Standing on Grace

Psalm 93:5 Your statutes, LORD, stand firm; holiness adorns your house for endless days.

One preacher recalled an illustration his father used many years ago. He said he once had an old hound dog that would howl all night at a full moon but in spite of the loud protests by the dog, the moon did not change or go away. No matter how much people may protest the idea of God or the validity of his word, he does not change nor does his word. God is forever and his word is always truth.

The word statutes comes from a Hebrew word that speaks of an ordinance that supports or confirms. So, far from being a negative or restrictive law, the statues of God are there to enable we his people to stand firm and to do so in the realm of holiness.

Holiness sounds scary. It doesn’t need to be, but to the average person it is. Our tendency is to say that holiness is something for the cloistered halls of a monastery. It needs organ music, long prayers, and religious-sounding chants. It hardly seems appropriate for those in the real world of this century. What words come to mind when you think of holiness. It’s almost as though holiness is the private way of life for a special group of monks, missionaries and martyrs. But nothing could be further from the truth.

True only God is holy, just as only people are human. God's holiness is God's Godness. To speak of anything else as holy is to say that it has something of God's mark upon it. Times, places, things, and people can all be holy, and when they are, they are usually not hard to recognise.

One hymn writer starts each verse of his hymn with the phrase, “take tie to be holy” perhaps taking time to stand in the Holiness of God is something that we practice.

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;

Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.

Take time to be holy, the world rushes on;

Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone.

Take time to be holy, let Him be thy Guide;

And run not before Him, whatever betide.

Take time to be holy, be calm in thy soul,

Each thought and each motive beneath His control.

Father, I am in awe as I stand before Your holy splendour! You alone are worthy of worship and honour! You invite me into Your presence to give myself as an offering so that You might transform me by Your holiness. May I shine with Your holiness as You shape me into the image of Your Son, Jesus, so that I might be a living reflection of His character. Amen