Wednesday, March 26, 2014

CONFIDENT IN HOPE

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed.  Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”  So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”  Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”  Moreover 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 upon God.  And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.  Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.  Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”  (Exodus 3:1-10)

The right thing done the wrong way is still wrong.  The right thing done the wrong time is also wrong. 

Moses made both mistakes.  He tried to do the right thing in his abortive attempt to liberate his fellow Hebrewsbut by killing an Egyptian oppressor with his own hands it was the wrong way and wrong time.  Only the right thing, done the right way at the right time is always right.  Otherwise, what you have is a mess! 

Some of us have made such a mess.  Does God have a message in our mess? 

Must we say, Ive fallen and I cant get up!?  If that is so, then only perfect people have hope.  Everybody else is ruinedand thats everybodyfor all have fallen short of the glory of God. 

There was hope for Moses and there is hope for me.  Of that we can be confident.  God was going to carry out His plan through Moses in His time and His way.  Failure need not be final.  We can get up and go on by the grace of God.  The Lord knows who you are and where you are and He may be calling your name today.  Are you listening?  Will you turn aside and meet with Him?

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