Friday, May 24, 2019

Do You Know? Part Five - The End!


“For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (I. Cor. 1:26-27).

Hey Gang: The fourth and final common denominator – God uses normal, everyday people who have gone through the wilderness, to implement and accomplish His plan.  People who have been tested by fire and not wavered in their faith and trust in God.  People who were willing to say, “Here Lord, send me.”

Remember, after the feeding of the 5000 Jesus immediately sent the disciples out into the Sea, where they encountered raging storms.  Why?   They had failed the test in the feeding of the 5000 when Jesus said, “You feed them!”  Was that idle talk?  Does not the Bible say that  Jesus had already developed a plan to feed the troops? 

But there was a far greater lesson to be learned by the disciples that day of training.  Do you think there was any doubt in the disciple’s minds that they were in danger of visiting Davie’s Locker?  Some were fisherman and knew the violence of the Sea of Galilee and, I suspect, they were resolved that their life on earth was over.

But Jesus loved them and came to them at the exact right time- the darkest hour- just when any chance of survival was at the point of impossible.  One might say that the disciples were in finishing school, that frightening night.  And what was the lesson of the experience? Notice Matthews words, “And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, You are certainly God’s Son!” (Matt. 14:33). Lesson learned! What lesson? “Surely you are the Son of the living God!”  

Moses, did he jump up and down when he visited the burning bush and encountered Jehovah God and learned what God had in mind for him?  I sense he was in a mesmerized state at that moment - a burning bush that did not turn to ashes! A voice out of the cloud saying, “I have a chore I want you to do for me for me Moses.”  

Keep in mind, he had just spent forty years tending sheep, which did not require a PhD in animal husbandry.  Yes, he was trained in the courts of the Pharaoh and graduated with honors, but forty years of talking to sheep, I would suggest might, have dulled his intellect.   The point, he was a not the head of his class, when God reached down and said, “I’ll take that one!     

O, yes, one last requirement - you must have faith – the common denominator in Hebrews eleven is faith.  Faith is the anchor to our walk with the Lord.  “Without faith it is impossible to please God and to be used by Him. (Hebrews 11).  It was not the marching, the trumpet blast, or the yelling of the marchers that brought the walls of Jericho down, it was faith! 

Finally, my dear family and friends, God has a desire to use you!  You might feel you have nothing to offer, that I am nothing – but that is precisely the kind of person God is looking for.  He takes broken vessels and crushes them and molds them into the image of His Son Jesus!

So, one last time, say it with me, “I am normal; God likes me; God is for me; God can use me. Now show up for your marching orders!. 

Blessings,

Gramps

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