The holiness and awesomeness of God have been on my mind, having returned from a Christian camp with a few young people from our congregation.
Every morning I rose before the camp stirred for a thoughtful stroll through a grove of silent centennials in the Redwoods. With the psalmist you would have joined me in proclaiming, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1
How humbling to think that the God who made the Redwoods, the pelicans and the Pleiades is with us wherever two or three or gathered together in His name.
As you know from the Old Testament, the Name of God was held in sacred awe, but is that true in our assemblies today? Yes, God invites us to approach Him as dear children, but not apart from Jesus, and not as if He were our buddy.
While at camp, the young people were taught a meal-time prayer called the Flamingo prayer. The youth would raise one arm and with the hand make a flamingo head, then stand on one leg and pray making a flamingo voice, “Thank you for the food, God.” That prayer, though done in sincerity to make prayer fun for the children, just didn’t feel right.
Remember Moses? He took off his sandals when on the holy ground of God’s presence. Isaiah saw the Lord’s throne high and lifted up. In Isaiah, the 6th chapter, he recorded the sight of flaming Seraphim having six wings, and with two they flew, with two they covered their feet, with two they covered their face. Isaiah, who could stand shoulder to shoulder with mankind, was “undone’ in the presence of God.
No wonder my parents taught me to come before God with head bowed and hands folded and always through His beloved Son. For God is the One before whom angels shield their eyes as they proclaim, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” Vs. 3. He is Holy, not merely as unique or cherished or sinless but transcendent. It is this One who in mercy made Himself known to fallen humanity through His only begotten Son.
And what does the Father’s Son teach His followers to pray? “Hallowed Be Thy Name!” Could it be that Jesus’ first priority for His Church, for you and me, isn’t evangelism or missions, or teaching His Word or caring for the poor, but honoring God’s Name first and foremost. In other words, God’s name is holy in itself but we want to treat it as holy in every facet of our life.
Theologian R. C. Sproul said that the one attribute of God that should inform our thinking about worship more than any other is His holiness which defines His character.
As I walked through the Redwoods in the quiet of the morning experiencing a sense of worship, thoughts of God’s holiness resonated in my inner being. To think that God is both transcendent and imminent. He is not merely remote and aloof from us. He also comes to abide with us. He enters into fellowship with us. He brings us into His family.
And it dawned on me, we don’t need to be in the midst of the Redwoods to know God’s presence. When gathered together with fellow believers, the Holy God is with us.
The God of love never sets aside His holiness. Therefore, when I am persuaded to make our Sunday worship more entertaining for the sake of attendance, idolatry is close at hand.
“Holy be Your Name,” is the first petition in Jesus model prayer which begs the question, “what does this mean?”
The theologian Martin Luther, from the Reformation Era, gave this answer, “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is rightly taught, and when we as the children of God live holy lives in obedience to the Word.”
So, how do I reclaim the sense of the holy I experienced at camp with the youth of my congregation in the Redwoods?
It may be as simple as beginning the day with the sign of the cross upon my heart and the name of the Triune God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit upon my lips.
And with a simple prayer, “I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
Every morning I rose before the camp stirred for a thoughtful stroll through a grove of silent centennials in the Redwoods. With the psalmist you would have joined me in proclaiming, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!” Psalm 8:1
How humbling to think that the God who made the Redwoods, the pelicans and the Pleiades is with us wherever two or three or gathered together in His name.
As you know from the Old Testament, the Name of God was held in sacred awe, but is that true in our assemblies today? Yes, God invites us to approach Him as dear children, but not apart from Jesus, and not as if He were our buddy.
While at camp, the young people were taught a meal-time prayer called the Flamingo prayer. The youth would raise one arm and with the hand make a flamingo head, then stand on one leg and pray making a flamingo voice, “Thank you for the food, God.” That prayer, though done in sincerity to make prayer fun for the children, just didn’t feel right.
Remember Moses? He took off his sandals when on the holy ground of God’s presence. Isaiah saw the Lord’s throne high and lifted up. In Isaiah, the 6th chapter, he recorded the sight of flaming Seraphim having six wings, and with two they flew, with two they covered their feet, with two they covered their face. Isaiah, who could stand shoulder to shoulder with mankind, was “undone’ in the presence of God.
No wonder my parents taught me to come before God with head bowed and hands folded and always through His beloved Son. For God is the One before whom angels shield their eyes as they proclaim, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty” Vs. 3. He is Holy, not merely as unique or cherished or sinless but transcendent. It is this One who in mercy made Himself known to fallen humanity through His only begotten Son.
And what does the Father’s Son teach His followers to pray? “Hallowed Be Thy Name!” Could it be that Jesus’ first priority for His Church, for you and me, isn’t evangelism or missions, or teaching His Word or caring for the poor, but honoring God’s Name first and foremost. In other words, God’s name is holy in itself but we want to treat it as holy in every facet of our life.
Theologian R. C. Sproul said that the one attribute of God that should inform our thinking about worship more than any other is His holiness which defines His character.
As I walked through the Redwoods in the quiet of the morning experiencing a sense of worship, thoughts of God’s holiness resonated in my inner being. To think that God is both transcendent and imminent. He is not merely remote and aloof from us. He also comes to abide with us. He enters into fellowship with us. He brings us into His family.
And it dawned on me, we don’t need to be in the midst of the Redwoods to know God’s presence. When gathered together with fellow believers, the Holy God is with us.
The God of love never sets aside His holiness. Therefore, when I am persuaded to make our Sunday worship more entertaining for the sake of attendance, idolatry is close at hand.
“Holy be Your Name,” is the first petition in Jesus model prayer which begs the question, “what does this mean?”
The theologian Martin Luther, from the Reformation Era, gave this answer, “God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is rightly taught, and when we as the children of God live holy lives in obedience to the Word.”
So, how do I reclaim the sense of the holy I experienced at camp with the youth of my congregation in the Redwoods?
It may be as simple as beginning the day with the sign of the cross upon my heart and the name of the Triune God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit upon my lips.
And with a simple prayer, “I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.”
