Getting Up Again

Exodus (specifically Chapters 19, 20 & 32), tells an interesting story. A story about a group of people who had followed God’s direction, God had led them out of Egypt, freed them from literal slavery, and a few months later, God speaks to Moses (the leader of this group of people) and tells him to tell the people that “if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall…”(Exodus 19:5) and God goes on to promise them a number of things.

Moses goes and tells the people this, and how do they respond? (Exodus 19:8) “Everything that the Lord has spoken we will do”. Three days later, God speaks to them. He comes down onto a mountain, there was thunder, lightning, the mountain began smoking, there was the sound of a trumpet and God began speaking the 10 commandments to these people.

Understandably, this freaked them out, it would have been an incredible sight to see and hear, but incredibly loud, and very different to what they had ever seen before. As a result of this, they asked Moses to speak to God, as they were afraid.

Moses made his way up the mountain to speak to God, as there were quite a number of things that God wanted to say, Moses was up there for a while (it doesn’t say how long, the second time he went up he was there for 40 days, so you can imagine it would have been a while). By the time Moses came back down the mountain, the people who had heard God’s voice and had promised to follow God, had made a golden idol, were worshiping it, and saying it was the idol that brought them out of Egypt.

How forgetful can we be? Hearing about the Israelites (the group of people who Moses led), I always found it interesting the number of times God worked amazing miracles in their lives, the number of times He told them He would be with them, and the number of times He rescued them from different situations, and the way they continuously turned away from God.

I always wondered how they could possibly be so forgetful, and continuously turn away from God. But looking back on my own life, I can understand how they may have relied on money over God, how they could have forgotten the incredible things God had done for them.

Today, no matter what difficulties are happening in your life, I want to encourage you to reflect on the things God has done in your life. To look back at how much He has done for you, at how many times He has shown you that He loves you. To remember that He is always there for you, and is the best friend you could ever have!

- Hope Born, Chaplain

Combined Chapel Tomorrow

We will be combined for Chapel this week, as our visitors from Avondale perform The Promise for us.

Summer Camp