“Now
therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways,
that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight…And the LORD said to
Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found
favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’”
(Ex.
33:13, 17 ESV)
Moses had a relationship with God
unlike many others, to the extent where it says in verse 11 of this same
chapter, “Thus the LORD used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to
his friend…” It was a time when God was
beginning to truly make Himself known to a group of people. There are a number of very interesting and
intriguing conversations they had while up on the mountain in which we learn
something about the nature and character of God.
We now have the balance of Scripture
that continues to speak to us about the nature and character of God, and if we
will avail ourselves of the opportunity, we will learn about Him—who He is, and
how He relates to us, and we to Him.
We are beginning this first Sunday
in February a sermon series on the Attributes of God, with a goal for all of
us, myself included, to gain a more biblically based, more accurate view of
God. This more accurate view of God will
likely come into conflict with some views we may have long held, but find no
biblical basis to support us any longer.
Perhaps we have allowed the culture around us to shape our views of Him
instead of relying on the gift He has given us in Scripture to help us know
Him.
As we gain a right understanding of
who He is we will be more likely to be changed by Him, following Him more faithfully,
living with greater holiness, and be better suited to live in a world that in
reality is so counter to Him. My hope is
that His Holy Spirit will help us to have greater clarity in regard to Him and
His Word as He turns the spotlight of truth on our way so that we can see
things as they really are instead of how we would prefer them to be.
A.W. Tozer once said, “What comes
into our minds when we think of God is the most important thing about us.” Dr. Steven J. Lawson said, “High views of God
leads to high holy living”, and ”How we view the attributes of God colors
everything else that we see around us.”
My hope is that as God is exalted in
our minds, that we will find ourselves humbled before Him, and ready to step
out in faith in anything that we sense that He is calling us to do, both as
individuals and as a church. Perhaps the
greatest single thing that I can do as a pastor is to help us all have a more
right and accurate view of God, as everything else we believe, and do and
become flows from that.
I would ask that you, too, would
pray for clarity to come to all of us through this series, that God would be
glorified, and that the church would be strengthened and built up in the
process.
By
His Grace Alone,
Pastor
Bruce Jacobsen
