February 6, 2011 … God Is Holy

Passage of the Day: 1st Samuel 2: 2 … [see highlighted verse, bold/underlined] 1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in Your deliverance. 2 There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God.

My Journal for Today: Today’s passage is the prayer of Hannah, who has just dedicated her newly born son to the God, in Whom she placed all her trust. In this prayer she declares, “There is no one Holy like the Lord.”

There are many scholars, like John MacArthur in my devotional, Strength for Today, who feel that HOLINESS is God’s most significant attribute. In Isaiah 6: 3 and Rev. 4: 8, we read of visions of Angels crying out to God, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” Moses sang of God’s holiness (see Exodus 15: 11). With a little study on the matter, it is my understanding that the Hebrew word for “Holy” comes from the concept of “separation;” and God’s holiness certainly separates His character from all other created beings. We certainly know that angels can be less than holy, because Satan was a created angel; and he took one-third of the angels into the eternal separation of unholiness with him. Mankind was created holy; but we certainly are less than holy in our humanity now.

In my humble estimation, God’s holiness is the characteristic which most separates Him from our human frailties, making God, especially in the Person of Christ and His holiness, the anti-sin standard. As MacArthur puts it, “[God] does not conform to a Holy standard; … He IS the standard!”

MacArthur, in today’s Strength for Today segment, goes on to discuss how God’s holiness becomes what we see in His righteousness. In other words, holiness is the attribute (i.e., God’s standard) and righteousness becomes the manifestation of that attribute. David wrote of how we perceive God’s righteousness in Psalm 71: 19 – NIV).

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 71: 18 Your righteousness reaches to the skies, O God, You Who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You?

Unfortunately, however, many Christians have either ignored or humanized God’s holiness and His standard of righteousness, using the world or our own fleshly aspirations as our mark of achievement, rather than God’s holiness as The Mark, … personified in Christ. Hence, we see Christians with the same divorce rate as non-Christians; and closely related to my life and ministry, we see so many Christian men, even Clergy and church leaders, “falling,” by choice, into sexual sin. Let’s face it! If we truly knew, believed, and felt how a Holy God despises sin, we would confess it, forsake it, and seek desperately to walk worthy of a Holy God (again read and meditate on Eph. 4: 1, which was the focus of my devotionals in January).

Today, as I’ve meditated on this [as I pray that you have], and I’m deeply convicted of where I stand, … separated as I am from God’s standard of holiness. But I will not wane from my aspiration toward righteousness, recognizing the truth of 2nd Cor. 12: 9 … that God’s grace is sufficient … and His enabling grace allows His strength to be mine as I move in my own desire for His holiness and righteousness.

My Prayer Today: O, my Lord, You are so Holy; and only through Your grace can I achieve Your standard of righteousness. Amen