Graduate 150: Five Reflections for the Church, Part 3
The power of the Spirit.
Composed: 17 May 2009.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about the life of Moses. His experience of walking and partnering with God is instructive on several points and offers useful insights for us to consider when reflecting on what it means for us to walk with God. Clearly God's hand was on Moses' life from the very beginning, keeping him safe and training him for service. But when the time came and God called on Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he resisted. Though God promised to be with him and to provide for him, Moses had serious trouble getting past his own fears and doubts. Even after he agreed to follow, his relationship with God was far from smooth. Moses understood well that partnering with God is not a bed of roses and he regularly vented to God about his anger and frustration. His angry outbursts got him into trouble and even kept him out of the promised land; and yet, when the leadership of Moses was challenged, this is what God had to say about him:
"If there is a prophet among you [people of Israel],
I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.
I shall speak with him in a dream.
Not so, with My servant Moses,
He is faithful in all My household;
With him I speak mouth to mouth,
Even openly, and not in dark sayings,
And he beholds the form of the LORD." (Numbers 12:6-8)
Moses not only bore witness to some of the most spectacular manifestations of God's power and greatness; he also played a part in bringing them about. On a daily basis for almost forty years, he saw and participated in God's work of providing for and protecting His people.
Would it be worth it, to you, to go through all the pain and toil and trials that Moses went through, if what God said of Moses in the passage above could be said of you? Would you be willing to go through all of that, in order to see God work in the ways that Moses saw Him work? Perhaps we should be careful not to answer too quickly, for this question is not academic or hypothetical. In Colossians 1, Paul writes that the image of the invisible God and His fullness have been revealed in Christ Jesus; and the author of Hebrews says that through Christ we are all alike enabled to approach the throne of grace. (4:16) In Romans 8:15, Paul reminds us that we can call out to Him as Father, and Jesus, Himself, speaks in John 14-16 about the intimate relationship that we can have with God. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is to be accompanied by power (Acts 1:8) and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the way has been opened for anyone who wishes to come, to walk with God and partner with God and see God work.
The question and challenge that we face, then, is this: Will I choose to follow God? Will I choose, as Moses chose, to step out in faith and obedience, and trust in God, and open myself up to seeing Him work? This is the opportunity and challenge that we must consider and that we want to offer to the world.
Ultimately, in reaching out to our community, what we want to offer just is the opportunity to enter into this kind of Spirit-filled, grace-empowered life with Christ. But to do that we need to look, first, inside ourselves and consider whether we are committed to pursuing this same kind of life.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
Composed: 17 May 2009.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about the life of Moses. His experience of walking and partnering with God is instructive on several points and offers useful insights for us to consider when reflecting on what it means for us to walk with God. Clearly God's hand was on Moses' life from the very beginning, keeping him safe and training him for service. But when the time came and God called on Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, he resisted. Though God promised to be with him and to provide for him, Moses had serious trouble getting past his own fears and doubts. Even after he agreed to follow, his relationship with God was far from smooth. Moses understood well that partnering with God is not a bed of roses and he regularly vented to God about his anger and frustration. His angry outbursts got him into trouble and even kept him out of the promised land; and yet, when the leadership of Moses was challenged, this is what God had to say about him:
"If there is a prophet among you [people of Israel],
I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision.
I shall speak with him in a dream.
Not so, with My servant Moses,
He is faithful in all My household;
With him I speak mouth to mouth,
Even openly, and not in dark sayings,
And he beholds the form of the LORD." (Numbers 12:6-8)
Moses not only bore witness to some of the most spectacular manifestations of God's power and greatness; he also played a part in bringing them about. On a daily basis for almost forty years, he saw and participated in God's work of providing for and protecting His people.
Would it be worth it, to you, to go through all the pain and toil and trials that Moses went through, if what God said of Moses in the passage above could be said of you? Would you be willing to go through all of that, in order to see God work in the ways that Moses saw Him work? Perhaps we should be careful not to answer too quickly, for this question is not academic or hypothetical. In Colossians 1, Paul writes that the image of the invisible God and His fullness have been revealed in Christ Jesus; and the author of Hebrews says that through Christ we are all alike enabled to approach the throne of grace. (4:16) In Romans 8:15, Paul reminds us that we can call out to Him as Father, and Jesus, Himself, speaks in John 14-16 about the intimate relationship that we can have with God. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is to be accompanied by power (Acts 1:8) and through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the way has been opened for anyone who wishes to come, to walk with God and partner with God and see God work.
The question and challenge that we face, then, is this: Will I choose to follow God? Will I choose, as Moses chose, to step out in faith and obedience, and trust in God, and open myself up to seeing Him work? This is the opportunity and challenge that we must consider and that we want to offer to the world.
Ultimately, in reaching out to our community, what we want to offer just is the opportunity to enter into this kind of Spirit-filled, grace-empowered life with Christ. But to do that we need to look, first, inside ourselves and consider whether we are committed to pursuing this same kind of life.
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 3:43 PM
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