Recently, I was preaching in the Texas Rio Grande Valley, where Boone and Beth (our kids) are pastoring and God empowered the message concerning Moses and Joshua and how Moses ‘fathered’ Joshua. One of the points was that Moses took Joshua wherever he went.
One of those places was up the mountain to receive the Law from God. While they were on the mountain, the Israelites had melted the gold from the spoils of Egypt that God had given them and fashioned a golden calf to worship. They began to worship the blessing instead of the One who blessed them. This hurt God’s heart to see His children participating in such ungratefulness and sin.
You will need to know some background to understand the significance of what came out of my mouth next:
20 months earlier after moving 18 times, we had built our forever home. This was a BIG deal to me. One week before we traveled to the Rio Grande Valley, we sold this ‘forever’ home at the instruction of our Father! I was not a happy camper. I pouted, cried, and basically threw a fit.
So as I was talking about how we often, like the Israelites, take the blessings of God and build a golden calf instead of worshiping God Himself with a grateful heart, a picture of our ‘forever’ home flashed before my eyes. Out of my mouth, no pun intended, I announced, “Holy cow! (what a great choice of words, God loves irony!) I’ve built a golden calf — my home.” I repented to God, Randy, and the congregation. We laughed together, but the conviction was real.
Repenting does not have to involve tears and grief, although it often does. Repentance IS seeing from God’s perspective, agreeing with His heart and changing. Sadness with fear has tried to creep in, yet God allows me to feel my feelings, but not to be led by them. Just as you see in Moses’ life, he had a tendency to lead with his soul (emotions) instead of his spirit, which kept him out of the Promised Land. As I lean more into Him, my soul takes second to my spirit. God has called me to live authentically. I am determined not to hurt my Father’s heart, live in His Kingdom, accomplish all that He has for me . . . and BUILD NO GOLDEN CALVES!
