What Is That in Your Hand?

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“Then the LORD said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ ‘A staff,’ he replied. The LORD said, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.’ So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.”—Exodus 4:2–41

If we are going to live a fruitful life, then it must begin with God asking, “What is that in your hand?” As precious as it may be, it takes our willingness to throw it down and surrender it completely to God. It might be something as important as Moses’ staff was to him, but in our hands, under our control, it can become a harbor for the snake.

At the burning bush, God commissioned Moses to free His people from Egyptian captivity, and He told him to throw his staff on the ground. The staff would have been indispensable to Moses, as it represented his livelihood. When he threw it to the ground, it immediately turned into a snake that Moses ran from. After forty years of herding sheep in the desert, Moses knew picking up a snake by the tail would be extremely dangerous because it leaves the head free to attack. But he trusted God, picked the snake up by the tail, and it turned back to the staff in his hand. What God was demonstrating to Moses was that He would look after the dangerous parts, and so it is with us when we surrender everything to God.

We may have worked long and hard at our jobs, but will we give them up to God? He may give it back as He gave Moses his staff back, but it then becomes “the job of God,” just as Moses’ staff became the “staff of God.” It will be the same job God gives us back, but under new management, new power. What about relationships, finances, studies, ambitions, and dreams? Will we drop them at the feet of God and allow Him to take control?

Surrendering completely to God does not mean everything will go smoothly. We will more than likely be taken to the front line of spiritual warfare, but the pharaohs will not frighten us; the Red Sea will not hold us back; the drought will not deter us; and the Amalekites will not defeat us, because we have in our hands what Moses had in his hand … “the staff of God,” through which many miracles were performed.—Charles Price

*

“What is that in thy hand?” God said to Moses while he was alone in the wilderness tending his sheep. There was Moses sitting alone and dejected on the semi-desert mountainside watching a mere flock of sheep and wondering why he couldn’t be out saving his people from the slavery of Egypt, feeling like such a failure after 80 years of nothingness and seeming further from his goal than ever. He was just a shepherd when he could have been Pharaoh of Egypt! What a picture of defeat with only a wooden rod instead of a golden scepter!

But suddenly God spoke and simply said, “What is that in thy hand?” In effect Moses answered, “Only a wooden rod, Lord. Only a poor old shepherd’s crook and a few dumb sheep in the wilderness of a strange land among strangers. What could I do, Lord? I’ve made such a mess of things! I’m such a failure. I’m nobody now, when I could have been king if I’d stayed in Egypt as Pharaoh’s son. But what am I now, Lord? I’m old and I’m nothing but a poor shepherd with a few dumb sheep, living on the charity of others who are not even my kindred. I guess I’ve really failed, because now You can’t trust me with anything but a few sheep and no more authority than this old wooden rod. I’ve failed to save Your people, and now it’s too late!”

I know how he felt because I was there once, thinking my life was behind me and that I’d never accomplished much for the Lord, that I only had my own little family and my children to show for my whole life’s work, living in the equivalent of a tent by the wayside watching over nothing but one tiny little flock with seemingly nothing but wood in my hands—no gold, no job, no home, no nothing but those little lives that He had given me to guide with His Word.

But one day God spoke and said, “What is that in thy hand?” I said, “Nothing, Lord! Nothing but an old worn-out wooden rod and a few kids.” But again God said, “What is that in thy hand?” And still I questioned, “What do you mean, Lord? You can see what I have in my hands! Nothing but this rod and my little lambs! What can I do with these? They’re nothing! We’re nobody!” But He said, “If you will go in My name and say only that I have sent you, I will do great things which you know not of.” And so He did, according to His promises.

With that old wooden shepherd’s crook in Moses’ hand, through the voice of Aaron, God used Moses as His instrument to free six million Jewish slaves of Egypt, plague the world’s leading power, part the Red Sea, and deliver the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage through great tribulation into the Promised Land, although Moses himself died on the mountain and never got to see the fulfillment of his dreams in this life.

Never belittle the little things or little ones! So if you’re currently devoting your time to caring for others, or being a parent to your own children or maybe even somebody else’s children, and you’re wondering what you could possibly do with nothing but a Bible and these ones in your hands, think of Moses.—D. Brandt Berg2

*

God will start with what is in your hand even when it seems menial and insignificant. “What is in your hand, Moses?” This was God’s response to Moses’ ample excuses about why he was not qualified to lead Israel out of slavery to Egypt. The wisdom of the statement God spoke to Moses at the burning bush can still speak to us today.

Can you imagine what must have gone through Moses’ mind in that moment? After all, a staff is nothing more than a glorified stick! How was it going to make an impact in Pharaoh’s court? There is nothing extraordinary about a staff. But understand this: the common becomes mighty when God anoints it.

Offer unto God what He has placed in your hand. “What is in your hand” means whatever is in your care or control. This could be money, possessions, influence, talents, abilities, and more. What you withhold and retain in your hand reveals what is in your heart. Child of God, release what you hold. Your Father is waiting to use what He has placed in your hands.

Samson had a donkey jawbone to slay a thousand men. Ruth had grain gleaned from the field. David had his sling and stones to defeat the mighty Philistine champion. The unnamed boy had his five loaves and two fishes. The woman had an alabaster jar filled with oil to anoint Jesus. We all have something in our hands. As we release what is in our hands, He releases what is in His! He is ready and willing to anoint what is in your hands.

Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. Show me what is in my hand. I am ready to release it to You. I will do whatever You would have me do with my life. I want to make a difference in the world today. Reveal the power of what is in my hand so I can be an answer to the problems that surround me. Anoint what I carry and help me fight with what I already possess. In Jesus’ name, amen.—Lisa Bevere3

Published on Anchor May 2015. Read by Debra Lee.



1 NIV.


2 Originally published October 1974, adapted.


3 http://messengerinternational.org/blog/devotional/whats-hand.

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Campus Debates on Israel Drive a Wedge Between Jews and Minorities

By Jennifer Medina And Tamar Lewin, NY Times, May 9, 2015

LOS ANGELES–The debates can stretch from dusk to dawn, punctuated by tearful speeches and forceful shouting matches, with accusations of racism, colonialism and anti-Semitism. At dozens of college campuses across the country, student government councils are embracing resolutions calling on their administrations to divest from companies that enable what they see as Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians.

And while no university boards or administrators are heeding the students’ demands, the effort to pressure Israel appears to be gaining traction at campuses across the country and driving a wedge between many Jewish and minority students.

The movement is part of the broader Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, or B.D.S., which has spread in recent years both in Europe and the United States. The issue has received intense attention on campus particularly since the conflict in Gaza last summer, which killed hundreds of Palestinians. The movement’s goal is to isolate and punish Israel for its policies toward Palestinians and its occupation of the West Bank.

There are now Israel-related divestment groups at hundreds of major colleges, including the University of Michigan, Princeton, Cornell and most of the University of California campuses. Their proposals are having mixed success: So far this year, students have passed them on seven campuses and rejected them on eight.

College activists favoring divestment have cast the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a powerful force’s oppression of a displaced group, and have formed alliances with black, Latino, Asian, Native American, feminist and gay rights organizations on campus. The coalitions–which explicitly link the Palestinian cause to issues like police brutality, immigration and gay rights–have caught many longtime Jewish leaders off guard, particularly because they belonged to such progressive coalitions less than a generation ago.

At Northwestern University this year, for example, the student government debated a divestment resolution for more than five hours, as students with clashing views sat on opposite sides of the room. Some of the talk was openly hostile, with charges of racism and colonialism.

“Discomfort is felt by every person of color on this campus,” said an Egyptian-American senior, Hagar Gomaa. “To those who say this divestment bill makes you uncomfortable, I say: Check your privilege.”

A speaker who identified herself only as a Chicana student said she was there to support Palestinians on campus.

“We have seen the racism of people who get mad that so many empowered minorities are recognizing how their struggles are tied to the Palestinian struggle,” she said. “Students have accused us of conflating many cases of oppression. To these students, I have a couple of words for you: What you call conflation, we call solidarity.”

A student who said she had family in Israel was among those who shot back for the other side. Voting for divestiture, she said, is “pointing fingers, it’s aggressive, it’s misinformed, it’s unjust, and–most important for this campus–it’s totally one-sided.”

When the vote was finally taken by secret ballot, the tally was close, with 24 in favor of asking Northwestern’s administration to divest–which it did not do–and 22 against.

As the debates spill from undergraduate council to dorm room, students and college officials are grappling with where to draw the line between opposition to Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza–a position shared by many Jews–and hostility toward Jews. Opponents of divestment sometimes allude to the Holocaust.

Everywhere, the discussions are long and tense: At Michigan, where the student government narrowly defeated a divestment resolution this year for the second time, university staff members were on hand to talk to students and help if they needed a break from the debate. At several schools where divestment proposals have been considered, swastikas have been painted on the doors of Jewish fraternities.

“There’s more poison in the rhetoric than we’ve ever felt before,” said Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, the executive director of Hillel at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has worked on college campuses for more than four decades. “There are so many students who now see Israel as part of the establishment they’re against. What’s alarming is this gets deeply embedded and there’s no longer room for real discussion.”

But where many Jews say they worry about anti-Semitism, divestment activists say they are concerned about retaliation and the stifling of their views.

At U.C.L.A. last month, hundreds of Jewish students waving Israeli flags and wearing shirts emblazoned with “We, the Zionists” gathered on the campus quad to celebrate Israel’s Independence Day. Some said that while they had never hidden that they were Jewish, they felt uncomfortable voicing their support for Israel and often chose to stay out of debates around other current political issues. When the student government considered a divestment resolution, Jewish student leaders encouraged their peers to stay away from the meeting, saying their presence would offer legitimacy to a process they deemed inherently wrong.

At Loyola University in Chicago, several students lined up in front of a table being used by Hillel to recruit students for Birthright Israel, a free 10-day trip to the country offered to young adults who have at least one Jewish parent. The protesters there wore signs referring to Israel’s expulsion of Arab residents during the war that led to the state’s establishment in 1948, saying their family members were from an “ethnically cleansed village” to which they did “not have a right to return.”

The B.D.S. movement has been especially prominent in the University of California system, where nearly all of the student government councils have approved divestment proposals.

The disputes often spill into the academic realm. Jewish groups are urging the University of California, Riverside, to shut down a student-taught seminar called “Palestinian Voices.” They argue that the course, which is sponsored by an outspoken faculty supporter of the B.D.S. campaign and includes sessions on “Settler-Colonialism and Apartheid,” amounts to indoctrination.

One of the few things both sides seem to agree on is just how divisive the issue has been. “It’s very corrosive for campus,” said Dylan Greif, 20, a Stanford junior from Miami. “Emotions are running high. There’s no gray area–there are no solutions.”

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Putin Takes Swipe at US in Victory Day Speech

Associated Press, May 9, 2015

MOSCOW–Russia showed off new machines of war, including a highly sophisticated tank, on Saturday in the annual Victory Day military parade through Red Square that marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the Red Army’s key role in the defeat.

The Armata tank drew a round of strong applause as it rumbled through the square, part of a long convoy that ranged from the World War II era to the most modern. Also on view for the first time at the parade was a lumbering RS-24 Yars ICBM launcher along with several new, smaller vehicles.

Victory Day is Russia’s most important secular holiday, both commemorating the Soviet Union’s huge suffering in the war and highlighting Russia’s portrayal of itself as a force for peace and security. This year’s parade, on the 70th anniversary of the surrender, was the biggest military parade since the Soviet Union’s collapse.

In his speech to the assembled troops and veterans, President Vladimir Putin said that the carnage of the war underlined the importance of international cooperation, but “in the past decades we have seen attempts to create a unipolar world.” That phrase is often used by Russia to criticize the United States’ purported aim to dominate world affairs.

The observances were shadowed by the near-complete absence of European leaders from the ceremony. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to come to Moscow on Sunday, a visit that will include recognition of the Red Army’s sacrifices.

The cold shoulder that European leaders turned toward Victory Day underlines the tensions between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis. As Western sanctions on Russia over its actions in Ukraine continue to bite, Russia has increasingly appeared to pivot away from Europe and focus more on developing relations with China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was the most prominent world leader to attend the Victory Day parade and Putin took special note in his speech of China’s role in the war, saying that like the Soviet Union “it lost many, many millions of people.”

An air of grievance mixes with the annual commemoration of the Nazi defeat, with Russians frequently complaining that the West undervalues the Red Army’s role and even tries to “rewrite history.”

For veterans of the war, in which the USSR is estimated to have lost 26 million people including 8 million soldiers, the parade was an intensely emotional experience.

“When we fought, we had a couple of automatic pistols and a rifle–now look at all the amazing military equipment we’ve got,” said 92-year-old Valentina Schulgina, who fought in the Battle of Stalingrad that is regarded by some as the bloodiest battle in history.

In all, about 200 pieces of military hardware and 16,500 troops took part in the parade, which concluded with a flyover of military aircraft. One group of warplanes flew in a tight formation depicting the number “70.”

The Armata tank that was one of the highlights of the parade is regarded by some military analysts as surpassing Western tanks. It is the first to have an internal armored capsule surrounding its three-man crew and a remotely controlled turret with an automatic loading system.

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Australian PM’s adviser says U.N. using climate change for ‘new world order’

By Jane Wardell, Reuters, May 7, 2015

SYDNEY (Reuters)–Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief business adviser has accused the United Nations of using debunked climate change science to lead a new world order, provocative claims made to coincide with a visit from the top UN climate negotiator.

Christiana Figueres, who heads the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, toured Australia this week, urging the country to move away from heavily polluting coal production.

Under Abbott’s leadership, Australia has been reluctant to engage in global climate change politics, unsuccessfully attempting to keep the issue off the agenda of the Group of 20 Leaders’ Summit in Brisbane last year.

Maurice Newman, the chairman of Abbott’s business advisory council and a climate change skeptic, said the UN was using false models showing sustained temperature increases to end democracy and impose authoritarian rule.

“The real agenda is concentrated political authority,” Newman wrote in an opinion piece published in The Australian newspaper on Friday. “Global warming is the hook.

“It’s about a new world order under the control of the UN,” he added. “It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective.”

Figueres used an address in Melbourne to urge Australia to move away from coal, the country’s second-largest export, as the world grapples with global warming.

Abbott, who in 2009 said the science behind climate change was “crap”, has repealed a tax on carbon pricing and abolished the independent Climate Commission advisory body.

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Why Safe Will Almost Always Equal Sorry

By Jeff Haden, LinkedIn Pulse, May 6, 2015

Stuff I wish I could have told 22-year-old me (assuming I would have listened, which is a stretch):

1. What’s the deal with your hair?

Seriously, dude.

2. The people who say the least have the most to say.

Bragging is a mask for insecurity. Truly confident people are quiet and unassuming. Hang around them. When they do speak, you’ll be glad you were listening.

3. Everybody wants something.

Almost everyone acts out of self-interest (especially when they claim they don’t). Often the people most eager to offer advice or help will want the most in return.

Assume all career or business assistance is part of an expected exchange, either now or in the future. Then you won’t be disappointed. But keep in mind that occasionally…

4. A few people just want to help others.

So don’t get too cynical. Occasionally you’ll meet those rare people who like to help simply because it makes them feel good. Those people are hard to find, though, because their names aren’t listed as sponsors on event programs or plastered on the sides of B-school buildings.

When you find someone truly and genuinely giving, make them a permanent part of your life.

5. Everything before “but” is bull.

“I don’t meant to be critical, but…,” “I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but…,” “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but…,” Yes you do, yes you are, and yes I will.

Disclaimers are anything but and usually indicate the true meaning behind what is said.

6. “Boring” people win.

The people who achieve the most do a lot more of the boring stuff. Routine, rigor, attention to detail, churning away day after day… that is how you will succeed. Every elite athlete, every gifted entertainer, and every successful businessperson you will someday meet put in thousands of hours of practice and effort. They are successful mostly because they are willing to do what other people won’t do.

Learn to enjoy the mundane and you can outdistance the pack–and oddly enough, then your life will be anything but boring.

7. Stop brainstorming and start borrowing.

Many people try to be original–and want to be perceived as original–simply to serve their ego.

Results are all that matter. Ideas you can borrow–ideas that you can see will actually work–are everywhere. Borrow freely. Borrow often.

8. The women you really want to meet don’t care about the car you drive.

So don’t buy the Mustang GT. Or the RX-7. (And maybe, just maybe, think about not wrecking every motorcycle you ever own.)

9. Training is great; advice is not.

Advice is what you ask for when you already know the answer but wish you didn’t. Ask, “Should I…” and you get opinions often colored by individual perspectives. Instead ask, “How do I…?” because “how” leads to training and knowledge.

Always ask to be shown or taught. When you know how, then you can decide for yourself whether you should.

10. Visibility is everything.

The people who get opportunities and promotions are the people who are seen and noticed. Customers, partners, media… no one will discover you on their own. You have to help them find you.

Spend the majority of your time doing great things, but spend at least 5 percent of your time getting the attention of the people who matter.

11. Always take one thing out.

Every initiative, every project, every decision… you’ll constantly be tempted to add one more thing to make it even better. Addition almost always results in subtraction. The more you eliminate, the more you can focus on what remains; what you leave out is as important as what you leave in.

12. Your parents are a lot smarter than you think. And they only want the best for you. And they’ll always be there for you. And they won’t be around forever.

Call them.

13. Always learn on the fly.

Waiting until you’re ready means waiting forever. When you’re “preparing,” there are millions of reasons to delay a little longer.

Trust yourself. Learn a little and jump in. Make mistakes, adjust, adapt, and develop greater skill by doing and reflecting, not thinking and dreaming. You’ll save time and achieve a lot more.

14. Don’t expect to get back what you give.

Favors will not be returned. Sacrifices made for others will not be rewarded. None of the people you mentor, develop, promote, and work with are going to call you when, years from now, you’re suddenly let go.

When you give, give because you want to or because it’s the right thing to do. Then you will never be disappointed.

15. A little ego is not a bad thing.

You need a strong ego. Otherwise you’ll believe all the people who say you don’t have the talent… or that there’s too much competition… or simply that you won’t succeed.

No one will believe in you until you believe in yourself.

But keep your ego to yourself.

16. You will most regret what you decide not do.

You won’t regret taking a crappy job; you will regret turning down what could have turned into a great job. When you look back you will only regret a few of the things you did. (And even so, the things you do regret doing help make you the person you become.)

What you will most regret are things you decide not to do due to lack of confidence or fear of the unknown–like the businesses you should have started and the joint venture you turned down.

For you, safe will almost always equal sorry. Take intelligent business and personal risks, and trust you will be able to work through any challenges.

If nothing else, you’ll have a lot more fun.

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