In Exodus 3 at a bush that burned but was not consumed Moses experienced God.
Seventy years earlier he had learned about God.
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Education alone limits God. Education combined with experience elevates God.
The Value of Education
Education is important. I don’t have enough education. Further degrees would enhance my credibility, even if it did not increase the quality of my content.
The early stages of education are concise. The subject matter is neatly arranged to facilitate understanding. Quizzes are “True and False,” or multiple choice.
When a student seeks an advanced degree, academic neatness disappears. In a Master’s or Doctoral program, a learner is encouraged to think independently. In the proper manner, a student can even challenge what the instructor has taught.
There are no more multiple choice tests. Essays and dissertations are necessary. Education is a good thing because knowledge empowers good decisions.
It was Moses’ religious education gained from his Hebrew mother that caused him to identify with the enslaved Israelites.
But education cannot replace experience. What happened at the burning bush took Moses to another level of understanding. He had known about the God of Abraham now Moses knew the God of Abraham. Moses had an intimate encounter with God.
Question:
Do you know about the Lord Jesus Christ or do you know the Lord Jesus Christ?
Today, He is the same miracle working God who caused a bush to burn and not be consumed.
Almighty God
How different aspects of God were revealed are interesting.
Job is considered the first book of the Bible to have been written. In this first book, the Lord is spoken of as Almighty thirty-one times. That is more often than any book in the Bible.
The almighty never finds it necessary to look elsewhere for help. All might is in Him. In Job’s caldron of grief and pain - Almighty God loomed large.
The book of the Bible with the second most references to almighty is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, one of the final books to have been written.
Almighty past, in the first book penned. Almighty future, in a description of the end of the age.
If your God is Almighty God in the past,
If your God is Almighty God at the end of the age,
Is your God not then Almighty God at this very moment?
As noted earlier, the Lord Jesus Christ is not compartmenalized like Baal. Baal’s work would have been limited to being god of sun and harvest. Nor is this like any god in the Greek or Roman pantheon. Those deities were limited to a specific area of interest.
In the contest with Pharoah, Moses experienced Almighty God - God did unprecedented and unexpected things to demonstrate His might. The God Moses was now experiencing did not need to look elsewhere for help.
Unbox Your God
A person’s perception of God limits Him. Christ’s testified that He could do no great works in His home town of Nazareth. The populace perception of Christ is seen in the question, “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”
The gospels described their condition as unbelief. It was an unbelief established by their inability to get beyond what He had been. They differed from Moses, in Nazareth, their knowledge of the past limited their present experience.
Take God out of any box you have Him in. Almighty God is still doing new things, and He never has to look beyond Himself for help.
Application:
- Knowledge empowers. Many Christians know too little about God and His ways. God’s thoughts are not man’s thoughts nor are God’s ways man’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). If you were to develop a simple strategy for increasing your knowledge about God’s thoughts and God’s ways what would it look like?
- How have you seen the Lord Jesus Christ limited? Some religious groups teach the days of miracles are over. If God is almighty what evidence is there that He is now somehow restrained?
- Using no resource but the Bible and a concordance, build the case for miracles no longer happening. Now using nothing but the Bible and a concordance, build a case for the continuation of miracles
Book Suggestion: My book If Everybody Here, Were Just Like Me . . . (What Kind of Church Would this Church Be)? challenges us to become aware of how our own lack of interest can limit God. For Kindle reader or app.
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