Holy Ground
What do Acts 7:33, Exodus 3:5 and Joshua 5:15 have in common? In each, the Lord says …
“Take off your shoes. The place where you’re standing is holy ground!”
Taking off your shoes is important for three reasons.
1. Stopping what you’re doing – Being inconvenienced is necessary. You have to sit down to take your shoes off. That means pausing . . . stopping your push for progress. None of these events happened at bedside or bedtime, so the men involved were going to have to put their shoes back on. More importantly, it required acknowledging God AND obeying God. It meant you had to believe what you were hearing and Who you were hearing it from. And you had to demonstrate your belief by doing something the world would think was stupid.
2. Dropping your guard – Remove your protection . . . take off your shoes and you won’t run off, at least not quickly. There’s nothing hard left between the rocky ground of your circumstances and the tender soles of your feet. Between the tender soul of your heart and the tender heart of God.
3. God is present – When God chooses to speak to you . . . to bring you into His presence so He can let you know something important, you’ll always remember the place it happened. It may mean nothing to anyone else, but for you it’s ‘holy ground’. Always will be. The Old Testament Jews built altars at those places so they (and their descendants) would never forget what God said or did there.
The back yard of our first home here in Roswell Georgia was ‘holy ground’. That’s where I first met God. Oh, He’d been around me for a long time, protecting me, convicting me, calling me. I’d just shut Him out – until that night 31 years ago when His love overtook me and I surrendered. “I believe in you Jesus” I said. “I accept your forgiveness. I’m yours . . . no matter what. It’s you and me God, you and me. From here on out . . . no matter what happens . . . it’s you and me.”
John Lynch describes his ‘holy ground’ experience:
“Suddenly, conversation with God starts with one, inaudible, but loudly perceived word:
Now.
It’s my impetus to move forward. I have no idea into what. I only know it’s time to tell God what I now believe.
In the last few weeks I’ve thought about where it would happen – the moment I’d tell him I’m all in. Should I go into a church? Maybe go up Camelback Mountain and shout it into the night air. Now the moment has come and I’m sitting on a thrift store mattress in this dingy, bare, lonely guesthouse, which floods each time it rains. It’s the perfect place to represent the end of things. The end of my running from Him, the end of self-protection, of self-destruction, the end of fear, of pretending to be the victim of what I have mostly caused.”
Awakening: I have never been more authentically real than the moment I ask God in. It must overwhelm Him to have His love finally received.”1
Holy ground. In a dingy guesthouse. In a backyard.
Where’s your ‘holy ground’? Can you remember when and where you received His love for the first time in an authentic, grown-up way? If you can’t remember, your “Now” moment may be ahead instead of behind.
Question: What holds you back from going ‘all in’? Will you respond when He says “Now”? Will you take your shoes off? Tell us here.
1. On My Worst Day – John Lynch, CrossSection, San Clemente, CA, 2013, page 67
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Responses (5)
Love the Holy Ground references, Regi.
I, too, have had Holy Ground experiences. You’ll see one of them next month at Charleston Southern University, where I met Kathy and spent hours walking around the reflection pond 40 years ago getting to know the woman God had chosen for me to share life.
About five years ago, I was speaking to hundreds of LifeGroup leaders and used a similar story with one huge twist.
In the Old Testament, as you mentioned, HOLY GROUND was a place to remove shoes, become vulnerable, and be in the presence of God. Today, we don’t have the luxury of calling specific places Holy Ground, such as at Church, on a Retreat, or in our Life Groups. We don’t build monuments to those places to remind us where we found God. There’s a reason for that.
EVERYWHERE we go is Holy Ground now, because Jesus tells us “I am with you ALWAYS….. (my life verse.)
So, at work, at home, in the marketplace, with friends, family, and anywhere we go, we are ALWAYS on Holy Ground. Therefore, we should treat the Holy Ground on which we stand with reverence, be vulnerable to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, AND be submissive to God’s presence in and desire for our lives.
Holy Ground is a special place where many of us have experienced God in special ways. Holy Ground is also wherever we are at any moment in time, because Jesus is with us there always, even to the end of the age.
Blessings,
Ray Snyder
Charleston, SC
Can you remember when and where you received His love for the first time in an authentic, grown-up way?
Regi, help me understand this. I received Christ as an adult and the moment was undeniable and huge. It made me bold and absolutely certain. A true privilege and one God knew I needed! I often wonder about children (my own & others) who grow up knowing God through their parents and environment almost like osmosis. They are believers but how does that grown-up way present itself?
I can only speak from Scripture, what I’ve experienced and from conversations with others. That said, I believe there are millions of ‘cultural’ Christians in the U.S., many of whom practice religion and go through the motions but do not have a vibrant, interactive, personal relationship with God. They ‘see’ God in the beauty of nature. They ‘feel’ God in the warmth of the arms of their wife and kids. They go to church, sing the songs, listen to the sermons but often say “God has never spoken to me personally”. In no way am I judging, nor am I saying that I have any more of God than anyone else. All I can say for sure is Jesus told us we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we’ll ever know. He taught and modeled that God is interactive and personal. Would a perfect Father not have a relationship with His child? Would a grateful child never talk to or hear from his Dad? Jesus showed and offered us relationship over religion. I’ve heard men say “Once you personally experience the Living God, you’re never the same”. I believe that because I experienced it. I had my first prayer answered and that confirmed in my heart that I was dealing with a real God who really listened and really cared. It was new and it was personal. Over and over, I’ve seen God answer the prayers of new or ‘little baby’ Christians in almost miraculous ways. I think He does that to cement their faith, to create these “holy ground” experiences to carry them through the deserts they’ll experience in life. If a guy in one of my groups says he received his faith by ‘osmosis’, I suggest he get alone and pray the sinner’s prayer all over again. Personally, privately and with focus and meaning. Out loud. I suggest he then ask God “Lord, what would you have me know RIGHT NOW?” and then listen to what God might say to him. I then challenge him to tell three people about what he did, how it felt and how he feels now. If you’ve embraced the love of God in a meaningful way, you’d not be hesitant to tell people, would you?
I never question anyone’s salvation…only God knows who is and isn’t saved. But I’ve seen guys do what I just suggested and come back with a new confidence and a date they can put on their calendar as when they ‘for certain’ were adopted into His family. Only time will tell if this becomes ‘holy ground’ for them.
Does that help at all?
Thanks Ray.
I hear you, but my point here was very specific regarding the time and place God became real to you and to me. Check out my response to the other comment.
Regi,
I’m with you. My Holy Ground and so many others I know are specific times and places, such as the time God revealed His plan for Kathy to be my wife around the reflection pond at CSU. I had a Holy Ground salvation moment when I was 10 years old, but I don’t remember much about the details fifty years later…..
I had a Holy Ground moment at our retreat a few months ago when you sent us out into the forest to listen to God. That was a PROFOUND moment I shared with my men.
Holy Ground moments are IMPORTANT and notable points. You are right on target about Holy Ground in our lives.
Blessings, Regi,
Ray