Mountain-top Experiences

Have you ever experienced something so profound or so powerful that it changed you, but you were alone so you've had to try to articulate that experience to someone else? It can be frustrating or it can help you relive the encounter by telling the story. Often we may find ourselves using phrases like, "I just can't describe to you how beautiful is was!" Even as we're trying to do just that!

Moses and the apostle John lived this scenario and we have it in writing, in the Bible. So, I guess their frustration really proved worth their while since we can know exactly what happened, huh?

Still, when we have an encounter with God - a vision, a tender moment, a particular conviction, or insight - it's possible to feel frustration that others have not, or are not currently, experiencing the same things with God. How do we respond to the realization that others are not moving in the direction or at the pace God has us moving?

Here's how it played out for Moses in the desert after his literal mountain-top experience with God. The story is found in the book of Exodus and the chapters describe the following elements of Moses' conversation with God:

Chapter 19 - Moses goes up and down Mount Sinai as an intermediary between the Israelites and God as they promise to consecrate themselves and obey whatever they're told.

Chapter 20 - God speaks loudly, with thunder and lightning, to everyone from Mount Sinai and gives them the 10 Commandments to live by. Then Moses approaches God, who is in a thick darkness.

Chapters 21-23 - God gives Moses further instructions for the social functioning of the Hebrew people.

Chapter 24 - Moses, Joshua and 72 elders approach the mountain to worship God. Then Moses and Joshua come a little further. Finally Moses goes alone to the top of the mountain where God is perceived to be "like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain".

Chapters 25-31 - Moses receives very specific instructions concerning the materials and construction of the tabernacle, as well as the anointing of the priests and their holy wardrobe.

Chapter 32 - Moses descends Mount Sinai, head full of visions and heart full of the experience he's just had with God, when what does he find? His own people dancing around a golden calf they've made because they needed a god and Moses was just taking too long, thank you very much.

When I used to read this story, like so many other accounts in the Bible, I would wonder how the people could be so stupid to miss God when He was right there in their midst. They had been trembling in their sandals a few chapters earlier, promising to follow God and obey His commands, no matter what. No we find them worshipping a golden idol they've specifically been told not to make or worship!

Recently I realized that the Israelites hadn't heard or seen anything I'd just read! Moses alone was chosen to receive the Law and communicate it to the Israelites. He had had the sweet communion with God; they hadn't. He'd heard the wonders of the tabernacle and how amazing it was going to be to house His holy Presence; they hadn't.

I don't know about you, but I've been on both sides of this story.

I've been on retreats where I felt the presence of God and heard His voice powerfully. I've walked with God (or He's walked with me) through seasons of intimacy and conviction, where He has transformed me into what I'm becoming. And my frustration at others who aren't experiencing it has been palpable. And that frustration can spill into judgment and anger when others don't want to - or aren't capable of - going where I've been with God. It seems that may have been what happened in Moses in chapter 32. In the end it turns out his anger mirrored God's, but it did cost him another trip up the mountain to replace the stones he broke in his rage.

Other times I get impatient with God and decide for myself that if He's not going to act in my time frame, I'll just help myself to an idol and move on. And just like Aaron and the others, I find ways to rationalize my behavior and make myself feel better about my disobedience. Aaron told Moses, "You know how prone these people are to evil...they gave me the gold, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this calf!" Right....

The crucial thing to remember is that God is moving each of us along our journey with Him individually and uniquely, even as we function in interdependent community. My faith walk has an effect on others, but it is not the same for everyone. If I'm experiencing a season of conviction and repentance as God reveals Himself to me as holy and mighty, I must fight the urge to respond in contempt to a brother or sister whose heart is full with the joy of blessing and bountiful times. And vice versa.

Our litmus test must always be Scripture and the Holy Spirit's conviction. I can learn from others' seasons and the truth they learn from God, but I don't need to have an identical conviction. I need to depend on God alone for that, and He will take me precisely where I need to go, when I need to go there.

• Take some time this week to read the whole story: Exodus 20-33. What observations or convictions do you have?

• What are you experiencing currently? Hearing from God but frustrated that others don't get it? Or feeling the tug of the Holy Spirit, pushing you toward repentance in an area you're rationalizing?

No Longer A Burden

As I've been engaged in a struggle recently to come to terms with some familiar and hated sin in my life, I was struck by the verse of my favorite hymn. I'd been feeling exhausted from the struggle of continual surrender to the Lord and I cried out to Him to change my heart - one more time. Then these words came to me in the shower:

My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part, but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O My soul!

It occurred to me that I don't have to bear the constant weight of my sin; that's precisely what Christ died for! He is my Savior, my Healer and my Intercessor. The Holy Spirit will convict me and transform me as I surrender to His convictions and rely on Jesus' sacrifice and the power of the resurrection to change me once again.

I'm not after behavior modification here; I'm after complete and radical transformation into the image of Christ. I will not brush my sinful responses to life under the proverbial carpet, grieving the Holy Spirit by my refusal to call my sin what it is. I will not grit my teeth and attempt to walk in Pharisaical adherence to regulations and expectations. I will not blame other people or my circumstances for my sinful attitudes.

I will examine my life in the light of the truth - the person of Jesus Christ. I will lay down my pride and admit when I'm wrong. I will fall on my face, at the feet of Jesus, again and again, until He takes me home and I will be like Him.

My sin is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the Lord, O my soul!

Setting The Pace

My son ran in his first 5K race this morning. He placed 67th out of 966 runners. As pleased as he was with his finish, he was a little disappointed in his time. He was hoping to shave a bit off his last time, but he ended up actually adding some time. Instead of the wooded trails where his high school cross country practices and meets are, this was a 5K along the streets of town, along the same trail as the 10K run, which had started earlier, and adjacent to the miniature loop of the kids' 1K dash. It was more like a festival atmosphere than a pure athletic event.

In the car after the race he talked about the reasons for his slower time. He seemed to think it had a lot to do with the wide variety of people running and the lack of someone he could use as a pace-setter for himself. Like my friend when she drives, Charlie likes to pick out a fast runner ahead of him and make it his goal to pass him. The challenge forces him to push himself to run faster. And today he couldn't find his guy.

So, what do exceptional runners do? The ones who actually win races like this one? Charlie says they pace themselves. Now, that's a good idea! Then it doesn't matter who runs with you, where you run, or how many people there are.

Wait, is there a spiritual application here? I think so.

There are lots of decisions we have to make every day about how to live out our faith. Many of these decisions can be made almost intuitively if we know Scripture and are actively pursuing our relationship with God by listening to the Holy Spirit's promptings. Sometimes, however, we hit a wall. A relationship unravels. Plans don't come to fruition. We lose our way. Our friends and leaders are giving mixed advice and viewpoints.

Who, then, becomes our pace-setter for living out our Christian faith uniquely as God created each of us to do?

When we go through life on spiritual autopilot or depending on others for wisdom without going to the Source of wisdom and guidance, we run the risk of running the race without a pace set for us. Then it's too easy to fall behind and forget the reason we're running.

Instead, we would do well to follow the suggestion of the writer of Hebrews, who wrote, "...let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Hebrews 12:1) Let's follow Jesus, keeping pace with Him and listening to His voice as we run our race. Then, when friends disagree or we find ourselves in a situation where the answer or the comfort we seek isn't quick in coming, we know who to follow.

The Holy Spirit's job description includes being a Counselor to convict of guilt and sin and righteousness, and to remind us of everything that Jesus taught. (John 16) When we listen to that voice, running to God to find grace and mercy in our time of need, we can find Him, Who is our Way. Then, regardless of the outcome of our situation, when we find God, we win.

City Moses and Desert Moses

Does writing about a proverbial desert experience seem trite? What if it's only coincidental that one of the locations in the story happens to be a desert?

I was struck by so many life lesson scenarios in the life of Moses as I read the familiar story this week that I had to pause and dig into at least one. There may be more, I should warn you.

As you may recall from the book of Exodus, Moses had a life split into three parts, each part lasting approximately forty years. The first forty were as a Prince of Egypt (we've all seen the movie...), the second forty were as a shepherd for his father-in-law in the Midian desert, and the last forty years he spent leading a million or so cranky Hebrews out of Egypt and into the land God had promised. There you go. Exodus in a nutshell.

What's interesting is that the first forty years of Moses' life are covered in Chapters 1 and 2, the next forty in chapters 2-4, and the last forty years are stretched out between the last 36 chapters of Exodus, plus the entire books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. I guess those are the ones we're meant to pay close attention to.

But there is something significant in the experiences that get merely a brief summary in the beginning of "the real story". Where Moses came from. His first eighty years of life were a very long preparation period for the history-altering later years in that God used his experiences as a royal prince in a fertile land and as a family desert shepherd to launch him into those final challenging years as the leader of God's chosen people.

After a dramatic discovery as a baby in a basket by Pharaoh's daughter, Moses was raised as a rich and privileged prince in an area of Egypt that was green and lush and filled with all the trappings of a powerful kingdom. According to ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, Moses' adoptive grandfather, the Pharaoh, would have been considered to hold absolute power over a vast empire, but he would have also shared deity with a host of Egyptian gods and goddesses, thereby serving as a sort of liaison between the human and divine worlds.

After murdering an Egyptian in a fit of righteous anger, Moses flees this life of luxury and finds a safe haven with people in the desert of Midian, just south of the land that the Israelites eventually settled under the leadership of Joshua. But that's for another day.

In the desert of Midian, Moses spent a few decades with his father-in-law's sheep, in the desert, learning how to work for himself, learning about nature, spending some quality time in solitude. He may have thought about his previous life in Egypt, when he was surrounded by temples and verdant landscapes by the Nile. He was assimilating and going through a radical reidentification process. From clean-shaven prince to hirsute shepherd. From a life of leisure to a daily search for water and concern for safety.

Meanwhile, back in Egypt...

Exodus 2:23-25 tells us what was happening while Moses was adjusting to his new identity:

²³ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

The Israelites groaned and cried out. God heard them and was concerned about them.

While Moses was in the desert learning to be a new person, his people were straining under the weight of their servitude, and God was about to do something on a miraculous scale for their deliverance and His ultimate glory.

Now comes the part we can all relate to.

It's a little thing I like to call perspective.

There was no way for Moses or the Israelites in Egypt to know the exact timing that God was going to put His plan in motion. But God did. There is no way for us to know when our present circumstances will change and God will spring into action in a totally unexpected - or perhaps long awaited - fashion. But He does.

That's what sovereign means. That God is always aware of and in control of His plans and purposes for His people.

Life not moving toward your dreams as fast as you'd like? Are you suffering under unbearable circumstances? God knows and He is working out His plan exactly as He designed it, whether we're aware of the moving parts or not.

Tragic phone call? Bad news from the doctor? Unexpected turn of events that has your head spinning? Just like God looked at the Israelites and was concerned, He knows your situation and He is concerned for you.

For all we know, we are sitting right where Moses and the Israelites were: separated from our ultimate destiny, but on the brink of participating in God's glorious plans. And the best thing we can do, over and over again, is cry out to Him and press into Him. Because when we get more of God, then the waiting is bearable. The suffering is tolerable. We can breathe through the tragic and be grounded amid the crashing waves. And what He's about to do is nothing short of amazing.

• Read Exodus 1 -2. Which scenes or characters do you relate to? How can you move closer to God in your situation?

• Read Psalm 18:1-6. Have you experienced what the psalmist has written about? Can you declare with assurance that the LORD is your rock, your fortress, and your deliverer? Verses 1-3 might be good ones to memorize.

• Read Romans 8:18-39. What comfort do you receive from these verses if you belong to Christ? How does it give you perspective in your current situation?

Doing Church

In the Bible study our church is doing right now, the author asked the following question twice in one week:

"Is it possible to be a committed, growing Christian and not be an active part of His body, the local church?"

Since the name of the Bible study is "Your Church Experiencing God Together", I'm going with "no" as the answer to this one. And I'm pretty confident of the answer, even though we haven't met to have our discussion yet.

Is it possible to be a Christian and not be an active part of a local church? Absolutely. Our relationship with God is individual, and we can be certain of our eternal destination without any specific connections to a church.

That being said, one simply cannot be committed or growing outside the context of Christian community. Here are some reasons it seems impossible to me:

1. We can't be challenged in our blind spots of obedience and character development on our own. I have a certain opinion and view of myself that isn't exactly objective. Pet sins, character flaws, etc. In a vacuum, I can do damage control just fine. Among other Christians living out an example of growth and challenging me to press deeper into God for transformation, I will grow.

2. I only relate to God in my way. I need to interact with other Christians on a regular basis to learn more about God. How does He speak to you? What have you learned about Him? What has He revealed to you?

3. We can't learn to obey all the "one another" commands in Scripture without another. And without those large chunks of Scripture in my life, I'm ignoring lots of Christ's very own words. Consistent disobedience is NOT a characteristic of a committed and growing Christian.

What about you? What reasons have you found for staying connected to the body of Christ? And what have you learned from the experience of being in relationship with God's people?

If you're not part of a group of like-minded Christians in community, what's keeping you from making the commitment?

God's kingdom will expand through the obedient actions of His devoted children. Let's all work toward that goal together!

Scan

Recently I've come to really appreciate the revelatory powers of my car stereo's "scan" feature. As I drop off the non-driving teens at their destination and finally have control of the musical environment, it's the first button I hit.

"What am I in the mood for?" I ask myself. Scan.

Then I wait for a song to reveal to me what my mood is. Sometimes it's the relaxing strings of Vivaldi. Sometimes I pause to reminisce over a tune from high school on an 80's station. Then, lo and behold, who knew I was in the mood for a techno dance party in my car? Apparently I was. Huh.

Sometimes I find the book of Psalms to have a similar effect. There are poems of despair, verses of rejoicing, angst, anger, contentment. All in the middle of our Bibles.

Last week I read Psalm 16, which I've dubbed "Sweet Sixteen". It's a psalm of contentment.

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

² I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."

³ As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

⁴ The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.

⁵ LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

These are my feelings right now, and this psalm revealed and articulated them for me. That's what I love about this book: someone else has run the gamut of emotions that I experience in my life, and he has already put words to it, waiting for me to come along and say, "Yes!"

If you're in a Bible-reading rut currently, try scanning the psalms to find your spiritual temperature. Then rejoice, cry out, rage, or pray to the One who inspired the psalm and your mood. Connection with Him is what it's about, regardless of the channel we end up listening to.

Fear of God

A friend and I have been on a roll discovering situations, conversations, and Scriptural passages that highlight the fear of God. It's everywhere for both of us right now for some reason.

In my systematic (not really) daily (not quite) Bible reading, I came across this psalm today:

⁷ The earth trembled and quaked,and the foundations of the mountains shook;
they trembled because he was angry.

⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
consuming fire came from his mouth,
burning coals blazed out of it.

⁹ He parted the heavens and came down;
dark clouds were under his feet.

¹⁰ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
he soared on the wings of the wind.

¹¹ He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.

¹² Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

¹³ The LORD thundered from heaven;
the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁴ He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies ,
great bolts of lightning and routed them.

¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
and the foundations of the earth laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

¹⁶ He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.

¹⁸ They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the LORD was my support.

¹⁹ He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me. (Psalm 18:7-19)

Do you see the tension of extremes in God's character? He is powerful and angry, blowing smoke from His nostrils, bringing hail and lightning, and making the mountains shake. And in that infinite, indescribable power, there is intimate connection: "He reached down from on high and took hold of me... he rescued me." That power wasn't to punish or to condemn His child; it was to protect and provide.

Both extremes are part of our God's character. Neither is diminished. Neither is relegated to just one part of Scripture. He is perfectly just, mighty, and holy. He is wholly loving, forgiving, and compassionate.

He is God.

The power that shakes the mountains and makes seas part is the same power that raised my Savior from the dead. And it's the same power that will defeat my enemy and enable me to love those around me supernaturally.

I will tremble before this God. And I will approach His throne of grace with confidence. I will do both because I know the power of my Father. And I know His love. Thanks be to God.