Meditating on the Gospel

God is so great and holy! Too often we bring God down on our level as if He is just our buddy.

I've been reading through Exodus and am seeing just how holy and majestic He is.
When God came down to Mount Sinai, there was smoke and lightening and fire!Everyone needed to wash and purify themselves before God.  Anyone who came near to the mountain was ordered to be shot down so that God would not break out and consume the whole camp of Israel. Why would God make Himself fearful?  He doesn't have to make himself fearful,  He is fearful.  He is separate from everything else. No comes close to being compared with Him.  He is holy and just.
Why don't we tremble in fear and worship anymore? Is He not the same God?

"Serve the Lord with fear,
And rejoice with trembling." Psalm 2:11

Do we worship God with trembling?

Do we watch movies that take His holy name in vain?

Do we speak of God in jest, or quote His holy words out of context? 

Do we show our utter dependence on God or do we treat Him as a topical remedy? 

Do we worship God in fear by keeping His commandments? 

Do we meditate daily on God's power in our redemption? 

When we pray, do we humble ourselves, seeing our utter depravity and neediness, and ask for His grace? 

Are we concerned with His name and His glory, or our own?

Yet, God, in His glory and power, was pleased to dwell with His people. Jesus humbled Himself to become a man and be our substitute on this earth. He kept the covenant on our behalf and died, shedding His blood for our sins. He was then glorified and now reigns forever in heaven. He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within our bodies - His temple.
How amazing, that such a holy God would desire to draw near to such needy people!

"Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered." Psalm 40:5

We should continually see our neediness and dependence on Christ. We truly are nothing without Him. It is so easy to think we hold some goodness of ourselves. We have utterly failed at keeping God's commands. There is nothing in us to merit favor with God. It is all a work of grace! God is so gracious and willing to rescue us. He has done all for us. "There is nothing too good for God to give."

Let's pray with the puritan:


"O FOUNTAIN OF ALL GOOD,

Destroy in me every lofty thought,
Break pride to pieces and scatter it
to the winds,
Annihilate each clinging shred of
self-righteousness,
Implant in me true lowliness of spirit,
Abase me to self-loathing and self-abhorrence,
Open in me a fount of penitential tears,
Break me, then bind me up;
Thus will my heart be a prepared dwelling
for my God;
Then can the Father take up his abode in me,
Then can the blessed Jesus come with healing
in his touch,
Then can the Holy Spirit descend in
sanctifying grace;" Valley of Vision

And with the Psalmist:

"Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord;
Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me.

For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.
Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!

Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”

But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God." Psalm 40:11-13,16-17