Newsletters - Community Protestant Church

August 1 - Service With Temple Veil

August 15 - Lake Day and Potluck after the service

Smoke! It’s everywhere. Obscuring some views and enhancing others. We were in Big Sky this week and could’t see Lone Peak from the Meadow village but the sunsets and sunrises have been beautiful and the full moon was an amazing pinkish red or reddish pink. (Being color challenged at times I’m not sure you can take my word on that) On the other hand, my throat is scratchy and my eyes irritated from all the smoke in the air. The western portion of our country is hot, dry and burning up, and as a result we will be dealing with smoke until the snow falls. One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament is the story of the Israelites at Mt Sinai. The story includes this description:

Ex 19:18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

The story goes on to say that the Israelites where terrified by this appearance of God and the strict warnings that went with it.

Ex. 20:18-19 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”

I think this is a sad story, the people where afraid to have God speak to them. This should not be the case for us. We should not be afraid to approach God and to hear from him. The author of Hebrews encourages us to come before the “throne of grace with confidence”. He later contrasts the experience and fear of the Israelites with our experience of God through Christ. Even in the difficulty of experiencing God’s discipline the author reminds us that God is working for our good and not harm. He contrasts our opportunity to respond positively to God’s work in our lives with Israelites fear at Mount Sinai.

Heb. 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Heb. 12:25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking…

28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

(I skipped some verses to make the connections to Exodus stand out, but you can go and read Exodus 19-20 and Hebrews 12 and get the fuller context.)

I am looking forward to the smoke going away. But in the meantime, I will remember the fire and smoke of God’s presence on Mount Sinai. I will give thanks that, in Christ, I can come boldly to the throne of grace, and know, God’s word and work in my life, is for my good and His glory.