Title: Not You, It's Me
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Exodus 3:1-15
We perceive the world as revolving around us. It's not that we believe ourselves the center of the universe and deserve everyone's attention. As babies, we can't distinguish self from the world. As we mature, our understanding of the other extends in many and various ways. Still long into adulthood, though, we look at the world in terms of its relationship to ourselves. We interpret others' words and actions through a very personal lens. We mostly understand the experiences of others through our own. We think of our efforts and actions as depending mainly upon ourselves, while knowing there are many factors far beyond our control. When it comes to God's charge and claim on our lives, do we keep up the same lenses we use elsewhere? Do we limit how God can use us by projecting the limitations of our personal skills, abilities, and resources?
I hear church people talk about the ministry of presence. It is a recognition that one's presence can minister to others in ways we can't recognize. Another take is that our simply being in certain situations and circumstances is all that is necessary for us to do. We may become vehicles of God's presence, love, grace, and encouragement in ways that do not depend on any special skill, ability, gift, word, or even action. One's presence can convey what we may be unable to articulate or do. What we cannot accomplish, God can. We do not always need to be aware of what God is doing through us, for it is God's work that really matters.
A lot has happened in Moses' life since the passage we read in the last chapter. Moses has grown up, become a man, determined that his people were being oppressed by the Egyptians, and resolved to take justice in his own hands, killing an Egyptian oppressor. When he discovered that his action was not as hidden as he believed, he escaped Egypt ahead of Pharaoh's wrath. In the land of Midian, he ...
Author: Christopher Harbin
Text: Exodus 3:1-15
We perceive the world as revolving around us. It's not that we believe ourselves the center of the universe and deserve everyone's attention. As babies, we can't distinguish self from the world. As we mature, our understanding of the other extends in many and various ways. Still long into adulthood, though, we look at the world in terms of its relationship to ourselves. We interpret others' words and actions through a very personal lens. We mostly understand the experiences of others through our own. We think of our efforts and actions as depending mainly upon ourselves, while knowing there are many factors far beyond our control. When it comes to God's charge and claim on our lives, do we keep up the same lenses we use elsewhere? Do we limit how God can use us by projecting the limitations of our personal skills, abilities, and resources?
I hear church people talk about the ministry of presence. It is a recognition that one's presence can minister to others in ways we can't recognize. Another take is that our simply being in certain situations and circumstances is all that is necessary for us to do. We may become vehicles of God's presence, love, grace, and encouragement in ways that do not depend on any special skill, ability, gift, word, or even action. One's presence can convey what we may be unable to articulate or do. What we cannot accomplish, God can. We do not always need to be aware of what God is doing through us, for it is God's work that really matters.
A lot has happened in Moses' life since the passage we read in the last chapter. Moses has grown up, become a man, determined that his people were being oppressed by the Egyptians, and resolved to take justice in his own hands, killing an Egyptian oppressor. When he discovered that his action was not as hidden as he believed, he escaped Egypt ahead of Pharaoh's wrath. In the land of Midian, he ...
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