God is on the move…always! If you look to long at what God did yesterday, you will miss what He is doing today. Should we celebrate what we saw Him do, what He let us experience? Absolutely, but stand your stone of remembrance and look for what He is up to today.
Think about the followers of John the Baptist. These were exciting times…God had been quiet for 400 years and now here is this locust eating, camel hair wearing, nut job speaking the truth of God out in the wilderness. He didn’t look like the religious leaders of the day, that’s for sure, but he had the Holy Spirit all over him, since birth in fact. His mission…prepare the way for the One, point to the One, and get out of the way of the One once He came.
John recognized his call, his purpose very clearly, but more importantly he recognized when his mission was complete.
When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!" John 1:36
He encouraged his followers to leave him and follow the current move of God. Okay, this may be an extreme example, after all I am talking about when Jesus came in the flesh.
How about this one? One of my favorite OT stories is the bronze snake on the pole in Moses’ time that brought healing to the Israelites in the desert (Numbers chapter 21 I believe). It was an amazing God event. However, too much attention for too long turned it into an idol.
He (Hezekiah) removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. 2Kings 18:4
I’ve heard people say, “Be careful…you don’t want to get ahead of God”. Yeah, good luck with that! I’d be thrilled to grab a hold of God’s shirt tail and try to hang on for awhile. I don’t think “careful” or “fear” is part of the vocabulary of heaven. As soon as you have more to loose, or maintain, than you have opportunities to gain, you may be working for a Kingdom other than God’s.
These are exciting times my friends…let’s head for the biggest, highest roller coaster there is! When a bigger one is built…let’s head there.
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You have no idea how this resonates with me right now! Thank you for the confirmation as I enter a new chapter in life. It has been hard to let go of the comfortable - but maybe not so healthy - past and move toward what I believe God has in store. Each day He shows me a little more of His awesomeness...
ReplyDeleteLove you, brother!!!
I recently heard someone say, "God will make you discontent with your circumstances to get you where He wants you." This is certainly proving true in my life right now.
ReplyDeleteLove you too, Sis
Indeed He will!
ReplyDeleteI read a book last year titled Michelangelo and the Pope's ceiling, and tucked in one of the chapters was a reference to a section of the ceiling depicting the raising of the bronze serpent. Michelangelo had made the comment that the serpent foreshadowed the forgiveness we would receive by gazing on the Cross. That made the story of the bronze serpent stick in my mind like nothing else.
ReplyDeleteWelcome iwrite...
ReplyDeleteJesus himself pointed to the story of the bronze snake as a foreshadowing of His work on the cross...
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." John 3:14&15
Did you know it was because of this story, the American Medical Association has as it's symbol a snake on a pole?
There are many physical pictures in the OT that reflect spiritual truth in the NT.
I don't think I'd ever heard that about the Caduceus being Biblical in origin, always thought it was Greek mythology. This is Liz by the way, I just hadn't updated my screen name to match my real name.
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