"Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain… Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was." (Exodus 19:17, 20:18-21)
Why are we content too often with being with Moses (living off of someone else's spiritual encounter) when we can go directly up the mountain and be with God ourselves? The Israelites were invited to encounter God's presence and indescribable glory and holiness. If they had, they would have been powerfully changed. Instead, the people stayed behind and ended up making an image of what they thought God should look like. God longs for us to walk right past those taking a selfie with Moses and even Moses himself and go up on the mountain just to sit in His presence. You won't come down the same.
This piece was made in conjunction with Bowling Alone.
One of the overarching themes of the book of Isaiah, and in fact the Gospel message shown throughout the entire Bible, is our failure and neglect to live out Matthew 22:36- 40: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. "Selfie with Moses" and "Bowling Alone" are the modern-day expressions of these two commandments.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community be aware of being alone. Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls." I could not make "Selfie with Moses" without balancing it out with "Bowling Alone." The irony of these pieces is that they show the virtue of the other taken to an extreme which then becomes a vice. In "Selfie with Moses," it is all about being a part of a community to the detriment of relationship with God, while "Bowling Alone" is all about being alone while the community suffers.
What would it be like if we all came into the presence of God every day on our own and then went out into the community? Community is the threshing floor and training ground God uses to teach us how to walk out the truths and revelations He speaks to us during our time alone with Him. Walking out these things with frail and fallen people is how we mature spiritually. We need both the mountaintop experiences and community experiences, not neglecting one for the other.
"Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain… Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where
God was." (Exodus 19:17, 20:18-21)
Why are we content too often with being with Moses (living off of someone else's spiritual encounter) when we can go directly up the mountain and be with God ourselves? The Israelites were invited to encounter God's presence and indescribable glory and holiness. If they had, they would have been powerfully changed. Instead, the people stayed behind and ended up making an image of what they thought God should look like. God longs for us to walk right past those taking a selfie with Moses and even Moses himself and go up on the mountain just to sit in His presence. You won't come down the same.
This piece was made in conjunction with Bowling Alone.
One of the overarching themes of the book of Isaiah, and in fact the Gospel message shown throughout the entire Bible, is our failure and neglect to live out Matthew 22:36-
40: love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. "Selfie with Moses" and
"Bowling Alone" are the modern-day expressions of these two commandments.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community be aware of being alone. Each by itself has profound perils and pitfalls." I could not make "Selfie with Moses" without balancing it out with "Bowling Alone." The irony of these pieces is that they show the virtue of the other taken to an extreme which then becomes a vice. In "Selfie with Moses," it is all about being a part of a community to the detriment of relationship with God, while "Bowling Alone" is all about being alone while the community suffers.
What would it be like if we all came into the presence of God every day on our own and then went out into the community? Community is the threshing floor and training ground God uses to teach us how to walk out the truths and revelations He speaks to us during our time alone with Him. Walking out these things with frail and fallen people is how we mature spiritually. We need both the mountaintop experiences and community experiences, not neglecting one for the other.