Who Invited Sarah?

What does it mean for God to be Holy?

Holy is such a loaded word. I have never sat down and tried to determine what it means to me. The word has been used with a negative connotation in the world for non-Christians, but as I listened to this series, it was re-framed for me. However, I won’t lie—I had to re-listen to a lot of this to wrap my head around it. Excuse my discombobulated thoughts below.

In this series, they used a lot of translations to describe different aspects of holiness. I love learning the non-English terms for things in the Bible. I feel like English terms seem more complicated than the original language that was used.

Isaiah has a vision of God’s throne room and angelic creatures describing God as “qadosh, qadosh, qadosh“. He is Holy and set apart because He is the creator. We have all been created except for God. We exist because of His Holiness. This is the core idea.

They talked about how the simplest way to describe holiness is to picture being holy as being set apart. It is the moment of realizing the otherness of something you are in the presence of. The experience is a sense of holiness.

because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

1 Peter 1:16

Christians are called to participate in this holiness, to “mimic” it. How are we supposed to be holy? Set ourselves apart? We are not and can never be holy in the way that God is. Tim and Jon talk about how we can have a special relationship with God. In temples in the Bible, you have to acknowledge the uniqueness by treating the space as sacred. Clothes, state of being, etc. We need to put ourselves in a state to honor God. Human holiness is a response to God’s Holiness and glory. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s holiness. Our goal as Christians is to live our life as much like Jesus as possible. So I interpreted this as Jesus’s life is the Holiness we should strive for.

Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

Something that I struggle with is being perfect in comparison to striving to be holy. Does the idea of holiness mean perfection? I have struggled my whole life with the idea of perfection. I have to constantly remind myself that I will never be perfect, no matter how hard I try. I will never make the perfect decision, say the perfect thing, or be a perfect person for anyone. How can I live like Jesus if being perfect is impossible? I don’t think I will ever fully have the answer to this. Which is extremely frustrating as someone who likes to know the answers to everything.

Another way Tim and Jon talked about holiness is as the moment of coming in touch with something transcendent and realizing how small you are in comparison to something grand. There is a bigger idea of connecting with this idea of holiness, which is more complex. To describe this, they used the image of the ocean and standing before it. I liked this metaphor. I have always loved the ocean and found it to be fascinating. But I also have this fear of being in the middle of the ocean and not being able to see land. It’s an amazing and terrifying thing to think about. Another example is, the sun is so essential and magnificent to our world. However, it is very dangerous. You spend a day outside without sunscreen and it burns you. This was used as a metaphor for God and His Holiness.

The heavens are telling of the Glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Psalm 19:1

A modern worldview is just that the water is a bunch of H2O molecules crashing together and there is nothing divine or enchanting about it. This is so interesting to think of as someone who has studied science. My personal belief is that the science behind all things in the world, from cells to the ocean, is just more proof of the glory of God and His existence. As I have studied cellular pathways and even cancer biology, I have been left in more and more awe of the intricacies of our bodies.

This was said, “The capacity for goodness is woven in everything we see”. I loved this.

What are the moments in my life that I have experienced or been given images of God’s holiness? In book club this week Matt, Jess, Austin and I were discussing God’s nature. We are reading God Has a Name together. This series is related because they discussed how John says that “God is love” and if it is a contradiction to God’s Holiness. There is tension between these two descriptions of God. The sun metaphor from earlier represents this really well in my brain. It puts a filter on the way you can view the whole bible.

I feel like for me personally God has used love to shape my life and steer me toward wanting to be more holy and striving for it. The choice to move to Houston and the gift of community and friendship that I have received have been through God. Yes, I decided to move, but if you know me, I overthink EVERYTHING and this was one of the only decisions I did not overthink. I just decided it was what I was doing. Looking back at it feels almost out of body. I couldn’t tell you in the moment why I made that decision so easily, but looking back I know it was God.

Everything since then has just fallen into place. I started going to a church, felt completely at home there the first time I went, and cried throughout the service. I continued to attend Seven Mile Road by myself on the Sundays that I didn’t work. I did this for 6 months before I met the friends that would change my entire outlook on life. There is no doubt in my mind that this was orchestrated by God. I have been constantly put in positions with people who love God and know more than me or have a deeper relationship with Him in different ways. This has challenged me to work on prayer, understanding the Bible and its history, and more. It has been a hard 2 & a half years full of lessons, but I am surrounded by love. Recognizing that God has done all of this for me is to recognize His holiness.

The next series is on the Image of God!