Daring to Draw Near is written by one of my favs, John White. It's a book about prayer - not how to pray and whatnot, but he goes through Scripture and pulls people and their major prayer and expounds them and then calls us to learn from them. It's a beautiful book.
Today's chapter slapped me upside the face. It is perfect timing. The chapter is entitled, "Moses: Shining Faces."
Here are some powerful words -- those who have ears to hear, let them hear:
"'Turn from the fierce wrath,' Moses beseeches, 'and repent of this evil against my people.' Bold words indeed ... He is oblivious to personal danger. One thing matters to him: that Israel be delivered from the consuming fire ...
Have you ever prayed like that? Have I? Are we in fact supposed to? Clearly we cannot work ourselves up artificially to the pitch of feeling that impelled Moses along his perilous course. Yet why is it that we go our ways unconcerned by the judgments of God that threaten his people today, smiling our evangelical smiles and praying, 'God bless our church. Amen'?
Is it that we have never visited Sinai? Never seen the burning holiness of the God whose laws express the consuming fire of his being? Have we become so drenched with the spirit of the age we live in that sin has become a theological technicality? Does the prospect of divine wrath and judgment strike us as remote? Inconceivable? Do we, worse still, see pleading for God's mercy as being incompatible with the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lamb of God?
Our God remains a God of holy judgment.
The God of Sinai is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is immutable. He does not mellow with the passage of time. he is the God of law. He is the God of grace. He is the God who demands nothing less than holiness of his people. His self-appointed public relations experts have done us and him a blasphemous disservice in toning down the harsh outlines of his image, making him more suitable to our preference in gods. His image has changed with the times. We are worshipers of a golden calf. "
Have you ever prayed like that? Have I? Are we in fact supposed to? Clearly we cannot work ourselves up artificially to the pitch of feeling that impelled Moses along his perilous course. Yet why is it that we go our ways unconcerned by the judgments of God that threaten his people today, smiling our evangelical smiles and praying, 'God bless our church. Amen'?
Is it that we have never visited Sinai? Never seen the burning holiness of the God whose laws express the consuming fire of his being? Have we become so drenched with the spirit of the age we live in that sin has become a theological technicality? Does the prospect of divine wrath and judgment strike us as remote? Inconceivable? Do we, worse still, see pleading for God's mercy as being incompatible with the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lamb of God?
Our God remains a God of holy judgment.
The God of Sinai is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is immutable. He does not mellow with the passage of time. he is the God of law. He is the God of grace. He is the God who demands nothing less than holiness of his people. His self-appointed public relations experts have done us and him a blasphemous disservice in toning down the harsh outlines of his image, making him more suitable to our preference in gods. His image has changed with the times. We are worshipers of a golden calf. "
Wow. Where is this all in the life of today's followers? Where is this in my life? Do I care enough that American be delivered from the consuming fire? If so, what am I doing about it? What about you? What are you doing about it? *Whew*
