It's the word "sacred". You may have heard this word in the expression, "Is nothing sacred?"

Some older readers may have used the expression when cricketers started playing limited overs, with white and pink balls, in coloured uniforms.

I guess the idea behind the expression is of something really significant being tampered with and diminished.

One could apply the expression to crimes of such criminal depth that an incredulity comes with a failure to understand such depravity.

Perhaps it's a gasp of exasperation that issues in the words, "Is nothing sacred?"

Could our nation be gasping in exasperation for something sacred? Could you as a reader be gasping in exasperation for something sacred?

According to the thesaurus, something "sacred" is holy, blessed, consecrated, hallowed, revered, sacrosanct.

Such words elevate the term, "sacred", beyond the wearing of cricket whites. "Hallowed", for example, is the proper response of people to God. Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name."

God and the things of God are sacred. You might think cricket is sacred, the game they play in heaven, but it does not compare with God.

Of course some used to think rugby was the game played in heaven but if the events of Rugby Australia in the last couple of years determined the playing field I would suggest it will be played elsewhere. Let the reader understand.

The opposite of "sacred" is "secular". But the secular without the sacred proves very problematic.

As I read recently, "Nothing sacred" would make a very apt slogan for post-Christian times. "The worship of God is not held as sacred. The ministry of God's word is not sacred. Matrimony is not sacred. The family is not sacred. Is nothing sacred? Not even human life is sacred."

Getting rid of God and failing to listen to what God has to say leaves a culture at the whim of its own subjectivity. Consider that!

Humanity with no omniscient objective wisdom to guide. The all-knowing God replaced by the worship of human fallibility and criminality.

Consider this! Humanity with no omnipresent assistance. The God who is present everywhere being ignored by our selfishly indulged limited geographies.

Consider the worst! Humanity with nothing omnipotent to save us. The God who is all powerful to rescue us from the perils of our own inadequacies pridefully rejected.

The streets of our cities may be filled with cries for emancipation but when the secular slogans of our protests give voice to the crucifixion of the sacred, the universal slavery of every man, woman and child to sin, the world and the devil will see the chains remain.

None will be free, all will be lost and hope will lose out to violence, meaninglessness and fear.

Any genuine fight for freedom and the wellbeing of our world can only begin when we regain an appreciation of the sacred.

It was God who made every person, of every race and every colour in His own image with a dignity to be enjoyed and respected.

It was God who made the world we live in and gave us the responsibility to be good stewards of it under His watchful eye.

It was God who embedded in work the privilege of contribution for the love of neighbour. It was God who made us male and female, to have children and to raise them for the good order of society.

It was God who meets our failures with the grace of forgiveness. It is God who matched our depravity with the sacrifice of love in the death of his only Son, Jesus Christ.

It is God who offers hope for life beyond the grave and reunion with all those who have loved and consider Him sacred.

It's God who makes all that is important sacred and God who spares the sacred from destruction.

It is unbelief that makes all that is sacred secular and our indulgence in the secular is destroying what is sacred and as such we are destroying ourselves. Is nothing sacred?