I think that its hard for us to comprehend holiness most of the time (or maybe its just me and I should feel dumb right now). But there are a few things that have recently been on my mind on the topic.
In Isaiah 6 - the prophet Isaiah sees God on his throne and angels are around Him singing "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty"
...God IS holy.
I have tried to think to myself what that really means. The first image that comes to my head (probably because of the Isaiah 6 reference) is the image of everyone in heaven singing praises around the throne forever. Thats something that people in churches talk about often.
(I'm going to throw out there that when I was younger....ok maybe even now, I didn't really like that discussion. It might sound sac-religious to you, but to me it just sounded boring...and I didn't really think that heaven would/should be boring.)
So I started to think through this a little...
I asked myself what I am passionate about. When I think about the things that "get to me", things that make my heart go crazy, I think of seeing people turn their lives around for the good and hearing children sing to Jesus and having a deep honest conversation with someone and making a positive difference in someones life and laughing and watching children light up when they are shown love and seeing teenagers choose a better path for their futures and being able to let people know that they are SIGNIFICANT and WORTHY of love and SO much more. Those aren't just words I am writing- whether or not I am doing those things well, they are what I WANT and HOPE for - they are what "get to me". They are the deep desires inside me.
And do you know who has shown me those things? My Savior! He wants all of those things and ya know what....He actually CREATED all of those desires. WOW!
So lets go back to the throne again....can you even imagine being in the same room as the one who literally created us all? I think about how much I want all of those things I listed above and then I think of how much God must want those things...SOO much more than I ever could....and He wants them perfectly, without any selfishness. He is the one who is able to actually make them happen. He is the reason I can have the desire for good in my heart because he IS good - he defines good!
God is in that passion that I feel inside of me, and when I think about standing before his throne with that perspective....how could I do anything but love and praise him continually?? Everything that I want in this world, He stands for, He IS!
Unless you can really try to wrap your mind around what it would be like to be in the presence of the creator and beginner of our passion for good, this might seem like a bunch of crazy ranting. ;)
I'm not saying that all we will do in heaven is stand around and sing praise songs, I'm just saying that no matter what we do....we will be with Perfect Love....and I can't think of anything better when I try to take that into the little perspective I might have.
5 comments:
oh man, that throne room image is still fixed in my brain. i remember having the same thoughts about standing around and singing all day. funny stuff.
i love that you used the passage from Isaiah. that whole scene is pretty incredible. i'm not sure we will ever know what Holiness truly is until we are confronted with our maker, but i completely agree that our version of holiness looks like sacrificing ourselves for others.
good thoughts. and you're right...i have totally neglected my opinion on the "good book." i will get working on it today!
GO UCONN INDEED!!!!
This statement was an encouragement to me: "I think about how much I want all of those things I listed above and then I think of how much God must want those things...SOO much more than I ever could....and He wants them perfectly, without any selfishness". How true!
I am reading the book Heaven by Randy Alcorn... Because Safely Home was soo good, I had to get another book by him. IT IS AWESOME.. It totally makes my thoughts of heaven even deeper and even more of a longing to be there.... good stuff, I like this post!
you are a very good writer by the way
I LOVE JESUS. Good post.
move to Boston and plant a church with us. haha.
Matt
Post a Comment