Saturday, April 28, 2007

A Safe God?

So, I was reading Exodus 20:21 (NLT): "As the people stood in the distance, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was." I felt electrified. It reminded me of the quote from C.S. Lewis. In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Lucy asks the Beavers about Aslan (the Lion). "Is he safe?" "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver... "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

God's glory is ominous, risky, terrifying. But he has picked us to approach him. Like flying an airplane into a black storm cloud, entering God's presence is not for the weak of heart. Actually, Jesus points out it's for the pure of heart... Matthew 5:8--the pure hearts will see God. Like Lucy in C.S. Lewis' Wardrobe--she saw Aslan when no one else could.

Only a heart that's pure can survive a darkness so deep you have no choice but to see inside yourself. Thus I pray King David's prayer in Psalm 51:

"Purify my heart, O God,...
And do not banish me from your presence."

Jesus entered our world and shed his blood so that our hearts may be pure who believe in him.... Think Passover: in the pitch black of midnight, only the blood of a pure lamb on the Jews' doorposts allowed God's people to survive his presence in the land of Egypt. We cannot take for granted that only the blood--not our family name, our charitable service, our Bible studies, not even living separately from the "world"--only Jesus' blood covering our doorposts (our private and public lives) allows us to be saved in God's presence. Allows our hearts to be called pure. So when we enter the dark cloud of God's presence, we have nothing to fear. Our God is not safe; but he is good.

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