When God Calls
11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." 13 But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:11-14)
Moses was just trying to keep his head down and not make any waves. Well, any more waves. When Moses had seen an Egyptian soldier mistreating an Israelite worker, Moses lost his temper and killed the Egyptian. As bad as that was, his fellow Israelites then feared Moses even more than before. Feeling desperate and alone, Moses ran away. He found seemingly peaceful refuge in Midian, married a Midianite woman, and became a shepherd of his father-in-law’s sheep. It was during an ordinary day of leading the sheep in the wilderness that Moses saw an extraordinary sight - a bush that was on fire but was not consumed. As he approached the unbelievable sight, he heard the voice of God calling his name and instructing him to remove his sandals because he was on holy ground. God told Moses that God had seen the plight of the oppressed people of Israel and that God was sending Moses to Pharaoh to bring his people out of Egypt. Moses gave God every reason and excuse he could think of to explain why he was not the right man for the job. God responded with promises of God’s presence, provision and protection. When Moses protested that his speech was inadequate, God even spoke to Moses’ brother Aaron so that Aaron could speak on Moses’ behalf.
When God calls us to something, God supplies what we need in order to accomplish God’s will. That doesn’t mean it will be easy, but we can move forward with confidence that God will handle the obstacles. Sometimes even those closest to us will not understand our call. Even Peter, who had been the only disciple to declare Jesus as the messiah, had to be rebuked when he failed to accept the need for Jesus’ death. Jesus told Peter, and reminds us, that we must die to ourselves in order to live into God’s will for us. Our peace comes from the assurance that God’s will is always better than our own, it’s always bigger than we can imagine and it
blesses far beyond ourselves.
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? 27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. (Matthew 16:24-27)
Enjoy this original song by yours truly.
And this classic!
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