Holy

This is a Compassion blog assignment:

Choose one word to embody 2014


Holy.


I didn't have to think too hard, because this is what has consumed me for a few weeks now. Where did I miss this? Did I really take grace so lightly that I assume it's okay to sigh away holiness?

Because this is what I see missing. We need this sense of something huge to be a part of. We need a reason to put ourselves in danger, to take risks, to fail, then learn, then repeat. Holiness means worthiness. But in order to make this statement true, we need to understand just how extreme holiness is.

We look at the world around us and see the evil. It is extreme. We wonder just how bad it must have been in Noah's day if God destroyed the world then but we are still allowed to breathe. We as a human race are still allowed to kill, destroy lives, spread diseases, enslave, torture, and treat others less than animals. We have seen genocide and persecution, slaughtered babies, dishonest gain at the cost of others, we've forgotten integrity, and we cut apart our neighbors with our tongues. It is a horrible place to live in, anyone can see that.

The part we have forgotten is the extreme holiness of God. For every evil report that reaches our eyes and ears, God's holiness is far more extreme.

The Lord of Hosts, Him shall you hallow;
Let Him be your fear,
And let Him be your dread.- Isaiah 8:13

It is not that I dread the Lord. No, I cling to Him. But in contrast to the fear of anything that is a product of this world, I will fear God instead. I will fear the disrespect I will give if I pay more time and  attention to the works of my cowardly enemy than the maker of heaven and earth. He is Holy.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand,
Measured heaven with a span
And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?
Weighed the mountains in scales
And the hills in a balance?
Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?

Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket,
And are counted as the small dust on the scales;
Look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing.
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn,
Nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before Him are as nothing,
And they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless.
.........

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth,
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
He brings the princes to nothing;
He makes the judges of the earth useless.- Isaiah 40:12-17,21-24

But it is not over yet, because upon meditating on the extreme holiness of God, despair may set in. He is too high for me. I am only a grasshopper in his sight. How can anything good come of that?

God isn't just big, but his detail goes down to the microscopic cells in every species of life, the beauty of life under the sea, unknown to us on land. He has detail in every snowflake, and numbers the hairs on our heads.

Nothing- big or small- done by the almighty is ever in vain. Every word He speaks has meaning, every creature has purpose, and every person has a plan written for them.

Holy, Holy, Holy
Is the Lord God Almighty.
The Whole earth is filled with His glory. - Isaiah 6:3

In the old testament, God was in the Holy of Holies, the place where only the High Priest could enter once a year, only under specific conditions, with strict laws.

Yet God is just. and He gave His son as a sacrifice, with the sin and sickness of the world piled upon the most Holy man ever to walk the earth and allowed him to suffer the most cruel death to satisfy His wrath.

So we can walk straight into the Holiest place. We can come boldly to the throne of grace. (Hebrews 10:19)

And upon knowing this:

The severity of His Holiness
The severity of our sin
The severity of His sacrifice
The severity of His love
The severity of greatness, this gift we have.

We can begin to find the holiness at work in our very lives. We start to value that which we took for granted. We set time aside for prayer with this most Holy Being. We set aside resources for God to use to display His glory to another. We change our words, our actions, and we see meaning throughout our otherwise mundane lives. We value our natural resources, and rearrange our priorities.

It probably does not look spectacular from the outside, but it is a world of difference from within. Rediscover holy.

So though the earth quakes and mountains crumble, God is not in it. He is the still, small voice. Evil needs to appear powerful to gain strength, but God knows His strength is the smallest whisper.

In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength. -Isaiah 30:15a

How does this change child sponsorship? Everything. It is no longer an act for the greater good. It is holy work. It is setting apart something to give to someone, setting apart time to write a letter, setting apart a piece of my heart for a child that was created by God and divinely connected to my family and I.  This is most assuredly changing us, but God is bigger than that. He is changing the life of this child, and teaching him. He is set apart for something great.

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability that God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and dominion forever and ever.- 1Peter 4:10-11

This coming year I resolve to rediscover holy. I wish to see the earth filled with His glory. I wish to find strength in quietness and confidence. I trust that there will be unseen returns through His grace.