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| Volume 21 Number 6 June 2019 | Page 12 |
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| Volume 21 Number 6 June 2019 | Page 12 |
Cliff Holmes
Who is man or the federal government, for that matter, to tell God that He cannot be where He wants to make His presence known? America, by way of the federal courts and Congress, has tried to tell God to stay out of our schools, our businesses, our state offices, every aspect of daily lives and livelihoods.
God will go and be anywhere He pleases, and all the courts and laws will not be able to stand in His way. He is in the halls of Congress watching the graft and corruption that goes on there. He watches the greedy get rich at the expense of the righteous poor people. He stands behind the Justices of the Supreme Court, watching their every move as they ban Him from schools and authorize the murder of unborn babies.
God will be in His place in the lives of men whether He is wanted there or not. He will be in the marketplace where merchants deal rightly or deceitfully with the customer. He is in the hospital operating rooms, by the sickbed and by one’s deathbed. He is in the classrooms of our nation even as some teachers try to train our children with good moral values, even while some try to teach young people that God does not even exist.
Eventually, everyone will have to admit God’s existence and His very nearness as He surrounds us in all His power, wisdom, strength and very presence. It is time that we as a unified people stand up to proclaim, “I know that God is alive!” Let us make our voices heard both to God and to our fellow man. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God…’” (Psalm 14:1 NKJV).
Dean Kelly
Then Moses answered and said, “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’” So the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A rod.” And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail” (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), “that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” (Exodus 4:1-5)
God was about to send Moses on one of the most important missions in history, to deliver His people from Egypt and to establish them as a true nation in the land He promised them. Moses was afraid and uncertain. He questioned God about it in several ways. Here he asked, “What if they don’t believe me?” God answered by showing him a miracle. While God is not going to miraculously use what is in our hands today, He is going to, through His providential care, use whatever it is for His glory. I suggest several things that we should see “in our hands” if God were to ask this question today.
Today. I contend that one of the precious commodities that we hold in our hands right now is today. It is the only clay with which we can currently work. Yesterday’s clay is hardened already into the past. Tomorrow will bring its own clay to our hands if we make it through today. I hope that I can take today in my hands before God, and He can make it a tool for His service. May I cherish every minute of today and “redeem the time.” May I go to bed tonight happily exhausted because of a day well spent. May I use today to grow, to glow and to go. May God bless me that I might not waste today on anger, jealousy and fear. May He take this day that I hold in my hand and make it a successful day. Today is a gift from God that He has placed in my hand.
Prayer. A term can be used so much that it loses its power. Despite that, I pray that God will help me to be a “prayer warrior.” May I take the powerful gift in my hand of prayer and use it for good. May I learn to honestly pray for my family, my friends and my brothers and sisters in Christ. May I also learn to pray for those who hate me, misuse me and anger me. May prayer be a tool effectively used to remember my need for God and to express thanks to Him for everything He has done for me. May I hold up my hand to God and show Him that I hold prayer in my hand for Him to use for good.
The Sword of the Spirit. If God were to ask me, like He did Moses, “What is that in your hand?” I would hope that I could say, “It is Your Word that I have hidden in my heart and that I hold in my hand ready to use for your cause.” May I ever work to be a skilled “swordsman” of the Word, no, not for injury or to prove that I am right. May I be skilled in touching people’s hearts with the sharp piercing of the truth of God’s Word. May I stand firm, whether they repent and want to do right (Acts 2), or whether they pick up stones to kill me (Acts 7). May God use the sword in my hand to glorify Him and to save others.
Love. If I were standing in the presence of the Almighty Creator, and He said to me, “What is that in your hand?” I would hope that one of the things He would find is a love that is standing on ready. I want my love to be ready for those that are closest to me. May I truly love my wife, my children and my grandchildren. May I love without hypocrisy my brothers and sisters in Christ. May God use my love as an expression of the fact that, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” May God use my love as a force for good wherever I go and whatever I do. God is fully able where I cannot stand on my own.
What do you have in your hand? When it comes to serving God, to turning yourself over to His hands, what do you have in your hands, your arsenal, your heart, that God can use to accomplish His will, right here and right now? That is an important question; what is your (and my) answer?