Moses the Unqualified

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Did you know Moses argued with God about his calling? As my friend Alyce pointed out, "That wasn't in the movie!"

But the real Moses protested mightily when confronted with the burning bush and God's command to free the Hebrew people from slavery.

Moses insisted on bringing his brother Aaron with him as kind of a crutch. And God allowed him to do so, even though He knew Moses was perfectly capable of doing the task on his own.

(See Exodus 3 and 4 for Moses' long argument with God.)

Here's the thing I take away from that: God doesn't force us to do anything.

We have all heard this: If He calls us, He will equip us to do what He has called us for. (See Eph 4:11)

Moses was already equipped to accomplish the task that God had set before him. But Moses wasn't so sure about it, and came up with all kinds of reasons why he thought the Lord should really send someone else.

Finally God said, "FINE!! Aaron can go with you! OKAY?!?!" Even though Aaron didn't really do anything, (and by the time of the exodus, he had nearly faded into the background while Moses did everything himself the way he had been called to) God allowed Aaron to accompany Moses just to make Moses feel better.

What this shows me is: God will do whatever it takes to assure us that He has equipped us. Including something like send a brother to tag along and hold the stick for us, if we need it.

Romans 2:4a "Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? "

What can we learn from the calling of the disciples?

"Come and See"  by Liz Lemon Swindle

 (image from lizlemonswindle)

 

When reading about the calling of the dicisples in the gospel of John, I noticed that John's account was different from the other gospel writers.

 

Which is not unusual for our boy John. He certainly had his own perspective.

 

 Anyways it led me off on a chase through the other Gospels to see how the same subject was presented there, and to ask myself what we can learn from this.

First, let's read: John 1: 35-50

 

The following day John was again standing with two of his disciples.

³⁶ As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared,

“Look! There is the Lamb of God!”

³⁷ When John’s two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

 ³⁸ Jesus looked around and saw them following. “What do you want?”

He asked them. They replied, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”),

“where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come and see,” He said.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they went

with Him to the place where He was staying, a

nd they remained with Him the rest of the day.

 ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of these men

who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

⁴¹ Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and told him, “

We have found the Messiah” (which means “Christ”).

 ⁴² Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus. Looking intently at Simon,

Jesus said, “Your name is Simon, son of John—but you will be called Cephas”

(which means “Peter”). ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him, “Come, follow me.”

⁴⁴ Philip was from Bethsaida, Andrew and Peter’s hometown.

 ⁴⁵ Philip went to look for Nathanael and told him,

“We have found the very person Moses and the prophets wrote about!

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

 ⁴⁶ “Nazareth!” exclaimed Nathanael. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

“Come and see for yourself,” Philip replied.

 ⁴⁷ As they approached, Jesus said, “Now here is a genuine son of Israel—

a man of complete integrity.” ⁴⁸ “How do You know about me?”

 Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “I could see you

under the fig tree before Philip found you.” ⁴⁹ Then Nathanael exclaimed,

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

 ⁵⁰ Jesus asked him, “Do you believe this just because

I told you I had seen you under the fig tree?

You will see greater things than this.”

Okay, two things: First of all, even though it was a big tangent to research all the disciples and what order they were called in, I think it is important. The three synoptic gospels list the two sets of brothers as called at the same time, from their boats. But John tells it a little differently, and he’s the one who was there, after all!

It’s a seemingly unimportant distinction, who was first and who brought whom, but to the people involved it is incredibly important. So…

If Andrew and John had not been hanging around listening to John the Baptist (I’m assuming the “other disciple” referred to is John himself, as that’s the way he usually tells things) they would not have gone after Jesus and then subsequently brought their brothers Peter and James respectively.

I think the application here is to share Jesus with those closet to you, and indeed with everyone. You never know who could be really crucial to the Kingdom, as we know Simon Peter was.

The second thing: Both Andrew and Nathaniel (sometimes called Bartholomew) confess Jesus as the Christ immediately.

Indeed, everyone who meets Him either embraces and follows, or else turns and rejects. Jesus inspires action!

But these same men who believed so readily and followed so quickly were not able to sustain that faith at the same level throughout the Gospels.

After all, there are many accounts of Jesus shaking his head over “ye of little faith.” And at the foot of the cross, how many of the twelve were there with the women? Only one.

The fact is, they believed and doubted by turns, just as we do. This is part of being human, I think.

Jesus accepted both their faith and their moments of unbelief, and He redeemed their works, good and bad. We do not have to have perfect faith to follow Christ; we only need wiling hearts.

We trust Him to do the rest.

Hagar

"Hagar and Ishmael" by Enrico Fanfani

image from www.1st-art-gallery.com

God is recorded to have spoken to a relative few people in the Bible.

And let's be honest. Most of them were men. But there have been times when He revealed Himself to a woman. This was usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

In the book of Genesis, God spoke to a woman three times. (One was Rebekah.) Two of those times were to the same woman: Hagar.

Who was Hagar? She was an Egyptian, a foreign slave of Abraham's. In short, she was nobody.

But God spoke to her in Genesis chapter 16, and in chapter 21.

Why?

Both times He came to her in a time of great distress and reassured her of His presence with her. In fact, Hagar herself said, "God sees me," in Genesis 16:13.

He saw her, Hagar, an obscure slave woman who wasn't even one of His chosen people.

This is just a reminder to me that He sees us all, even the seemingly unimportant.

Also that He chooses whom He chooses for His own reasons. Any person I meet could be someone God has chosen for great and mighty things. Or someone He's chosen for little-bitty things that will someday have great importance.

No one can fathom His plan or understand their own part in it.

Leaving the 99

My kids have a book about the parable of the lost sheep called "The Lost and Found Lamb."

It's a lift-the-flaps book, and they love lift-the flaps books because such books take longer to read and delay bedtime more.

Also, this book has a nice message about how Jesus seeks the lost, in keeping with the original parable, found in Matthew 18:12-14.

 (Image from http://www.amazon.com)

¹² “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? ¹³ And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! ¹⁴ In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish."

Still, I've always had a little trouble with this parable, because of the 99 sheep that get left behind in it. Who's watching over them?

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this, as I recently read the following devotional essay:

"I don’t know about you, but when I think about the practical aspects of the parable of the lost sheep, I don’t understand it. Why would the shepherd leave 99 sheep unprotected just to look for one that was lost? Wouldn’t some of those 99 sheep wander off or even be attacked and killed by wild animals? Going after one sheep is simply not a practical solution to the problem. It seems to be a bad business decision. But ultimately, I don’t think this parable is intended as a practical solution to an everyday problem. I see it more as a description of the radical love that abounds in the kingdom of heaven. God loves us with such reckless abandon that God will ignore practicality in order to find us and bring us home. That’s astounding love."

(From "The Upper Room" devotional dated 22Jan 2013 by Doug Rolls.)

I like the way this author puts things. A parable is a parable and not meant to be taken literally. The story is simply a demonstration of how much God loves and cares for us, and how far He will go to bring us home. And the answer is: As far as He can! And there is no end to Him.

Besides, being infinite and omnipresent and all of that, He never leaves the 99 at all.

Astounding indeed!

We're All Saved by Grace

I just read a blog post called "Top 10 People Christians are Better Than."

Spoiler alert: The list was (1) Nobody (2) Nobody (3) Nobody (4) Nobody (5) Nobody (6) Nobody (7) Nobody (8) Nobody (9) Nobody (10) Nobody

Pretty clever, right?

In it the author (see his cool picture on the left) points out that, basically, no one is "better" than anyone else. As Paul tells us in Romans, all are saved by grace, and not entitled to boast.

Still though, we tend to do a lot of boasting, don't we? Christians like to feel superior to non-Christians.

This is because... surprise!... Christians are human beings. Sometimes human beings are jerks. (What? You disagree? Have you been out on the road recently? Or on the internet even? We're JERKS!)

And the fact that we remain our own jerk-like selves all our lives, to one degree or another, may be God's own way of keeping us humble.

One of the comments I saw on facebook about this was from a friend who said she'd always had trouble with idea that your good deeds don't count with God unless you're a Christian.

Well, here's a shocker, my friend: Your good deeds don't "count" either way!

There's no giant scoreboard in heaven where God tallies up the points we've earned in life.

The Bible says our righteousness, our "good works," are filthy rags. The truth is, we can't earn God's approval.

God gives grace freely, or not at all. He chooses whom He chooses.

This is a difficult concept. I myself try very hard to be a "nice person," and find it very frustrating to be forever falling short, struggling with my own Inner Jerk. It is hard for me to accept that I, with my good deeds, am no better than that crazy homeless man who refused to wear his new boots in the New York snow. (Read that news story here if you want.)

So why should I do good works at all?

That's a good question. And I'll be the first to admit that I don't know the answer.

I guess I know why I shouldn't do good deeds. Not to earn points with God, not to get into heaven, not to impress people or to feel like I'm better than others.

Then what motivates me to do good?

All I can say is, Because God is good. It should be His goodness that I reflect.

Set a Guard Over My Lips

Last weekend I went to a ladies' tea at a local church with the theme "Silver Boxes."

The idea was based on a poem by Michael Bright, which includes this stanza:

"Lord, help my words be silver boxes,
Neatly wrapped up with a bow;
That I give to all so freely,
As through each day I gladly go."

(image from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net)

They gave us each a lovely little silver box with the following verse in it:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29 TNIV

Of course all the ladies at the tea, dressed in their best clothes and happily munching little hors d'oeuvres and salads, agreed that this was very true. We should always speak with kindness to others. Yes indeed.

A few minutes later I saw one of the women at my table fighting back tears over something another woman had said to her.

What a shame, I thought, shaking my head. That lady should have remembered about the Bible verse in the silver box in front of her and known not to speak so harshly.

Then the speaker came up and told us about how she had learned to use words of forgiveness and love after her ex-husband had left her for an old girlfriend.

Her story broke my heart, especially when she said he'd told her after over twenty years of marriage, "I never loved you like I love her." Those were words that had to have cut deeply.

Again I thought of how powerful words can be, and the fact that we should use them carefully.

As the speaker finished her talk, I found myself still thinking about her ex-husband, forgiven by his saint of a wife and traipsing off happily into the sunset with his old girlfriend. "That dog," I muttered angrily to my friend. "I hope he feels guilty. I hope the old girlfriend turns out to be an awful harpy and he regrets leaving his wife. I hope he's sorry now that he's made his bed and has to lie in it." My friend nodded in agreement.

Then I looked down and caught sight of my own silver box, sitting placidly in front of me. "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth," it reminded me. Oh yeah, I thought. Why can't I remember to do that? It seemed none of us could go five minutes without saying something we regret.

I thought of James 3:7-10:

^"7 People can tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and fish, ⁸ but no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. ¹⁰ And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! "

This is the truth, folks. We all sin with the things we say. And we keep doing it!

Forgive us, Lord.

My prayer is that the Lord will help me remember to think before I speak.

Let us all pray with King David in Psalm 141:3:

"Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth;
Keep watch over the door of my lips."

(image from http://www.quoteswave.com)

Praying Persistently

Do you ever feel like you're nagging God?

I mean, we're commanded to pray without ceasing, but sometimes I think I'm just begging without stopping, you know?

There are times when I feel like I've asked the Lord for something, and He just isn't responding. So what do I do?

Matthew 7:7-8

⁷ “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.

Keep on seeking, and you will find.

Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.

⁸ For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds.

And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Okay. So instead of giving up, I should keep on praying. But this can be difficult.

Luke 18:1-8

One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show

that they should always pray and never give up.

² “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said,

“who neither feared God nor cared about people.

 ³ A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying,

‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’

⁴ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself,

‘I don’t fear God or care about people,

⁵ but this woman is driving me crazy.

 I’m going to see that she gets justice,

because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

⁶ Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge.

⁷ Even he rendered a just decision in the end.

So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people

who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

⁸ I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly!

But when the Son of Man returns,

how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”

It seems the message is pretty clear: DO NOT give up. KEEP ON praying.

So I'm not nagging God. If He hasn't answered the way I want him to, then there are several possible reasons:

1. He wants me to wait. (Psalm 27:13-14)

¹³ Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness

while I am here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

 

2. He has another idea in mind. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

⁸ “My thoughts are nothing like your

thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
⁹ For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. 

3. His answer is no.

I don't like that last one at ALL. I'm not even looking for a Scripture reference to support it either.

But I can't deny that it's a possiblity.

So I wondered, in that situation, should I still keep praying? Would that be "nagging" God?

Well, according to Jesus, I should ALWAYS keep praying. No matter what.

One more Scripture promise:

Psalm 37:4

Take delight in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart’s desires.

Hmmm.... Now this can mean, "The Lord will give you what you want."

But it can also mean, "The Lord will change your heart, so that you want what He wants."

So either way, keep praying. Even if it's hard.

And I'll do my best to follow my own advice.

("Nagging" cartoon from http://www.everydaypeoplecartoons.com)

("Denied " image from http://htmlgiant.com)