Month: June 2012

When my daughter Rachel was a young woman, she and I went on a “daddy trip” to Paris. She had been brought up in a multicultural world in the Middle East, and I wanted to show her the birthplace of some of the most profound, and in some cases devastating, ideas men ever expressed. Paris is the city of Voltaire, the city of culture without God – a kind of humanism very different than what preceded it. I wanted Rachel to know what happened to the men who decided to write beneath the story of mankind a very different purpose – a purpose without God or ultimate meaning. I wanted her to see what their ideas produced, and how they worked out over time.

Out of that trip came many wonderful moments – but one has stuck out to me for years. We took the opportunity to “make a memory” out of watching – as father and daughter – a ballet in the Garnier Opera, built in 1861 (the setting for the “Phantom of the Opera”). This particular piece that night was modern, with ballet on an elevate stage, and other dancers below the stage that were also on projection screens behind the main stage that represented the emotions and underlying hidden thoughts of the people in the scene of life above. It had a profound effect on all who watched. I needed to be reminded that even simplest exchanges often have profound underlying emotions and thoughts. The message was made clear in the method – and I will never forget it. Sometimes what we see is not what is truly going on – there is much more beneath the surface.

For those who may not be aware of this truth, the Bible expresses a clear underlying purpose for men and women and their creation. The Bible is neither silent on why we are here, nor where we are going. It stubbornly demands that there is a God that created us, and that He did so with a purpose. The pages of God’s Word insist on single command– and all of us will either comply, or refuse this single entreaty.

Key Principle: God created us with a singular purpose. He created us in order that we would learn to serve Him and find personal fulfillment only in that act of complete surrender.

With that in mind, the Holy Book divides the world into only two groups – those who know God, and those who need to. Those who know Him, have surrendered to His will. Those who have not surrendered to Him, do not really understand Who they are opposing, and believe the consequence of that rejection. Every adult you have ever met, or ever will meet – is a part of one group or the other.

Many of us are used to the idea that God wants to meet with us. In fact, in a generation where our lives are so full of self – I wonder if some don’t just think that God will get them when He is lucky enough to wait until they’re done doing for themselves. I fear that many – among them some long time believers – will come to churches today, but not to face God, and certainly not to surrender to Him

Long before the church ever existed, Moses faced the same problem three thousand five hundred years ago… In fact, little has changed with people in terms of value systems in that time. Technology changes – sin doesn’t. Stubborn is still stubborn. With that in mind, we have been traipsing through the desert with the Israelites in the book of Exodus, following the story of how God took a rabble, added heat, thirst and troublesome threats, shook them up sufficiently, and baked a nation. We saw in Exodus 34 the story of God’s meeting with Moses, and noted that God had preconditions to meeting with Him. If you trace the first half of the chapter (Exodus 34) you see five of them that are identical to the problems we face in meeting God today in church.

• Some will come believing that sin is not their chief problem – environment is. If they could just change their job, spouse, family or location – all would be perfect. Sadly, without a real belief that our biggest problem is sin sickness, real answers will be hard to grasp (34:1).
• Some will come on their own terms – trying to convince God that He ought to let them do what they want and bless them anyway (34:2).
• Some will come to gain business, attract a man or woman, or just placate a parent – and they will find the hour spent will seem largely a waste – because they came for show (34:3).
• Some will come to get some felt need massaged – like a sore muscle. They won’t come to worship, but to be healed of their felt need. The utilitarian view of God that He is like a psychiatrist of the soul will leave them needy again – rather than drinking from the well that truly satisfies (34:4-5).
• Some will come to have their own views affirmed – rather than hear God as God, and submit every opinion and every idea for His Holy approval (34:6).

God’s meeting with Moses after he sinned reminds us that God desires to meet us even in our fallen and rebellious state – but His purpose is CHANGE. He is not afraid of you. He doesn’t get the “willys’ around sinners, since the planet is covered with them. Just knowing that about God is a comfort on the face of it, but the text also makes us face warnings. He will not set aside His insistence on revealed conditions, and we cannot negotiate a compromise on truth. It is because of that, so many will stand outside the door of truth and hear the words of the oracles of men – blowing in the foul winds of human philosophy and understanding. These ideas will neither powerfully change them nor permanently lift them to new heights that are more than momentary emotional manipulation.

Transformation comes with meeting the Maker, face to face.

That was what Paul referred to in Ephesians 1. Real and lasting change comes by going into the fire of His power and having Him turn us and shape us. We undergo His mallet on His anvil, and He re-shapes our broken spirit – our fallen minds, and our warped perspectives. He has a way of straightening every bend in “the old and damaged us”.

The end of Exodus 34 offered us a second important set of reminders – we studied last time eight important concerns that God shared about what He wanted to share with people.

• God didn’t want people to make up what He was like – so He forbade them from SHAPING HIM (34:17).
• God didn’t want people to forget how they were changed – so He made them recall their rescue of salvation regularly (34:18).
• God didn’t want people to believe the things He loaned them were THEIRS – so He gave them a regular offering to remind them that every increase was HIS (34:19-20).
• God didn’t want people to believe they were the secret to their own provision – so He commanded a time when they stopped working (34:21).
• God didn’t want people to think their ingenuity gave them their crops – so He commanded an offering of the first of the yield (34:22).
• God didn’t want the people to believe they could trust in horses and chariots for protection – so He told them to obey and worship as their major form of protection (34:23-24).
• God didn’t want people to slop their way through their worship and give Him second best – so He commanded precision (34:25).
• God didn’t want to be tacked on to the END of the week but to be first in priority – so He gave them specific commands relating to PRIORITY (34:26).

Each of these ideas is Gods idea, and as such each is terribly important. At the same time, we can get lost in the details of the passage and miss the simplicity of the one big idea…

We must remember this one truth: God knows what He wants. He knows what He thinks. He is embracing in love but unbending in truth. He is merciful in expression but un-yielding toward error. We cannot bargain falsehood into some kind of compromise with the Holy One. We can submit and listen, or we can believe a lie – and that will lead us to a dead end.

Exodus 34 left us with this: God accepts us when we come on His terms and listen to what He says. As Creator of All – He has no need to bargain and no desire to water down the truth. So why isn’t it perfectly clear what God wants today?

Some people haven’t been taught to submit to God – because giving God’s truth is the teacher’s choice. The sad truth is that Exodus 35 opens with a choice. As we make our way to the next words as God has preserved them, we move from the conversation between God and Moses, to the announcements of God’s Word to the children of Israel. Note that Moses job wasn’t to help them feel good – so much as it was to carefully and clearly relate what God instructed to them. Listen in to the beginning of the announcement:  Exodus 35:1 Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, “These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do…”

Note when you read verse 1, that Moses had only three choices:

• First, he could obey and deliver the message that God intended just as it was revealed in God’s Word.
• Second, he could ignore God’s instruction and say nothing.
• Third, he could make up or mix up God’s Word with the thoughts of other bright men of his day, or philosophies he learned growing up in a pagan world’s education system.

Here is the truth: every preacher of every church and every teacher of every Bible study around the world has the same three choices.

The message is not to become so sophisticated in human understanding that we meet the true needs of men and women. We are to be ambassadors and faithful reflectors of God’s truth as He carefully preserved it in His written Word. To the extent that we fail to do this – the world is held away from the truth of God’s Holy Word. When we try to be funny at the expense of the text – we rob people of the manna that will sustain and strengthen them. When we teach the Bible from the latest fad book instead of simply and carefully exposing and connecting the Scriptures to life – we offer “pablum” to a crowd starving for meat. Moses wisely chose to offer God’s instruction and then some explanation.

Look at the next few verses, and it will become painfully obvious that there are three arenas God challenges in people – and they were then the same three arenas we must make a choice about today:

Arena 1: God started with TIME.

Exodus 35:2 “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. 3 “You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

Sabbath was a command to the Jewish people for all their generations. It was, and is, a marker of obedience and uniqueness. I am not suggesting that you and I are commanded to keep it – but I am suggesting that the arena of time is still the one God longs for in our lives. For many of us, we treat our Heavenly Father the way a child of divorce is treated – we pass Him into the weekends of our lives. We don’t talk to Him, seek Him, worship Him or listen to Him – except on the designated weekend slots we have scheduled.

Arena 2: God next addressed TREASURE.

Exodus 35:4 Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the LORD has commanded, saying, 5 ‘Take from among you a contribution to the LORD; whoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it as the LORD’S contribution: gold, silver, and bronze, 6 and blue, purple and scarlet material, fine linen, goats’ hair, 7 and rams’ skins dyed red, and porpoise skins, and acacia wood, 8 and oil for lighting, and spices for the anointing oil, and for the fragrant incense, 9 and onyx stones and setting stones for the ephod and for the breast piece.

The obvious context of this chapter is the need for items to build the worship center called the Tabernacle, or the “Mishkan”.  In order to have the needed building materials, everyone was called upon to sacrifice. As a generation of slaves, all of them were recently endowed with wealth as the Egyptians showered them with goods on their way out the door to the wilderness. I personally believe it was buyer’s remorse that sent Pharaoh into the desert to get at least their “stuff” back when the water swallowed up those in hot pursuit. Isn’t it ironic that they were showered with GOOD THINGS by God, and then found those very GOOD THINGS hard to part with? God beckons His people to give their STUFF to Him when He tells them to do so. We shouldn’t have to BEG to care for real needs. God’s work done God’s way will not lack God’s supply – if God’s people are obedient to Him.

Arena 3: God finished with TALENT.

Exodus 35:10 ‘Let every skillful man among you come, and make all that the LORD has commanded: 11 the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets; 12 the ark and its poles, the mercy seat, and the curtain of the screen; 13 the table and its poles, and all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand also for the light and its utensils and its lamps and the oil for the light; 15 and the altar of incense and its poles, and the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the doorway at the entrance of the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles, and all its utensils, the basin and its stand; 17 the hangings of the court, its pillars and its sockets, and the screen for the gate of the court; 18 the pegs of the tabernacle and the pegs of the court and their cords; 19 the woven garments for ministering in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.’”

If you listen carefully, you can hear the skills and talents God enlisted. He needed builders, wood workers, curtain makers, metal workers, movers, oil makers, clothing fitters and sewing specialists, bakers and oven makers, peg cutters… and on and on. There were, and there ARE many ways to serve God. He didn’t call metal workers to make bread – and He didn’t call baker’s to design fabrics. He brought all the workers needed…but He did not force them to comply with His command – that was their choice.

Surrender is always about the big three arenas – time, talent and treasure.

Because of time, I want to explore HOW God wanted these three dealt with in an upcoming lesson – but I don’t want to leave us at a cliff. There is a pattern for surrender, and it can be found in the remaining part of the chapter. Just glance quickly at the elegance of it as we pass by (we’ll be back to small the roses later):

Real surrender is YOUR PERSONAL GIFT. No one can compel you to truly obey God in your heart. It is an internal matter. The decision to obey was each man and woman’s decision. The people did it when they got HOME – just like you will (or won’t). Exodus 35:20 Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel departed from Moses’ presence.

Real surrender begins in you when God stirs and moves within. Yet, that only happens in those who let Him – and don’t ignore His voice or drown out the sound it makes. He will not push us until we ask, but will aid us when we do! God moved in each who opened to Him – and people made the choice to respond. Exodus 35:21 Everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him came and brought the LORD’S contribution for the work of the tent of meeting and for all its service and for the holy garments.

Real surrender begins with an identity loss.  The toughest part of surrender is facing a new identity that emerges from the relationship with God. Our old self gives way to a new one – and that is easy for others to see! When People surrender the markers of their old identity, they show their serious change has taken place. Exodus 35:22 Then all whose hearts moved them, both men and women, came and brought brooches and earrings and signet rings and bracelets, all articles of gold; so did every man who presented an offering of gold to the LORD. 23 Every man, who had in his possession blue and purple and scarlet material and fine linen and goats’ hair and rams’ skins dyed red and porpoise skins, brought them.

Real surrender comes when we GIVE, not plan to give. People discovered the privilege of giving – that God had enabled them for a purpose! Exodus 35:24 Everyone who could make a contribution of silver and bronze brought the LORD’S contribution; and every man who had in his possession acacia wood for any work of the service brought it….29 The Israelites, all the men and women, whose heart moved them to bring material for all the work, which the LORD had commanded through Moses to be done, brought a freewill offering to the LORD.

Real surrender brings a new fulfillment. People are energized by obedience and engage life with a new joy when we work in the area of our gifts and talents – and dedicate that work to God’s higher purpose. Exodus 35:25 All the skilled women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun, in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen. 26 All the women whose heart stirred with a skill spun the goats’ hair.

Real surrender is different for different people. God made it clear that He entrusted some with more than others – but they were to surrender what they had to the work. Exodus 35:27 The rulers brought the onyx stones and the stones for setting for the ephod and for the breast piece; 28 and the spice and the oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.

Finally, real surrender has to be administrated. God’s work had leaders and organization – it wasn’t a free for all and it wasn’t a guessing game. The supervising leaders were announced, recognized and followed. Exodus 35:30 Then Moses said to the sons of Israel, “See, the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. 31 “And He has filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge and in all craftsmanship; 32 to make designs for working in gold and in silver and in bronze, 33 and in the cutting of stones for settings and in the carving of wood, so as to perform in every inventive work. 34 “He also has put in his heart to teach, both he and Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. 35 “He has filled them with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer, in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and in fine linen, and of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs.

Jesus told us that the Kingdom was like a pearl – it was of incredible value. One who truly understood would GIVE ANYTHING to possess it, serve in it, and cherish it. One historian reminds us that when a Roman emperor wanted to show how rich he was, he would dissolve pearls in vinegar and then drink them in his wine, in much the same way that a flamboyant man may might light his cigar using a hundred-dollar bill. I suspect that is what some may be doing with their real fulfillment – their real calling… letting it dissolve in the vinegar of the world rather than setting it as a sparkling gem for God’s enjoyment. God created us with a singular purpose. He created us in order that we would learn to serve Him and find personal fulfillment only in that act of complete surrender.

Did you ever try to communicate with someone and find it really wasn’t working? Did you ever feel like you just “weren’t on the same page” as another in your family, or on your team?

A new resident was walking down a street and noticed a man struggling with a washing machine at the doorway of his house. When the newcomer volunteered to help, the homeowner was overjoyed, and the two men together began to work and struggle with the bulky appliance. After several minutes of fruitless effort the two stopped and just stared at each other in frustration. They looked as if they were on the verge of total exhaustion. Finally, when they had caught their breath, the first man said to the homeowner: “We’ll never get this washing machine in there!” To which the homeowner replied: “In? I’m trying to move it out of here!” Good communication is terribly important. Thankfully, we serve a God that INVENTED every form of communication.

In our last study in Exodus, we peeked in on the meeting between Moses and God and asked the questions: “How should I come to God for a REAL MEETING? What is REQUIRED by God for such a meeting?” Looking closely at the text, we saw five truths we needed to embrace:

• First, we come with a knowledge of our sin. Exodus 34:1 “Now the LORD said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered…”

• Second, we come on God’s terms. Exodus 34”2 “So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain…”

• Third, we come privately. Exodus 34:3 “No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain…”

• Fourth, we come with the intent to embrace Him. Moses didn’t come to bargain with God or re-shape His thinking – just to worship and celebrate Him. Exodus 34:4 “So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. 5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD….”

• Fifth, we come to hear Him speak the truth. For the moment, listen to the words God proclaimed about Himself as He met with Moses. Exodus 34:6 “Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth…”

The timing of this meeting with God was AFTER THE PEOPLE’S SIN and AFTER MOSES’ SINFUL RESPONSE to that sin. God is ready and willing to rejoin you when you have sinned. He isn’t resistant to love and grace – He is the author of them both. He went looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden after their sin, in order to draw them back. At the same time, the relationship changed from innocence to awkwardness – because of guilt. The same must have been true by the time God set up the meeting in Exodus 34.

Moses was no sooner on the mountain, and the people were quick to leave God – after only a forty day absence of Moses’ leadership! Yet, Moses sin was different than the people’s sin. His wasn’t one of defection – but one of reaction. He wasn’t tempted to wander off and serve another – because He was spending time with God. He was “sitting at God’s feet” and hearing God share mysteries and insights.

Removed from the voice of God and the voice of those who followed God closely, the others among the children of Israel became like the recent graduates of high school when they move to a public university dormitory. Suddenly they are not hearing the daily voice of mom or dad who stay in the Word and walk with God daily. It is only then we can see if they have grasped the faith as their very own. The first wave hits with the first party invitations at college. Why? Because temptation increases with each step away from God. If they are not careful to walk in His presence daily – they will be drawn into compromise, and then question the truth of their faith – as if the truth of God is found in their own choices to faithfulness or unfaithfulness. In the end, straying is much less a temptation, when the voice of God is near – even if that voice is indirect through the words of a godly parent or leader. Here is the point: Moses was on the mountain, and the active work of the Word was gone in their lives. That became the point at which the slippery embankment gave way in their lives.

God’s response to man’s sinfulness is always the same: provisions of grace and commands of obedience. We sing it as “trust and obey” – and it is really that simple. God offers sin payment and says “trust”. God offers command to demonstrate submission and says “obey”. Obedience doesn’t take the place of trust, because sin and salvation are issues of the heart (surrender) and not the hands (works). At the same time, a trust without obedience is a theology without submission – and leaves God with nothing. We get salvation, and He gets a stubborn and selfish so-called “Christian”, who plays no deliberate role in working out that salvation and winning a lost world. The most miserable people in the world are not the lost (this side of death) – but those who have chosen to know God, and then not follow Him. In that state, God beckons His people back to trust and obedience.

The five requirements we looked at last time were singularly about what WE were to care about in our meeting with God. We need to take responsibility for sin, carefully check that we are coming on His terms, come without a show to embrace Him and listen to Him. These are OUR view of OUR preparations… but that is only ONE SIDE of the issue.

This time I would like to address the end of the passage and ask a different question: “What did God want to communicate?” What was on His heart that He wanted to share with Moses and then the people?

If we look closely at the last verses of the text, they deal with the CONTENT of what God wanted to say to Moses. Look at the THINGS GOD WAS CONCERNED ABOUT in the narrative. God leveled eight direct commands to Moses – each reflecting a concern.

Key Principle: God is concerned that men know Him as He truly is. A marred view of God will lead to a life of confusion and grief.

Eight Concerns of God

1. SHAPING: Go without representation of Me. Exodus 34:17 “You shall make for yourself no molten gods. God doesn’t want His people to define Him pictorially or theologically – attempting to limit what God can and will do.

This may seem slight to some – that God would care if we made a statue, picture or diagram of Him. At the same time, I cannot begin to describe how many people I know that walked away from God because of a theological explanation of Him from a local church. This week I spoke to a woman who told me of the heartbreak of raising a child in the church, only to have that child stripped away from the faith by a professor at school. He focused the child on the teaching of election in order to impugn the God of the Bible as unfair.

The child was drawn into a theologically difficult deduction, and then pulled away from any belief in God. I want to suggest the problem wasn’t the child finding God’s loving character at fault – but believing a picture of God painted by a debate within Christianity about the meaning of some passages of the New Testament. It is terribly important that we remember that the Bible was nowhere meant to truly explain God and His inner workings. This autobiographical library was intended to be instructive to the follower – not restrictive to the author. God cannot explain to me how and why He does what He does – for my mind cannot really grasp that.

When we shape God, whether in picture, diagram or theological statement – we limit God to our own understanding and devices. We draw conclusions beyond the text of Scripture base on finite and flawed logical reasoning apparatus. Here is the point: I am not God. I can experience Him, but not truly define Him. I can picture Him (for Jesus is the expressed image of His person), but I cannot really grasp the depths of how He runs the universe. In my life, it has mostly been Christians that are guilty of overstating what we truly know of God. Be careful not to draw tight lines around your theology such that you give the impression that the Bible reveals all the mysteries of God – it simply does not.

When I leave this life and see the great and exalted God in the high throne of the universe – I will stand in awe. I will not evaluate how close I came in my mental pictures from this life – I will just cry. I will just drop to my metaphorical knees and bow before His greatness. No other image will flood my mind. No distraction will overcome me. No other person or picture will compare. No grand vista from a mountain peak, or calm horizon on the sea will compare with a view of the One who hurled the stars into place. There is no experience in this life that can truly prepare me for that view…but I can long for it. I can seek to know what I cannot truly grasp – because the excitement is in the trying!

We are foolish when we think we can truly understand God’s mysteries this side of Heaven. We must speak of God with humility and anticipation of understanding. God was concerned about that from the beginning…

2. MEMORY: Recall my work of redemption for you annually. Exodus 34:18 “You shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you are to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt. God doesn’t want His people to forget how He saved them – and drew them into the relationship.

When we forget how we got into a relationship with God, we become haughty. We look at others who are dashed about in a lost world of darkness and lose our mercy. We get revenge oriented and angry. We lose the “mind of Christ” that we were told to emulate in His coming to earth to save, and take on the mind of Christ the coming Judge. We were not told to level judgment, but to offer mercy. We were commanded by God to work in the ministry of reconciliation of men to God. Our job isn’t to join the enraged masses who condemn, but to see with pained eyes and reach out with open hands. When powerful and heinous sins are committed, we want to criticize. It is not always wrong – especially in a generation that seems to have so little connection to right and wrong. Look at the news and it is easy to see:

VICTORIA, B.C., June 15, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The B.C. Supreme Court has ruled that Canada’s ban on assisted suicide is unconstitutional. Justice Lynn Smith issued a 395-page ruling in the Carter v. Canada case Friday morning, determining that the ban discriminates against the disabled. … Given that suicide is legal in Canada, Justice Smith argues that the ban violates the equality provision in section 15 of Canada’s Charter because it prevents the disabled from getting the help they may need to kill themselves. Interesting thought – a “right to life” issue is the right to find someone that can help me end life. Hippocrates would be stunned at the logic.

Peter Singer, notorious infanticide and bestiality-promoting ‘ethicist’ was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) this week, …given for “merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or humanity at large,” on Monday at the 2012 Queen’s Birthday honors. It was granted for his “eminent service to philosophy and bioethics as a leader of public debate and communicator of ideas in the areas of global poverty, animal welfare and the human condition.” (Posted by Adina Hoshour from lifesitenews). Really? Sleeping with animals and killing children is now a help to modern ethical development?

Are believers to IGNORE this slide of our culture? No. But we must not become belligerent and angry in public discourse either. I suggest you put down the signs if they are not lifted AFTER we drop to our knees and seek God. Anger is not the right motivation – love is. We should write the necessary letters to legislators when we have opportunity for public voice, but be careful about how we sound. Be reasoned and always loving. Pretend you actually have the chance to reach the other party for Jesus Christ – because you do. Even pagans feel empty when truth hits their heart. We weren’t better than them before we had a relationship with God. We may have been “off” in a different area – but we weren’t deserving of our relationship with God either. God wants us to keep the CROSS  CLOSE because beneath it – things are pretty level. Before Jesus, nobody looks good on their own.

3. OWNERSHIP: Make sure you remember that you belong to Me. Exodus 34:19 “The first offspring from every womb belongs to Me, and all your male livestock, the first offspring from cattle and sheep. 20 “You shall redeem with a lamb the first offspring from a donkey; and if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. You shall redeem all the firstborn of your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed. God doesn’t want His people to think they OWN what He has loaned to them.

Maybe this will help: “…on the sixth day God made man after His own image, and we have been returning the favor ever since. Listening to a sampling of the sermons of most modern TV and radio preachers makes it clear that many these days believe God exists only to meet our needs. Broke? Come to Jesus and He will make you rich. Bad marriage? Disappointing job? Difficult childhood? Come to Jesus, the great therapist, and He will fix you. Jesus came to affirm us in our upper middle-class values, didn’t you hear? Besides from this pulpit, when was the last time in church you heard about the blood of Christ, the reality and pains of Hell, the justice of God, the necessity of repentance, the demand of sacrifice, and the call for believers to live as strangers and pilgrims in this lost world. Most modern, so-called “seeker sensitive” preaching appeals to people’s felt needs. But you have a need, ladies and gentlemen, that you may not feel: A need to be reconciled to God and rescued from His sure and certain wrath. God does not exist for us. We exist for Him.” (Quentin Morrow, sermon central illustrations).

It doesn’t take long for us to feel pretty good about ourselves. We followed God’s Word and things started to fall into place. A few spiritual victories and we start to believe that we don’t need Him quite as much as we did when life was falling apart. We start appearing before God empty-handed. Our thankfulness gives way. Our humility drains our. Self takes hold. We start to sound more like the know it all Pharisee than the “bankrupt of Spirit” Jesus said God would bless (Mt. 5). Slowly, we forget that we are not our own – but bought with a price. The house God provided becomes OUR HOUSE. The body we have over eaten in and under-exercised becomes OUR BODY. The children of our households become OUR CHILDREN.

One of the chief concerns of God about His people is this: Know that I own you – and you are not a FREE AGENT to live the life of self and stubbornness. You were created BY and FOR me – and you will never be happy until you truly grasp that fact.

4. TRUST: Trust me to care for your needs. Exodus 34: 21 “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. God doesn’t want His people to believe they are the secret to their own provision.

When I recognize God’s ownership, I begin to understand that His purchase of me has placed the weight of provision on HIM. He will provide for me, and not me – apart from Him. I must work hard – but not for bread. I must be diligent – but not for self. My life’s work must not be for simple recognition of men. My heart must not take more joy in treasures on earth –where I will fight moth and rust and thieves. God’s order of the Sabbath was a specific issue to Israel for their marking without – but it was also a lesson for their heart within. They were to STOP plowing. They were to put down the harvesters. They were to wait – it was an issue of TRUST. It is worth asking ourselves: “Are we truly trusting God to provide?” Governments cannot do what God can. He is our provision, our refuge and our resource.

5. RECOGNITION: Celebrate my provision for you. Exodus 34:22 “You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. God doesn’t want His people to be duped into believing they pulled off their own success.

Pastor Quintin Morrow wrote: I recall a cartoon in Christianity Today magazine which tellingly described our loss of a sense of the holiness of God. It depicted three scenes in three boxes. The first showed German Reformer Martin Luther, quaking with fear and sweating. He says, “In the pages of Holy Scripture I encountered an utterly holy God. And there I learned that I was completely unable, through my own good works, to acquit myself and quiet my conscience before Him.” Scene two shows John Wesley, the great revival preacher and father of Methodism, with arms outstretched to heaven, crying, “God’s holiness, revealed in His holy Word, convicted my sinful heart and there I discovered that I was undone. And after reading Luther’s commentary on the Book of Romans my heart was strangely warmed.” The final box shows a modern, 21st woman with frizzy hair, big spectacles and big earrings. Her smiling face is saying, “In Skip and Jodi’s Bible study I discovered that I needed a check-up from the neck up! I don’t need another diet. What God wants me to do is learn to love me.” We have lost our sense of the holiness of God.

Well said. I would add: Man is not starved for a greater view of himself. We have been awash in positive thinking, empowerment and ego boosting – and the result is a generation that is wholly unsatisfied with self and hungry for something more. When we exalt our Savior, we offer them a choice of One greater – One higher. He alone can fill the emptiness they have – for He was the Father’s agent of creation that formed their very being. No one knows me better than my Creator. God’s early concern was that His people would falter in their celebrations because they began to focus on their own success – and forget that without HIM they could do NOTHING.

6. PROTECTION: Recognize that obedience brings peace. Exodus 34: 23 “Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. 24 “For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the LORD your God. God doesn’t want His people to believe their might is the secret to their own protection.

When we embrace the reality that provision and success are not from our hands, we still must grasp the truth that protection comes from the Lord. The Psalmist knew the God who was his “rock” and his “fortress” and his “deliverer”. We are quick to appear before men. We are quick to ask for and receive counsel. We are slow to appear before the Lord. We are slow to trust Him to care for abuses and attacks against us. Our might will fail. Our body will give way. We must learn a new level of trust in the Lord for protection against the assault of the world’s pagan values, the enemy’s snares and the flesh’s longings. We must HIDE in Him much, much more.

7. PRECISION: Do what I say, when I say it, the way I say it. Exodus 34:25 “You shall not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leavened bread, nor is the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover to be left over until morning. God doesn’t want His people to get sloppy about obeying the specifics of His commands.

We must become more fussy about observing God’s Word in our lives, and less fussy about pleasing our fleshly hungers. Many of us suffer from prosperity. We choose what we want to eat every night. We can eat Mexican for lunch and Thai for dinner. We have leisure time and relaxation choices. We KNOW when we don’t get exactly what we order in the restaurant, but are pretty casual about our obedience to the Lord.

Bad word? Oops, slipped. Eyeballing that woman? Well, it’s only natural! Silent about the extra change the cashier gave you? Well, after all if they cannot add… We just aren’t prepared to take God’s Word seriously on many levels of life. God knows those who want to be careful in word and deed. The question is not just if you ARE but if you even DESIRE to be.

8. PRIORITY: Each increase should be celebrated before Me first. Exodus 34:26 “You shall bring the very first of the first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.” God doesn’t want His people to think He is less important than what they share together.

Too many people are FAKING IT when it comes to their Christian life. Some will enter church today because they need the social experience more than the encounter with God! I am not arguing that we should be COLD one to another – that isn’t what the Word teaches. Rather, I am say that we must understand the real priority and not FAKE IT.

The Catholic priest and author Arthur Tonne told of an overnight visitor to the White House during the Coolidge administration. Calvin Coolidge was not one of the warmest people to be around – he was well known for his brevity and reserved nature. Seated at breakfast with President, the visitor determined to attempt to be as “invisible” as possible by imitating everything the President did and thus avoiding any possible digressions of etiquette. All went well, until Coolidge began to catch on. Reaching for his coffee, the President poured some of it into his saucer… the visitor followed suit. Then Coolidge reached for the cream and poured a generous amount into the saucer… the visitor did the same. Then Coolidge bent down and placed the saucer on the floor for his cat. There is a difference between those who merely get by – who copy, imitate, and fake it – AND those who are “real” or authentic about what they believe and do. (Pastor Jeff Strite, sermon central illustrations). We don’t want to be caught “faking it” like the pompous church member who visited a young Sunday School Class and at one point asked: “Why do you think people call me a Christian?” After a pause, one little boy raised his hand timidly and asked “Because they don’t know you?”

God is concerned that men know Him as He truly is. A marred view of God will lead to a life of confusion and grief.

It happened this past Friday morning. I was quietly reading with wrapped attention the notes of a friend on “Facebook” that was leaving his home, probably for the last time. He was heading for hospice care after a long sixteen year battle with cancer. He was trying to find the words to say “Goodbye” to all of his friends. His race on earth, it seems, is about to be over. The sickness appears about to overcome his body, and he wanted to go out with some encouraging words one can only hear from men who have spent time gaining confidence in God’s character by learning His Word and talking with Him about serious life issues.

As I read my friend’s words, he reminded me of an important truth: No man dare meet God the first time at death. We can meet Him now, and know Him now – so that when we stand in His presence, we will experience the a warm embrace of a Savior and not the stern face of a judge. The choice is ours. All of us face death – but believers face death as a change of address from pain to promise, from uncertainty to assured fulfillment. You can hear it in our voices. We know this physical body is not our end, and its demise is our beginning.

The simple fact of living on a fallen planet in a body that betrays us more each day is this: Life down here can beat us down. It is for that very reason God led a man, long ago, through the desert – and kept a precious record of his struggles and failures. The arduous task of leading the children of Israel into to a land of promise, along with the trials of the more than thirty-eight years of heat and exhaustion culminated in the view of the promised land that God granted them. Life was difficult on the way – but Moses’ story was not just about the difficulty of the journey, but about navigating successfully a tough walk and arriving at God’s promised destination with the Lord as both his Master and his loving companion.

Today I want to look at the meeting of God and man. The context is important – for many of us met God at a point when we suspected we could soon break. Moses came to a place in his walk, very early in the leadership in the desert when the pressure of leading the people became overwhelming. The people whined, cheated on God, and seemed to lack any sense of common destiny. They were easily distracted and just as a easily placated. They thought as slaves – happy to have the next meal provided and the next mountain surveyed. They followed unless it was uncomfortable. Moses was wearing out and running on his last nerve, and they weren’t that far from Egypt yet. In frustration, and as a response to God’s Word that the Lord would send a “stand in” to travel with them (an angel) Moses begged God to meet Him face to face. Our text in Exodus 34, is God’s response. God met with Moses. The encounter changed his life – as it always does when one truly meets God at the point of desperation. Our story reveals an answer to at least three important questions:

• First, what was required to be in such an audience?
• Second, what did God reveal about Himself there?
• Finally, what was God’s chief concern when they met?

Here is the point of the story: Fake meetings with God just won’t do when troubles are real. We need a time with Him that grips our lives and moves us deeply into His arms.

Key Principle: God wants to meet with us, to share Himself with us, and to reveal the dangerous places that lay about us.

Real believers MEET God, and the change God makes in them impacts their world. Don’t forget – real diamonds can cut glass. The reality of true diamonds is seen in the mark they make. So also, real Christianity is shown in the mark that God makes in our personal encounters with Him.

How should I come to God for a REAL MEETING? What is REQUIRED by God for such a meeting? Look closely at the text:

First, we come with a knowledge of our sin. Exodus 34:1 Now the LORD said to Moses, “Cut out for yourself two stone tablets like the former ones, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets which you shattered. When Moses wanted to come to God, it was with full knowledge of his sins of the past, but a hopefulness of a new future. God told him to cut stones to replace the ones he broke out of anger. That was WRONG. It was SIN. The reminder was necessary – because God doesn’t meet the arrogant. He hates prides and resists the proud heart. Self sufficiency is the opposite of longing for God.

There is a hunger in the human heart:

• To be a part of something grand, something more important than the mundane life many of us live in.
• To be loved by someone that sees us as incredibly valuable.
• To know our origin, our purpose, and our destiny.

It is worth noting that an intimate knowledge of God provides food for all of these hungers like nothing else will.  Jeremiah 9:23 reminds us: Thus says the LORD, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD..

Today, I promise you it is worth taking the time to get to know Him better. He will make you a part of an incredible journey, wrap His arms around you and draw you into His love, and show you how you fit in bringing about the great destiny He has planned!

Second, we come on God’s terms. Exodus 34”2 “So be ready by morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to Me on the top of the mountain. When Moses came, it was on God’s timing, with God’s instruction. Note that God called to Moses – because God wanted to re-initiate time together. Moses didn’t crawl through slop or beat himself in penance, but he knew he was wrong. He knew he didn’t deserve time with God – and that sense of personal failure and sinfulness was not destructive when it led him back to God. We have been raised in a generation so afraid to damage our self worth that we have missed the blessing of conviction. When you ache because you have been wrong – it is a gift to drive you back to the Savior’s arms. The difference between CONDEMNATION and CONVICTION is where it leads you. One leads you to withdraw from God, the other draws you tearfully back to His embrace as you look into His eyes for forgiveness.

Third, we come privately. Exodus 34:3 “No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain; even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.” When Moses approached God, he came as privately – and it was not a show for others. Walking an aisle in a church service isn’t the only way to meet God – and often it isn’t even the BEST way. What God is looking for is the intimate and personal experience of your heart quietly surrendered – particularly in issues you may have never shared with another person. This is why I argue that we are a generation too quick to ask for counsel, and too slow to pray sincerely about our issues. God urged Moses to come privately and personally – with no grandstanding and no fanfare.

Fourth, we come with the intent to embrace Him. Moses didn’t come to bargain with God or re-shape His thinking – just to worship and celebrate Him. Exodus 34:4 So he cut out two stone tablets like the former ones, and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he took two stone tablets in his hand. 5 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the LORD. Note the meeting was preceded by OBEDIENCE to God’s command – because that is a requirement God will not breach. If we understand that He is God and we are not – we come in obedience to Him – not as an equal. This was WORSHIP – not COUNSEL.

I get concerned with the number of people who were raised with the Dr. Spock popular notion that they should only feel the need to obey in commands they feel they completely understand. In the world we live in, often heard are the voices of those who think the rules don’t apply to them, because they don’t see any real negative impact to their disobedience. The truth is this: We disrespect God’s position and offend His PERSON, when we try to negotiate out of obedience. Believers need to be very concerned about the way we handle God’s Word and God’s person. We dare not think that because He calls Himself my friend, that I am therefore His equal or His counselor – I am not, and I never will be. The friendship exists because He stoops down to me, not because I have such a stature as to look Him in the eye where I stand.

Fifth, we come to hear Him speak the truth. For the moment, listen to the words God proclaimed about Himself as He met with Moses. Exodus 34:6 Then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

• He began with a word about HIS EXISTENCE. God said: “LORD”: I AM THE “I AM” (Yahweh). God began with the open statement that He is the I Am… The beginning of wisdom is the reverence of the Lord, and the beginning of reverence is belief that He is exactly Who He claims to be. God states that He IS before He states what He has done. You can know Him by observing what He has done. He is a PERSON, not an obscure force or idea – intellect, emotion and will.

• He continued with a word about HIS ABILITY. I Am the Strong and Mighty (Yahweh El). I Am the One Who is Able to perform any reality consistent with My nature that I desire to perform. (Jer. 32: “Is there anything too difficult for thee?”; Mt. 19:26 “All things are possible”).

That reminds me of the classroom where the professor was suggesting the Bible was mythology and the understanding of the students was shrouded in mythical understanding. The Western Civilization professor told the students: “Moses didn’t cross the Red Sea, it was the “sea of reeds” – so it was really no big deal. It was probably only 5” in depth!” A student shouted out from the back of the class: “What a miracle! The Egyptian forces drowned in 5” of water!”

People try to rationalize the POWER of God. Remember that He speaks the truth, and He claims He is able… Because of that truth: I dare to pray for the humanly impossible (not the spuriously ridiculous) because my God can do it!…When I am whipped or tired, I can crawl to Him, and He is not tired! He will watch over us when we admit we cannot watch over ourselves!…In regards to my enemy, I have the greater power with me!

• He offered nine character statements about HIS NATURE.

I Am (NASB:Compassionate) Tender (Rachoom; tender), just as David reminds us in Psalm 57:10 For your mercy is great to the heavens! (At the time of David hiding in the caves of 1 Sam. 24).

I Am Gracious (Hanoon: compassionate; showing special favor or pity). Mary knew this in the Magnificat: Lk. 1:50: And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation.

I Am Longsuffering (Awrake Aphim: long nosed; slow to flare up). This causes me to understand God’s goodness without becoming presumptuous, or believing that God didn’t notice my sin.

I Am Abundant in Goodness (6b: V’rav chesed v’emet: and full of many covenant faithfulnesses). God is unending in His eternally good nature. (Ps 90: “From everlasting to everlasting..”) If I can do it, it is no fun for God! I can live beyond my nature, resolutions, abilities, for my life is in Him, and He is eternally faithful and good!

I Am Abundant in Truth (6b: v’emet: stability, sure foundation, reliable). God is the foundation everywhere, but is not manifest everywhere! People go to church to find God, He is not AT a place, He is always near. No point close to God than any other on the planet, but people closer and farther away!

I Keep Mercy for thousands (7: Nawtsar chesed: guarding my faithful loves). God is always looking out for His own, He is never in a bad mood for He does not change (Mal. 3:16 “I CHANGE NOT”).

I forgive iniquity, transgression and sin (7: nassaw awvone v’peshah v’ chata’ah: lifting the guilt; rebellion and those who missed the mark). You have NO skeletons in your closet that God doesn’t know!

I do not clear the guilty (7b: v’neqa lo : not clear defiant ones) God’s love does not blind Him to those who choose rebellion. He is a realist. ONE SIN kept Adam out of the garden (the blessing); ONE SIN kept Moses out of the land (his blessing). God loves you so He takes sin seriously. (Ps. 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me!”)

I visit the iniquity up on the children (7b: y’neqa pikaad awvone: and reckon or factor that guilty defiance on the children). The sins of Abraham gave us a world wide conflict. Even though God loved him, He did not erase the effect of his sin, nor that of Adam, nor that of any man.

Stop for a moment and think about what God said about His own character. He isn’t hard, He is tender toward you. He isn’t impressed with your position, He cares for those no one else even sees. He isn’t rash – He puts up with a great deal before He steps in. He isn’t mean-spirited, for His nature is ever filled with goodness. He isn’t duplicitous, for His word is absolutely reliable. He isn’t negligent, for He stands constant guard over those who have entrusted themselves to His care. He isn’t grudging, for His forgiveness flows openly to those whose heart is softened and yielded. He also isn’t blind – He will draw us to Himself in loving compassion, but the results of our rebellion will outlive us.

Men and women, America needs to hear about the true character of the living God. The made up Hallmark cosmic do-gooder has supplanted the image of the True Creator across our land. The man-made God of indulgence – who gives me what I want with no view to how I act is NOT the God of the Bible. America is starving for the truth today – nibbling away at the husks of a self-made God that is not only morally ambiguous, but incredibly impotent. A God who can be shaped offers a morality that can be popularly changed – but His flimsy and whimsical frame cannot hold a struggling nation from the toppling over the edge. America needs to return to the God our fathers laid the foundations of government upon. Their reverence for an unbending moral uprightness based on humbled hearts toward our Creator must again fill our community centers, our courtrooms, our churches and our commercial establishments – or America will collapse into tyranny. Do not pass by God’s description without pausing and asking this important question:

If this is Who God is, am I living as though He is my God?

When we come to Him, we must come with a knowledge of our sin, we must come on His terms, we must come intimately , privately and wholly to Him. We must come to worship and to listen. When these things happen, there will be a responses as natural as breathing…

First, we will recognize how great He truly is. Moses couldn’t stand before God – he fell down to the earth. It was the right thing to do. Exodus 34:8 Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. We saw it with Daniel, who fell as a dead man at the feet of the Great I Am. We saw it with John in Revelation when he beheld the Risen Savior in His glory. At the foot of the Master, our lives will be changed. Our attitudes will be adjusted. Our standards, our goals and our longings will be changed…

The German artist “Dannaker” was known for his painstaking work on his sculpture. For two years he worked on his famous statue of Christ. When he felt he was finished he called to some children playing outside his studio and asked one of them to come in and evaluate his work. “Who is that?” he asked. The little girl prompt replied “A great man.” That reply struck at his heart, for he wanted a work that declared the power of a Risen Savior… not just a ’great man’. So he took up his chisel and for the next 6 years he toiled to recreate the masterpiece. When he was finished, again he asked a child to come into the studio and asked again: “Who is this?” The child replied: “It’s Jesus.” And thus, Dannaker’s powerful work was declared ready for the world. The sculptor later confessed to a friend that during those long weary days of working on this sculpting, Christ had come and revealed Himself to him. He had only transferred to the marble the vision he had seen. Sometime later, Napoleon Bonaparte desired to commission Dannaker to sculpt a statue of Venus for the Louvre. The money was good, and the employment was sure, but Dannaker refused. “A man,” he said, “who had seen Christ can never employ his gifts in carving a pagan goddess. My art is henceforth a consecrated thing.”

Second, we will become hungry for more of Him. Moses wasn’t exhausted by spending time with God – he was pleading for more of God’s presence. Exodus 34:9 He said, “If now I have found favor in Your sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us as Your own possession.”

Third, we will hear God’s direction clearly. Moses met the Creator of all, and God made the promise that His power would be seen uniquely by the people of Israel. Exodus 34:10 Then God said, “Behold, I am going to make a covenant. Before all your people I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth nor among any of the nations; and all the people among whom you live will see the working of the LORD, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you.

God performs powerfully when men surrender wholly. We lack God’s power because we resist God’s control. We lack God’s blessing because we oppose His direction.

All that is required for the Lord to use us completely is for us to surrender to Him entirely – and that is the troubling truth of it all. Our churches are not losing to a superior message in the public square, our people are surrendering to personal desires rather than submitting to a Holy God. The future of our nation is much more determined by our personal submission to God than to our Congress, courts or chosen Commanders-in-chief. It is time for believers to stop blaming the White House and start looking to our own house. Judgment starts with the house of God. We must ask: “Am I truly walking with God? Am I praying for my neighbors? Am I lovingly sharing Jesus with those about me.” These questions are of far greater significance than some of the more distracting political posturing of our time.

Fourth, we will stop flirting with others. Moses heard from God a covenant of marriage – but God wanted fidelity in the relationships with others. Exodus 34:11 “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day: behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. 12 “Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare in your midst. 13 “But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 —for you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God— 15 otherwise you might make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they would play the harlot with their gods and sacrifice to their gods, and someone might invite you to eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you might take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters might play the harlot with their gods and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.

Think about what God told Moses. Don’t spend time looking at what the world wants. Don’t pattern your desires after their wants. Tear down the morally warped God defacing edifices they leave behind. Don’t eat the slop they are feeding you. Take a stand – first in your own heart, then in the public square. Don’t tolerate and play with things that can quickly gain great power over you. Is that the believer in our culture? Are we shielding ourselves from a godless pagan thinking? Are we calling our youth to a higher standard of life – or asking them to bring us a higher standard of living? I submit that some are flirting and walking the ledge of seduction, and others are seduced- engulfed in a new form of Pagan Christianity, where our prayers are canned and our power is a myth.

Fifth, we come to Him and are changed by the meeting. When Moses met with God, it showed on his face, as well as in his life! Exodus 34:28 So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. 29 It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him...

Years ago, I heard a Pastor ask this question to the audience. He asked: “Do you recall HOW he changed Charlton Heston’s look to show this “God’s glory?” Heston’s hair became white and face became wiser and more mature. By today’s standards of film wizardry it looks a little odd, but it was still effective in communicating what God did in Moses’ life. Then the Pastor asked: “Now think hard again – in the movie – WHEN did Heston undergo this change? Do you remember?” The director of the movie made the appearance change when he met God at the burning bush. But that’s not what the Bible tells us. It didn’t happen at the bush… Moses took on “God’s glory” after the 2nd giving of the law – after he trekked up the mountain a 2nd time to receive a copy of God’s commandments to replace the ones he broke earlier. This change took place at the 2nd giving of the law, not the first. Why would Moses change now? I believe the difference took place because Moses had changed from an attitude of “getting by” to one of “getting real“.

Consider the fact that at the Burning bush, Moses was a reluctant emissary. When he stood before Pharaoh, he was following orders. As he led the people in the first days of their desert trip Moses was always asking “What am I to do with these people?” Up this point, this whole thing wasn’t his idea. It was God’s. It’s common knowledge that kids from Christian homes, who go off to college, often lose their faith. At college, they find themselves in an entirely new world that challenges many of the standards they had grown up with – and their faith falters. Why would that happen? Frankly, it’s often because the faith they seem to lose wasn’t ever really their own. It was their parent’s faith. These children had obediently gone along with the morals and beliefs that ruled their home while they were in that place. Once they moved away, since the faith wasn’t theirs to begin with they lose it. In order to survive, they need to change from the faith of their fathers (and mothers) to a faith of their own.

Real encounters with God change people…. and we need more transformed and yielded people. There are just too many FAKES that masquerade as believers. Look on the surface, and all is well. Look carefully at the label of the ingredients of their life – values, choices, friends… and you will see IMITATION all over the place.

Normally we buy IMITATION products because we want the cheaper price… but if you know the REAL THING, you realize the imitation is simply a poorly substituted replica of something greater. We are desperate for AUTHENTIC BELIEVERS that are ENCOUNTERING GOD and being transformed. Is that YOU?

Beloved, God wants to meet with us, to share Himself with us, and to reveal the dangerous places that lay about us. Real believers are serious about MEETING God, and allowing Him to change God them. Like diamonds that cut glass – real believers are known by the mark they make. That power comes from personal encounters with God.