[b]"You are Holy.....because I, the L-rd, am Holy!"[/b] Suprisingly, most christians don't have a clue what Holiness is! We read about Holiness, talk about it, and sing about it, but very few have taken the time to learn what it is. Over the years, christians have developed a variety of strange ideas about Holiness. One common idea was that Holiness meant "being different from the world." Christians who wanted to be Holy tried to look different. and thought that would make them Holy. Some christians thought they needed to sound different and started saying that you can not worship with guitars, but only organs, to be Holy. Some thought Holiness meant avoiding the activies of the world. Christians made up lists of "worldly" activities to avoid..."Don't smoke, drink, cuss, or chew, or run with those that do!" They often added: "No movies, roller-skating, make-up, or card playing either!" The idea was that if you avoided the activities of the world, that made you Holy. Christians today tend to think Holiness means being "good." They think if they live a life that is righteous and moral, they will have achieved Holiness. But that to misses the mark. Living a good life, while important, is not what makes you Holy. Stop and think of some things G-d calls "Holy." G-d called the burning bush "Holy." That does not mean the burning bush sinned less than the other bushes! G-d called Sinai His Holy mountain. But Sinai did not become Holy by being more moral than the other mountains! Holiness is not a matter of being good or moral! Its' in a different dimension entirely. I heard a worship leader make an interesting comment. He said "The opposite of Holy is not sinful or evil. The oppsite of Holy is ordinary." That statement was a suprise. I had used "Holy" as a synonym for "righteous." To live a "Holy life," I assumed, meant that you lived a good, moral life, avoiding sin as much as possible. As I studied the original greek and Hebrew words and saw how they were used in Scripture, I discovered that was right! Holiness doesn't mean "free from sin." Holiness means "set apart from the ordinary" or "elevated above the norm." The best one-word definition of "Holy" is the word "special!" To treat something as Holy is to honor it as special! We see that in the 1st chapters of Genesis. The 1st time G-d called something Holy was in Genesis 2 when G-d blessed the 7th day and designated it as "Holy." Calling the 7th day Holy did not mean that days 1 thru 6 were worldly, bad, or sinful! The 1st 6 days were good days. G-d said they were very good. But they were not Holy. They were just ordinary days. G-d set the 7th day apart from the rest and said, "This day is special!" In Leviticus 10, G-d gave Aaron instructions for serving at the Tabernacle. He wanted Aaron to be careful to "distinguish between the Holy and common." G-d was saying, "Don't take what is Special and treat it as Ordinary!" If Aaron had brought his laundry to the Tabernacle, washed it in the Laver, hung it up on the Ark of the Covenant to dry, he would have been violating the Holiness of the Tabernacle! He would have been taking some very special things and treating them as ordinary! Being Holy is being "set apart from the ordinary." If something is "Holy," it is designated for special purposes and deserving of special tretment. To treat something Holy means that you treat it with HONOR! In Deuteronomy 23:14, G-d gives this warning, "The L-rd your G-d walks in the midst of your camp, to protect you and deliver you and give your enemies over to you; Therefore your camp shall be Holy, that He may see no unclean thing among you, and then turn away from you." Holiness is important to G-d, If we fail to understand what it means to walk in Holiness, we will cause His presence to withdraw from us. Holiness is the secret to walking in G-d's Presence and Power! G-d has designated certain things as Holy. He asks us to treat these things in a special way. When we honor what is Holy, we walk in Holiness, and His Presence abides in us! In His Word, G-d designated certain things as Holy. In calling these things Holy, He was saying, "Give special Honor to these things. Don't treat them as ordinary." When G-d designated these things as Holy, G-d connected them with covenant principlrs. If we Honor what G-d calls Holy, we link into those covenant principles and are brought into a supernatural dimension of life. Lets look at some examples of things Scripture calls Holy. In His Word (Torah), G-d identifies all of these things, and many others as Holy: G-d's Word..........Marriage........Your Body........His Name........The Sabbath........Other Christians...........Spiritual Leaders..........Places of Worship........Israel. Choosing to Honor these things {by treating them as special} will set us apart from the ordinary. The Bible gives instructions on how to honor each one of those things in an appropriate way. It also gives a promise: If you honor those G-d calls Holy, you will recieve G-d's blessing! You can choose to Honor many different things in life: A sports team....A rock group....A movie star....Your hobby....Tatoos....sin....the theology of man. or....What G-d calls Holy! When you show honor to most things, you recieve no positive spiritual benefit! But when you choose to honor what is Holy, new realms of blessing open up to you! Honoring the Holy sets us apart from the world and lifts up up into a supernatural realm where we tap into the covenant blessings of G-d. Where does Holiness come from? Stop and think about the things G-d calls Holy. What made the burning bush Holy? What made Mt. Sinai Holy? What made the Holy of Holies Holy? The answer: The Presence of G-d! Now think about this: When you trusted in the Son of G-d. G-ds Holy Spirit came to live inside you. G-d's presence is in you right now. That means you are Holy! You are a saint, a Holy one. You are Holy right now. You are Holy no matter what you do. Remember, Holiness is not sinlessness! Most christians confuse Holiness with righteousness. Righteousness is being clean. It means you have removed the defilement of sin from your life. G-d wants us to walk in righteousness. But Holiness is different. Holiness is being Special. Because you trusted in the Son of G-d, you are Holy, even when you are sinning! In 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church at Corinth to correct their many problems. The problems in the Corinthian church included immorality, drunkenness, (at the L-rd's supper) factiona, ect. In writing concerning their sin, however, the very 1st thing Paul does is to remind the Corinthians that they are Holy! You are Holy! G-d wants you to begin walking in Holiness! In my house we have good china and ordinary dishes. Our good china is special. Sometimes when we finish eating a big meal, our good china is not very pretty! It is covered with food! it's dirty. It needs to be cleaned. But it is still special. It is still our good china. Our everyday dishes are ordinary. We keep our everyday dishes clean, but they are still ordinary. There are times I let our dog lick off of the ordinary dishes. Never will I do that with our good china, it is special! Our good china is special whether it is clean or not. Because our good china is special, we treat it carefully, even when it's dirty. We are careful to wash it, to restore it to it's beauty. You are G-d's "good china!" You are special to Him, even when you are not walking in a way that pleases Him. Walking in Holiness begins by knowing that G-d has made you Holy: You are a saint "a Holy one" - Rom.1:7 You are not a mere human - 1 Cor.3:3 You are indwelt by the Spirit of the living G-d - Rom 8:9 You are a partaker of G-d's nature - 2 Peter 1:4 The power of resurrection is in you - Rom.8:11 You have a purpose and a destiny - Jer. 29:11 You have been given supernatural abilities and are call to live as a supernatural being! - 1Cor. 12 As G-d's Holy man or woman you should walk in His realm of Holiness. You should Honor your bodies and treat what is Holy as special.