"Where Has Holiness Gone?"

Are we missing something? I believe so! It's called holiness. Pursuing and living holy, sacred lives. Maybe we have become too cerebral for our own good! We seem to think that we have come to more modern things and ways and dismiss the idea of holy living and pursuit is something outdated. The sacred life seems to be diminishing more and more in the lives of those in Christ, the church.

We know well that God doesn't dwell in buildings made with hands. How many times have we heard or said the church is the people not the building? But somewhere in this teaching, these thoughts gets lost the idea of holiness. When the OT Scriptures are approached, they are dismissed as a carnival of ceremonial actions by many. I recently had an individual tell me we need to take the OT out of our Bibles. Too much ceremony, too boring! It reveals where our minds have headed.

God is holy and He dwells in His people. We need to grasp and understand the idea of being holy and sacred in our lives. It's not just about being pure but treating our lives and one another as something more than just common. Holiness is a recognition of God! God told Moses to get his sandals off because when he approached the holy God in the burning bush, it's not common ground you are standing on any longer! Show some respect and reverence.

Because we know the building isn't the holy dwelling of God we have seem to make everything we do a place that's not holy, sacred. We stand and make jokes, talk about sports, munch on donuts and slurp our coffee. We have built into our complexes areas to play ball, to play cards and eat meals. The sense of holiness seems to get lost in all the common things. The attire many wear when approaching the holy Father is something that is no longer helping the idea of the pursuit of holiness. Too many seem to have the mind set that if we assemble in holiness at our multi-function complexes we become stagnant, rigid, gloomy and predictable. There is no room for spontaneity. The laid back desire makes us more consumer-friendly and brings an element of entertainment into our assemblies. In other words, more man centered and less God centered.

Where is our sense of holiness? I am not sure many even know what holiness is anymore. Holiness...it came by grace. Grace is not cheap and free. Grace is life changing and holy!! It required the OT temple, Bethlehem, Gethsemane and Golgotha. Maybe we need to revisit these because we have grown so accustomed to the lack of reverence. Take in the pictures, these moments of grace and realize we are standing on holy ground and that should reflect holy behavior!