I often meditate on things of God I don’t quite understand. There’s so much to Him. The more I know the more awed I am, and the more I realized I don’t know. You don’t know what you don’t know! I can’t dare speak on things I haven’t learnt of Him yet, but I do want to know more. The reality of the Spirit, the standard of His holiness, and His nature I cannot fully comprehend. The ridiculousity of man trying to understand… God! How can I claim to truly know Him? How can I claim to have perfect theology, from my own understanding, from my own reading, from my own opinion. In the presence of God all my thoughts, my ideals, and my presuppositions all fade away when they encounter God and when they encounter truth.

Knowing God is knowing the reality of His holiness and presence every day, and living my life ever so carefully, living on my knees, if it must be, so that I can live a set-apart life, pleasing to God, and free from defilement. There is just so much out there that defiles. Even in shopping malls, the advertistment pictures, or the clothes people wear are just plain disgusting and defiling. “Unclean! Unclean!”

What was I speaking of? God. When reading the book of Isaiah, I was stuck by the very poignant description of the Holocaust  (the Holocaust?). I dare not speak definitively or authoritively on anything about God, besides what the Bible clearly states, and I dare not speculate, but I do know a little bit about holocaust History.

 Isaiah 3:24-26

And so it shall be:

      Instead of a sweet smell there will be a stench;
      Instead of a sash, a rope;
      Instead of well-set hair, baldness;
      Instead of a rich robe, a girding of sackcloth;
      And branding instead of beauty.
       Your men shall fall by the sword,
      And your mighty in the war.
       Her gates shall lament and mourn,
      And she being desolate shall sit on the ground.

Stench. Baldness. Sackcloth. Branding – Auschwitz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_FbT7j4khY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcV66yihkaA&feature=related

(See at your own risk - nothing sinful, just very depressing. And these are just the tip of the iceburg where holocaust suffering are concerned. These are Hollywood's mild take from the Anne Frank: Whole Story movie. )

Yet in the midst of hell on earth, in the midst of the unspeakable horrors (horror itself is too light a word), many stood strong. Perhaps you ask me who are my heroes. Especially those of the holocaust, because such times were perilous. I cannot imagine living such a life, in such surroundings. Where would faith be? Where would love be? Where would God be in the midst of suffering.

The answer came clearly and spoke to me through the lives of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Ten Boom family, and the suffering and downtrodden in Europe during World war 2.

I am talking incoherently, perhaps rambling about. But these are my thoughts of the day. Now a book I really recommend is The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. The movie is almost accurate, too. I wholly recommend it above Anne Frank: Whole Movie.