You Shall be Whole!

Wow, time flies when your having fun! I have now been on field at First Baptist Church for just over 6 weeks now. God is so good!

Today I want to talk about Holiness. It seems to be something I keep "bumping" into in my own study.

Holiness is such a scary word for us. It brings to mind images of sour faces and stern looks. It makes us think of people who don't look like they enjoy life. At least that is how I used to view it, until I really understood it, well at least understood it better.

You see there is a passage of scripture in Psalm 29:2 that describes the "beauty of holiness" Now the truth is I never really thought of holiness as beautiful. How could sour faces be beautiful? We try all types of ways to define holiness. We define it as "separate" or "different" "being set apart" and all of those are fine, but I think there is a better way to understand holiness.

Ray Steadman suggests to find the real meaning of holiness one must return to the original root of the word. Well when you do that you find that holiness is a word derived from the same root word from which we get a wonderful English word "wholeness"

So let me suggest that Holiness means "wholeness". At least I think that gets us a lot closer to what the Biblical writers meant. We all know what "wholeness" is. It is to have all the parts together as they were intended to be, and to have them functioning as they were intended to function.

In Leviticus 20:26 The LORD says to His people: "You shall be Holy to me; for I the Lord am Holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine."

If we dare, substitute the word "whole" for Holy, here is what we find: "You shall be "WHOLE" because I am "WHOLE"

You see there is nothing lacking in God. He is all together and functions perfectly. God is complete; he is Perfect. There is no blemish in Him. He lives in perfect harmony with Himself. He is absolutely what a person ought to be. He is WHOLE! And that is what He demands and desires for us. To have all the parts of our lives together as they were intended to be and to have them/us functioning perfectly. He looks at us in our broken state (and make no mistake about it we are "broken") and He says to us, I want you to be "WHOLE"

That is what we desire. To be whole. To be what God made us to be, with all the parts working in harmony. "COMPLETE, not lacking anything..."

When we view Holiness this way, at least when I began to view holiness this way. Holiness became precious and "beautiful" and something to be desired and not scared of.

Let me challenge you to be WHOLE, to be HOLY! It is God's command and His desire!!!


By His Grace and For His Glory,

Bro. Chad