Wear The New Jersey

“Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD.” (Le 22:32-33 AV)

 

The word ‘hallowed’ means to be set apart, made sacred, and to be consecrated.  There is an understanding here between God and His people.  God’s people will hallow God and His name and God will do the same with the people.  The precedent for this is because God brought Israel out of bondage to Egypt.  He separated Israel from all other nations to give them promises and in turn, they would promise to live according to His holy law.  The benefits of living according to God’s holy law were natural consequences of living according to the Designer’s intent.  Another benefit would be their testimony to a lawless world that God’s law is better than man’s law thus drawing mankind to God.  However, that which we wish to consider is the hallowing of God and His name by the child of God.  The entire existence of the nation of Israel was wrapped up in the identity of Jehovah God.  He was their definition.  They had set apart their nation and a nation that declared God and His right to rule mankind.  In particular, we want to dwell on the truth that the main purpose for salvation itself is that God be the center of the saint’s life and when others see him or her, they should easily discern this fact.

It amazes me when I see coaches who are fired and then hired for a new team.  They are all in.  They wear the team’s sweater on the sidelines.  They were the team logo whenever they appear in public.  Even those coaches or managers who have had great success in one location, when moving to a new one, never reflect their former team.  Joe Madden managed for the Florida Marlins.  Then he came to the Chicago Cubs.  Don’t be a hater, but I am a Cubs fan.  Any team that wears red, white, and blue is a good team!  Anyway, he managed a team that broke the longest streak of non-championship seasons of any professional team.  The Chicago Cubs won the 2016 world series and he was one of the main reasons they broke a drought that lasted over one hundred years.  If I managed a miracle team like that, I think I would never fail to wear Cubs paraphernalia or my former jersey no matter where I ended up.  However, Madden and the Cubs parted was a few years back and now he manages the Angels.  Whenever you see him, he is in the red and white with the yellow hallo around the A.  He is all in.  There is no reference to the Cubs.  In the context of his life today, the world series win does not matter.  He is all in with the Angels.  He has separated himself from what he was to what he is now.  His very life is defined by his new heartbeat.

So, too, should the saint be with the God who gave him or her eternal life.  Unfortunately, we have compartmentalized our faith for the rest of our lives.  Our church is striving for a campaign of being vocal about our faith.  We are asking the LORD to embolden us to speak to 10,000 souls and hand out 7,500 tracts.  This is pretty aggressive for such a small congregation as we are.  However, what it really boils down to is how we define our existence.  If we are defined by the God who saved us, then we will naturally speak of Him to others.  If we are defined by sports, that of what we will speak.  If we are defined by our human relationships, we will speak of them.  Because Jesus saved us from our sin, He should be the center of all we do, think, and speak of.  Jesus Christ separated us from the world but left us in the world.  He did so that we might be an instrument of separating others unto Him.  This can only be so if we hallow His name.  This can only come to pass if we hallow Christ himself.  Jesus must be the very definition of our lives.  Otherwise, He is not hallowed.  We are one foot in and one foot out.