Good Morning All,
Why don’t we see this anymore? Why don’t we see this miraculous display of
God’s majesty? When we think of the
story that surrounds the plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the
leading through the wilderness with the pillar of cloud and fire; when we think
of the awe and majesty of God’s very presence at Mount Sinai we think, “now
that is what God should be like.” “I
could believe in a God like that really easy.
I would never leave a God like that.”
“Just give me a God with thunderbolts and lightening and make Him very,
very frightening to all my (His) enemies.”
You would think that wouldn’t you? It must have been so easy for those early
Israelites to believe in God; they saw Him and the mighty works that He
did. Yet a mere 8 chapters later in
Exodus, in chapter 32, while they are still camped at the bottom of Mt. Sinai,
they fall away and worship a golden calf.
Too often, our pleas for God to do something, is really a call for God
to do what I want, when I want and to whom I want it done. Ultimately, we don’t want God to show His
power so we can have faith; we want God to show His power so we can try and
control God to do our will. We are
trying to trade places with God and place ourselves on His holy throne and rule
all. That is too often the “proof “we seek.
This is the fundamental sin of man. We want
to control God to get what we want. We can dress it up like “it will show the
world God and who he is,” but the bottom line is we want to run the show. We
are the creatures who think we are greater than the Creator. We continually
rebel against God’s will and demand signs to earn our faithfulness. We demand
mighty deeds to impress us but mostly to benefit us, especially at the expense
of our neighbor. Our sinful nature is turned in upon our own selfish desires
and we fail to care for our neighbor or the rest of creation, which is the purpose
we were created for. Yet all of this leaves us empty, longing for something. We
have a hunger that is never fed, a thirst that is never quenched, and a pit in
our soul.
Fortunately, God knows better than all of
us. He acts in ways that are designed to
reconcile back to Him with love and not total fear. He doesn’t try to scare us into faith; rather
He leads us back to Him with “a still, quiet voice” a voice that offers hope
and comfort. God’s majesty is all
around; all we need to do is look. God’s
love is revealed to us in the empty tomb of Christ. We should then respond to the world with
love, as God did to us, and leave the “thunderbolts and lightening” to old rock
songs.
God
of power and might, we give you thanks for your great power, but we especially
give you thanks for your great love.
Move us to share that love with one person today. In the precious Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
God’s
Peace,
Pastor
Bret
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