There are themes that run throughout Scripture.
I believe those themes are there for a reason.
The primary reason they are there is because God is trying to teach us something.
This weekend we’ll look at a theme that can be found in the story of almost every major character of Scripture.
It’s Not about Us (You)…It’s About God in Us (You).
I believe that God is doing and wants to do some significant things here through His people.
He always has.
We must first understand the depth of this truth…
…It’s not about me…It’s about God in me.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I’m looking forward to hearing more about this. I’ve been thinking about Phil 3 this week a lot, about how much Paul had in his resume that he could glory in, but he says:
7But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness…
(I quoted the King James version because it says “dung” which really seems to capture the thought)
It seems like one reason we like it to be “about us” is that it is more measurable. How do you measure “being found in Him”?? It requires a complete shift to just rest and rejoice that I AM in Christ instead of trying to measure it. So I am really looking forward to the teaching on Sunday!
August 4th, 2008 at 8:42 am
thanks so much for what you shared with us yesterday, dean ~
don’t you just love it when the Lord speaks in stereo? well, at least sometimes i love it … i know i pay closer attention, at least, when two voices speak a similar message in the course of a couple of weeks, which has been the case for me this month. thought i’d share an entry from an online daily devotional i subscribe to written by john fischer (for those not old like me, he is the author of one of my favorite little songs from the early 1970’s, “love Him in the morning”). it takes that conversation between moses and God to that important step you talked about that leaps from belief to faith …
Throw it down Tuesday, July, 15, 2008
by John Fischer
“What do you have there in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2 NLT)
Anyone familiar with the calling of Moses by God to be the one to free his people from Egypt knows that calling took place amidst a long litany of excuses and objections on Moses’ part. It is such a human story full of excuses, insecurity and fear.
“But who am I to appear before Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11)
“How do you expect me to lead the Israelites out of Egypt?” (3:11)
“They won’t believe me.” (3:13; 4:1)
“O Lord… I’m clumsy with my words.” (4:10)
“Lord, please! Send someone else.” (4:13)
Any of these sound familiar? It’s hard to believe that with this feeble beginning, God turned Moses into one of his greatest leaders. It just goes to show that serving God doesn’t depend on great things from us; it depends on our availability to a great God.
This has been God’s strategy from the beginning — to pick ordinary, fallible people like you and me, and do great things through them by faith. I don’t know how we miss this so often, but we do. The Old Testament is riddled with people like this. We often think that we could never be like other people God is using mightily, when, if truth be known, they probably feel just as insecure as we do. Greatness, in God’s book, is not a measure of our natural abilities as much as it is a measure of our courage to believe God is with us in our weakness.
Still, God will use what we offer of our natural abilities, but only after we give them over to Him. I believe that is what the shepherd’s staff Moses carried around represented. God asked him to throw it on the ground and when he did, it immediately turned into a serpent. Then He told him to pick it up again (that would have been the hardest part!) and it turned back into a staff. (This little trick would later come in very handy when Moses was tested by Pharaoh and his magicians.)
When we give up what we have in our hand — the few things we do have that we have come to trust — then God can turn even these things into something He can use for His purposes. When we turn from reliance on our natural abilities to a reliance on God, He makes even more of our abilities.
What’s in your hand? What have you been leaning on all these years? Is it a natural ability? Is it a drug? Is it something you’re good at? Or is it something that makes you think you’re good, but is really lying to you? Throw it down, and see what God does with it.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Thank you for sharing those thoughts Robin and Dianne. There is sooo much to dig into here. I feel that this is a message that I have to be reminded of on a regular basis. My natural inclination is to make everything about ME.