Pushing The Rock?

PUSHING THE ROCK?

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

I wish I were a carpenter, they can work 8 hours, and as they pack up their tools they can see what they have done.

A family member, teacher,a preacher and a minister may never see what they have accomplished.

PEACE IS NOT THE ABSENCE OF TROUBLE; PEACE IS THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

GOD AND PEACE ABIDE IN THIS LIFE.

There has to be more.

Hebrews 11: 36: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being

destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38: (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39: And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

1. THE STORY OF PUSHING THE ROCK.

We all go through that same thing?

There was this man, he was very sickly and weak, he could accomplish very little.

Then this man had a real vision from God, he never doubted the vision was God..

He lived in a cabin in the mountains.

Out in front of his cabin was a huge boulder.

In his vision that he knew was from God ---

God told him to go out and push on that boulder every day for eight hours a day.

The first week was exciting, the second week he noticed little real change, the third week he measured the rock’s distance from the cabin, and daily he checked to see how far he had moved the rock.

After 6 weeks of seemingly useless pushing, he questioned his vision.

The man cried --- there has to be more.

He even questioned, I am not what I should be, or I could move this boulder, especially since God demonstarted for me to push on this rock.

One morning, as he went out to push the rock, he started crying and saw how useless

his work really was, he couldn’t handle one rock?

There were many more all around.

As he sat down near the boulder, he was crying, angry, and bitter --- he had failed.

Jesus walked up and put his arm around the man and asked, Why are you crying?

The man said I have pushed with everything in me and the rock is in the same place as when I began.

Jesus said, I never told you to move the rock, I told you to push the rock.

Jesus let the man see himself, and Jesus said what do you see?

The man looked at himself and said I am stronger today than ever, the pushing the boulder has made my muscles grow, and I became a better man.

Often we seek education, power, popularity, ambition, we long to see more than we see, and feel more than we can feel.

We see people with the circular problems, always back to the same place, and we see very little real change

2. THE STORY OF HOW WEAK AND VULERABLE GOD’S WORKERS REALLY ARE.

Exodus 4:2 And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3: And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4: And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

Remember when God told Moses, pick up the snake by the tail?

There is a real lesson here, no smart, real life person picks up snakes by the tail,

only TV people... By taking the snake by the tail God is sending a message to Moses about family and ministry, every Christian worker is always vulerable ---

As we do the work of God we see the obstacle, the problem, the pain of being susceptible to attack and damage.... we want ministry that is not vulnerable nor

bound to the limitations of humanness.

Jesus is trying to teach those that work for him not to see how vulnerable we are,

NO, we are to learn to trust God’s plan.

I know we want to see the picture of the big puzzle, but God often only gives us one

small piece of the puzzle at a time, daily menial work.

Moses knew there was more while he walked through the backside of the desert...

3. THE LESSON OF VULNERABLENESS AND NAUGHT OF JOSEPH...