One Holy mountain!

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death.”   Exodus 19:12

What an incredibly holy, pure and unapproachable God we worship!  We sometimes forget how angry He is with man’s impurity, disobedience and arrogance!  But praise God that His pure, humble, obedient Son provided the intervention the Holy Father required for His corrupt creatures (you and me); we could have friendship with God and even be called the children of God!

In the past assumed that God would naturally love me and be patient with me because He’s a kind, warm, loving God that naturally is gentle and forbearing.  I imagined myself as a being that God would naturally want to bless and do nice things for because I am normally a pretty likable guy;  I have determined that He would be quite sad if I were not with Him in heaven one day.  But such is the thinking of a child—-but there’s time to put away childish thinking and soberly assess our situation.

To think that God would change His character to accommodate mine is a very inappropriate way to imagine a holy God and His relationship with His creation. Though He loves me and desires that I am a part of His family, he does not need me—a very, very flawed creature—in order to remain “God”.  God’s total separation from sin and anything impure puts Him on a plateau I simply cannot imagine or enter onto even if I had an eternity to try.  Other religions make similar claims about a holy God that cannot be fully known or touched by any “normal” kind of person, but they either suggest that  (a) such a god can never, regardless of what we did or became, be known or touched; or  (b) they teach that though our spiritual condition is bad, it is not so  ruined and corrupted that with proper confessions, prayers, acts of charity, etc, we might one day be accepted by him; i.e. we can be “spiritually rehabilitated”.

Rubbish.  If God is a perfect and holy God, only  a perfect and holy “remedy” would work. All my good efforts and sacrifices are a speck of dirt compared to His awesome perfection.  He is Holy——and so is His beloved Son.  Here’s the truth: Jesus loves me, this I know!  And that, my friend, is why I can approach His holy mountain and hear Him call me His own.  He paid the price for my corruption and filthy actions.  I am now pure and holy based upon Jesus Christ has done for me. I am now able to approach that mountain and yet live.

….all because of what Jesus did—-not because what I have done—praise God for that!

Warmly,

Dean Barley

1945 Vineyard Road

Westfield, NC 27053

336 351 2070

www.vineyardcamp.com