holiness

Tonight at Access we talked about holiness. I guess I should be more specific and say "God's holiness", but I don't think many will get confused.

The talk started out with a lot of scripture, but the points which stuck out to me were a bit to think on. First, he talked about he thinks holiness is God's central attribute. When everything is boiled down to it's own essence, God's is holiness. I'm not sure if that's right, but it sounds good for now. At least we know holiness is very important to the character of God. He used the example of the angels around the throne saying "holy, holy, holy." Not any other attribute.

He went on to talk about how God is so holy that we can't help but eat dirt in his presence. He talked specifically about how it wasn't like someone going in to see Daddy and sit on His lap, but how it would be impossible, as seen in many places in Scripture, for us to stand in His presence. This made me think, "what about treating Him as a Friend?" When I try to pray to Him as I would talk with a close friend, am I doing it wrong? Am I supposed petition Him or make statements and presentations to Him as I would a king? I'm not quite sure what to do with this, or if I've been doing things wrong. I just want to know Him better. It made me think about Grace, too. If God is so holy, sitting on His throne, what hope do I have to come before Him at all if there's not Grace. Does this Grace make it so I can approach Him like a friend? What exactly does Hebrews allow for? Is it ok for me to talk to God the way I do?

I'm falling asleep at the keyboard, so I'm going to call it a night.