Any Old Bush Will Do

By Luis Palau

For one of the last Multnomah chapel services before Pat and I went our separate ways for Christmas break, our speaker was Major Ian Thomas, founder and general director of the Torchbearers, the group that runs the Capernwray Hall Bible School in England.

It was a challenge to make out all his words through a thick British accent and staccato delivery, but I had an edge on the rest of the students. And when Major Thomas spoke and pointed a finger that had been partially cut off, I was intrigued.

Now here’s an interesting man, I thought, probably just because he wasn’t afraid to use that finger for gesturing. But as soon as he had me hooked, his short message spoke to me. I had been so hungry for answers that I had quit wondering where they would come from. I had all but given up, but, in twenty-two minutes, Ian Thomas got through to me.

His theme was “Any old bush will do, as long as God is in the bush.” The essence was that it took Moses forty years in the wilderness to realize that he was nothing. Thomas said God was trying to tell Moses, I don’t need a pretty bush or an educated bush or an eloquent bush. Any old bush will do, as long as I am in the bush. If I am going to use you, I am going to use you. It will not be you doing something for Me, but Me doing something through you.”

Thomas said the burning bush in the desert was likely a dry bunch of ugly little sticks that had hardly developed, yet Moses had to take off his shoes. Why? Because this was holy ground. Why? Because God was in the bush!

I realized I was that kind of bush: a worthless, useless bunch of dried-up old sticks. I could do nothing for God. All my reading and studying and asking questions and trying to model myself after others was worthless. Everything in my ministry was worthless, unless God was in the bush. Only He could make something happen. Only He could make it work.

Thomas told of many Christian workers who failed at first because they thought they had something to offer God. He himself had once imagined that because he was an aggressive, winsome, evangelistic sort, God could use him. But God didn’t use him until he came to the end of himself. I thought, That’s exactly my situation. I am at the end of myself.

When Thomas closed out with Galatians 2:20, it all came together for me: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (RSV).

I ran back to my room in tears and fell to my knees next to my bunk. I prayed in Spanish, Lord, now I get it. I understand. I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The whole thing is not I, but Christ in me. It’s not what I’m going to do for You but rather what You’re going to do through me.

I stayed on my knees until lunchtime, an hour and a half later, skipping my next class to stay in communion with the Lord. I realized the reason I hated myself inside was because I wrongly loved myself outside. I asked God’s forgiveness for my pride in thinking I was a step above my countrymen because I had been well-educated and was fluent in English, and because I had worked in a bank and spoken on the radio and in a tent and in churches, and because I got to come to the United States and mingle with pastors, seminary professors, and other Christian leaders. I had thought I was really something, but God was not active in the bush. I hadn’t given Him a chance.

Well, He still had a lot of burning to do, but God was finally in control of this bush. He wanted me to be grateful for all the small hinges He had put in my life, but He didn’t want me to place my confidence in those opportunities to make me a better minister or preacher. He wanted me to depend not on myself or my breaks, but on Christ alone…the indwelling, resurrected, almighty Lord Jesus.

I was thrilled to finally realize we have everything we need when we have Jesus Christ literally living in us. Our inner resource is God Himself, because of our union with Jesus Christ (see Colossians 2:9-15). It’s His power that controls our dispositions, enables us to serve, and corrects and directs us (see Philippians 2:13). Out of this understanding comes a godly sense of self-worth.

That day marked the intellectual turning point in my spiritual life. The practical working out of that discovery would be lengthy and painful, but at least the realization had come. It was exciting beyond words. I could relax and rest in Jesus. He was going to do the work through me. What peace there was in knowing I could quit struggling!