Graduations, weddings, and birthday parties!  We receive all kinds of invitations.  Some bring excitement.  Some apprehension. Many bring both.  As a boy, my neighbor’s dad occasionally invited all the neighborhood boys to hockey games at the Omni.  We coveted these invitations.  Especially when ‘miracle-on-ice’ Olympian, Jim Craig tended goal for the Atlanta Flames in his NHL debut. 

But there were other invitations that were not so exciting.  Like the one from Mr. Parker, my elementary school principal, to bring my parents to his office for a conference.   Confident this spelled my doom, I fretted for weeks.  I was sure my less-than-stellar conduct grade was on the docket.  But when the dread day arrived, the conversation was not about my failure at all, but an invitation to be part of a new course he was developing.  Invitations can be stressful, even when we are invited to something good.

As a younger man I attended an evangelical church which concluded every service with a ‘walk-the-aisles’ invitation. I worked for months to convince an unbelieving friend to visit our church.  When he finally accepted, I asked him later what he thought of the experience.  “I found it all very interesting and helpful,” he said, “except for that ‘uncomfortable time’ at the end.”  The ‘Anxious Bench’ had proved too much and he never visited again.  Invitations, especially those that relate to our spiritual lives, create tremendous anxiety and fear.

When God gave the Ten Commandments, he spoke to directly to the people.  Out of thick darkness, fire and lightning, he spoke in a voice like thunder.  The people were terrified of the sound of his voice but even more by the words he spoke.  Beforehand, they swore they would do whatever he commanded, but when he spoke, his voice and his law brought terror.

At Sinai, they were confronted with the contrast between God’s holiness and their uncleanness. Between God’s perfect law of liberty and their enslaved lawlessness.  And between God’s sovereign right to judge and the judgment they deserved. To their credit, they did not run away from God.  Rather, they sought a mediator to speak God’s words to them.  They understood that without a mediator they could never approach the Lord and live.

On behalf of the people, Moses drew near to the Lord in the thick darkness where God began to unpack his gracious law.  And just as the Ten Commandments begin with worship, so God’s explanation of the law to Moses begins with instructions concerning worship.  Why?  Because worship is the invitation for men to draw near to God through the means he has provided.  

God desires fellowship with us.  He made us to “glorify and enjoy him.”  But our sin separates us.  Our law-breaking erects an impenetrable barrier.  Any invitation to draw near to a holy and just God rightly creates anxiety, uncertainty, and even terror.   Yet no sooner had God spoken the law, then he provided a way for lawless men to come to him in grace, repentance, and faith.   The prophet Isaiah wrote.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
    and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”

Isaiah 55:6-7

Every page of Scripture invites us to draw near, to be restored, to engage the purpose for which God made us.   Your sin is a barrier, but God has provided the sacrifice.   How will you respond to his invitation?   Will you ignore it?  Decline it?  Dread it?  Or will you joyfully accept it?

Join us as we examine Exodus 20:22-26 and consider God’s invitation to draw near. We meet on the square in Pottsville, right next to historic Potts’ Inn at 10:30 am for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.