Hey everyone!
Wow, it's been a long time.
I really did mean to keep blogging, but after Christmas time...well, let's just say that college demands your attention and at times, to succeed in college, you can't do much else! But, the school year is over, God helped me get A's and B's in my classes (yay!) and now it is summertime. Time for more blogging, hopefully. :)
I'm certainly not laying back and being lazy this summer, however. Over the summer I'm taking three classes, this month's class being Intro to Public Speaking. Hold that thought...
Last night our family was having evening worship, and one of the memory verses that my eight-year-old sister Alison needed to review was Exodus 4:12--
"Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
This verse comes in a dialogue between God and Moses at the burning bush, when God is trying to convince/tell Moses to go rescue the enslaved Israelites in Egypt. Let's take a look at this passage, and see what we can learn!
However, to properly study this story, we need to head back to Exodus 3. The setting? The desert, with Mount Horeb in the background. An elderly guy named Moses is leading a flock of sheep around for his father-in-law Jethro. Suddenly, Moses noticed a burning bush nearby. Going to investigate, he discovered something quite remarkable! Let's let the Bible tell its' own story:
"Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight--why the bush does not burn up."
"When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
"And Moses said, "Here I am."" ~Exodus 3:2-4
The bush was on fire, but it didn't burn up! You know, as I read this passage one thing in particular really stood out to me: Moses' reply. God could have done the same burning bush deal, Moses come investigate, and Moses completely blow off God's calling to him. So as I see it, one of the very first things that we need to do to follow God is to listen to Him. Do we listen to God anymore? Now that's a question worth some pondering. Do we still set aside quality time each day to spend with Him--or is our free time cluttered up with other things such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube? Now I'm not saying that any one of these things is bad--my personal opinion is the social media and the Internet can be used for either good or bad--but do we do the social media thing so much that we crowd God out? Do we have other gods besides God, like the first commandment (Exodus 20:3) warns about?
"You shall have no other gods before me."
A note in the margin of my Bible says that another word for "before" is "besides"--that is, we shall not just have no other gods before God--that is, God needs to be #1--but that we shouldn't have any other gods besides God at all.
Wow.
We've barely scratched the surface of our chosen story, but I'm going to conclude this article here; we'll continue it next week. Until then, take a deep look at your life and see what other "gods" may be taking the place of God, how you can "evict" those "gods" so that you can make the one true God #1 in your life. How to spend time with God, and learn how to listen to Him.
Because if we aren't listening to God, how can we do what He wants us to do?
No comments:
Post a Comment