by Pastor Patrick Cho
The word “awesome” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “causing feelings of fear and wonder.” This is undoubtedly a fitting adjective to describe our God. To borrow from the old worship refrain, our God is an awesome God. What is desperately needed in the church today is a greater sense of God’s greatness and majesty. In order to preserve the idea that Jesus is our friend, we have adopted perhaps too casual of an attitude towards God. We treat Him like He is our buddy. This casual attitude is sometimes reflected in our prayers. We talk to God like He is anyone else. Of course, we can come to the Lord honestly and pray to Him candidly, but we would do well to remember that we are speaking with the God of the universe and of our lives.
This casual attitude also manifests itself in our casual approach to Sundays. Our worship services have adopted this casualness. People waltz into church consistently late. Even the way we dress is oftentimes embarrassingly casual. This isn’t to say that church should be stuffy or follow some rigid liturgy. But when someone walks into church on Sunday morning, there should be a sense of passing through a threshold into the presence of God.
One of my favorite passages in Scripture is Exodus 33:18-23 and 34:4-8. This is the account where Moses asks the Lord to show him His glory. God quickly reminded Moses that no one could see His face and live, but He accommodated His servant by promising to walk by and reveal His back. The next day, when Moses ascended Sinai, the Lord hid him in the cleft of a rock and passed by. As He passed by He proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
If Christians today could experience the brief encounter Moses had with the Lord on Sinai, perhaps they would be quick to respond the way Moses did immediately after his meeting. The text says, “And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped” (Exod. 34:8). Moses worshiped because this experience all the more helped him to understand what an awesome God he served. He knew it from what he was able to see, but perhaps he knew it more from what he was able to hear. God’s own words revealed to Moses who he was and what He was like.
Considering this, perhaps we have something much closer to Moses than we might have originally suspected. I would argue that we have something even greater in the Bible we possess. We enjoy the incalculable privilege of holding the completed revelation of God’s Word. Everything God has desired to communicate to us is perspicuously written in the Bible. Moses received a couple sentences, but we have received sixty-six books! Moses looked forward to the fulfillment of God’s promises. We get to live on this side of the cross and look back on much of what God fulfilled in Christ.
Living in such privileged position with our access to the God of the Scriptures, we would be remiss to ignore the incredible benefit afforded us. Shouldn’t we be doing all we can to gain more of Him, to know Him more and be more intimately acquainted with God our Savior? This year, our Grace Life family ministry will be walking through a study of God. Our hope is that through this time together we will develop a greater appreciation and deeper worship, that the thought of God would evoke in us feelings of fear and wonder!