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	From: Pastor Sandy Downs [pastor@movpdoc.org] Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 4:30 AM To: Mid Ohio Valley Parish Subject: Sunday Devotion from Pastor Sandy Sunday, March 2, 2008 SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY: Exodus 32:1-24 PSALM OF THE WEEK: Psalm 138 HYMN OF THE DAY: #249 "Spirit, Spirit of Gentleness" VERSE OF THE DAY: "The tablets were the work of God, and the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets." Ex 32:16 NRSV Sometimes our humanness can get in the way of what God wants us to do. The Israelites got bored and impatient with Moses on the mountain with God. They thought they needed something they could see would show them God was still with them in camp. This was the way the Egyptians had done it. This is the way the Canaanites did it. They were like children giving into peer pressure; "Everyone else does it." Notice that in verse 5, Aaron even calls the golden calf by Gods' holy name "YHWH" (translated LORD). They just wanted to see God. God had given Moses two tablets with all the laws written on them. That would have been a much better sign of the presence of God than some old gold calf, but they just couldn't wait. Moses, in his humanness, broke the tablets in anger (verse 19). This great gift of God, the very handwriting of God, is destroyed by people. Centuries later, God's greater gift to us, his only begotten Son (John 3:16), would also be killed by people who wanted their way instead of God's way. Perhaps the incident of the calf and tablets was a prophecy of what Jesus would go through. Perhaps it is even a prophecy of what we do too. When we put ourselves, our wants and our wishes, ahead of what God wants, are we not making our own golden calves? When people create an image of God that is contrary to what the scriptures teach us, is that not a type of golden calf? When people are more concerned with church structures (physical or administrative) than they are with the ministry and mission of the church, isn't that a type of golden calf? An idol can be anything that diverts our attention from the very real presence of our God in our lives. Let us break them up and destroy them rather than destroying God's great gifts to us. PRAYER: O God unseen yet ever near, please make sure that nothing gets in the way of my personal relationship with you. Help me identify and nullify anything that would tempt me to follow it instead of you. Thank you for all your gifts. Help me use them in the way you want me to. Amen. See you in Church Sunday, Pastor Sandy