Morning Moments

^{Exodus 20:18}All the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain surrounded by smoke. When the people saw it they trembled and stood at a distance. ¹⁹“You speak to us, and we will listen,” they said to Moses, “but don’t let God speak to us, or we will die.”

²⁰Moses responded to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you will fear Him and will not sin.” ²¹And the people remained standing at a distance as Moses approached the thick darkness where God was.

^{Hebrews 1:1}Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. ²In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son. God has appointed Him heir of all things and made the universe through Him. ³The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. ⁴So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs.

What more does God have to say to us than He has already said?  Paul said to the Corinthians that the workings of God with Israel were for our example, types, shadows, and figures of things to come - and they came.  And He came, in the person of His Son, Jesus, who is the express image of God.  He taught, He lived, He died, as a substiture for our sins.  Hence, He became what we were - Sin, in that the penalty of our sin was upon Him in whom there was no sin.  He became the perfect sacrifice, bearing our sins in His body on the tree, that we (those who have abandoned themselves to Him and received His life in retrun) being dead to sin should no longer live in it.  THAT is the Gospel!

But the response of the people to God was that of fear, so God sent a man, Moses to communicate the Truth about God to the people.  AND THEN AGAIN, God sent a Man, the INCARNATE Son of God to seal all the prophecies written about His first coming or about His birth, life, death, and resurrection.

The People in the first case responded by saying in essence, we will listen to the man God has sent.  We will do what we are told.  We will receive the Word from God communicated to us by the man God has chosen.

But in the second case, the people knew too much!  They were comfortable, casual, calloused, and careless.  They, who should have received Him, rejected Him.  They who should have crowned Him in their hearts, cried crucify Him with their mouths.  And they who should have honored Him, hated Him.

So, here we are and the year is 2013 and the nation is the United States of America, and we who, above all people on earth, should be praising and pleasing HIM are once again putting prosperity, possessions, people, politics, parties, prescriptions, and who knows what else before HIM, who alone is worthy of our worship.  We CAN avert the continuing judgment of God upon America IF ONLY - "My people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and PRAY and turn from their wicked ways and seek my face.  Then will I hear from Heaven, forgive their sins and heal their land."

OTHERWISE, no weapon will help us or keep us from the pending judgment of God!