It wasn’t until recently that I realised just how many people are turning their backs, not just on their faith, but the gift given by our Heavenly Father. And, it wasn’t something that I realised was occurring in my own life until I really stopped to come before God, asking Him to examine my heart. Simply we have become satisfied with coming to Moses at the foot of the mountain instead of going up the mountain into the presence of God. And the sad thing is this, it is something that has been cultivated for decades and something that has become almost ingrained in us.
Then…
When you look at the lives the Israelites, their sin had not yet been atoned for and as such they had to come to Moses and have him commune with God on their behalf. And for centuries after they could only go to a High Priest who had access to God, which is possibly what caused them to miss the coming of Jesus – the fact that they could only rely on someone else to do it for them had become so engrained in them. If they had only realised what was freely available and came into the knowledge of Christ. Behaviour and a lifestyle that had become so ingrained in them for thousands of years had prevented countless people from coming up the mountain past Moses and into the presence of God.
Now…
Coming into modern church and Christianity it is evident that we are repeating the same mistake. We are becoming so satisfied staying at the foot of the mountain and being perfectly content with living our lives that way. It has reached a point that churches are doing anything and everything they can just to get people into church and to the foot of the mountain. But it’s becoming rarer that modern followers actually go up into the presence of God and as such they become dissatisfied and eventually leave.
It’s an issue that has been spreading for years if not decades, and it is something that we need to be made aware of if we are to implement real change. We need go up the mountain into the presence of God and tell people that there is nothing that God wants more than to have His people in His presence.
What can be done?
There are so many things that we can do. We as followers of Christ need to tune into the Spirit of God and realise that men, even men of God can’t satisfy us, only God can. We need to get to that point where we stop doing everything, we can just to draw people to the foot of the mountain and willingly step aside so that the children of God can go into the presence of God. We collectively, as the body of Christ, need to come into repentance for being satisfied with less than what God has called us to and be reminded daily of our first love. Because there is so much that God has to offer, and we have become so distracted at the foot of the mountain instead of being both told and led up it. Simply we need to go past Moses, past that idea that we don’t need to go up into the presence of God and actually go up into His presence where he so eagerly awaits us.
Ash lives in Kingaroy, Queensland. It’s here he works as a farm hand, bull rides and finishing his degree in teaching. Ash is a former young writer and has returned to the team.