Thursday, March 13, 2014

WHAT MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE?

What distinguishes a person or an organization from others can be insignificant or magnificent in the context of Kingdom ends.  A particular attribute or characteristic can make a tremendous difference in the overall impact on history.  Such is the matter of holiness, the infilling and indwelling of Christ in the human heart bringing head, heart, and life into consistent communion and common purpose with God's interests.

You may ask what is it about certain people and ministries that have longevity and influence in their essence and mission?  A good example is The Salvation Army, a very human yet consistently divine means of grace daily in millions of people's lives.  The answer is a priority on holiness from the very beginning and a rock solid resolve to stay the course.  We see this in the very words of The Founder, William Booth (October 10, 1886), who wrote: 


Bramwell wrote to me last week, saying that it is the experiential realization and definite teaching of the blessing of Holiness that alone can make us different from the other organizations around us.  I say Amen.  And only this, it seems to me can justify us in having any separate existence at all. 


Holiness for The Army is a conjunctive of both obedient faith in Christ in the continuing, daily walk with Him, and openness and desire for a continual infilling of the Holy Spirit.  It is both the process of growing in grace and the positive crisis of encounter (illumination, conviction, cleansing, infilling) by Him through the Holy Spirit. Holiness is not one or the other, but both/and.  Our part is our obedient faith lived out in our daily walk, the daily exposures to his presence and grace.  His part is growing our heart's capacity to be "filled to the measure of the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:19) in response to our obedient daily walk with Him, and then filling us with His very self "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (Ephesians 3:17).

Both growth in grace by obedient faith and  the indwelling Christ, the both/and, is the heart of Holiness and alone can make us different in our nature ("participants in the divine nature" - 2 Peter 1:4), in our ministry (in Christ all our life is ministry), and in the impact of Christ on the world through our holy living.  It is the "both/ and"  that makes all the difference.

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