Be Still For The Presence Of The Lord!

 

THU EP Reflection 080620 (Exodus 24: 12-18; Ps 24, Matt 17: 1-9)  

Feast of the Transfiguration

I will begin with Ps 24: 1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein. From vs 3-4 The Psalmist asks: “Who can stand in His Holy place?” The answer comes: “Those with a pure heart and clean hands, those who have not pledged themselves to falsehood, nor sworn by what is fraud.”  From vs 6-10 talk about the generations of those who seek him, those who seek your face O God of Jacob. I am already intrigued because I imagine God who owns absolutely everything in the world and where we live is a holy GOD! Those who can be in his presence can only be those with a pure heart and clean hands, those who are on the journey to the truth and not sworn to anything false. That might be a problem if we live in a world that produce falsehood at an alarming rate. Movies get pirated, nations spy on each other so they can reproduce what the other has invented, there is a lot of falsehood in our world and this word from Psalm tells us that those sworn to falsehood can not stand in God’s presence.

I was drawn by Moses’ story: God said to Moses: “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there…” God was going to give him the ten commandments on a stone tablet, so He called him into His Holy presence. Not everyone went with him, only Joshua went with him. Are we really ready to go into the presence of God in prayer? I remember my days of Pentecostal prayer groups in Africa. We met two by two and confessed sins to each other, removed our shoes before entering God’s presence. It is with emotion I can tell you that God moved mightily with his hand and we saw results in that place that we could never have imagined. Now there is a 3,000 people church in that place where 16 of us started. We serve a mighty God! Are you ready to begin the journey of entering God’s presence?

On this Feast of the Transfiguration, we remember the event where Jesus was transformed in front of his 2 disciples, a moment with a sense of wonder, a glimpse into the Holy of Holies, just a small glimpse of the bliss of the presence of God.

Matt 17: 1-9 reports the story telling us the sense of wonder and courage that the disciples got from being with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, two important personalities in Jewish history. I don’t know if we can imagine the blessing of being in the presence of God, witnessing the glory of the Lord. How joyful, healing and majestic it must have been! What a great invitation like with Moses. “Come up to me on the mountain...” Come up, be with me for some time. Sit still, let me minister to you, let me calm your stormy seas, feel my presence in the silence.

I know this may sound like creating our own bubble, yes! It is a rather happy bubble. Join God in the happy bubble so you can be one with Jesus, it is in this bubble that we can recharge and get divine life within us, where Jesus can take over our trajectory, our feelings and ambitions, every part of our lives given out unto the lordship of Jesus Christ. So, we get out of the bubble, we are empowered to be disciples of Jesus in the world.

When, outside in the world, we meet ideas that are contrary to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we must refuse to be part of it. This is the same word we just read in Ps 24. We cannot stand in God’s presence while deeply steeped in falsehood. Paul says they have renounced shameful things or that which we wouldn’t want everyone to know about us, those things, we have renounced. What does this teach us? Some ideas in this world will be enticing, their arguments will be convincing, fair, and seemingly safe, but totally against God’s Holy Word. We need discernment. Paul’s warning for Corinthians is an important one for us as well. This is what he is saying [I am paraphrasing]: “You have renounced that stuff, or to falsify God’s word, because now you belong to God. However, this isn’t the same for unbelievers: The god of this world has blinded unbelievers so they cannot see or perceive the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is veiled for them.”

We need God’s grace so whatever the “god” of this world put on our eyes may fall right away, that the Gospel may not be veiled to us, that we may grow each day more and more into the full stature of Christ. Be ready to go into the presence of the Lord! Be Still.