Your Tent of Meeting

“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.”  Exodus 33:12

A big, burgundy recliner crowds the northeast corner of my parents’ living room.  A lot goes on in that spot—great napping, good reading, much talking, and, most importantly, regular meetings with God.  In over two decades of “going back home,” rare has been the occasion when I’ve woken early and not seen the light by that chair glowing bright as my father reads his Bible and prays. No matter the season of year or season of life, his conversations with God have been constant.  Only eternity will tell the full story of hearts changed and mountains moved as a result of those meetings.

We all need a spot where we meet God a lot. “Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the ‘tent of meeting.’  As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses”(Ex 33:7,9). Though God’s permanent presence was stunningly obvious in the always-around cloudy pillar, Moses knew he needed one-on-one together time with God where he wasn’t distracted by the many things he had to do and the million people he had to lead—and we think we have a lot on our plates!  To make this happen, Moses pitched a tent for privacy where he could meet God personally.  There, within the comfy confines of a desert dwelling, the Almighty God of heaven chatted with a regular guy of earth.  “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend”(Ex 33:12).  Their conversations were intimate, engaging, and absolutely imperative if Moses was going to fulfill God’s purpose to know Him and make Him known.

We need to be putting down stakes for the same reason.  Though God’s always-around presence is obvious in His creation and His creatures, and especially because His Spirit is alive and well in His children, we should have a spot where we meet with God on a regular basis.  A place where it’s just the two of us, with no distractions and no disturbances.  A place where we can still our bustling minds, close our busy mouths, and open our heavy or happy hearts to hear what God has to say.  Yes, we should “pray without ceasing” throughout our day, and we should carry on continual conversation with God as we work, play, run errands, do lunch, take care of family, and spend time with friends, but for God to be glorified most and best in those activities and for us to stay focused on what really matters in the midst of the much and the mess, intimate, engaging private dialogue with God is imperative—and that usually happens in a tent.

Your tent might be a recliner like my dad’s.  It might be a chair by your bed or a lounger on the back porch.  You might curl up on the couch with God or sit at a table with the Word and a warm cup of coffee.  Wherever, however, whenever, you know what I’m talking about, and you know that no matter what comes during the day, you are able to enjoy God (and others) greater, show love a little easier, handle hard stuff a lot better, and keep your patience and peace much longer when have taken time to meet with God—just the two of you—and let Him encourage you, inspire you, instruct you, and love on you.  If you find this hard to do, start short and let God grow your time from there. You’ll soon discover that that moments become your most important.  

Side-by-side days with God are better when they begin face-to-face.

Pitch a tent and meet with God a lot.

Overlooking The Obvious

“Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”  Exodus 32:1

I live in Lake Placid, Florida, a lovely, little town made even more beautiful by twenty-nine natural lakes and forty-six painted murals.  On my ten minute morning commute, I pass four of the lakes and twelve of the murals, but most days I hardly even notice.  Familiarity has bred complacency, and the obvious is often overlooked.  My oversight causes me to miss out on some nice views and vistas, but what happens when we grow accustomed and callous to the ultimate reality of God and His presence?

Before you say, “No way!” consider the golden calf.  

The crowd of Israelites camped around Mt. Sinai was only a few months past Egypt’s slavery and Pharaoh’s cruelty, but they had already walked through the Dead Sea on dry ground, gathered divine manna each day for food, and quenched their thirst with rushing water from a desert rock.  Just a few weeks back, they had stood in awe as God Himself had descended onto the summit with blazing fire, black clouds, deep darkness, loud trumpets, and billowing smoke.  They had trembled along with the mountain as “the Lord spoke out of the fire.  He declared his commandments, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow”(Deut 4:11-13).  

But now, it was forty days later, and the “glory of God that looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain as Moses entered the cloud,”(Ex 24:17) had become so commonplace that the people discounted God’s power and ignored His presence.

They called for Aaron to “make gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him,”(Ex 32:1).  And just like that—quickly, simply, and easily—their leader was written off, God’s commandments were discarded, and the people charged full-steam ahead with their folly—while, all the while, the peak above them billowed with black smoke during the day and the bright light of God’s glory at night. 

Even Aaron, whose staff the Almighty had caused to bloom and bud and also turn into a vicious snake, even Aaron, who himself had recently climbed the cliff, seen the Lord, and stayed for a divine dinner, had grown so accustomed and callous to the nearness of God’s presence that he succumbed to peer pressure and produced the golden calf.  “Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt”(Ex 32:2-4).

We’re not talking heathens—we’re talking God’s holy people, those set apart for His purpose and rescued by His power.  We’re talking the very ones who should never, ever discount God were overlooking the obvious and going their own way. 

We say the same won’t happen to us, but we should be very careful.  The enemy is subtle, and our hearts are fickle.  Stay soft to God’s Spirit.  Don’t let familiarity breed complacency.  Do let the reality of your redemption stay fresh. Marvel at God’s majesty every day, and keep your eyes and your heart open to God’s surrounding glory and the truth of His astounding Gospel.  

Billowing fire might not be enough to keep us faithful, but beautiful grace will keep as God’s own.

Gifted For Good

“I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills.” Exodus 31:2

What are you good at doing?  Something for sure because God gave all His children special gifts on their birthday into His family.  Besides those spiritual presents, by nature and nurture God has blessed us with talents and abilities to do all kinds of things. His purpose in this bounty is that our good works will bring Him glory, and it takes all of us doing our part to complete the project.

On top of a desert mountain God gave Moses specific instructions on how to construct the tabernacle with its contents and on how to clothe and consecrate the priests.  Was one man, the majority of whose life had been spent leading sheep in circles, meant to tackle this task alone?  Of course not, and in case Moses thought so, God was quick to reassure him otherwise. “Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of crafts”(Ex 31:2-5).

As the faithful missionary, Hudson Taylor, aptly stated, “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s provision,” but provision means more than just being able.  In fact, Bezalel’s skills were last on the list of his qualifications.  To equip him for the task ahead, God had filled this man with His Spirit, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and, finally, the ability to create and build.  This order is a loud reminder that God’s presence and power followed up by our priority to seek His will and His ways are prerequisites for successful service.

We can all be effective servants because we have all been equipped.  Some of us meet needs and some show mercy.  Some lift up and some lead.  Some preach and some teach.  Some organize and administrate, some design and create, and some share their stuff and themselves generously and gladly.  Some sing.  Some dance.  Some run the sound system, and some rock the babies.  But whatever we’ve been fitted and formed to do, Sunday through Saturday, we are all to be about God’s business of showing His love and grace to desperate and needy people—not burying our talents in fear of failure. 

If we do what we’re made to do because we desire to make much of God, we will succeed, especially when we do it together.  Solos are nice, but it takes more than one to make a choir.  God gifted others besides Bezalel with creativity. “I have also appointed Oholiab of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given ability to all the skilled workers to make everything I have commanded you”(Ex 31:6).  Together, these men would build God’s dwelling place on earth, and many would be blessed by what they did.

Though Bezalel and his buddies soon finished the Tabernacle, God’s big construction project goes on.  “In Christ you too are building built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit”(Eph 2:22).  His multi-faceted mercy is most fully revealed when we’re all busy sharing our sometimes overlapping and often similar abilities, and when we engage and exercise our unique skills and aptitudes.  “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms”(I Peter 4:10).  We’re all a different mix, and that’s by divine design.  Our gifts are not to be compared or counted, for God’s work is not a contest but a collaboration.  He is building something beautiful, and we are blessed with talents and abilities to do our part.

Don’t sit around lamenting what you think you lack.  Get busy doing what you’re good at, and God will get the glory.