…sorry ’bout that!

The Main Thing

Be sure, to let the main thing, be the main thing!

or:

Always make sure that the main thing remains the main thing.

The holiness and majesty of God, is usually people’s greatest hurdle to believing in God, and remaining confident in Him and in His ways.

So, what’s the main thing here? Is it: holiness, majesty, belief or confidence, or something else? Let’s see, and we’ll see shortly.

And, that delay tactic, is not a sales pitch! For, we need a foundation of agreed comprehension, before The Main Thing can become “owned” by our finite minds, wills and ways-we-feel.

King David wrote these words: “Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name”, in Psalm 30, verse 4.

A saint, in Bible language, is a believer-in-God who’s in covenant with God, through the gospel’s message – one who’s set apart to God, by believing in the God of the Bible, and that: by God himself.

So: “Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints”. How’s ya vocal chords? And “give thanks to His holy name”, is the final quest.

So, just imagine: the whole of mankind’s praise, rising up to God-on-High!

So, “here we are” with holiness – the holy name of God – with which I say, we have so much trouble aspiring to, believing in, and co-opting with; but it turns out to be quite simple.

In fact, I think this is the main thing – trusting in God’s holiness.

For that same verse can be rendered: “Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to the memorial of His holiness” ~ESV’s note.

So, what-on-earth is “the memorial of God’s holiness”? And, why-on-earth would we want to be giving thanks to it? And if such a thing exists as this memorial of God’s holiness, how do we give thanks to it?

If anyone reading this can believe that God spoke directly to Moses, then this is what He said:

“This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” ~Exodus 3:15b.

For these words: “thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations”, sounds like God’s instruction to us, of our looking to a memorial. Would you think so?

For thus I-Am to be remembered throughout all generations.

So, if the instruction is to look to one character of God’s name(s) as a memorial and give thanks to it/Him, then what is that name?

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you” ~Exodus 3:15a.

The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is the memorial name. Let’s break it down:

“The LORD”, is the self existent and eternal one, the one who is and who causes to be, who has set the worlds in motion and who sustains them by the Word of his power – He is “the I-Am”, the Great I-Am.

Now, that’s the high-and-holy part, that we have so much trouble aspiring to, believing in, and co-opting with. But, wait for it, for this next part is the where the rubber meets the road, where we-come-in.

For He’s not only The LORD, but “the God of your fathers”.

Maybe you didn’t have a father, or you didn’t have a good father, or the father you had, didn’t believe in God; but He’s still “the God of your people’s fathers”.

Did you ever settle with a people whom you loved, even if they were outcasts, “hillbillies”, a band of thieves, rebels and misfits, then they still had a father. For their father is their nurture-culture, their beliefs, their way of life, their value system and honor system, their common goals, and their way of training “you to be them”; and you loved them.

So welcome, to the God of your fathers.

This memorial of His fatherly holiness that we are to-look-to, and to praise is the nurture-culture of the ones we’ve loved and who’ve nurtured us in truth, no matter who they’ve been or are, for: isn’t God, our God?

So, it’s the memorial of such people’s true love for us, that we are to look to, as this memorial of God’s true name, character and now-time, present activity!

Go on then, praise Him, for the nurture cultures that have loved you, whether they’ve been work cultures, family cultures, gang cultures or any peer group’s culture, just so long as you’ve sensed love from them and amongst them.

Go on, please! Praise Him for them, for He fathered you amongst them, for He’s the LORD, the God of your fathers.

Now, you may be touching: “Our father in the heavens”, for He himself has “hallowed His name” as your father, amidst your fathering loves.

So, this memorial of God’s holiness, is:

The Lord, the God of your fathers;

The God of Abraham,

The God of Isaac, and:

The God of Jacob.

“Well”, you might say: “I can believe in God’s fatherhood and even in His humility or condescension – His stepping-down to become like us, and taking on our case as the Messiah – but these Old Testament characters are by-gones!”

So, where is God’s holiness – the memorial of His holiness – on earth, that we are to look to, and to praise?

It’s the people’s fatherhood, by God-the-Father, as shown above; and it’s also the lifestyle of these three patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

These three patriarchs of the faith – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – were not “prim and proper” believers, but “dirty and dusty” sheep herders and tent dwellers. They had a lifestyle like you and me – a lifestlye of living by a promise; and the promise to them was, and remains-to-be, this:

“I-Will make of you a great nation, and I-Will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I-Will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I-Will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” ~Gen. 12:2-3.

“Ah, yes”, you may say, “But these promises were for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as they walked the lands of Israel, and these same promises are only for the nation of Israel today”.

Well, if the divinely inspired text of Gal. 3:16-18 doesn’t make God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob mine as-well-as theirs, because God himself has redeemed me and placed me :in: The Seed who is Christ, then I’ll “see-ya-later”, and “I’m outa here”!

If I live for just the vague hope of a life; that is: for a material or for a spiritual inheritance that’s received after death, then I’ve lived in vain.

But, if I live for a divine lifestyle that’s honored by God and the decree of His promise, then I’ve lived well, and established something useful for God’s glory whilst here on earth.

So, the memorial to which we are to give thanks and praise, is:

The LORD, the God of our fathers – praising His fatherhood to us; and fatherly-ness with us, as the One who is, and who was, and who is to come.

And the promise-following lifestyle of the patriarchs, which God has decreed, is honored by Him – divinely honored in this way:

“I-Will make of you a great nation, and I-Will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I-Will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I-Will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed”.

What a memorial! It’s the memorial of His holiness.

So: “Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks for this memorial of His holiness” ~Psalm 30:4, is the main thing!

And yet, where is our victory? The victory that God has promised to those who are Abraham’s offspring:

For God spoke to Abraham about us!

“By myself I-Have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this sacrificial offering, in obedience to Me, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

:Promise: “And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice” ~Gen. 22:16-18.

There is just one sacrificial offering of obedience, suggested or even commanded by God, in the writings of this most recent eBook that I’ve authored:

Nations! By God!

It concerns the dough of the first-fruits offering, and is the pivotal ownership-claim of any group of Christians – Abraham’s offspring! – that will bring the unity that’s required for inheriting this promise that was given to Abraham, but is for all “his descendants” or offspring.

I ask you: Was-there-not any unity between Abraham and his son Isaac – for they were father and son – such family unity that enabled Abraham to make this offering and achieve the promise?

Unity! Personal and abiding unity; borne of nurture. I think this, makes us ready!

O why, O why; don’t we possess the gate of our enemies?

Because we are in need of unity.

We’ve surely had plenty of nurture, so now: we’re ready for unity.

Where there is unity, God commands the blessing ~Psalm 133:1-3.

God’s promise concerns nations: “I-Will make of you a great nation” ~Gen. 12:2; but it seems that Christ’s Body, His Church languishes in buildings, in cell-group homes, and even in families because we have a need of the strength of our unity.

See what-‘cha-reckon; for I hope that you also find the strength of the voice of our Father’s convictions, in the eBook I’ve written and that’s linked in here, and that His voice overall, will bring this unity that thrusts out our enemies. I pray so.