THE HOLY
Friday, August 25th, 2006“He taught me how to sing the latest God–song,
a praise–song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery, abandoning
themselves to GOD.” Psalm 40:3 MSG
Normally I would talk about the “new song” aspect of the above verses- today I want to write about the mystery- the wonder of Who God is.
He is… Holy.
The word means “other”. Transcendent, above, different than, indescribable.
One of my “big brothers” in the Lord, Steve Fry, was praying about the passage in the book of Revelation where the Living creatures rested not, day and night, crying “Holy, holy holy, Lord Almighty, heaven and earth are filled with Your glory.
Steve asked the Lord: “God, I mean no disrespect with this question, I could see saying “Holy holy holy” for an hour, an afternoon, or maybe even- with an extra double cappucino- saying “holy, holy, holy” for a whole day; but wouldn’t saying that over and over resting not day and night forever and ever get a little…
boring?” (Cringe- wait for lightning strike…)
He thought He heard Father chuckle:
“Steve, first of all if you think something about me is boring, trust Me, the problem is always with your understanding of Me, for nothing about Me is boring- says the Lord!”
Then He felt like God gently revealed to Him:
“Every time those living creatures cry “Holy” they are responding to Me revealing something of Myself to them.
I show them My Wisdom- they respond”Holy“.
I show them My goodness, again the reponse: “Holy” (or translated: “Wow!”)
I reveal my lovingkindess- “Holy” is the response.
The reason they rest not day and night crying “Holy” is because I am ever unveiling more of Who I Am and the response is awe, delight, wonder and this exchange never ends because that is how big I Am!”
God is enthroned above political parties, denominational disputes, intellectual explanations, theological treatises, kingdoms and govenments of men, and our sincerely feeble attempts to explain Him.
To get to know Him is an eternal and glorious pursuit and to allow ourselves to be distracted from that pursuit by the clamor of temporary voices is to miss the unveiling of a far greater Artist than Van Gogh, a far more ingenius Architect than Gehry or Frank
Lloyd Wright, a more passionate Singer than Pavorotti- you get the picture… or a little of it anyway, as much as we can stand for today.
Holiness is beautiful, exciting, “Other than”, and He has made us “partakers of His Divine Nature- His Holiness- through Christ!
Holiness is not a denomination or a severe manner of dress, or an adherence to a strict set of moral guidelines- Holy is Who God is… and Who we are in HIM!
In Christ we are not earthbound, not distracted, far more glorious and beautiful than we have dared to dream! The Sleeping Giant is Us! As Mustafa told Simba in “The Lion King”: “You are more than you have become.”
God has called us into an eternal adventure of intimacy with Christ! An eternity of reveling in, worshipping in, working in, being with, living in…THE HOLY!