Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Why Mount Sinai?


Mount Sinai is a 7500 foot natural altar rising abruptly from the Egyptian desert, the highest mountain in its range.

Another name for Mt Sinai is Horeb, which means ‘waste’, and to this very day it remains mostly wilderness and desert with a very few Bedouins and shepherds living there.

Over 3000 years ago Hebrew slaves—the waste of Egypt—came and camped at the foot of Sinai after leaving their land of slavery.

At that time they were nothing but human waste: men, women, children, young and old—with backs scarred by the whips of their slave masters, calloused feet from years of standing knee-deep in mud to make bricks for pharaoh’s cities, old ragged clothes and eyes that had seen nothing but the horrible images of slavery from the day they were born.

But there, at the foot of this mountain, that people became a great nation! A group of disorderly slaves, they departed from Sinai with the Book of the Law that had been given to them by God Himself, with clear directions to the Promised Land. They were assured of God’s help and protection as they marched on, and at one point rose to be one of the most prosperous and feared nations on earth.

Therefore Mount Sinai is a symbol of victory, of rising from the ashes, of the impossible becoming possible, of the weak becoming strong. It’s where waste becomes wealth, and the forgotten are remembered. It is also a reminder that God sees and remembers His people, and does not leave them at the mercy of their oppressors.

Sinai is the only mountain on earth where God set His foot and decidedly changed the destiny of His people.

This is why we go there! When we are standing on the peak of that mountain, our faith is at its highest. All these facts come to life because we’re not just reading about Mount Sinai—it’s there before our very eyes!

And so this is why we encourage a challenge of faith on Mount Sinai once a year in our church. From the first time we did this in 1980, thousands of people have achieved great victories and given wonderful testimonies as a result of the prayers made on this mountain.

We go to Mount Sinai for great things. We go there to radically change lives. We go there to solve difficult situations.

We go to prove that our faith is genuine through sacrifice, and to receive the manifestation of God’s promises in our lives!

It’s a privilege to be part of this event. It is a blessing to take part in the Challenge of Mt Sinai.

Bishop Renato Cardoso

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