Holy

How many times do we use words, or reference concepts, that we've never truly examined for ourselves to discover what they mean? All too often, especially with religious words and ideas. So I thought it would be good to examine what I think is the most important word in all of Scripture. More important than love, or faith, or life, or any other word.

Holy doesn't just describe God. Holy is God. God is holy. The essence of God is perfect holiness.

Ok, that sounds good. But what does it mean? Let's dig in.

The first time the word appears in the Bible is in Exodus 3:5 - "Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Moses meets God for the first time, and immediately the scene is cast as holy. There's something going on here that is remarkable, and in this experience Moses recognizes the holiness of God and hides his face. He was afraid to look at God.

Why? Well, to understand we have to look at the word "holy". The Hebrew word used here is "qados". It carries a couple of different concepts. First, there is the idea of separateness. Otherness. Uniqueness. When used to describe God it means that God is truly one of a kind!

"I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God..."
Isaiah 45:5

"I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other..."
Isaiah 42:8

In my life I have learned one indisputable fact: there is a God, and I am not Him! How much trouble I would spare myself if I only remembered that! God is holy. If you were to strip every feeble attempt at defining the Indefinable One, His holiness would remain because it is at the very core of His being. Holiness isn't a way we define God. It's part of His very being. Think of it this way. If we were trying to define "human being", we wouldn't start with defining it as "life". Life is at the core of being human. It is the very essence of being human. You can't take something so deep and mysterious and use it as a simple definition.

Strip all attempts at defining God away, and His holiness still remains.

I intended on digging deeper into the concept of holiness, but I sense that I need to stop here and allow for some discussion. It's a deep subject, and some might consider what purpose might exist in such a seemingly philosophical and useless speculatory conversation. Theology is talking about God. That's basically what the word "theology" means. Every time we talk about God out of a sincere heart to grow in faith, we learn more about Him. His essence, His personality, His works, His desires for us... We grow in our knowledge of Him. Not cold, dead facts about religion or Christianity. You can't take the personal God and turn Him into an impersonal concept. That's foreign to biblical thought. God is ever personal, always desiring a relationship with humanity.

So I'm not going to post again here until we get some discussion going. I can rant, but that's not what I created this blog for. I want to spark some meaningful conversations about God. My desire is to help other people as they are on their journey of faith. And if perhaps you are someone who stumbled across this blog who might not see any usefulness or truth or relevance in Christianity, please offer your comments and observations. I'm seeking to inspire and encourage everyone on their faith journey... If I come across as harsh or unmoving on my positions, please realize that it's not a position that I wish to defend. But a very real Person. The great tragedy of Western culture is the myth that God is dead.

My desire is to paint a picture of a very real, very alive God. One who is brokenhearted over the condition of the world, and is still very much living and active in history.

And it all begins with His holiness. He is like no other. There is no god like Him. In truth, the other gods are illusions, creations of man which leave us dry. Actually, they are deceptions that come from the spiritual, supernatural dimension we so often ignore in the Western World.

My desire is that you would have a vision of a Holy God, a vision that transcends your religious upbringing and introduces you into a world you paradoxically secretly longed for, yet could never possibly imagine.