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This is part III in the series on the child. It follows on the basis of Chapters Three and Four, which should be. By this time, John has grown a little older.

Well some kids are asking me what it means to be holy, and some are laughing at it all.

I said I was not sure, since I am not aware of what the Bible says about this, but they laughed at that, though one of them said to let him know, since it is rather interesting in its own way.

It means a lot of things, but the first thing about it is this: that God is God and there is none like Him, so that where you and I may lack wisdom or fail here or there, He lacks nothing, is startlingly good and like a vast water-fall, is always exporting goodness with sparkle and light.

What do you feel at the bottom of such a waterfall as that ? Remember when we visited Niagara Falls ?

I suppose you feel it is great and you are small, it is clean and it is good to be kept clean, that it is wonderful and it would be good to be like that, in one's own way, doing something really good.

We call this awe, a feeling of greatness and wonder in something, visible or invisible, since to be visible is only to be adapted to the function, the power of our eyes.

No, but its wonderful combination of excellent things, together with cleanness, the power to make clean, sheer abundance of flow, movement and sparkle, the usefulness of the water in it and the numbers it will help when it is a little ... older: these are things about it that people may love. They may admire them very deeply, and their very greatness makes one feel awe. When you come to our Creator, there is the awe due to the One who even makes waterfalls like that, as well as the water for them, and the earth under and the sky above them, and the sun to give them sparkle and the delights of the play of light.

It means true to God, above all what God is like, loving the way He is sin-free, love-filled, light-dominant, darkness lacking, His light visible in suns, invisible in hearts, in minds. Together, these different forms of light, they and His power, all make up something staggeringly wonderful. Some even worship what He made, forgetful of the whole point, while others, confused, worship even worship, as if this did something rather than being spirit directed to God in humble delight in Him. Yet you do not have to worship anyone but God, nor should you. Where holiness is, then the heart is open to love that superb perfection in the Creator.

We can be wholly given to God, and so be filled with His light, as Jesus put it in Luke 6. In one sense, only God is holy; but in another, people given up to Him can have a sort of holiness reflected, since sin is covered, light is playing on them, and they are, you remember, "hidden in Christ."

Revelation, a book of the apostle John, says that only God is holy, at chapter 14, verse 4. This, by the way, is written 15, colon, 4. His Spirit is called the Holy Spirit, and Stephen for example was said to be "full of the Holy Spirit, in Acts 7:55, just as he was also described as "full of faith and power", since faith links to God and God has power.

It is, and we are even told to be full of the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 5:18, expressed as "filled with the Spirit".

Does the Holy Spirit help to make you more holy, cleaner, a better surface, like the moon to the sun, to shine from the light of Jesus, who is the light of the world ?

He does, and in II Corinthians 3:18, His work is compared to that of a sculptor, modelling better and better the clay to make what is in his mind.

That we should be "holy and without blame before Him in love," as Ephesians 1:4 has it.

In the end, they are, though they may flutter here and there, like doves in a storm, at times. You see that in I Peter 4, where it speaks of trials, hard things we have to do, like making an aeroplane rise startlingly suddenly, high up, or to go right through a storm. We have to be justified first.

Jesus was just right, and when we send our sins to Him, and are pardoned and receive Him as He is, then we are set right with God, so that our sin goes His way, and His rightness, called His righteousness comes to us, as if by mail, and lands not in our letter boxes, but in our hearts, and this covering us, we are made citizens then of the kingdom of heaven.

As I have been showing you, it can vary a lot, and some tests end in failure, but overall, just as you go to school every week day, and make some bad errors, and sometimes are slow, but at other times excel, so in what we shall call the school of faith, we have a consistency of life and faith and the goodness of God moving within us. Some important products are called FRUITS of the Spirit of God.

You mean as if you or I were a tree, and this fruit came because the Holy Spirit, perhaps like sap, is moving deeply inside us.

Precisely I mean that, and well put, John. Some fruit comes all right, but is then marked by bows, or blight.

Paul's letter to the people at Galatia, tells us ... look it up, it is at Galatians 5:22 and on.

Are these holy things because they belong to God, and are we then more holy if these form in us ?

I hope so, John, and believe so; but the more you think you are, the less likely you are to be; for holiness is not self-centred.

Yes. Indeed, one does seek to examine oneself - you know, as a teacher examines your test, and this is good and Paul advises it (II Corinthians 13:5) at various times. King David asked God to examine Him to weed out what is wrong as in Psalm 139:23), in a lovely way as he reflected on how marvellously we are made, and how wonderful is the plan for it all to develop, as we grow up, each part at the right time right from being the tiniest baby. In one sense, holy is as holy does, that is, the closeness to God and the lustre of His light we are, the more we reflect it. We really need to live so that every major decision is worked out in the presence of God and the Bible, so that nothing is left to ourselves, though we are deeply involved; but trusting in God, who can do anything, we seek His advice. It is called, His counsel. He is a counsellor.

No, Jesus Christ is the perfect counsellor, and He helps you to be holy in decisions as in the way you carry them out.

I trust so, but remember it is a process. You can dip and rise, like a sea-plane, landing, being hit by waves, rising, having a hard time taking off, or doing so smoothly, getting places fast or having head-winds. In all this, it is the way you fly that matters, your trust in your Leader, the Lord, transmitting in an image, from the heavenly airport by His Spirit; and your understanding of where you are to go at any one time comes from Him. As you go, He strengthens you. You find that in Acts 5:32. The Bible even tells us not to be vague in Ephesians 5:17.

Always know what you are doing, and to find out, wait in prayer on God, with the Bible ready and active in your mind, and when you are clear, then act.

Yes. Also the quality of your life needs to be what the Bible calls surrendered, to Him.

Then you are free, as a friend with friend, to speak, ask, share, but in this case, this friend knows the answers.

No, love is like that. Walk in holiness of mind and there is a peace so great that it is like a river flowing on its course.

But what if He is very stern, as I read He was with Peter when he was telling Him not to worry about the Cross!

Yes, as in Matthew 16. Then that means you have fallen far below par for holiness, and need some real scrubbing, as when you come home from football, having fallen in the mud, and slid in it. There is a lot of washing to do then.

Yes, He got a fearful rebuke, for he was in that, both misled and misleading. Get behind me, Satan, the Lord said.

It seems so, and that same evil spirit was rebuked, and Peter suffered deserved shame because of it.

But it does not matter, does it, if we are rebuked and have to ashamed, since Peter and Thomas had to be rebuked for lacking faith at particular times ?

So long as we take our mistakes to heart, and have them covered, then the sculptor goes on with his work on our hearts, to shape us spiritually as we ought to be. No one is ever perfect down here, but all Christians are being sanctified. In fact, Hebrews 10:10-14 tells us about what is being done to us, who truly have His name, by the Holy Spirit:

^"By that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

"And every priest stands ministering daily
      and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices,
      which can never take away sins;
      but this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
      sat down at the right hand of God,
      from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified."

I think I see. Jesus bore all our sins for all time, when He died for us, for this belongs to us, and we belong to Him, so that animal sacrifices had to be repeated; but His offering never. It did enough for all for ever, all who are His.

That is the heart of being sanctified, His work on us, just as His work in us made us Christians, being justified.

It means that you can have too good an idea of yourself, and think self-importantly how holy you are, feeling awe at yourself instead of at God! This is most unholy, for it has upset the very source of holiness.

Then you can't really be too holy, only be too big-headed about yourself towards God ?

It is to shake you up, and make you watch your feet, instead of wandering in a dream!

Well, with that boy in mind, and knowing the way he seems at least to be thinking, maybe I would try to say something like this.

It is even greater to worship Him, who has done all things well, and His Son, sent into this world from eternity, Jesus Christ, who is the way back, the Lord on, and the Saviour within, through whom God created the worlds.

Life is a wonderful gift, not just to have it, but to have it put right. I thank the Lord for that.