The Storm after the Mountain Top experience!

The Storm after the Mountain Top experience!

Worship Sunday morning at Mandell UMC was spirit-filled and heart-warming. Already I have received numerous text messages, phone calls and had personal conversations about the service's impact on the community. But it would seem AS SOON AS SERVICE WAS OVER, chaos broke loose and problems arose from everywhere. Church members called and text'd me about relationship breakups, marital problems, faith and believing in God, school issues and more. From Sunday afternoon to Sunday evening/ Monday morning all HECK had broken loose and those who were touched and uplifted in worship Sunday morning. In reflecting on all that has transpired I have come to compare Sunday's experience to Moses coming down from the mountain experience. Let's look at the text for reflection:

Exodus 32

The Golden Calf

¹ When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods^[a] 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.”

² Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ 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,^[b] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD.” ⁶ So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.

⁷ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’

⁹ “I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

Upon coming down the mountain Moses had talked and been in the very presence of God! This is how worship was at Mandell on Sunday God was with us and we were in his presence. Once Moses reached the camp where the others were, the people had become involved in many ungodly and chaotic things. These people were not worshiping and in the presence of God. When the congregation left church and returned home it seems that their family members and loved ones had become involved in many ungodly and chaotic things, which shocked, appalled, and brought many of our worshipers down.

How do we handle these situations, how do we mend our families, where is God when evil comes in to destroy?

Stay tuned, the conclusion tomorrow!