Reply To: Pastoral Ministry 2023/2025 Discussion Board 1

[Paulpraze]

DEFINITIONS
1. Called: invited, appointed; coming from a root word that means to call aloud, to summon, to call toward.
2. Separated: to set off by boundary, exclude, divide, separate, sever. It has the dual meaning of separating someone from something while separating them to something.
The meaning of the word “called”, suggests that by God’s sovereign act of a call, the one being called comes into a consciousness or an awareness of the truth of his or her calling from God. In other words, he or she comes to knowledge of God’s call upon their lives.
We can also see from the definition of the word “separated”, the idea that a person, after He or she has been comes to a point where they are separated from whatever they may be doing as at the time of their separation, and separated unto what God’s call upon their live requires them to now be doing.
CASE STUDY: MOSES
THE CALL
When we look at the story of Moses, one may argue that Moses became aware of his calling in Exodus 2:11-14. While he may have gone about it in the flesh, which suggests that the appointed time by God had not yet come, his response to the plight of his countrymen could be interpreted as a sign that he had to come to know about his calling to do something about the situation of the Jews in Egypt at the time.
However, when we arrive in chapter 3 of Exodus, we see a distinctive call of God to Moses during his burning bush experience in Horeb, where God gives him some details about his calling and ministry.
THE SEPARATION
While we may not see know how much time passed between the burning bush and Exodus 4:19-23, and while this time may seem short, this can be seen as the separation of Moses because God was now separating Moses from the work of shepherding of animals that he had done for the last forty years of his life, and separating him unto the work and ministry of shepherding His people of Egypt into the promised land of Canaan.
In Hebrews 11:24-27, the writer of this book highlights for us this principle of separation that Moses experienced and we can see this text, that not only was Moses separates from shepherding animals, he also had to be separated from Egypt and all that she represented.
It is interesting to note that during the conversation between God and Moses at his call, Moses comes up with a number of reasons and excuses for which he did not think that he could do what God was calling him to do. God’s response to Moses’s excuses shows us very clearly and encourages us very strongly that God is more than willing to helps us deal with whatever challenges or difficulties that we may perceive to being able to do the work of the ministry that God’s call on our lives requires us to do.