Mar 11, 2007 - What is in your hands?

Mar 11, 2007

Exo 4:1-4 KJV
(1) And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
(2) And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
(3) And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
(4) And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

An earlier devotional mentioned what I refer to as a 'Moses Moment'. This one explains it as best as I can. In the early 80's I worked for a local Christian Radio station. One song that I like was not one of the 'hits' that got a lot of air play. I do not remember the name of the song or the artist, but it had a large impact on me. In it, Moses is stepping on Holy Ground and God tells him to take off his shoes. God then tells Moses:

Moses, you are gonna be my man,
Moses, way down in Egypt Land,
Moses, you are going to work for me,
Moses, I have chosen to set my people free....

And of course Moses replies...

NOT ME LORD...

It goes on with the story we know so well, and then God says,

What's that in your hand Moses?
It's a rod.
Throw it down Moses..
On the ground?
Throw it down Moses..
Lord, you have not lived here long, this is my only protection..
THROW IT DOWN MOSES!

Moses threw the rod on the ground and it became a hissing snake.
Moses started running...I know I would run,
He was running from a Hot Rod, running from a hissing snake..
Running scared of what God was gonna do, Running from...
And the Lord said: Pick it up Moses!

Lord you got the whole thing wrong , Lord you have not lived here very long,
Don't you know that you never pick up a hissing snake by the tai....PICK IT UP MOSES!

It's a rod again..

And the song ends with a wonderful few lines about how what ever is in your hands, God wants you to use.

Four weeks ago today, I obeyed God. I had put it off, but God said you have what you need in your hands. I had argued with Him, but it nagged at me. He wanted me to start to write these devotionals. I have a skill to write that I have had since high school (got drummed into me by a nun in my junior year of high school). I have a computer and I have an Internet connection. I know how to set up a mailing list and I know how to make a blog. I had the tools to do what He wanted me to do and He was telling me to do it.

And I kept saying not me Lord. You see, 4 weeks ago, I would not have thought that I could come up with one devotional much less twenty-eight. Yet, here I am, 28 messages later and I have found that there is a lot more in me. Have all of them been easy to write. No, not at all. Sometimes I do not get the inspiration till after I have started my job in the morning. Sometimes I just want to open my Bible and point to a verse and write about it, though I am sure that I could not write too much on such and such gave birth to so and so. I have had one case where my Internet connection went down and it did not get out till late afternoon. God has come through each time.

In all of it though, I have found just how much of a wealth of knowledge of the Bible that I have in me. I often write about stuff and end up preaching to myself. It has been a rewarding experience. Not because of the mailing list, there are only four people on it at this writing. Though I wish there were more, I know that I blog these as well and because I can see how people get to the blog, and see that they are searching for specific topics that I have written about. Long after I stop writing these, people will still be able to search out these words for comfort and wisdom. And it is all because I took the things I had in my hand and I used them. My computer is like Moses' rod. With it I hope to part the Red Sea of people's needs. Because I overcame my 'Moses Moment', you are reading these words.

Question: What do you have in your hands right now?