Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart - Del Delker

<p>Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart - Del Delker</p>

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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

The Burning Bush


Holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy, holy, glorious and ungode, Who before all ages ruled eternally, Shall be Lord forever, none is God but He. Holy is the Lord, holy, holy, holy, glorious and adored. Holy, glorious and adored, Thine Lord is the kingdom, thine alone the power, thine shall be the glory, now and evermore. We're happy to be with you today for this service, and our prayer is that it will bring to you and yours the strength and the peace that you will need as you face the new week.

My father is bringing to us now a topic that concerns the experience that Moses had at the burning bush, an experience that each 1 of us must have. Here he is with the subject, The Burning Bush. If you've ever traveled in Muslim lands or in eastern or southern Asia, you know things are not the same there as they are in the West. Many things are different. In the West, men show respect for reverence by removing their hats, especially when entering a home or a courtroom or church or temple.

But in the East, both men and women removed their shoes. While visiting the Orient, we often left our shoes at the entrance of a mosque or a temple. We wondered how we could be sure of getting the right shoes on coming out, since there were literally hundreds of pairs of shoes in long rows in front of these places of worship. But without fail we always received our own shoes again. Someone was always on watch and took good care that the shoes were not misplaced or misappropriated.

This Oriental custom was observed in Bible times. Man didn't walk roughshod into the presence of God. There was a spirit of reverence in those ancient days. In the third chapter of Exodus in the Holy Bible, the second book of the Bible in fact, we read of a shepherd who had fled from what he thought was certain death out into the desert of Mount Sinai. There 1 day, while keeping his sheep back of the mountain in the most isolated, desolate, lonely place imaginable, he saw a bush all in flames.

But the bush was not consumed, and as he watched, the flames continued. This was something unusual, something new. So he said to himself, I will now turn aside and see this great sight. You'll find all this in the third chapter of Exodus. He went closer, And from the burning bush came a solemn voice, saying, Moses, Moses, I am the God of thy 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 upon God. And the mighty voice continued, Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. This was in God's great temple of the out-of-doors, the desert sands, the desolate peaks, the brilliant sky with no incense but the winds. But God was there in the burning bush, so it was a place and a time for reverence. In visiting hundreds of religious meetings in churches, temples, cathedrals, tabernacles, out of doors everywhere, I have been impressed with a deep feeling that we modern Christians need to emphasize reverence, reverence for God's house, reverence for God's day, reverence for God's name, reverence for God's Word, reverence for God's Son.

Many great scientists and thinkers have been and are reverent men. As they look upon the works of God and get closer and closer to Him as the Creator and Upholder of Nature, they say as did Kepler, the great astronomer, O Almighty God, I am thinking Thy thoughts after Thee. Or as the pioneering scientist Pasteur said, the more I study Nature, The more I stand amazed at the Creator, I pray while I am engaged at my work in the laboratory. Certainly those who minister about holy things, who preach the Word of God, who listen to its mighty truths, should be reverent in God's presence. We are reverent in the presence of those who have made great sacrifices for their fellowmen, who have done great deeds for humanity.

Why not be reverent in the presence of the Creator of the universe and the Redeemer of the world? S. Parks Cadman tells of the occasion when a Scottish university was to confer an honorary degree upon David Livingstone, the great missionary. He had just returned from Africa. It was a custom in Scottish universities in those days that anyone receiving an honorary degree was fair sport to the students.

He had to run the gauntlet of all their hazing and critical remarks. Students would sit in the balcony, shout out insults or anything they pleased. On this day, a wealthy soap maker also was to be honored with a doctorate because of a large donation he had given to the University. Students made it hard for him. No gift to their alma mater could silence their shouts of, "'Hi, old soap maker!' Many wondered what they would do when David Livingston rose to receive his degree.

Here is Mr. Cadman's description of the scene. He stood, 1 arm hanging at his side. His shoulder had been torn by a lion in the forests of Africa. His skin was like leather.

What did the students do? They rose and stood in absolute silence. Have We lost a sense of reverence today, a reverence for God's house, the place of His presence. God's word today as well as in days of old is, Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary. Leviticus 19.30 Remember the burning bush before God's message came to His servant Moses?

He reminded him of the reverence due his presence. At 1 time during his earthly life, our Savior came to the temple in Jerusalem and found a lot of businessmen selling animals for sacrifice, and the money changers with their chatter. Oh yes, they were fulfilling needful tasks. The people needed the sacrifices and it was handy to buy them right there. Then 2 foreign visitors wanted their money exchanged for the coin of the temple.

It seems that the priests themselves had a monopoly on the sale of doves for temple sacrifices and no doubt were charging exorbitant prices for them. We would draw this inference from the words of our Savior when He said, Take these things hence, make not My Father's house an house of merchandise. John 2.16 Immediately the din and confusion of the typical Oriental bazaar ceased. The silence and reverence necessary for the true worship of God prevailed in the lovely temple. Notice, when Jesus found irreverence, He did something about it.

Never should we behave in the church as in a common place. The room in which divine services are held, although it may be simple, even used for other purposes at other times, should be entered with reverence and treated with reverence. Moses felt unworthy even to look upon the glory of God, so he covered his face with his mantle. He also removed his shoes in respect for the divine holiness. If some people should treat their country's flag the way they treat the Bible, hymn books, communion cups, and church furniture, they would be imprisoned as insulters of the national honor.

King Belshazzar was condemned not merely for his drunken orgy, but for the irreverent handling of those golden vessels that had been consecrated to the service of God in the Temple of Jerusalem. Read the fifth chapter of Daniel. But what about reverence for God's day? It is written, Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 6 days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.

But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work, out of thy son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, cattle, stranger than thy gates. For in 6 days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rest of the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. That is the fourth commandment found in Exodus 20. We are to remember the Sabbath not only upon the day itself, but all through the week as we prepare for it.

How do we treat the Holy Sabbath? Do we attend public worship regularly on the Sabbath? Do not the Scriptures say, Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is? Hebrews 10.25 We need Sabbath worship more and more as we come near the end of this age. So much the more, as ye see the day approaching, said the apostle.

And what about reverence for God's name? Almost anyone will defend the good name of his father or mother. Surely we should be as considerate of God's name and not allow it to be spoken of lightly in our presence, at least not without our protest, we should be careful how we use the name of Deity. We should always speak of God's name or His titles with respect and reverence. It is written, Holy and Reverend is His name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Psalm 111, verses 9 and 10. And, friends, we should remember that His name is holy, and that holy name should be spoken only in reverence and only in a worshipful manner. God's name should never be used in a common careless way. What about reverence for God's Word?

He is a holy God and His Word is holy. Read the last 7 verses of the 19th Psalm on this subject. It has always seemed to me that we should treat even the volume of the Holy Book with respect. In our home, Father would never permit us boys to lay any other book or object on top of the volume of the Holy Scriptures. In this way he impressed us children that God's Word is supreme, that it is the Word of the Creator, that it is God's book, God's word to us and we must treat it as such.

Even today it gives me a feeling of sorrow when I see any other book laid on top of a Bible. So we are to reverence God's house, God's day, God's name, God's word, and last of all and most important to our salvation, we should reverence God's Son. When He came to this world, many did not reverence Him. They were like the men in the parable who said, This is the heir, come let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. God's own Son, we read, came unto his own, and his own received him not.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1.11 It is only when we receive Christ's free salvation by grace, and grace alone, that we can truly worship with reverence, for it is written in Hebrews 12, 28, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Jesus is more than a teacher. He's more than a leader. He is your Redeemer, friend.

He died for you. How could you ever take His holy name upon your lips and blaspheme? How could you ever speak of Him in any other way than with reverence and with love? See Him there on Calvary's cross, giving His life for you, and in your heart bow down in reverence before Him. As Isaac Watts, the famous hymn writer put it, When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, and poor contempt on all my pride.

See from his head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did ere such love and sorrow meet, or thorns compose so rich a crown? So, friends, like the shepherd of old, there at the burning bush, let us have reverence and godly fear. And like the shepherds the night when the Son of God was born to this world, let us too bow down and worship. Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.

We need from earth to joys that dwell above. Lift me from weakness, mighty as thou art. As mighty as thou art. Teach me to love thee as I ought to love. I ask no dream, no passing ecstasies, no ceaseless dwelling in this veil of clay.

Just send thine angel thoughts through opening skies And take the dimness of my soul away dimness of my soul away. Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh. Teach me the struggles of the day to bear, to check the rising doubt the rebel side teach me the patience of unceasing of unceasing prayer. I ask no dream, no passing ecstasies, No ceaseless dwelling in this veil of clay Just send thine angel thoughts through opening skies And take the dimness of my soul away. You

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The Burning Bush

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