We all have done things in our past that if we allow ourselves we would feel regret and shame and use our past mistakes as an excuse for neglecting present service. What if you were Moses? We speak about the great signs and miracles. We teach our kids about the burning bush experience. We marvel about what it must have been like on that mountain with God receiving the Ten Commandments and seeing the Glory of God walk by. It would seem that Moses' life was filled with wonder and awe-gazing encounters with the Creator of the universe.
However, what about Moses' past? Do you think that any of it was on his mind when he stood at the burning bush and God was speaking to him? Do you think that he felt a little hypocritical when he watched God write the Ten Commandments on a stone? Especially the Commandment, "thou shalt not murder." After all, Moses went from second in command, only to the Pharaoh's son, to running for his life for murder. He was burdened because of the way the Hebrew men were being abused so he started his own ministry. It was called the "dead Egyptian in the sand" ministry. Moses was guilty of murder. Don’t you know that the memory of the Egyptian abusing the Hebrew slaves weighed heavy on his mind during these mighty encounters with God. The fact that he was a "wanted man" in Egypt for murder weighted heavy on him. We are not certain that Moses knew the horrible conditions the Hebrew people in Egypt had fallen into over the forty years of his absence while he hid in the desert. But we know one thing, God saw and God had not forgotten His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob for the Hebrew children. The same is true in these days in which we live. No matter how crazy the world gets and no matter how much persecution falls on God’s people, we know that God sees and God remembers His promises. The New Testament is filled with great promises that have yet to be fulfilled, but they will be. The Father is raising up leaders likened unto Moses who may have a weighted past. The Father has been placing them in the SEPARATION & PREPARATION stage in the wilderness place for years and is ready for a divine revelation of these leaders. I will repeat an aged old saying that I feel we need to be reminded of. In our modern world we train Pastors for four years in order to minister for forty years. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament it seems that they were trained for forty years to ministry for four years. We have lost the importance of a lifestyle of the SEPARATION & PREPARATION process so that when God calls us we do not use our past mistakes for present excuses. God uses people who have a soiled past. The key...learn to ask and receive forgiveness and live in the present and not in the past. Exodus 2:23-25 ESV During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. (24) And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. (25) God saw the people of Israel—and God knew. Exodus 3:1 ESV Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. Hebrews 11:27-29 ESV By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. (28) By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them. (29) By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.
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"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see.” ― Corrie ten Boom This is so true. Remember, wherever you go, whoever you meet, God uses the experiences and people that have passed through our lives to mold and form us into the image of His Son. (1). Some experiences and people are like holy sandpaper, meant to rub the rough edges off of us. (2). Some experiences and people are like mirrors, meant to be used that we see ourselves though the experiences and lives of other people. (3). Some experiences and people are like a rose, meant to remind us of the beauty and sweet fragrance of life. (4). Some experiences and people are like heartburn, meant to reveal what lies inside of us that needs to be healed. (5). Some experiences and people are like walking a tightrope, meant to show us if we stay there very long we will certainly fall. (6). Some experiences and people are like salt, meant that they have preserved us, seasoned us, and keep us thirsty. When we speak about our past, why is it that for the most part all we can remember are the bad and the hurtful things were done or said to us? While we seem to find it easy to recall the bad and hurtful things done to us there are two things we seldom remember. (1). The good things and good times we had. (2) The bad and hurtful things we said and did to others. It is the easiest and yet most costly thing in the world to be and stay a victim to our past. Just some thoughts from a Pastor's heart that has learn to live without regrets. The Apostle Paul tells what to do in regards to our past and in relation to our future. Philippians 3:13-14 ESV (13) Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. |
AuthorCharles Morris. Founder and Senior Pastor of RSI Ministry, RSI School of Ministry, and RSI Publishing L.L.C.. Archives
March 2021
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