Moses, Take Off Your Feet!

Lately I have been sharing some thoughts that were on the more serious side of life. About difficult times, you know those storms or hot spots. However, I needed a little humor myself and thought maybe some of my friends do too. My Dad was a great man and a great preacher. When he walked to the pulpit, he was serious about the Lord’s business. Yet at the same time, there were some great moments to remember that were anything but serious. I hope this blesses you as it blessed me remembering the occasion.

Dad was an "Old Time Preacher" even at a young age. When he preached he told a lot of Bible stories. He would then apply them to the lives of those he was preaching to. Dad was a very good story teller. He would tell the story his own way, putting life into the old stories that had been heard in Sunday school as a child.

If he was telling the story of Jonah and the Whale, He would have Jonah asleep in the bottom of the boat while the storm was blowing outside. Jonah wouldn't just be asleep, but Jonah would be snoring. Snoring loudly! Then Jonah would be in the belly of the whale and he would be trying to pray with sea weed wrapped around his head and neck.

He didn’t just tell the story, but he dramatized them as well. He would have Jonah gagging and choking, getting slapped in the face by the seaweed or a fish. Even now, after so many years, I can still see and hear him in my memory. Oh, what a preacher he was!

I have had people come up to me at meetings and tell me about sermons he had preached, sometimes forty years before. They still remembered those messages, sometimes in detail. They remembered the stories he told, but they also remembered how it helped them deal with things in their lives they were having hard times with. Oh, what a preacher he was!

I will never forget this one service and this one message he preached. It was at a "Watchnight Service" in Fresno, California. The Fresno Church, at that time was located on Harvey and Thesta.

A "Watchnight Service" was a special service on New Years Eve. People would come to church and worship the old year out and the New Year in, or watch it happen.

This service was on December 31, 1963. Dad had been asked to be the main speaker for the service. The choir had sung. The preliminaries had been taken care of. Time was getting toward the midnight hour and it was time for the main speaker to speak.

Dad began preaching, and my how he preached. He really had it that night. He ran! He jumped! The people responded with "Amen’s" "Preach it" and "Hallelujah's." There might have even been a “Come on little brotha! “ He was reaching out to people! He had the message and what a preacher he was that night.

He went back to the Book of Exodus and began telling that familiar story that we all know so well. The story about the baby that was found in the bull rushes by Pharaoh’s daughter. She took Moses, the baby, from the bull rushes to Pharaoh’s house where the Hebrew child was raised under the roof of the greatest enemy of the Hebrews, Pharaoh.

He had Moses sitting on Pharaoh’s knee, playing with his toys at his feet. He talked of Moses eating at Pharaoh’s table, sleeping in a bed he provided and going to the best schools in the nation. Then, he painted a “word” picture of Moses, while in Pharaoh’s house, being taught about Jehovah God by his birth mother. He explained how from that teaching a love for God and for God's people grew in the heart of Moses.

Dad told of how that love became so strong Moses was driven by a desire to free Israel from the rule of Pharaoh. He longed to see them regain their independence. This feeling was so great one day Moses happened upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and Moses killed the Egyptian, burying him in the sand.

Thinking that his deed was secret, Moses was surprised later when he found that others knew what he had done. So Moses fled to the wilderness. There he met a young lady, went to work for her father and lived for forty years.

Now, Dad has the congregation of people listening very intently. They are hanging onto every word. They follow along as he talks about Moses, forty years working as a shepherd. He paints as picture of him taking care of his sheep when he sees a bush burning in the field. He approaches the bush, because he notices that although the bush is burning, the fire is not consuming or burning up the bush.

Although more than ninety five percent of the people listening had heard the story so many times they could have told it themselves, they were listening with undivided attention as Dad led them with Moses right up to the bush. They were listening so close they could almost hear the voice call from the bush and say, "Moses, take off your feet you are on Holy ground!"

A hush fell over the building! Dad continued without missing a beat, "The voice from the bush, the voice of God, said, "Moses take off your feet, you are on Holy ground. And Moses reached down in obedience to God and took his feet off!"

As you can well imagine everybody began to laugh and they laughed for a long while as they pictured Moses sitting down on a rock and trying to take off his feet. Dad stopped, when he realized what he said, and laughed with everyone else. He then went on a finished his sermon. It was a night that I will never forget.

Sometimes we just need to laugh!

It's just a thought! God Bless...