I am who I will be

The world has two kinds of people, those who put people in two kinds of people groups and those who don't.  No, really though, some people think they have it all together and they are successful in their own eyes and others think they don't have much of anything to offer the world other than a warm body.  In Exodus chapter 3 as God calls Moses through the burning bush, Moses responds with two questions.  The questions sum up like this - who am I?  Who are you?

God's answer to the first wasn't about who Moses was as much as it was about who He is.  Moses wanted to know how he could represent this great and holy God who was speaking to him.  God basically told Moses "I will be with you, I will speak through you, you are my vessel".  Then Moses wanted to know how to answer the people when they asked about the God Moses was representing.  God's answer to the second question was like it as He said - "I AM WHO I AM".  Which can also be understood as "I AM WHO I WILL BE".

Just think about it.  Some crazy old man who had run away for murdering someone years ago and hasn't been seen for forty years comes strolling into town and he just walks up to the leader of a great nation and tells him "God says let my people go".  Well that's pretty amusing there old dude but the people you speak of are the slaves that keep our society growing.  If I let them go them my people will have to do the work and that's not gonna make anyone happy.  I don't think that is gonna happen, who exactly do you think you are?

This is what Moses faced when he acted on faith and obeyed what God told him to do.  God's request was utterly ridiculous, Moses knew that.  Yet, he was willing to go anyway.  Why?  Because a burning bush told him to!  But no one else saw the burning bush, why should they believe Moses?  These are very legitimate questions and the only answer to them we are given is because God is with us and He is God.

You see, God never changes.  The same God who called Moses to go and bring His people out of bondage and slavery and into the promised land is the same God who calls us to impart life to those who are still dead in trespasses and sins.  Who we are is of no consequence, Christ in us is what matters.  It is not our skill or strength that God uses to accomplish His purpose, it is our faith in His ability and His strength in and through us.

Remember Moses was in his old age when God called him.  He was well aware of his inadequacies to do all that God had called him to do.  We need to recognize the same.  God never changes, He is the same God today that spoke to Moses and He is speaking to us.  He has called us to live His life by setting captives free, bringing healing to the broken, taking care of orphans and widows, embracing the immigrant and comforting the afflicted.  The promise made to Moses that God would be with him is being fulfilled in each and every believer as we walk by faith in the power of Christ in us.  Because God never changes, that will never change as long as we abide in Him by faith.  The task we have been given is no less silly looking to the world today as Moses must have looked to Egypt way back in the day.  It really is a BIG task and if we don't see that there is a lot about God's desire for his church we do not understand.  This is God's world and every living human being is His creation and He wants it all back.  What we are called to do is a very big deal.  We can only do it with the power of God through us and the same God who split the sea for Moses as they fleed from Egypt wants us to hold out our own staff and trust God to do whatever it is He has planned to do.

So...abide in faith my brothers and sisters.  Abide my fellow saints.

Abide as though your life depends on it, because it does.