survivalism and evasion; must I constantly have to defend the Testimony? It is not mine—I did not create it. It was no emanating spark springing from my faculties. The Testimony was handed down in the Word; I simply accepted it as it is—without adding or subtracting. And because of this, I am wrong.

The language of the Cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God’s power to save. As scripture says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today? Do you see now how God has shown up the foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God’s wisdom that human wisdom should not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach. And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Take yourselves, for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word? How many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is foolish by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks are common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen—those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything. The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God’s doing He has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: if anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Jerusalem Bible

And I am wrong with you, if that's what it is, but the wisdom of God is foolishness to the world, as are the accusations, the scourging, the cross, the nails, the sponge and vinegar, the gash in His side, the taking the body down, the laying it in the rich man's unused tomb, and the resurrection on the third day. So is the 40 day sojourn, the ascent to the right hand of Divine majesty, the never-leaving arrival of the Unearthly Spirit, and finally, so is the second and glorious Coming. I stand on this bedrock with you, so we can share Golgotha with our Master, and also share Paradise with the thief.