Take Off Your Sandals
(Ex 3:1-5)

The experience of meeting the Living God is very important to Christians. Without this experience, they will all live as powerless Christians, even though they have been a longtime churchgoer. Moreover, when they face hardships, they do not tend to overcome it by faith, but easily become depressed. Moses met God while he was tending the sheep in the wilderness and he received a precious calling from God. We should also have this kind of meeting with God and we have to live a life of pleasing God by living according to the calling that we have received from God.

1. God appeared in flames of fire
Moses who was tending the flocks in the wilderness came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There he saw a bush on fire and, surprisingly, the bush did not burn up though it was on fire. When Moses saw that strange sight and went up to it, he met God who appeared in flames of fire in the middle of the bush. This fire signifies the presence of God and Moses heard the voice of God who called him from the bush.

2. Take off your sandals
God said to Moses, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." Taking off one's sandals is confessing that I'm nothing before God. In addition, taking off the sandals that are stained with dust and dirt of the world means to take off the sandals of sin. When we come to God, we must take off our sandals of sin. When we come to God with a broken and a humble heart, we will deeply experience the great grace of God.

3. God, who gives us a calling
God gave a calling to Moses who humbly came to God by taking off his sandals. This calling was for Moses to be an instrument of God, to save the Israelites who were groaning under the oppression of Egypt. God did not ignore the affliction of the Israelites. When they cried out to God for help, He saved them from suffering and granted them grace so that they could accomplish the original calling, as the people of God

What is the commission that God gives us now? Listen to the voice of God Who appears in fire of the bush and calls us. Take off the sandals of all the sins of your life and come humbly to God. I pray that you live a blessed life by carrying out the calling of God faithfully every day.