Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease

You will notice the text says The angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, but no mention is made of Moses noticing the angel of the Lord. Instead it specifically states he was intrigued not by an angel, but by a bush that was on fire and yet not burned up. Why didn’t he notice the angel? Because, his eyes weren’t yet opened. God appeared to Him but he couldn’t ye t see Him, but he could see God’s calling card, and when He responded to that, that is when God fully opened his eyes.

God’s calling card is not God, it is an invitation to meet with Him. First the card, then the Master Himself. This is a spiritual principle.

For me it happened when I was 18 years old, in the US Navy, temporarily stationed in Treasure Island, California, waiting to be transferred to Japan. I was on Market Street in San Francisco when I heard a street preacher shouting out, "there is a burning in my heart to preach this gospel to you." Something tugged at my heart that day, I now know it was God. It began in me a search for the one who was knocking that culminated in my salvation about a year later. That preacher was God’s calling card, salvation is when I met the Master Himself.

God gave Moses a tug at his heart and Moses responded by considering this curious thing. God then spoke clearly to Him. Many times in life God will not fully reveal Himself to us, until we respond to His gently tapping at life’s door. The Lord spoke to Moses after He had seen that Moses had turned aside. O that God would teach us how to turn aside! Do you remember these lines from the old hymn, "O what needless pain we suffer, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer." How oft in life do we miss God’s blessings because we did not respond to His gentle prompting. There are those who think that if God wants to say something, it is His job to make sure we hear Him. The opposite is true, we must believe that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. We must believe that He is waiting to bless those who respond to His gently prompts. Squeaky wheel Gets the Grease.

I wander how many times pastor’s have given an altar call and people felt to respond but didn’t. They leave the church and the feeling leaves with them. Perhaps all they were feeling was a gentle nudge from the Lord, and because they didn’t value it enough they missed God. They missed something wonderful. I also wonder how many times God prompted a pastor to give an altar call and he didn’t. The service ends, and the feeling ends with it, and the dismiss the feeling as unimportant because nothing happened to "make" them give and altar call. Pray that this pastor would always be sensitive to God.

2. Constraining Christ

Luke 24:28 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He would go farther. Luke 24:29 And they urged Him, saying, "Stay with us, for it is [getting] toward evening, and the day is now nearly over." And He went in to stay with them.