September-October 1997
COMMENTARYTake Off Your Shoes...and come to the burning bush. by Greg Albrecht | 
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Two men of different backgrounds were brawling. Moses came to the defense of his racial brother and in the process killed the other man. Moses quickly buried the body, but he couldn't cover up his sin.
News of the killing traveled quickly, and Moses decided to run. He tried to run away from a buried body. Like Moses, we all have buried bodies, shame and guilt that plague us. We can identify with Moses, can't we?
Moses left the fame and status he had in Egypt and became a fugitive from justice. He was beginning to understand what it means to be a slave of sin, like the physical slavery of his Hebrew brothers in Egypt.
A Burning Miracle
One day he was taking care of his father-in-law's sheep when he saw something amazing: a bush that was burning, but did not burn up. The bush continued to burn, and burn, and burn.
God challenged Moses' curiosity, and as Moses came close to the burning bush, God told him to take off his shoes. Moses was on holy ground. He was in the presence of God (Exodus 3:1-6). Moses was being called to a new life.
Of course, the problem is not the shoes that Moses wore, or the shoes you and I are wearing. The problem is the sin that surrounds us, enslaves us and defines us. The holy God does not coexist with our sin. He is not impressed with what we wear, where we have been or who we are.
He invites us to come and see, not because of who we are and where we have been, but in spite of it. When we come into his presence, he wants us to know 1) who he is and 2) that he loves us.
When we come to the new life in Christ, he demands that we leave behind the evil our shoes have picked up along the way. To the woman who had been discovered in the act of adultery and brought to him for judgment, Jesus said: "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin" (John 8:11). God is waiting at the burning bush for you and me. He commands us to take off our shoes and leave our past behind. He calls us to a new life.
Paul expands this thought in Ephesians 4:22-24, where he compares the new life of a Christian to clothing. For Paul, two things are essential: 1) "Put off." Paul uses this phrase to help us realize the need to leave the dirty clothing of our past behind. 2) "Put on." Those of us who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior put on the clothing of his righteousness.
The burning bush called Moses to repentance, to a new and transformed life. This manifestation that God used was not bizarre or exotic, but in some respects a common occurrence. A burning bush was not uncommon, but a bush that never burned up was.
God calls us to a new life, calling our attention not to feelings, experiences and sheer emotionalism, but to repentance and a transformed life. Moses did not have a daily or weekly "burning bush experience," but he did begin a new life by surrendering to God's call.
Off With the Old
The new life in Christ is a place we can't go without God, and it's a place we cannot go wearing the clothing of our past.
Come to a new life-and leave your old shoes behind. Shoes that are marred, scraped and scuffed with the sins of our lives. Leave behind the habits, traditions and past history -- the scuff marks and scrapes. Come to a new life.
Whatever you have done, wherever you have been, come to the burning bush. Rich or poor, pious or flagrant sinner, come to the bush that never burns up. God has a new life for you.