The
Great I AM
As
you read this, there are countless grains of sand on countless beaches around
the world that are slowly moving with the rhythms of the waves…with every wave,
they are slowly and steadily changing the landscape of the beaches they are on. Forever changing…
As
you read this, there are great storms on Mars that are forever altering the horizons
of that planet. Every gust of wind,
every grain of sand…Forever changing…
As
you read this, there are billions of stars in billions of galaxies. There are billions of unique planets that
revolve around these stars forming billions of unique solar systems. These planets, solar systems, and stars are
all part of a continually changing universe.
Forever changing…
As
you read this, God, the Unchanging, holds them all in His perfect hands.
15
years ago, if you would have asked me my name, where I lived, where I worked,
how many kids I had, and if I were married you would have heard a set of
answers that were true 15 years ago. If
you had asked me those same questions just a couple of years later, the only
answer that would have stayed the same would have been my name. My life is constantly changing. I am constantly changing. This world is constantly changing. “The grass withers and the flowers
fade…” Nothing stays the same. Everything is always in the process of changing. Of becoming…
When
Moses stood before the burning bush and asked God Who He was, God answered that
He was “I AM”. What an amazing thing to
say! When you or I describe ourselves,
we have to say “I am something”— I am a man, I am a woman, I am a
musician. We need a description to make
our “I am” statement true. God does
not. That is because God alone IS and
everyone and everything else in the universe BECOMES. Every day we humans become and are becoming
something different. From our birth to
our death, we are continually changing from what we were a minute before. We are becoming older, wiser, more foolish,
stronger, weaker, better, or worse. But,
for as much as we change, God never does.
He never becomes anything other than what He is right now. What He now is, He always has been, and
forever more will be! He just IS. And, He is I AM.
Hallelujah!
This
is why we see over and over in the Scriptures God comforting His people by
telling them that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He wanted them to know that the same God that
had done miraculous things in the past was the same God that was making Himself
known to them that day. The same God
that called Abraham and promised to make his decedents as numerous as the stars
in the sky was the same God that made promises to Isaac and protected him
through his tumultuous life. And, the
God who protected Isaac was the same God who called Jacob, made his name Israel
and gave him a nation through his 12 sons.
This very same God allowed Joseph to be taken to Egypt where hundreds of
years later that same God brought the plagues and parted the sea! The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob IS the
VERY SAME God that we sing to and worship today! The God that parted the Red Sea is the God
that rolled the stone away…and He is the same God that called YOU. When you worship, you are worshipping the
same God that Adam worshipped. When you
write a song, you are writing a song to the same God that King David wrote
songs to. When you pray, you are praying
to the same God Moses spoke to “face to face”…you are praying to I AM. If He can part the sea, if he can bring down
the walls of a great city with a trumpet and a shout, can He not deliver you
and me?
Hallelujah!
This
God, this great I AM is greater than all of heaven and all of the earth. He is more terrifying and more majestic than
the angels. Do you realize that when
men, in the Bible, encountered angels, they fell down in fear, trembling, and
sometimes worship? Angels are majestic,
awesome creatures. But even these
powerful beings, these heavenly angels bow down low before the great I AM. They serve Him. They submit to Him. They worship Him! They are insignificant compared to I AM.
Hallelujah!
If
God is for us who can be against? The
demons? They run and they flee at the
very mention of His name. Death? I AM
has conquered death. Satan? No!
Remember Romans 8:38-39
“And I am convinced
that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow – not even
the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth
below – indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from
the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Hallelujah!
And
so, we can find great comfort…we can find great rest in knowing that the God
Who has always been and forevermore will be, is never-changing. He has always been and forevermore will be in
control. And, that, in spite of what we
see and feel down here in the muck and the mire of life, should bring a “Hallelujah”
to our hearts and our lips. Hallelujah…You
are Holy…You’re the God Almighty…
You’re the Great I AM!