Jesus and the Tabernacle

A few years ago our church hosted a life-sized replica of the Tabernacle used by the Israelites in the Old Testament. It was a powerful and moving reminder of God's desire to be close to His people, and all the ways throughout the centuries that He has moved heaven and earth to reveal Himself to His creation. 

I was working as the Media Director for our church at the time and one of my favorite memories was shooting some video footage in the Holy of Holies, alone and late in the evening, imagining what it must have been like for the High Priest when he pulled back the last veil and encountered the Almighty God . . . 

I think that, especially in our modern day, that we have heard so much about God that we have perhaps lost sight of the majesty of God. There is a tendency to profane holy things by making them common, ordinary, perhaps even mundane. Yet scripture continually reminds us that God is a Holy God, and sin is not tolerated in His presence. The habits and choices that we so casually make, God does not view in that same light. Yes, God is love, and He has provided a way of forgiveness through the sacrifice of Jesus, but sin is still repulsive in His presence. I'm reminded of the verse, "The prayers of a righteous man availath much." Because the opposite fact is also true, that the prayers of a unrighteous man, who casually flirts with the grace of God, are met with silence from Heaven. 

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

 

The Second Act

 

If you ask most people about the cause of events in their life, good and bad, you might get one of these two answers. 

1) If they believe in God, then they would probably agree that God is aware of, and allows all events in our lives because He promises that everything will turn out for good if we are obedient to Him. (Romans 8:28)

2) If they don't believe in God, then they probably believe that we are in charge of our own destiny and everything that happens is based on our choices with an element of chance and luck mixed into the equation. There is either no God, or if there is a God He could care less about the details of our lives. 

The problem with the first answer is obvious, if God is allowing everything that touches our lives than He is allowing evil to produce pain, tragedy, and death in everyone who is walking the planet. Which either means He is powerless to stop the influence of evil, or He doesn't care who gets hurt in the great scheme of things, or He is allowing evil to run unchecked (it seems) for reasons that He alone can comprehend. This explanation immediately ushers us toward the crossroads of our faith. 

The Future Project

When I was in high school, way back in the 1970's, one of my teachers assigned us a project in which we were to imagine the world in 2017, forty years in the future. She then divided the class in half, with one half charged to describe that future world in glowing, optimistic language and the other half to convey the future in the most pessimistic terms imaginable. 

One of my good friends, Jon S, was also in this class and we were assigned to be part of the group charged with imagining the worst future possible. Our first attempts were based on a lot of the science fiction books and movies that we had assimilated, stuff like nuclear winter scenarios, robotic revolts, meteor end-of-world type disasters, mixed in with some "1984" details. But after we had brain stormed for a couple of days Jon came up with a truly frightening scenario, which he aptly named, "Everyone".