The Highway of Holiness

Isaiah 35:8-10



⁸ There will be a highway which will be called
The Way of Holiness;
no one unclean will pass over it
nor any wicked fool stray there.
⁹ No lion will be found there
nor any beast of prey.
Only the redeemed will walk there.
¹⁰ For the ransomed of Yahweh will return:
with everlasting jou upon their heads,
they will come to Zion singing,
gladness and joy marching with them,
while sorrow and sighing flee away.


For these past months, I believe I have strayed away from this highway. Branching roads along the way lured me away with their promises of fame, vanity and power. I know that deep in my heart and as Christian, I was called by God to be holy. But what it is to be holy? Who is the "holy" man? As I was listening to the sermon just this morning, I couldn't agree more with what the pastor cited. Today, the world considers someone holy when we seem him clad in rather immaculate white robe. In Hindu countries, an old man who hasn't taken a bath for a year, who sports a long beard, whose clothes were not washed and lives in a mountain is a holy man. We thought directly of archbishops whose lavish garments we see during the mass as the holiest among the holiest. We thought of the holy ones as "untouchables", who's actions were quite refined, like some mystical phenomenon will happen when you are with him.

The Bible tells us that a holy man is a man who reflects God's nature in his mind. Have we recalled Phil 4:19 and the fruits of the Holy Spirit? He is a man who is set apart from the world because he has a purpose. And that purpose would be to mirror God's nature, to infect other people and those who are around him with a message that says, "God is in me". People can directly see God's power in his life. Isaiah 35:8-10 are God's promises when we live a holy life. A whole life of peace and security knowing that God is in control of me.

Sadly, I have departed from that highway to pursue empty and foolish dreams and before I knew it, I was back in my old ways. I haven't felt God close to me. It seems he's so far away. I felt desensitized. My views of morality become lax. Though the world considers it being liberated! I have realized it's foolish to be someone who is desensitized, even considering immoral like it's a normal thing to do. I have relapsed into believing that having PMS is normal, that same-sex relationships are normal since nowadays many people are doing it. DESENSITIZED. I like that term. It's seems like you are numb on everything, morally and spiritually. God says to the priests at Ezekiel 22:26, "... [your priests] have broken my laws and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between what is holy and what is common; they have not taught what what difference there is between the clean and the unclean..." and God has declared terribly in verse 31, "So I have poured out my wrath against them; I have destroyed them in the heat of my fury bringing down on their heads all they have done ..."

I sat there on my seat as the pastor prayed and the praise and worship team singing the final hymns thinking how much I have gone astray especially with my motives and thoughts. I have realized how much I have lusted for worldly ambitions quite forgetting my purpose in life. Oh, I pray to God to feel Him once again and lead me back to the Highway called Holiness.