First National Seminar on Holiness gives a deep dive into beauty of God
by Lisa Jordan
So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.” (Luke 11:13, NLT)
This was theme verse for the inaugural National Seminar on Holiness held in Glen Eyrie, Col.—the perfect backdrop for this historic opportunity. Beauty was brimming in nature and God’s people. The staff prepared well and prayed for more than a year in anticipation of the seminar, and their intentional love and leadership set the stage for a dive deep into the beauty of God and to experience His holiness.
Each day began with prayer in small groups followed by breakfast and sealed orders (by Lt. Colonel Dean) which reflected on holiness using the theology of The Salvation Army Song Book. We soaked up two morning sessions taught by Ambassadors for Holiness Dr. William Ury and Rev. Diane Ury, then after lunch participated in an extended time of processing, learning and sharing in small groups, working through Chris Lohrstorfer’s book, Learning to Breathe. There was time for rest, reflection and reveling in God’s creation each afternoon.
Evening sessions provided more holiness messages and worship, a dramatic presentation on Brengle’s life, and a prayer meeting. Midweek we met Dr. Stephen A. Macchia of Leadership Transformations, Inc., for a day of practicing soul care and solitude to reinforce the spiritual disciplines as means of grace in our walk of holiness.
The foundation of our time together was that God calls us to be holy because He is holy and Jesus came to make us what He teaches us to be. There were many attempts to define holiness, and we quickly learned it’s both simple and complex but absolutely available to all followers of Jesus.
Holiness…
• A relationship with God that increasingly expresses itself in Christlike living.
• A preference for God in all things; turning toward God, not self.
• Comes from a place of need. We were created to be completed by God and made for intimacy with Him. He breathes His grace/life into us, and we receive His love and respond by surrendering, and breathing out His grace.
• Being justified is not enough— there’s more and more! We can be made like God; if we choose not to, we have missed the point.
• A lifelong growing relationship. It’s not guilt, not static, not limited.
• God does not expect us to do it alone. Holiness comes through the transforming power of the Spirit. This relationship is a shared life of holy love…it’s part of His triune nature.
• Blameless, pure, satisfied, whole… His whole life in my whole life for the sake of the world.
•The representation of God, through us, when we allow the Holy Spirit to enter us and radiate God’s wonderful grace and love.
• An ordinary person filled with the life of God, living sacrificially and others oriented.
The seminar’s culmination was a powerful covenant service, a time to choose holiness, allowing God to sanctify every part of us so we can live like Christ. Returning to the valley of ordinary life, we hold on to the invitation in Isaiah 2:3 (NLT): “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord. There he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths,” and we are forever changed as we serve Him with our lives.
