Nov | 19 | The Shining!

Key Word:- CLEAN

Title:- The Shining!

Exodus 3:5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

It was today in 1863 that Lincoln made his famous Gettysburg address. In the demanding times that the civil war brought upon the North, Lincoln was called upon to honor the soldiers who fought and died at Gettysburg. While opening a portion of the bloody battlefield as a commemorative cemetery, saying that it was ‘fit and proper’ that they should do this, he was quick to further honour the sacrifice by saying that “in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our power to add or detract.” Lincoln says in effect, that the action and sacrifice of the battle alone, had secured forever in history, the sacred nature of that place.

Since then many presidents, prime ministers, dictators and kings have referenced pivotal events and places in their county’s past and deemed them to be sacred. To a lesser extent we as individuals somewhat do the same with birthdays, weddings, places of conversion or calling, and why not? To us they are special times and sacred places; turning points, reference points for our very life. Why shouldn’t they be holy? After all the world is full of ‘holy places’, from Jerusalem to Canterbury; from Glastonbury to Mecca.

Barbara Streisand is reputed to have heard the song ‘Holy Ground’ at president Clintons inauguration and to have been so impressed and inspired by it that she concluded: ‘as God is omnipresent, then everywhere must be holy. This whole planet is holy!’ Some might extrapolate the thought even further and say that ‘if God is omnipresent, then God is in hell, and then even hell is holy.’

In all this wild consecration, in all this man-making of Mecca’s, of holy places and times, my personal conclusion is that it is not the actions, choices, nor the events and desires of men that makes a place holy, no, it is indeed only God that makes a place holy and it is not just the ‘presence of God’ mind you, but the actual and very ‘touchdown of God.’ This turns a humble place into a holy palace. I wonder if the command to remove our shoes in the presence of such touching, is not only a sign of respect and abandonment, but is an invitation for us to partake in His holiness? To touch the very same place that God is touching.

So I put it to you that when God is touching and inhabiting a temporal place, it is, then and there, holy ground. In this way, places are holy, in this way folks, people are holy! Dear Christian friend, IN ALL THE PLACES OF THIS WORLD, YOU ARE HOLY BECAUSE GOD IS IN YOU. YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. GOD IS IN YOU. YOU ARE HOLY! Together, we the gathered church, as a body and not as a building, constitute the manifest and Holy presence of God in this world. We are holy because God is with us. Maybe people should take their shoes off when approaching us, for where they tread and touch, is truly holy ground.

So how are you living today holy friend? Consecrated? Set apart, unsullied, shining? Let me encourage you my brother and my sister, to make sure that where every place the soul of your foot shall tread today, you leave a footprint of sparkling holiness for all the world to see.

Listen:- Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16

Pray: - Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.