Exodus 3:1-4:17 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
This last Sunday, Pastor Kyle continued in our sermon series through the Book of Exodus by speaking to how God has been drawing us to Himself for a long time, making things happen to soften and prepare our hearts, before we make an anchor pivot-moment decision to accept the calling of Him as our heavenly Father and His gift of salvation through Christ in our walk with the Lord. With God’s calling of Moses in Exodus, we should take a good look at God’s calling in our own life.
When we come into the presence of the Lord, our God, there should be reverence towards our heavenly Father. When we step into the presence of God there should be the sense of glory-filled awe and a dispositional change into exulted admiration in worship. There are common elements in the Divine calling of Believers, the first being that every Believer’s calling begins and ends with Christ. Moses calling by “the angel of the Lord” was a restating that God had a plan for Moses and a reaffirmation of his original calling to free the Israelite people from Egyptian captivity. Moses discerned the voice of the Lord in the burning bush and we also need to discern the voice of the Lord in the busyness and distractions of life today. As Isaiah & Moses said when God called them, we need to say, “Here I am” in openness and obedience to our heavenly Father, Almighty God. A calling begins with the One who calls, and that is Jesus Christ.
We do not have to go find Omnipresent God. There is only One who can initiate divine calling and you cannot find a spiritual connection outside of the God of the Bible. Attempting to will lead to serious consequences that might be demonic, its not going to work out for you and you will just come up empty in the end. The only way to find meaning and purpose in this life is to find it in the One who found you and called you unto Himself – Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. We do not find God; God found us. We do not have a God who finds us when He sent His one and only Son to die on a Cross for our sins, so that if anyone would believe in Christ the Savior, would easily and quickly find their way to salvation at the foot of the Cross. We have God’s Word to learn and understand exactly what the Gospel means for us on this side of Heaven. God’s reveal Himself through His living and holy Word, pivotal life experiences, well-placed extraordinary events during our daily routine, but every calling begins and ends with Christ. It is good to get away to an isolated location to tune out the distraction and commune with the Lord. But, we do not need to go on some elaborate journey to find God and our calling in life. He’ll meet us right where we are at.
Let's continue Pastor Kyle's message on "our calling from God" in the the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment