God heard, remembered, saw and knew. Those are all important. We want a God who is capable of all those
things. When we groan in pain and
suffering we want to know God hears and remembers we are His children via the
covenant in Jesus' blood. We want a God
who not only hears us groan but also is able to see for Himself the situation
and size it up and we want Him to know our plight. In the suffering and cross of Jesus we know
that He knows and understands our suffering.
His response seems a bit strange though, a man, not suffering in Egypt
with the people, out with the sheep, sees a burning bush. No one in Egypt at the time had any idea God
was moving for their deliverance and how insignificant is this episode
otherwise. Because Moses turned aside to
see this sight he had an encounter with the living God that would change the
destiny of the people in bondage, that would make them a nation. Moses is hesitant to accept this call, he
remembers the last time he attempted to intercede on behalf of Israel and he
now re-phrases the question asked of him, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”
The answer is it doesn’t matter who you are, it matters that I AM. Now he can answer the question of who made
him ruler and judge, I AM has done it.
It wasn't his past, his story, his fitness for the job, it was God's
will. Will they believe him?
As the disciples and Jesus return from the Mount of
Transfiguration they find the remainder of the disciples attempting to heal a
boy who is possessed by a demonic entity that causes severe seizures. The man has come in the belief that Jesus can
heal him, found the disciples and found that they could not heal his son. His faith is wavering and says, "if you
can help." Jesus immediately seizes
upon this doubt and points to faith as the key.
The man acknowledges his faith is weak and asks for healing for his faith
as well. He has surely come to wits' end
with the situation and Jesus was his last hope.
The disciples' failure has been a blow and yet Jesus heals the boy. God has heard and He has been gracious. Why couldn't the disciples cast it out? They were relying on themselves rather than
prayer.
Love is the most important gift and everyone possesses
it. Too often in the church there is an
emphasis on the gifts and not enough on love.
Gifts not exercised in love become abusive and self-serving. Paul, after an exposition of the gifts and
the metaphor of the body returns to what Francis Schaeffer said was the mark of
the true Christian, love. Jesus came in
love, exercised the gifts in love, and died in love for us. If we miss that then we miss the heart of the
Gospel and we have nothing at all to share when we use our gifts. A church must always remember that the Great
Commandment was to love God with all your being and love your neighbor as
yourself. Love controls everything or we
are out of alignment with the Lord.
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