Holy! Holy! Holy! (...holy?)

Holy Cow! Can we just go back to basics now? What does holy mean? To be holy means to be perfect or nearly perfect, right? It means piety, righteousness, uprightness. It means not sinning. Actually, that is not accurate. To be holy means to be separate! Separate from what? Let's consider a soldier and a boxer for a moment. They are trained to be good at their field by adhering to a rigorous set of discipline. A soldier doesn't behave like an ordinary citizen. His hair is kept short that when battle comes, he will not bother combing his hair before taking up his gun. In the same light, a boxer is physically trained for fights and doesn't smoke cigarettes or take intoxicating drinks. Why? In his pursuit of excellence, he needs to separate from the pack. Achievers are disciplined people. It makes more sense now why there are a lot more losers than winners, eh? Let's take another example. Consider your drinking glass, will you use it to hold thinner for cleaning your paint brush? Of course not! You want it to be absolutely clean. Why? You don't want contamination. To be holy means to be separate from the common group of people that you may be used effectively of God. Think again, would you like to live your life like everybody else barely making any difference at all? In objection a friend of mine said, "If you'll be so holy all of the time, then, you will be a loner -- no one will be hanging out with you. You can't go out with the guys at the local Saturday Night hangout. You'll be real lonely, man?" Please allow me to be serious on this for a moment. The bible says that God will give you the desires of your heart. Don't pick the common interpretation here. What this means is that God will cleanse your heart of its sinful desires, put new desires, and will make you to desire to do His will. Delight yourself in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 - ESV) What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 6:7 - NLT) Man, I really want you to take a fresh look on these things and don't let your preconceived philosophy go in the way again.