Nehemiah 2:5 (ESV) - And
I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has
found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my
fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”
(READ NEHEMIAH 2)
Many older American neighborhoods have houses, known as
bungalows, built in the “arts and crafts” style. These finely crafted
homes built in the early 1900s bear the mark of careful German
craftsmanship and pride. A bungalow with broken or boarded up windows, a
sagging roof, and overgrown yard is a sad thing to see. But hope comes
alive when someone has taken to rebuilding and renewing such a
home—there is hope for that house, for that street, and for that
neighborhood. Rebuilding and restoring bring hope.
In 445 BC, after 70 years of Babylonian captivity, the Jews are
beginning to return to Judah, more specifically, to the capital,
Jerusalem. Nehemiah, a Jewish public official working in the Persian
city of Susa, gets news that the city walls of Jerusalem are in shambles
and the very existence of his forefathers’ city is in peril. As this
reality seeps into his soul, Nehemiah grieves. He weeps. He prays. And
as Nehemiah feels a call to take action and rebuild the city walls, he
boldly asks his unbelieving boss not only for a leave of absence but for
help. Through it all, Nehemiah recognizes the hand of God on his life. “And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me” (Nehemiah 2:8).
Rebuilding is never, ever easy. It is hard work, much harder
than building anew, because when one rebuilds, for better or for worse,
there is history, remnants of the original, and voices around us—all of
which can help or hinder the rebuilding process. But rebuilding and
restoring bring hope.
Like the broken-down city walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day,
there is need all around for rebuilding and restoration. Souls.
Marriages. Families. Friendships. Schools. Homes. Houses. Neighborhoods.
Employment opportunities. God calls his people to be restorers and
rebuilders. Plunging into the realities of rebuilding and restoring will
require God’s people to grieve, cry, pray, ask for help, and in the
end, take action. And like Nehemiah, one can be confident of God’s hand
upon our lives.
PONDER: As you look at the landscape of your life,
or of your city, is there something or someplace—in you or through
you—that God wants to rebuild or restore?
Take time to read Nehemiah 2:1-8. The people
Nehemiah loved lived in Jerusalem. At one time they had an amazing wall
that protected the city, but then it was knocked down and destroyed.
Nehemiah felt called to go to help the people in that city who were in
need.
If you have time, try this activity to help you/your family get a
glimpse of what the rebuilding of the wall meant to the people in
Jerusalem. Find something to build with (Legos, blocks, books, etc.). As
a family, try to build a tower. Then have someone knock it over. Ask
everyone how they feel seeing all of their hard work destroyed. Then try
rebuilding the tower. When you are finished, talk about why the
rebuilding of the wall in Jerusalem would have been important to the
people there.
Paragon Church
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Day 11 - Right Place/Right Time
Esther 4:14 (ESV) - 14 For
if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for
the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will
perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a
time as this?”
(WHOLE CHAPTER)
Sometimes God calls people to stand up, and sometimes, to sit down and claim what is right. Late in the day on a public transportation bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, the bus driver asked an African-American woman to move to the back of the bus so that a white man could sit down. Forty-two-year-old Rosa Parks refused. Years later she wrote:
When I sat down on the bus that day, I had no idea history was being made—I was only thinking of getting home. But I had made up my mind. After so many years of being a victim of the mistreatment my people suffered, not giving up my seat—and whatever I had to face afterwards—was not important. I did not feel any fear sitting there. I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. It was time for someone to stand up—or in my case, sit down. So I refused to move.
Five centuries before Christ, another woman made a bold move to prevent the persecution––in fact the annihilation––of her people. Esther was a Jewish woman among the population of thousands of Jews living in Persia (modern day Iran). When the Persian king married her, Esther was in a providential spot. One day she learned of a secret plot to annihilate all the Jews living in Persia.
She could approach her husband, the king, but at great personal risk. That was when a cousin challenged her: “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14).
Providence is not displayed on billboards. God’s call is not like a siren arresting everybody’s attention. Our place in God’s plan is sometimes an actual physical spot we occupy.
For Rosa Parks it was a bus seat. For Esther it was the palace of the king. For any of us, “the right place at the right time” could be a phone call tomorrow that opens a new opportunity, an injustice we witness that we speak up about, meeting a person who becomes a significant work partner.
The question is: How will we react when it is our turn for “such a time as this”?
PONDER: What kind of fear, hesitation, or doubt might hold you back from doing the right thing when you are the right person at the right time in the right place to make a difference?
REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION:
During the time of Esther, the law decreed that people could not enter the court of the King unless they were summoned. When Esther received disturbing news from her cousin Mordecai about a plan to kill all of the Jews in the land, this law put her in a very difficult spot, and she had a huge decision to make. Would she speak up for her people? Or would she remain silent out of fear?
Read the conversation between Mordecai and Esther in Esther 4:12-16. Why was Esther afraid to speak up about this horrible plan to the King? When has it been hard for you to speak up about what is right? Why is it important for us to speak up for what we know is right?
(WHOLE CHAPTER)
Sometimes God calls people to stand up, and sometimes, to sit down and claim what is right. Late in the day on a public transportation bus in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, the bus driver asked an African-American woman to move to the back of the bus so that a white man could sit down. Forty-two-year-old Rosa Parks refused. Years later she wrote:
When I sat down on the bus that day, I had no idea history was being made—I was only thinking of getting home. But I had made up my mind. After so many years of being a victim of the mistreatment my people suffered, not giving up my seat—and whatever I had to face afterwards—was not important. I did not feel any fear sitting there. I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. It was time for someone to stand up—or in my case, sit down. So I refused to move.
Five centuries before Christ, another woman made a bold move to prevent the persecution––in fact the annihilation––of her people. Esther was a Jewish woman among the population of thousands of Jews living in Persia (modern day Iran). When the Persian king married her, Esther was in a providential spot. One day she learned of a secret plot to annihilate all the Jews living in Persia.
She could approach her husband, the king, but at great personal risk. That was when a cousin challenged her: “Who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Est. 4:14).
Providence is not displayed on billboards. God’s call is not like a siren arresting everybody’s attention. Our place in God’s plan is sometimes an actual physical spot we occupy.
For Rosa Parks it was a bus seat. For Esther it was the palace of the king. For any of us, “the right place at the right time” could be a phone call tomorrow that opens a new opportunity, an injustice we witness that we speak up about, meeting a person who becomes a significant work partner.
The question is: How will we react when it is our turn for “such a time as this”?
PONDER: What kind of fear, hesitation, or doubt might hold you back from doing the right thing when you are the right person at the right time in the right place to make a difference?
REFLECTION OR DISCUSSION:
During the time of Esther, the law decreed that people could not enter the court of the King unless they were summoned. When Esther received disturbing news from her cousin Mordecai about a plan to kill all of the Jews in the land, this law put her in a very difficult spot, and she had a huge decision to make. Would she speak up for her people? Or would she remain silent out of fear?
Read the conversation between Mordecai and Esther in Esther 4:12-16. Why was Esther afraid to speak up about this horrible plan to the King? When has it been hard for you to speak up about what is right? Why is it important for us to speak up for what we know is right?
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Day 10 - Where is your Broom Tree?
1 Kings 19:5 (ESV) - 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.”
(WHOLE CHAPTER)
Have you ever felt like you’ve endured something so difficult you have reached your limit? You’ve spent all your energy, put up with all the grief you can—you’re tired of holding off fear, fatigue, and failure.
The Old Testament prophet Elijah also reached the end of his rope. 1 Kings 18 describes Elijah’s stunning victory over the prophets of Baal. But almost immediately after this great win, he receives a death threat—fear takes over and he runs for his life. Fear’s grip on Elijah is in stark contrast not only to the miraculous way in which God had just intervened on behalf of Elijah, but also contrasts dramatically with the faith, courage, and obedience he portrayed in confronting evil. As Elijah succumbs to fear, he flees to the wilderness and sits under a broom tree, despondent, depressed, and spent, wishing for his life to end. Elijah reminds us that people of faith, courage, and obedience to God are not immune to fear and its debilitating effects.
Notice the broom tree: a provision from God and a place to replenish. Under the shade of this small shrub-like tree, Elijah cries out, “O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers,” and then falls asleep. But this innocuous, scrubby tree becomes a place where Elijah’s despondency fades and his faith and life are renewed. As Elijah lay sleeping on a soft bed of broom leaves, God sends a messenger by way of an angel to speak (twice) firm but replenishing words: “arise and eat.” God then provides water and cake within Elijah’s reach, physical sustenance that enabled him to journey on to Horeb and hear from God again.
Fear can debilitate, paralyze, make one flee. Sadly, fear can also overshadow the reality of God’s deliverance and work in one’s life. But thankfully, fear was not the end of Elijah’s story, nor does fear have to be the end of anyone’s story. God provides places of replenishment—shade-giving broom trees. These are places where body, soul, and spirit are renewed by God’s provisions—his words and his sustenance.
PONDER: Where is your “broom tree?” Do you have a place of shade to rest, encounter God, and experience his replenishment?
REFLECTION or DISCUSSION
Elijah encountered God in some really incredible ways. Before this passage, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal. Elijah called down fire from heaven, and God showed that he is real. Shortly after this amazing feat, Elijah forgot about God’s provision, and feared for his life. When we come to 1 Kings 12:5, Elijah is just about ready to give up, yet God has a plan to replenish him.
Read 1 Kings 19:3-8. What did God do for Elijah when he was afraid and ready to give up? When have you given up or felt like giving up? What might happen if we give up? Read Deuteronomy 31:6. How can this verse help us when we feel like giving up?
(WHOLE CHAPTER)
Have you ever felt like you’ve endured something so difficult you have reached your limit? You’ve spent all your energy, put up with all the grief you can—you’re tired of holding off fear, fatigue, and failure.
The Old Testament prophet Elijah also reached the end of his rope. 1 Kings 18 describes Elijah’s stunning victory over the prophets of Baal. But almost immediately after this great win, he receives a death threat—fear takes over and he runs for his life. Fear’s grip on Elijah is in stark contrast not only to the miraculous way in which God had just intervened on behalf of Elijah, but also contrasts dramatically with the faith, courage, and obedience he portrayed in confronting evil. As Elijah succumbs to fear, he flees to the wilderness and sits under a broom tree, despondent, depressed, and spent, wishing for his life to end. Elijah reminds us that people of faith, courage, and obedience to God are not immune to fear and its debilitating effects.
Notice the broom tree: a provision from God and a place to replenish. Under the shade of this small shrub-like tree, Elijah cries out, “O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers,” and then falls asleep. But this innocuous, scrubby tree becomes a place where Elijah’s despondency fades and his faith and life are renewed. As Elijah lay sleeping on a soft bed of broom leaves, God sends a messenger by way of an angel to speak (twice) firm but replenishing words: “arise and eat.” God then provides water and cake within Elijah’s reach, physical sustenance that enabled him to journey on to Horeb and hear from God again.
Fear can debilitate, paralyze, make one flee. Sadly, fear can also overshadow the reality of God’s deliverance and work in one’s life. But thankfully, fear was not the end of Elijah’s story, nor does fear have to be the end of anyone’s story. God provides places of replenishment—shade-giving broom trees. These are places where body, soul, and spirit are renewed by God’s provisions—his words and his sustenance.
PONDER: Where is your “broom tree?” Do you have a place of shade to rest, encounter God, and experience his replenishment?
REFLECTION or DISCUSSION
Elijah encountered God in some really incredible ways. Before this passage, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal. Elijah called down fire from heaven, and God showed that he is real. Shortly after this amazing feat, Elijah forgot about God’s provision, and feared for his life. When we come to 1 Kings 12:5, Elijah is just about ready to give up, yet God has a plan to replenish him.
Read 1 Kings 19:3-8. What did God do for Elijah when he was afraid and ready to give up? When have you given up or felt like giving up? What might happen if we give up? Read Deuteronomy 31:6. How can this verse help us when we feel like giving up?
Friday, February 27, 2015
Day 9 - Outsider In
Day 9 - Outsider In.
Ruth 1:16 (ESV) - 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
READ THE WHOLE CHAPTER
On January 1, 1892, seven-hundred immigrants passed though the brand new processing center on Ellis Island, New York. Weary from the difficult weeks-long passage across the Atlantic, they carried their suitcases into a kind of promised land, where it was less likely they’d die of starvation or war. Millions followed in their wake.
One of the most famous immigrants in the Bible was a young woman named Ruth. More than a millennium before Christ, she chose to immigrate to the land of the Hebrews, but not because it was a land of opportunity. Not because there was more food there than in her native Moab across the Jordan River (in fact, the opposite). Not because she was assured of a job there. Ruth immigrated to a strange, alien place—leaving her family and friends, her culture, and her prospects for marriage behind—because of her commitment to her mother-in- law, Naomi.
Newly widowed, Naomi was returning to her native Israel, when she was stunned that her beautiful daughter-in-law, Ruth (also widowed), was insistent on sticking with her. “Where you go, I will go...your people will be my people and your God my God.”
It was Ellis Island in reverse. A young woman immigrates, not for greater opportunity, but because of a greater loyalty. The bond was formed by “covenant kindness” (hesed). Young Ruth had been given that kindness by Naomi, and it was covenant kindness that bound Ruth to her mother-in-law.
Little did she know then that once in Israel, she would be shown covenant kindness by a man named Boaz. Little did she know that years after marrying Boaz, one of her grandsons would grow up to be anointed king of Israel—King David himself.
Don’t ever count out the outsider. God often takes the outsider, the person despised for his or her ethnicity, the foreigner, the marginalized, the weak, the obscure to play an important role. This requires us to reimagine our place in God’s plan—and to believe that God may be using us in ways today that we don’t even know. Certainly the young woman from Moab did not imagine we’d be contemplating her today.
PONDER: How might you express covenant kindness to someone today?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION:
Ruth was having a very rough life. Her husband had just died, leaving Ruth a widow. When the time came for Naomi, her mother-in-law, to be able to move back to Bethlehem, she encouraged Ruth to stay in Moab. The amazing part of this story is Ruth’s response to Naomi. Ruth says that she refuses to leave Naomi no matter what. This is a huge sacrifice. It means she will give up her home, her friends, and everything familiar to stay with her grieving mother-in-law.
Read Ruth’s response to Naomi in Ruth 1:16 again. What was Ruth giving up to stay with Naomi? When have you had to give something up in order to do the right thing?
Ruth 1:16 (ESV) - 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
READ THE WHOLE CHAPTER
On January 1, 1892, seven-hundred immigrants passed though the brand new processing center on Ellis Island, New York. Weary from the difficult weeks-long passage across the Atlantic, they carried their suitcases into a kind of promised land, where it was less likely they’d die of starvation or war. Millions followed in their wake.
One of the most famous immigrants in the Bible was a young woman named Ruth. More than a millennium before Christ, she chose to immigrate to the land of the Hebrews, but not because it was a land of opportunity. Not because there was more food there than in her native Moab across the Jordan River (in fact, the opposite). Not because she was assured of a job there. Ruth immigrated to a strange, alien place—leaving her family and friends, her culture, and her prospects for marriage behind—because of her commitment to her mother-in- law, Naomi.
Newly widowed, Naomi was returning to her native Israel, when she was stunned that her beautiful daughter-in-law, Ruth (also widowed), was insistent on sticking with her. “Where you go, I will go...your people will be my people and your God my God.”
It was Ellis Island in reverse. A young woman immigrates, not for greater opportunity, but because of a greater loyalty. The bond was formed by “covenant kindness” (hesed). Young Ruth had been given that kindness by Naomi, and it was covenant kindness that bound Ruth to her mother-in-law.
Little did she know then that once in Israel, she would be shown covenant kindness by a man named Boaz. Little did she know that years after marrying Boaz, one of her grandsons would grow up to be anointed king of Israel—King David himself.
Don’t ever count out the outsider. God often takes the outsider, the person despised for his or her ethnicity, the foreigner, the marginalized, the weak, the obscure to play an important role. This requires us to reimagine our place in God’s plan—and to believe that God may be using us in ways today that we don’t even know. Certainly the young woman from Moab did not imagine we’d be contemplating her today.
PONDER: How might you express covenant kindness to someone today?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION:
Ruth was having a very rough life. Her husband had just died, leaving Ruth a widow. When the time came for Naomi, her mother-in-law, to be able to move back to Bethlehem, she encouraged Ruth to stay in Moab. The amazing part of this story is Ruth’s response to Naomi. Ruth says that she refuses to leave Naomi no matter what. This is a huge sacrifice. It means she will give up her home, her friends, and everything familiar to stay with her grieving mother-in-law.
Read Ruth’s response to Naomi in Ruth 1:16 again. What was Ruth giving up to stay with Naomi? When have you had to give something up in order to do the right thing?
Thursday, February 26, 2015
DAY 8 - Terms of Endearment
Day 8 - Terms of Endearment
Exodus 19:5-6 (ESV) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
What do you call the people you love most? Probably something more than their name. For some people we come up with terms of endearment, things like “honey,” “sweetheart,” “pumpkin,” or other customized terms, which are so personal or quirky we would embarrassed if they slipped out in public. For some people we come up with grandiose labels: “my beloved daughter,” “the best of the best,” “one-in-a-million.”
When the Israelites were camped at Mount Sinai, soon after the Exodus from Egypt, God explained how he had “carried [them] on eagles’ wings and brought [them] to himself” (Ex. 19:4). This is a powerful statement. God swept the people up to be with him. There in the desert, with the mountain as eternal witness, God bestowed his covenant on his people. Truly a marriage made in heaven, solemnized with terms of endearment: “treasured possession,” “kingdom of priests,” “holy nation.”
The whole earth is God’s, but these people would be “treasured possessions.”
Some of them would have the job of “priest” (which means someone who “stands” for God before the people), but all of them would be priests—a kingdom of priests—because every man and woman would stand for God.
God is Lord over the nations, but the Hebrews were called to be a “holy nation,” which means “different” or “distinct.”
In 1 Peter 2, in the New Testament, these terms of endearment are repeated:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10
To understand what it means to be called, we need to comprehend the terms by which he calls us. God’s call is not the command barked by a drill sergeant. Not pleading. Not negotiating.
God’s call bestows identity on us. It makes us who we are. Treasured, priestly, holy.
PONDER: How will this week be different if you “stand” before God and “stand” for God in the world?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION
Nicknames can be a really fun way to learn about another person. When we hear a nickname we can tell certain things about that person. If you are discussing with someone, talk about all of the nicknames you have for one another. Are some sweet? Are some funny? Name as many nicknames as you can. Afterward read Exodus 19:5-6 together.
What “nicknames” does God give his people in these verses? Read John 1:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and Ephesians 2:10. What does God say about us in these verses? God calls us his “children”, “new creations”, and “treasured possessions.” How do you feel knowing that this is what God thinks of you?
Exodus 19:5-6 (ESV) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
What do you call the people you love most? Probably something more than their name. For some people we come up with terms of endearment, things like “honey,” “sweetheart,” “pumpkin,” or other customized terms, which are so personal or quirky we would embarrassed if they slipped out in public. For some people we come up with grandiose labels: “my beloved daughter,” “the best of the best,” “one-in-a-million.”
When the Israelites were camped at Mount Sinai, soon after the Exodus from Egypt, God explained how he had “carried [them] on eagles’ wings and brought [them] to himself” (Ex. 19:4). This is a powerful statement. God swept the people up to be with him. There in the desert, with the mountain as eternal witness, God bestowed his covenant on his people. Truly a marriage made in heaven, solemnized with terms of endearment: “treasured possession,” “kingdom of priests,” “holy nation.”
The whole earth is God’s, but these people would be “treasured possessions.”
Some of them would have the job of “priest” (which means someone who “stands” for God before the people), but all of them would be priests—a kingdom of priests—because every man and woman would stand for God.
God is Lord over the nations, but the Hebrews were called to be a “holy nation,” which means “different” or “distinct.”
In 1 Peter 2, in the New Testament, these terms of endearment are repeated:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:9-10
To understand what it means to be called, we need to comprehend the terms by which he calls us. God’s call is not the command barked by a drill sergeant. Not pleading. Not negotiating.
God’s call bestows identity on us. It makes us who we are. Treasured, priestly, holy.
PONDER: How will this week be different if you “stand” before God and “stand” for God in the world?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION
Nicknames can be a really fun way to learn about another person. When we hear a nickname we can tell certain things about that person. If you are discussing with someone, talk about all of the nicknames you have for one another. Are some sweet? Are some funny? Name as many nicknames as you can. Afterward read Exodus 19:5-6 together.
What “nicknames” does God give his people in these verses? Read John 1:12, 2 Corinthians 5:17, and Ephesians 2:10. What does God say about us in these verses? God calls us his “children”, “new creations”, and “treasured possessions.” How do you feel knowing that this is what God thinks of you?
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Everybody is called.
“Everybody has a vocation to some form of life-work. However, behind
that call (and deeper than any call), everybody has a vocation to be a
person to be fully and deeply human in Christ Jesus.”
― Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
― Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives
“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
Day 7 - This is Personal
Day 7 - This is Personal
Exodus 3:4 (ESV) - 4 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.”
(EXODUS 3)
There are two kinds of fire you can have in your house. One is a monster that will move from room to room—leaping, growing, devouring. The other resides in your fireplace. It is controlled, friendly, and inviting. It draws you in. It brings people together. It warms you but does not burn you.
The day the angel of the Lord appeared to 40-year-old Moses in the flames of a burning bush, human history took a leap forward. On that day, God introduced himself. The religions of the time were about “the god of rain” or “the god of wind” or “the god of earth.” But the one true God—the actual Creator of all things—showed himself in a small way, in a small fire, in a small bush, which mysteriously, was not consumed by the fire.
Then came the call: “Moses!” A name. And an introduction: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” A name based on names. This is personal.
It is only a personal God who would say, “I have seen the misery of my people,” “I have heard their cries,” “I have come down to rescue them.” Then the call, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” This is personal.
God is not a thing to be found, an energy to be harnessed, an idol to be handled. God’s call begins with God’s self-revelation. God calls when we least expect it. God calls us by name, and then he tells us his name.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also the God of Matt, Christy, Gerome, Bianca, and YOU. This Creator cares for what he created and who he created. He hears our cries. He knows our faults. He understands our doubts.
He calls because he cares—and then he sends. Moses must stand before Pharaoh, held up by the power and the word of the Lord.
God sends us into the world for this same purpose: that God may reclaim real people. The rescue continues because bondage is real: personal sin, abusive relationships, human trafficking, class domination, government corruption, economic injustice. This is personal—and it always will be.
PONDER: Who do you know that is a victim of some kind of bondage, who needs to know of the God of Exodus?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION:
When we arrive at this passage in Exodus, the Israelites are slaves in Egypt. The Israelites were miserable in Egypt, and they suffered terrible conditions and felt abandoned by the God of their ancestors. Fortunately, our God is a God who cares. He is about to show up in a huge way for his people.
Read Exodus 3:1-9. Why did God say he was talking to Moses? God came to help his people. God still helps his people today. Where do you need God’s help? Who do you know around you that is sad, afraid, or lonely? What small things could you begin to do to share God’s love with those people?
Exodus 3:4 (ESV) - 4 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.”
(EXODUS 3)
There are two kinds of fire you can have in your house. One is a monster that will move from room to room—leaping, growing, devouring. The other resides in your fireplace. It is controlled, friendly, and inviting. It draws you in. It brings people together. It warms you but does not burn you.
The day the angel of the Lord appeared to 40-year-old Moses in the flames of a burning bush, human history took a leap forward. On that day, God introduced himself. The religions of the time were about “the god of rain” or “the god of wind” or “the god of earth.” But the one true God—the actual Creator of all things—showed himself in a small way, in a small fire, in a small bush, which mysteriously, was not consumed by the fire.
Then came the call: “Moses!” A name. And an introduction: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” A name based on names. This is personal.
It is only a personal God who would say, “I have seen the misery of my people,” “I have heard their cries,” “I have come down to rescue them.” Then the call, “I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” This is personal.
God is not a thing to be found, an energy to be harnessed, an idol to be handled. God’s call begins with God’s self-revelation. God calls when we least expect it. God calls us by name, and then he tells us his name.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is also the God of Matt, Christy, Gerome, Bianca, and YOU. This Creator cares for what he created and who he created. He hears our cries. He knows our faults. He understands our doubts.
He calls because he cares—and then he sends. Moses must stand before Pharaoh, held up by the power and the word of the Lord.
God sends us into the world for this same purpose: that God may reclaim real people. The rescue continues because bondage is real: personal sin, abusive relationships, human trafficking, class domination, government corruption, economic injustice. This is personal—and it always will be.
PONDER: Who do you know that is a victim of some kind of bondage, who needs to know of the God of Exodus?
DISCUSSION or REFLECTION:
When we arrive at this passage in Exodus, the Israelites are slaves in Egypt. The Israelites were miserable in Egypt, and they suffered terrible conditions and felt abandoned by the God of their ancestors. Fortunately, our God is a God who cares. He is about to show up in a huge way for his people.
Read Exodus 3:1-9. Why did God say he was talking to Moses? God came to help his people. God still helps his people today. Where do you need God’s help? Who do you know around you that is sad, afraid, or lonely? What small things could you begin to do to share God’s love with those people?
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