What Is In Your Hand? – Part 2
The Leprosy Mission produces an internal daily devotional guide, The Bridge, for use in offices, hospitals, clinics and projects around the world. Current and former staff and trustees from many countries contribute to the guide. We will share with you contributions made by our staff team.
Moses has a staff in his hands – a shepherds crook. He is commanded to throw it down and it becomes a snake, it becomes alive – a dead piece of wood becomes alive. He picks it up and it is a staff again, it dies. What is in Moses hand – his staff is a symbol of his:
- identity – Moses is a shepherd – the staff is a symbol of his career
- income – Moses owned sheep – they were his bank balance, all Moses assets were to be found in his flock – (they were the creation of his wealth)
- influence – he used the staff to move sheep from point A to point B, to pull or push or poke
God asks Moses to lay down his: Identity – Income – Influence
Never again in the Bible will it be referred to as Moses staff but rather “the staff or rod of God”. It will be used to:
- Divide the Red Sea
- Tap a rock and water rushes out
- Carry out the 10 miracles that leads to the slaves being liberated after 400 years.
God is asking us to lay down our lives and he will use us, he will do miracles through us. We are made by God for God. Everything we have is from him – our identity; our income; our influence.
Our vision is ‘leprosy defeated, lives transformed’ – will a future generation look back and ask why did they allow that to go on for so long e.g.
- Slavery – how could they read their bible and keep slaves
- Segregation in the US
- Apartheid
- Aids
- Poverty – half the world exists on less than $2 a day
- Unfair trade rules
- Illiteracy – half the world is functionally illiterate
- Disease – people are still dying from diseases that they found a cure for in the 19th & 20th centuries – malaria, polio, measles, typhoid, dysentery, TB
- Leprosy
As Christians we must say enough is enough! We can defeat leprosy! We must defeat leprosy! Rick Warren: “As God said to Moses he is saying to each one of us “I want to use you”. God is working in this world. You can either watch history or be part of it. Pray for a Holy discontent and be wholly surrendered. Who God calls he equips; pray for anointing. It’s all about God and his plans and his purposes. Pray for God to start in my life, church, organisation, community, country and world. Use me! May we have the courage to partner with God for……”….. not just leprosy defeated but poverty and all disease too.