Principal's Message - Week 3, Term 1
Many of us will be familiar with the Exodus story – how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. A particularly significant event occurred when Moses was on Mount Sinai. Exodus 19:18 reads “Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.” Understandably the Israelites were terrified, verse 18 of the next chapter reads, “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear.”
Currently, I am reading through the book of Romans in the New Testament. I felt I was quite familiar with the refrain in Chapter 3, where the Apostle Paul reminds us that there is no one righteous, not even one, we are all sinful, and on he goes. Reading through it again recently, I was struck by verse 18, which reads “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” I couldn’t help but contrast this behaviour with the Israelites at Mount Sinai around 1500 years earlier. Faced with the power of the Almighty God evidenced right in front of them on the mountain, the Israelites literally trembled with fear. Paul reflects that many years later people behave as if God doesn’t exist and there is no fear of God at all, you can see it in their eyes.
I’d be surprised if you hadn’t met people who feel comfortable to behave as if God doesn’t exist. There are certainly high-profile atheists across the world who feel very comfortable having no fear of God in their eyes. Sadly, I sometimes reflect on what it will be like for their confidence when they do have their personal Mount Sinai experience, I can’t help but feel their confidence will dissolve rapidly. At the same time, we do need to remember the importance of reading the whole Bible, Psalm 145:8 explains, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.” It is wonderful to know that our God does love us and wants to be in relationship with us, but I don’t believe that gives us license to live as if He doesn’t exist.
Our mission is to ‘equip young people to be responsible and responsive disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Our goal is that our students will leave our community confident in God’s love for them, confident of their salvation, because of the saving work of Christ, and living a life that reflects this. When we live that way, we have smiling eyes, glowing in the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants what’s best for us.
God bless,