In the New Testament Paul encouraged the Roman Christians "to present their bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God." Peter referred to the Christian community as "a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people belonging to God." In John's Revelation the heavenly creatures sang, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty." From the scriptures we learn that "holy" is a God-word with powerful implications for our own lives.

The hymn writer suggests that we "take time to be holy." His song encourages us to give attention to the things of God.  It is a needful word for our culture which is gradually losing a sense of holiness about life.  The sacred blends into the secular so that the word "sacrilegious" best describes us.  Even in church we have handled holy things so much they have lost their holiness.  We have carelessly attended to the things of God for so long we have lost respect and reverence for holy matters.  Somehow we must recapture a sense of the Divine.  We need some holy aspirations and godly goals.  Instead of trampling the temple we need to find a holy ground that requires us to take off our shoes.  Once again we must allow our minds to think His thoughts, our hearts to reflect His love, and our lives to express His ways.

Perhaps our greatest sin today is that we take God for granted.  We've grown so accustomed to His love we forget to say thanks.  We assume that grace is something we deserve, and our Lord's death makes nice sermon material.  The demands of discipleship are good for Christian conversation, but surely a God of love would not require us to be obedient unto death.  We may be on the verge of developing an unholy familiarity with God which breeds a polite indifference to the things of God.