Holy Ground

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

HOLY GROUND

Acts 7:33-34

33 "Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your sandals; the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.'  

NIV

Stephen is getting to the point he will make about how the high priest, the teachers of the law, the elders, Pharisees, and the Sadducees, who all make up the Sanhedrin whom Stephen is standing before answering their question. So, again, we are staring at another truth through the lens of Exodus and the life of Moses, as he approaches the burning bush. He hears the voice of God telling him to remove his sandals for the place he is standing on is holy ground. This makes us wonder about how we observe holy ground when we come near it? We have heard more recently in our walk with the Lord that a pastor asks if we have prepared ourselves to meet with the living Lord. This would indicate to us that sanctuary might just be holy ground if we are going to meet with, be in the presence of, the living Lord. We have said ourselves that it is good to be in the house of the Lord, which again would imply that we are either standing or sitting in the presence of the living Lord. When we are in God’s house, He is there, and therefore it must be holy ground. The question is whether we respect it as holy ground. Surely, we do not take our sandals off, but could we still disrespect holy ground? So many of the sanctuaries we have entered are more like a social hour before service that a group of believers preparing themselves to meet with the living God. At least, for the most part, the Catholic church instills this need to enter with reverence, even dipping a finger in, water that is considered holy, and bending a knee before sitting, again, for the most part, in relevant silence. We, however, within many of the protestant and even in the evangelical or Holiness churches, in an effort, even if unaware of our opposition to Catholicism, or in our attempt to be different, have removed all the ornateness from the sanctuary and thus made it as plain as possible. This may add to the feeling of the sanctuary being nothing more than a meeting room, and not as holy as it is. Have we lost out? Are we not still meeting with God?  Is He is not present? Because we believe He is, then perhaps we should at least enter in a more reverent fashion, forgoing the chit-chat, and prepare ourselves to worship in spirit and in truth, for that is the kind of worship the Lord is pleased with. We need to see our sanctuary more as holy ground and maybe even enter with a little trembling because we are meeting with the living God, who told us to be holy because He is holy. Then, on the other ground, pun intended, if we, and we do, have the Spirit dwelling within us,  then no matter what ground we stand on, it would be holy, and thus we need to live as though we are always on holy ground.