Hi Everyone,

Continuing on our discussion about God, today I’d like to zero-in on a couple of characteristics of God that are absolutely essential to understand. It is like if you mess these up, a “whole lotta lumps” for you would be in store. Read on and see if you agree 🙂

Psalm 99:9 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy hill, (where the temple in Jerusalem was, and will be again in the future), for holy is the Lord our God.

1st characteristic: Holy… God is perfectly holy. To be holy means to be “sacred”, “sanctified”, “set-apart” from the common.

For example, I was once touring the Royal Palace complex in Bangkok, Thailand where among the fascinating buildings there was a temple for the “Jade” Buddha, an idol carved from a solid chuck of jade. To go in, we had to take off our shoes, promise not to use flash photography, keep quiet, etc. Why? The Jade Buddha was to be regarded as holy. I see…

Another: If you go to the Mormon temple located off the Capitol Beltway, you’d be allowed to step foot in the “lobby” section, but no- way-Jose are you gonna get past that gate to the inner sanctum. Why? Just not any ‘ole non-Mormon can go in.

One helpful way to better understand a word is to look at its opposite. I suppose an opposite of the word holy would be the word wicked. Or let’s try some others that carry the same thought, Clean and unclean. Pure and defiled come to my mind too.

Okay, so God is holy. And this also means that His holy nature cannot ever be tainted or defiled. In order to be granted direct access to God, something must be made to be holy first. God was talking to Moses in Exodus 33:20: But He (God) said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see me and live!” Wow! How’s that for a little bit of healthyfear?

Daniel 9:14 Therefore the Lord has kept the calamity in store and brought it on us; for the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done, but we have not obeyed His voice.

2nd characteristic: Righteous… God is perfectly righteous. To be righteous is to be “Morally right”, morally true and virtuous and thus justifiable.

For example: A surfer dude catching a 30 foot North Shore tube and coming out the other side with his life would say what? “That was righteous!” Ha. But, rather, doing good to those who hurt you would be a properly righteous act. Remember those WWJD bracelets? They were a reminder to live like Jesus, who was perfectly righteous (among many other things, or course).

With these characteristics of God now in mind, look at the Prophet Isaiah’s call to serve God:

Isaiah 6:1 In the year of Kind Uzziah’s death (739 B.C.), I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Isaiah 6:5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Can you see what happenes when someone clearly percieves God’s holiness and righteousness? Have you ever felt it?

Final thought…

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Such awe-beholding fear is hard to come by these days… Why is that?

Peace,
Jim