Day 4 of Tour Devos - God is Holy

This is a series of Devotions I wrote for our church’s high school choir tour. I hope they bless you!

Before you start reading this devotion, pray to God, thanking Him for this day and the gift of life. Tell him about what you are experiencing. Thank Him for the gifts that He has given you. Then pray that God will help you be more aware of His presence in your life so you can be a better apprentice of Christ.

God is Holy

Read Isaiah 6:1-4

What stood out?

Read Revelation 4:1-8

What stood out?

What do they have in common?  

I personally believe the hardest thing to reconcile in the human mind about God is His complete otherness and his closeness to us. God is both transcendent and immanent.

Transcendence is “the attribute of God that refers to being wholly and distinctly separate from creation” (IVP Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms). God is separate from the universe. He is beyond it. He is bigger than the universe. He is greater than anything in the universe. He is so distinct from the known world that our minds can’t fully understand him. He is infinite, and we are finite. Our words don’t even fully encompass who God is. God is good, God is love, God is truth, etc. But He is beyond good. He is the basis for Good. Good is good because God is good. He is the foundation of it all. Everything exists because God is outside of the universe he made.

Immanence is “the idea that God is present in, close to, and involved with creation” (IVP Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms). God is here with you in this bus. He is present in the good times and the bad. He moves us and speaks to us in subtle ways. He provides for us in ways we can’t comprehend. He protects us from things we don’t know are happening. He is walking alongside us every moment of every day. We don’t know what God is doing or not doing in order to keep us alive every day. That should humble you. You may have died today, but God stopped it. I’m not saying that’s likely, but God’s so close he maybe did.

Just sit in that.  

God is completely other.

God is completely close to you.

God is holy, holy, holy! 

In Isaiah, holy is the Hebrew word, Qadōsh. It means the state that belongs to the sphere of the sacred (Theological Workbook of the Old Testament). Basically, that means that God isn’t common. He is unique and special.

In Revelation, holy is the Greek word, hagios. It means an object of awe, also means clean, and the verb of this word means “to shrink from” (Little Kittle).

Do you get the image? God is other. He is unique, clean, object of awe. God is something so wonderful that we shrink from Him because we aren’t like Him.

But then read this…

1 Peter 1:15-16 

Wait a second.

How can I be that?

Be Holy because I am holy. Be holy in all you do.

Basically, Peter is saying, be different because God, who is different, calls you to be different. 

How?

Be. Like. Jesus!!! Don’t do what your flesh wants. Do what Jesus wants.

My new favorite author is John Mark Comer. He wrote a book called Practicing the Way. And he says that following Jesus is really simple. All it is, is doing these three things

Be With Jesus

Be Like Jesus

And Do What Jesus Did.

And the coolest part of that is that God, who is holy, walks with you as you become holy through the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. You walk forward, and God transforms you!!!

When you live like Christ, you become “other” compared to the world around you. That’s the invite. Be different. Stand out. Shine brightly!  

Be holy, for God is Holy! 

What needs to change for you to be Holy?

What does it look like to be with Jesus?

What do you do that keeps you from being holy?

How can you start living differently for God?