Good Morning Friends,
The first muffin recipe, found in Hannah Glasse’s 1747 book, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy,” begins, “To a bushel of Hertfordshire white flour, take a pint and a half of Good Ale Yeast…” Obviously, Hannah was cooking for a crowd. Jesus cooked for his disciples and sometimes provided food for the masses. I bake muffins a dozen or two dozen at a time and give them away. It starts with a recipe and a process and good ingredients. An idea to manifest. Jesus certainly had the right stuff. So too Moses for the most part. And if God is with us, we should be able to figure out what tasks we have been assigned to as well as the Spirit of God hopefully mixes the ingredients of our collective lives into the Body of Believers Jesus intended. But we will always have some questions even if we are worshipping more and worrying less. And so, we ask ourselves… Do We Have What It Takes To Deliver The Goods?
Scripture: At that time Jesus said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Matthew 11:25-27 (NRSV)
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.”
Exodus 3:1-12 (NRSV)
Message: There’s an old Indian Fable I heard recently. A water bearer had two large water pots which he carried on each end of a pole slung across his shoulders. One of the pots had a crack in it, so every day as he carried water to his master’s house he arrived with one full pot and one only half full. This went on for two years. One pot was very proud of its accomplishments, while the imperfect pot was embarrassed at its failure. Its distress at being able only to accomplish half of what it had been made to do, resulted in its speaking one day to the water carrier. “I am so ashamed,” the pot said. “Why?” asked the carrier. “Because water leaks out all the way to your master’s house and because of my crack I’ve been only able to deliver half of the load.” The water carrier looked kindly at the cracked pot and said, “As we return to my master’s house today, I want you to look at the beautiful flowers along the path.” The pot was a little cheered by the beauty he saw along the way. “Did you notice that the flowers were only on your side of the path?” I think about this story today because I have some friends who are blessed to be potters and there is a connection between firing up a pot and baking a muffin and how we consider the imperfection of our lives that God somehow uses for good. We see it in today’s storyline. We have Moses having been transformed from a somewhat cocky and ready to deliver Egyptian prince with authority to a more mellow sheepherder and maybe our efforts of success in this world might learn from a similar transformation as we age. For Moses his natural strength had been tapped and his influence and power removed, but something had been gained. He had been humbled and, in this state, he has a God encounter that revives a promise to the Hebrews he had thought was dead. Interestingly, after years of being a shepherd he was better prepared but still lacked confidence. Moses needed time and patience and he needed alone time with God to grow spiritually. And perhaps because he was despised and rejected by people, he became acquainted with grief in a way that allowed God to do a work in and for him. For this man of sorrows was enabled then to listen and ultimately follow the path God had for him to walk. For Moses was to be a liberator, redeemer, and strong deliverer. So too with Christ, though he is never called the deliverer, the idea is embedded in the proclamation of release of the captives Jesus claimed as the work he would accomplish. Friends, the central theme of the Bible is God’s deliverance of humans from the power of sin, death and evil through Jesus Christ. And this very work is foreshadowed in the history of God’s people being delivered from Egyptian bondage in a way that should instruct us to develop what it takes to help deliver the good news to a world in need.
And So, only if Jesus reveals to us the proper path can we succeed. It is in this relationship that our God demonstrates the ways of the God of salvation. It is here that Jesus forms our belief in God, the Lord. And it is here we have hope of our escape from death. So, no matter who we are, what we do…someone we know needs not just the hope of deliverance but a real deliverer. People need deliverance from oppression and slavery and the prison of sin. People need deliverance from addiction and hate and to a relationship with God and God’s love. And so, we need deliverance from bondage too. But on occasion we can help deliver another person if we have been prepared to listen and follow the truth of Christ. First it seems we need the experience learned from a burning bush that is not consumed.
Pray we realize that Christ is the ultimate model for a deliverer. Pray we realize that deliverance comes when the time is right. Pray therefore we not get discouraged. Pray we realize that God sees us…even when we feel the world cannot. Pray in our own deliverance that we realize that the course of our life might be planned in our hearts but that the steps are established by our Lord Jesus. Pray the Spirit of deliverance anoints us to bring good news to the poor and proclaim release of those who need to be freed. Pray we acknowledge the importance and truth of the process needed every time we pray for God to deliver us from evil. Pray we realize that God can even use a cracked pot.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 