So, here Moses is.  Surrounded by dumb, dirty sheep.  They weren't even his sheep.  They belonged to his father-in-law Jethro.  In a strange land with strange people--Midianites.  No TV.  No iPad.  No phone.  Not even a radio.  Borrrr...ing.  Sun, sheep, dirt, wind, rain...day after day.  Year after year.

I think the worst for me would have been that there were no people of his educational equivalency to discuss issues and ideas with.  Steel sharpens steel, but  Moses was surrounded by a people who had no educational background that was anywhere near the rich culture of Egypt--that Moses had left behind.  Left behind forever.

We gravitate toward people who have a similar background as ours.  Moses lost that.  We gravitate toward people who have similar belief systems as ours.  Moses lost that.  He pretty much lost everything he knew and cared about.  He's eighty years old and has no foreseeable future.  But God had allowed Moses to be saved from death twice.  First as a baby--hidden from Pharaoh's slaughter of Jewish male babies.  And second by letting him escape the Egyptians--who had a price on his head for murder.  God had prepared Moses for this moment in time.

When God appeared in the burning bush, the fact that the bush was burning was not an unusual occurrence.  I'm sure that lightening storms set off fires in bushes from time time.  Moses had probably seen dozens of burning bushes in the forty years he was tending sheep.  Then why did this particular bush catch his attention?  What was the difference?  It was just a bush.  On fire.

Moses was probably standing around watching his sheep,  doing nothing.  But after a while, he took note of the fact that this particular bush didn't burn out.  It kept burning.  So Moses went to investigate.  And that made all the difference.  As far as God was concerned, any old bush would do.  The thing that made the difference was that God was in it.

We--you and I--are just any old bushes.  The thing that gives us the power to do what we do is that God is in us.  Without him, we would just burn out and be useless.  Just another bush in the desert.  So when God calls you to do something for Him, remember that the power you have is from Him.  You don't have to depend on yourself.  You are just a bush.  God is the fire.