Posted on by Abe Austin

Overwhelming Passion

We have many stories of people who are in want of strength, who plead for the Lord to empower them for the task ahead, and so it is in some cases. However, many of us carry a burden that is exactly the opposite. We have been given a passion that is too powerful for us to handle on their own.

If we turn that passion to self-indulgence it damages us with its overpowering stream. if we try to ignore it, it builds up pressure until it bursts out in painful ways. This passion could be a great gift, but it will instead be a great danger if we never learn what to do with it.

God gave us this passion so that we are meant to do with it is pour it back into Him. He is not only the well that forever gives He is also the well that can forever take. Only into Him can we safely disperse our passion, our energy, and our drive, and not be harmed by the flowing power.

We were never designed to operate on our own. God made us with oversized hearts so that we can fit the extra parts into Him.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 19:12-13

12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death:

13 There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.

In addition to their steps of purification, the Israelites were instructed that they not come too close to the mountain when the glory of the Lord was upon it. They would be permitted to hear His voice, but that did not mean that they could abide touching His presence directly.

This is an interesting notion, one that is visited again later when Uzzah, the Israelite, reaches out to steady the ark and is immediately struck dead (2 Samuel 6:6-7). What is it about the Lord’s presence that people must not come too near, on pain of death?

I see in this a lesson that total godliness is too great for us to endure. It is too bright, it is too pure, it is too glorious, such that it condemns our perverse, fallen flesh. We are like particles of dust that immolate from the heat around the fire, even before we touch the flame. That buffer of disintegrating heat ensures that nothing impure ever touches that perfect light.

This is why each of us must be purified in our hearts before we meet the Father, why we must have our corruptible flesh replaced by an immortal body, why Moses had to be transfigured for his own up-close encounter with the Lord. We require a divine intermediary between us to interact with God, because His glory is literally too much for us to handle!