Holiness

The holiness of God always confused me. Because I never could understand the definition of 'holy.'

            You hear sermons about how we are supposed to live a holy life. To be holy is to be set apart from the world.

           So holy means set apart?

           So when we sing 'You are holy, Lord,' we're really saying, 'You are set apart, Lord"? Set apart from what? It didn't make sense to me. I figured I had it wrong. I used to pray about it often that God would reveal to me what His holiness was.

           At one point, God showed me that it was His love. It was His love that set Him apart from anyone else. No one can love like God. His love was His holiness.

           Lately that hasn't resonated it with me. It's still true that His love is His holiness. But there's more to it. Whenever I would sing that God is holy, I knew that I was still missing part of the picture. It's like when you read the Bible, God will point something out to you that relates to you in that time in your life. And then later in your life, you read the same passage in the Bible, but this time God shows you something different. What He showed you before was true, but what He shows you now is true also and what He shows you now relates to your life now. I think maybe, we just can't handle all the information at once. It's too overwhelming, too broad, too unfocused. So God shows us the one thing that will stick in that moment in our life.

          This morning I read the first chapter of Hebrews. It talked about how Jesus is higher than the angels. He is not angel; He is in authority over the angels and everything on the earth. I thought, "Okay, God. I've known this most of my life? How does it relate to me now?"

           Tonight in church we sang a 'holy' song again (there's only a million and one of them, you can youtube "You are Holy" and come up with twenty songs all with different lyrics.).

           And I got it. God told me. Or showed me. I'm so slow.

           God is holy. He is set apart from the angels, the animals, the humans. He is higher than them, in thought, in  deed, in knowledge, and so on. God isn't separated from us because of Jesus' blood and grace. But God is a Being who is set apart from us, in that He is not human, He's a spirit. He's set apart from the angels as in He is not angel, He is God. He is set apart from other gods, because He is the One God. There is no other. He is set apart from everything as in He is higher and in authority over everything. He is the one in control. He's supreme.

           To know that God is higher, and is the highest, that is very. . . comforting to me. To know that  He knows everything I'm ever going to go there. That I don't have to worry about that, I don't have to know right now; He has it under control. It's nice. To know I have a friend like that.
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           I hope that makes sense. :P

           So now a song maybe? Or two. You are Holy (I Saw the Lord) by I'm not really sure. I don't know who originally wrote it, or who's singing it below, honestly. I tried to find one where Coffey Anderson sings it (because he's really good) but the computer is being goofy and will not load one. And on the spur of the moment, since I wrote the phrase I thought of the song add in: Friend Like That by Hawk Nelson.