Fame By Association

Hello All,

Sometimes I wonder…. Well, that’s already a lie. I don’t wonder at all: Being blatantly honest, I absolutely don’t think that God realizes how hard it is to go through life feeling as unsure as we often do. When I read The Bible, I must admit that I really do get jealous of people like Abraham, Elisha and especially Moses. I imagine the great things I could be doing for God and what my life would be like if He could just come and spend half of the time with me as He spent with Moses. I’d even settle for a couple of rumbling voices every now and again…just to let me know I’m on the right track. But then I take a closer look at Moses and I see a certain flaw that I suspect would be exponentially worse if I was allowed to be placed in Moses’ shoes: Just from my point a view, I believe that Moses journey ended the way it did because he fell victim to fame by association.

We live in a society that makes much of our associations and experiences; we keep autographs, selfies with celebrities (or even just their stuff), ticket stubs and other souvenirs and we love to tell the stories of how we met or simply saw ‘so and so’ or were at some sort of memorable event as the makings of an exciting life. I don’t mean to sound as if I think it’s a bad thing to have been part of special events or to remark about these memorable times in our lives, but just to lay the foundation – that’s what we do. Now carry it forward. What if God DID spend a lot of time with me personally in our current day and age. Would I be able to keep it together? Or would I the pressure and fame associated with being one-on-One close with “The Big Guy” make me start looking down my nose? I suspect each new occasion in His presence would find me newly “scared to move” but once back in my own ‘hood, I’d probably have a swagger in my stroll that would only be appropriate if it were in slow motion accompanied with rock star background music.

Here’s The Word:

Numbers 20:7 - 12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.9 And Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he commanded him.10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.12 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

Woah! Seems like a pretty high price to pay – but is it? It’s more obvious to me that “Sanctifying The Lord” is a pretty serious thing and it’s never to be taken lightly, no matter how long you’ve been in His presence. I still don't want to take away anything from Moses, I just think that the disobedience of the people got to him. But it got to him in a way that made him make a wrong choice. I think that wrong choice came easy to him because of his personal association with God and made him take an opportunity to make a stage for himself rather than realizing "It's God's stage....always was....always will be!"

So what is it that I REALLY want? if it’s to know if I’m on the right track, God has more than enough direction and wisdom in His word and so many practical, yet theologically sound writers and expositors to satiate anyone serious enough to sit and investigate the volumes of material: Spurgeon, Tozer, Wiersbe, Moody, Scholfield, Edwards, Pentecost…the list goes on and on, and none of these people were afforded an audience into His presence the way Moses was, but they still managed to have a life spoken of with the utmost regard to their passion for God.

So I do thank God that although I’m sure He knows how lonely and unsure things may get, He also knows how to see me through and it doesn’t require an actual manifestation of His physical presence which may sound like a good idea on occasion, but would probably lead to less holiness and more pride due to my propensity for being blinded by fame....even if it's by association!


In Him,
Cros