Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
From conversations with Preacher Clark in the 1970's.
One sure sign, according to my father, that a congregation is truly on fire for God is that those on the outside will call them holy. "If you are holy," he would tell us, "then sinners will say so; you won't have to claim it." Those who are truly holy impress people around them with a sense of holiness, even if those around them don't like what they feel.
The Scripture above says that "THEY shall call them the holy people." The holy people don't call themselves the holy people; they are called the holy people by others. Job made this statement about claiming anything before the Lord: "If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I say, 'I am perfect', it shall also prove me perverse" (Job 9:20). Nevertheless, Job was perfect, and God Himself repeatedly said so (Job 1:1; 1:8; 2:3). Holy people don't talk about how holy they are; sinless people don't brag about their sinlessness; perfect people know better than to boast of their perfection. "He that glorieth," wrote Paul, "let him glory in the Lord" (1Cor. 1:31).
In my father's generation, a sarcastic title that the world invented for the saints of God was "holy roller". The saints who were wise, however, did not feel insulted when sinners called them "holy rollers". They understood that sinners were merely doing what God said they would do if they did well spiritually; they were calling them "holy". Yes, those old saints did roll across the floor under the power of God, and dance, and shout, and run, and cry, and laugh, and jump, and fall to the ground, and whatever else the Spirit's power caused them to do. As a matter of fact, I and some of the saints who meet in my house do those things ourselves. What rich blessings from heaven! Far from being ashamed, we pray for more of that wondrous power and presence of God!
The saints who meet in my house are sometimes accused of thinking we are the only holy people on earth, or at least that we are holier than anyone else. That is not true. Someone who feels that he is holier than all others would not want to be in our meetings because our meetings are about Jesus, not about us. Still, those accusations are sometimes made against us by those who do not understand. I will have to wait for Jesus the righteous judge to render a final verdict on the matter, but my feeling is that having such things said about us means that we have loved and obeyed God so well that we have fulfilled the Scripture that says, "They shall call them, 'The holy people'."
Has anyone called you holy lately?