Elul 24 :: Defining "Holy"

Thinking about the word "holy" and what it really means. You can consult the dictionary, you can look in the thesaurus, but what does it actually look like in real life? The question has been asked, how did a patch of dirt or a scrawny thorn bush in the desert go from being commonplace to holy? For that matter, can any old person, place or thing be holy? And if so, how?

If one were to do a word search in an online Bible app, all sorts of verses pop up calling all sorts of things "holy"... from mountains to hills; from offerings to praises; bread, meat, and oil... it's quite a long list. Checking Websters yields the definition: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness. But that doesn't answer the question, how?

According to today's Elul devotion, 

Holiness is absolutely inseparable from His Manifest Presence. Everywhere His Manifest  Presence is, holiness is. Moreover, holiness is absolutely impossible without His Manifest Presence… That means if you are trying to make yourself holy by your own efforts… you can forget it.

The only thing that made Mt. Sinai “holy” was that it was “in the Zone of His presence.” From that, we can deduce that in order for us to be holy, we also need to be “In the Zone” so to speak. In other words, our wants and dreams and desires are taken out of the equation because we want only what He desires for our lives. We decrease and He increases. It’s nothing we can accomplish on our own – it involves nothing less than total surrender and cooperation with the One who is holy and can never be anything but holy.

It takes me back to my Southern Baptist childhood and one of the songs that was sung for altar call: I Surrender All. 

The story behind the song