DEVOTIONAL

Prayer: Father thank you for loving me and calling me to love others. Help me through my life to live a life of loving others.  As I commit myself to you today, I ask you please touch my life and help me live out all the commandments you have given me in and through the name of you beloved Son the Lord Jesus my Saviour. As I come before your throne of grace and mercy, I confess and acknowledge I have sinned against you in thought and deed, today I ask to forgive me and, in your grace, purify my heart, cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. And in your great love lead me and help me to walk in the paths of righteousness, so that I may bring glory to you the one triune God. Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy. I now receive your forgiveness and mercy in the name of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Scripture Reading for Prayer and Praise: Psalm 111:1-4

"1 Praise the LORD.” I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.” 2 Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.” 4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and compassionate.”

Worship Song Sung or Said: God Of Glory (David Fellingham)

https://youtu.be/agsmHYF8axc?list=RDagsmHYF8axc

God of glory, we exalt Your name,

You who reign in majesty.

We lift our hearts to You.

And we will worship, praise and magnify

Your holy name.

In power resplendent

You reign in glory,

Eternal King, You reign forever.

Your word is mighty,

releasing captives,

Your love is gracious,

You are my God.

God’s Word for Today: Exodus 34:29-35

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablet’s of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.” 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.” 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them.” 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the LORD had given him on Mount Sinai.” 33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.” 34 But whenever he entered the LORD’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.” And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant.” Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the LORD.”                                         

Devotional/Study: 

A while ago I was sitting in our lounge when my daughter Becky came in, I was taken by surprise because she was a gel looking face mask. I said to her Becky what are you wearing? She said dad this is a face mask that helps my face to glow, shine and look healthy. So I thought I give it go because my face could do with a bit of a glow. 

Well, I tried it but I have to confess after peeling it of my face I couldn’t see any glow in my face. In Exodus 34:29 we discover you don’t need to use any kind of face cream or mask to look radiant, or glow. Moses’ face was radiant not because of any face cream.

The face of Moses skin shone because he had been in presence of God up on Mount Sinai v28. While Moses was up on the mountain with God two things happened in his life. 

Firstly: In chapter 34:6 God revealed to Moses who God is and what He was like. He says in v6 "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” 

Now when Moses heard these words, we are told in v8 "Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.”  He recognized the greatness of God, the mercy and justice and judgement of God.” These characteristics reveal to us how wonderful and amazing our God is. In Psalm 86 David also understood who God was and said in v15 "But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” 

However, these characteristics of God we don’t just find them in the Old Testament but also in the New Testament in the life of Jesus and on the cross we see Gods love, mercy and judgment of Sin. There is a wonderful chorus from a wonderful hymn that sums up what happened on the cross. “On the mount of crucifixion fountains opened deep and wide; through the floodgates of God's mercy flowed a vast and gracious tide. Grace and love, like mighty rivers, poured incessant from above, and heaven’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love.” As I was thinking about the character of God it raised a question do we really know God intimately? 

A wonderful Christian, Alan Redpath now with the Lord said “I had known, believed and preached for many years [but] I had become more concerned about knowledge of faith than about knowledge of God…. To me God had become more of a theoretical and doctrinal figure, than a saving, experiential companion.” (Victorious Christian Faith: (pages 15-16). 

In my experience of speaking to hundreds of churches for over 40 years I have noticed many churches instead of seeking and striving to know God in a deeper way, they have been caught in desiring and experiencing power, prophecy and miracles, rituals and methods. I am not saying seeking these things are wrong but, in my opinion, we have lost the number one priority in our lives and in the life of the church and that is to know the one true living God, father son and Holy Spirit. 

What sometimes we forget is the desire of God heart is to fellowship with us—in the innermost part of our being where we are indwelt by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

We know God loves us and has saved us from death and Hell through what Jesus did on the cross. However, hasn’t just saved us to show that He loves. He saves us so that we can get to know Him intimately and deeply and begin to love him more than anything else in the world. And the more we know him the more we will discover his characteristic of love grace, mercy, and forgiveness and all that He is. 

God revealed to Moses who He is because he spent time with God. Let us seek God and desire Him not because we are told to, but because the desire of hearts is to know and love him. Knowing who God is changed the life of Moses and surely it will change ours. Can I encourage you to find your mountain and seek and wait upon God. 

The second thing that happened to Moses was his encounter with God changed his appearance. We read in the Exodus 34:29 "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablet’s of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.” 

So, When Moses finally descended from the mountain after been there for 40 days and 40 nights the external part of his face was shining. In my opinion I believe the glory of the light of God was upon his face. It’s hard to put into words the meaning of the glory of God but it can refer to God's greatness, His honour, His beauty, His splendour, power, and His light. 

We can say the glory of God is the greatness of who He is. Why was Moses so radiant, why was his face shining? In 29b we are told that his face was "radiant because he had spoken with the LORD.” I also believe that it was his humility and love and desire for Gods righteousness and desire for God to show him His glory. In Exodus 33 God is calling Moses to lead the Israelites through the wilderness. God is pleased with Moses, but Moses wanted assurance that’s Gods presence would be with him and the people. So, God assures him.

Then Moses wants one more thing of God. He says in v18 "Now show me your glory.” And later on, Moses had a glimpse of the glory of God. (v19-23) I do believe that when life is hard and in the midst of the difficulties, we spend time with God and deep communion with Him, we may not be radiant and glow like Moses but there is in our face a peace that is beyond understanding.

We can’t even imagine how Moses’ face shone but the glory of God so radiated from him his face we are told in v30 "When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him.” 

I wonder how we would react if we saw or experienced the glory and splendour and majesty of God. There is only way we could react we would fall on knees on our knees and cry out "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,' who was, and is, and is to come.” Revelation 4:8.

There is another story in the Bible where see something of the glory of God. It’s in the story of the in the story of the transfiguration that is found in Luke 9: 28-36. The context is Jesus had performed some miracles and then He speaks to his disciples about His own death and calls them to deny self and follow Him. And then we are told in Luke 9:28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.” Tomorrow we will see what happened on the mountain.

Personal Prayer: