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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
September, 2013
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Past Articles |
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Did you ever notice this
little law of life? Just about the time you get comfortable in a place,
the scenery changes. You're all comfy at home as a little child, and you
think this is a world you can handle. You just figured out your house and
the yard, and suddenly somebody plunges you into this unfamiliar jungle of
kindergarten with all these crazy kids in this classroom. And then you get
pretty comfortable in elementary school. You say, "Hey, I know how to
handle this place. I've conquered this place." And no sooner do you get on
top of that, and they plunge you into the junior high zoo.
Then there's high school. Just about the time you're really confident in
junior high, boom, you're in the huge world of high school. And then after
that you're plunged into college, and you think, "Well, I think I've got
college figured out." Hello? Now you are plunged into life! Of course,
parents get to go through all those new beginnings with their kids. Being
grown up doesn't mean you're beyond those "shake ups" that are caused by
new beginnings. No, you might be staring at a new beginning right now.
Well, I've got news for you!
Let me set the stage for you a little bit. In Exodus 33, Moses and his
people are at Sinai. At one point, this very imposing mountain out in the
wilderness had been a new beginning place for them. They left Egypt, and
this is where God asks them to park for a while. They've met the Lord
there. But by now Sinai, which maybe once looked new and dangerous, has
become the easy, familiar, comfortable place. It's the place where they've
had a lot of encounters with the Lord actually.
In chapter 33, verse 1, it comes as a shock perhaps when the Lord says to
Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought out of Egypt, and
go to the land I promised you." Leave this place, this safe place, this
familiar place? To something better, but it's something different,
something unknown, something risky. Can you relate at all? Maybe God seems
to be saying to you, "It's time to move on. You're on the edge of change
right now in your life."
A new beginning can be triggered by a lot of things; maybe a change at
work, a change in your family, maybe in your health, a graduation,
retirement, an accident. Well, here's Moses on the edge of something new.
He's nervous...and so are you. And God has a word for him. In fact when
Moses says, "Teach me Your ways" in Exodus 33:13, we then get God's answer
to him. And our word for today from the Word of God, Exodus 33:14, "The
Lord replied, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
The scenery changes, the cast changes, the location changes, the script
changes, but the Director is the same. The presence is what makes the risk
not really risky. His presence is what made this place bearable and
beautiful. It's the same in the next place. He's the same in the next
stage of your life; in the next season. That's the important thing. He
will not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
I want you to imagine Jesus now, standing in front of you, looking you in
the eye, and you're standing together in front of that new thing. He puts
a hand on your shoulders, grips you tightly and He says these words, "My
presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
No matter what the risk, no matter what the change you're facing, isn't
that enough to go on? Jesus BET His Life that It was . . .
See you in Church
Rev. Chuck
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