Pastor Granillo: A Holy Nation…

By Pastor Raul Granillo
Los Alamos

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

Being a holy nation simply means being the people of God who seek a mature relationship with Him. The lack of holiness is why many people find that their relationship with God is as volatile as the typical marriage in America today. Any couple that wants to stay together for the long haul must quickly realize that marriage is not about lust, but about intentionally maturing in love for each other.

The same applies to our relationship with God. If we only seek to satisfy our immediate lusts through God, then we will not last in a relationship with Him. This is to say, that when we base our worship, or other time with God, on things that move us emotionally or just satisfy our present needs, then we have turned our relationship with God into a regular “hookup” that gets us through the week.

When we do this, our relationship with Him becomes easily shaken by the disruptions of life. This is not what God desires when He calls His Church His bride (Isa 54:5, Rev 19:7-9, Jer 2:2, Eph 5:27). And for that reason, He shares the secret to a lasting and meaningful relation with Himself.

Peter refers to many scriptures when he writes, “just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NIV). Seeking holiness means being intentional about working on the things that you know can harm your relationship with God. It means forever working on your “spiritual marriage”.

Seeking holiness results in attending church regularly because you will always need a social setting to work on your marriage to God. It means that you don’t bounce around from church to church because you didn’t like what they said. (That’s like changing a marriage counselor because he told you your spouse was not the source of problems.)

And at the same time, holiness means asking yourself if the church you attend is really challenging you to continue to grow in your maturity as a Christian. (No one wants to pay a marriage counselor who just lets you beat each other with the pillows and provokes emotional responses, but never really offers anything that changes the dynamic of the marriage from lustful to mature.)

Seeking holiness, is the means by which we become Christians who are grounded in our love for God, and as a result, we properly reflect the beauty of His love into creation. A marriage based only on lusts will result in many children. But many children are not the sign of a healthy marriage. Children born to parents with an immature relationship are children that are likely to be raised with a perverted image of what a marriage is.

As a child who grew up in a broken household, I will attest that it directly affects your ability to discern between love and lust, and it easily jades you into thinking that all marriages are a sham destined for failure. This is not good fruit.

A marriage that is strengthened by the intentional quest for maturity and love is a marriage that will produce children who have something to look up to. Christians who seek holiness—who seek to continually mature in their walk with God—will, by everyday practices of love, produce children in the world who are more likely to desire the same kind of relationship with God in their life. To be sure, many today despise the idea of a relationship with God because they have witnessed many Christians who are immature and simply “play house” with God.

Being chosen by God is a result of His immense love for us; being called to be a royal priesthood is God revealing our purpose, being a holy nation means taking God serious enough to grow up.

To find out more about La Vista Church, or to hear this and other messages, visit our website at www.lavistanaz.org or email me at raul@lavistanaz.org. Follow Pastor Raul on Twitter @RaulGranillo007

Please come join us as we fix our eyes on Jesus. We meet Sundays at 9 a.m. for Sunday school and 10 a.m. for worship. Everyone is welcome!

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