Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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Creation Speaks of God.

Bible Reading:  Exodus 19:16-19

Key Verse: 17

 Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their place at the foot of the mountain ( Exodus 19:17, NLT)

DEVOTION

Our Scripture Reading today is passage in the Book of Exodus, where Almighty God provides instruction to Moses before they met with Almighty and Holy God  in Mount Sinai. I want to for a moment draw our attention to imaginary situation whereby some of us from our parish was invited to meet the President of United States of America. We can imagine the number of instructions that would be served on by the Secret Service , the White House and even the Chief of Staff.  There would be months of preparation and security checks till we arrive on that designated day to meet with the President in the White House . Now as we switch back to the Scripture readings , we also see the preparation that God provides for Moses before God designated meeting with the Israelites. The Israelites were to observe several mandatory requirements that we see laid out in Exodus 19: 10-13 . These  requirements are very important and need to be strictly  observed and followed  as the people were going to meet with Holy God.
I have selected Exodus 19: 17 as the key scripture verse on how the Israelites assembled to meet at the foot of the mountain to meet with God. The occasion must have been overwhelming for the Israelites as they perhaps did not know what to expect in this meeting that was being arranged by Moses. There must have been lot of anxiety , lot of expectation , lot of eagerness as the moment arrived to meet with God. Let us put ourselves in the shoes of the Israelites and imagine how that day would have been… 
We now shift our focus to our day to day living  , on how we get to meet God daily through scripture mediation and prayer. How are we prepared for this important time of the day. How are we prepared in body , mind and sprit to face the Living God. God knows every one of us , our thoughts , our motives and nothing is perhaps hidden from God.  Do we take time and effort to prepare ourselves or do we just go in unprepared and not ready . Or do  we just not even bother to meet with God and think we are afraid that God will not be happy with us or anything else that we think is an obstacle in meeting with God . King David in Psalm 5 says , early in the morning , you will hear my voice. We read  in Mark’s Gospel,  Jesus waking up early in the morning before the break of dawn to pray.  My humble prayer to each of us is that we prepare our ourselves to meet with Our God in the most important part of the day so that we can listen to voice of God and thus be blessed through the course of the day.


                                          PRAYER

 

 Almighty and Gracious Lord , allow us to be prepared in body and mind as we meet with God,  to listen to God’s voice and  spend time in prayer every day in our lives , this we pray in the precious name of Lord and Jesus Christ,  AMEN.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 “Holy , Holy , Holy , Lord God Almighty, Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.. . “  – Reginald Heber
( 1823)


Abraham Kurien, Immanuel MarThoma Church, Houston, Texas.

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