Unblinded by Burning Bushes

by Kristine Lee | Thu, Oct 7 2021

Text size: A- A+

Busy busy busy. Our lives can be so busy we miss out on the things of God. We miss out on the extraordinary. We miss out what’s best for us. But God doesn’t want that for us.

In this episode of ‘Today with Jeff Vines’, Pastor Jeff talks to us about how we can avoid the pitfalls of life through the story of Moses and the burning bush in the Book of Exodus, chapter three.

This story illustrates some things that happen to those who have had a life-changing experience with God. The Bible is not a book about how bad we are. It’s a book about how good God is.

If you’re ever going to experience true joy, you’re going to have to recognize that that only comes when you have an intimate relationship with God.

One of the primary reasons for the Bible is so that you and I would know how we can connect with God. And it shows this beautiful dynamic of how God comes into contact with us and how intimacy and community are developed. So as we search for God, the Bible becomes our number one tool to learn. How is it that we can have relationship? How is it that God can come on the inside and change us and mold us? How do we find God?

Encountering a Burning Bush

“As we look at the story of Moses encountering the burning Bush,” says Jeff,

“We learn that people who have a life-changing experience with God are willing to turn aside from the ordinary.

Moses sees a burning bush that keeps burning but is never consumed. The devil’s primary objective in our entire lives is to distract us from the extraordinary, by keeping us focused on the ordinary. If he can keep us focused on day-to-day routines, we will disengage concerning the deeper issues of life.”

What the story of Moses encountering the burning bush shows us is that ordinary life makes us too busy. And this inclines us to think about the deeper issues and the meaning of life. When Moses found God, he was not searching for Him. He just wanted to get his flock home to safety away from this burning bush. But God sent a disruption.

We’ve got to be willing for God to send disruptions into our lives to so that we can be distracted from the ordinary and be possessed by the extraordinary.

“God must send something into your life to turn you aside,” continues Jeff. “What is a burning bush? It’s a paradigm bomb. It’s when you believe the world is one way, and because you believe that, these types of things don’t happen. You can go immediately to safety, or you can embrace the contradiction. You can see where this burning bush leads, because paradigm bombs often lead us into a life changing encounter with God. If you want that encounter with God and to keep that intimacy and growth, you’ve got to be willing for those disruptions to come.”

Paradigm Bombs

“God sends paradigm bombs,” Jeff says. There is a lack of coherency relativism and real life. “If we have a moral law giver, He must be absolute. And He gives us an absolute moral law to give us categories of good and evil. (Yet) if there’s no God and no heaven, why do we long for it so much deep inside?” That yearning is a burning bush. These are realities and ideas that wake us up, get us out of the stream of the ordinary and lead us to God.

Christians as Burning Bushes

The calling of every Christian is to demonstrate such compassion, forgiveness, self-control, gentleness and righteousness in your life that people would look at you and think is this person for real? Over time they see the dramatic change and transformation in your life, and they stand back and have to question their own worldview. We are so counter-cultural, we stand out like burning bushes.

To listen to the rest of Jeff’s message on Burning Bushes, click below.