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Remove Your Sandals
A shepherd was out tending his sheep when he saw an incredible thing: a bush on fire that did not burn up! As he came closer to investigate he heard a voice from the midst of the bush call him by name. The voice then said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5). That shepherd was Moses, and the voice from the bush was God’s. In this extraordinary scene we learn a much-needed lesson about worship.
Worship is a holy occasion. When we worship God we leave the mundane and trivial to come before the one, true and living God! Indeed, when we approach the Creator, whether it be in public or private worship, we must understand the seriousness and gravity of the occasion. We are entering into holy space. We are treading on holy ground!
When Moses led his people back to the mountain where God appeared to him in the bush, the children of Israel trembled before God. When they stood at the foot of the mountain and felt it tremble, seeing the smoke ascend from it, and hearing the blast of the trumpet and the voice of God, they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19).
Do we understand what it is we are doing when we worship? Do we understand that we are involved in something that is even higher and holier than what occurred at Sinai? As children of God under the new covenant, we have come to “Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all” (Hebrews 12: 22-23). Considering the magnitude of these incredible facts, the Hebrew writer prayed that we might have grace, “by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).
Listen, dear readers, to what I tell you now: the Lord is not our buddy, and God is not our chum… He is God! God is God and we are nothing! We are blood-bought mortals given the privilege of approaching our Creator in worship! We are undeserving sinners given the right through our Savior’s blood to stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords! We must never forget who we are and who He is when we come before His throne! So when we worship, may we get down on our knees and remove our sandals, for the place where we stand is holy ground!!!
- 20221218_Remove_Yo ... s_David_Maxson.pdf (979.49 kB)
