Saturday, November 26, 2011

I AM

Exodus 3:14: And God said to Moses, “I AM THAT I AM” (I am because I am, I am the ever becoming One), and you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me. “Am” is from the verb for “to be”. Several more times in the ensuing chapters, God continues to refer to Himself as “I AM” in the process of getting Moses to understand and trust Him. Not knowing the Hebrew word for the ever being one… I continue.

The word “I” in the Greek is the term “ego”. And as we know, everyone has an “ego”. That part of us that says, “I am number one in my world”. Is there a similarity and are there differences from what is said in Exodus 3 and how I view myself?
In Isaiah chapters 40 – 46, repeatedly, God refers to Himself as “I AM”, and says, “I will share My glory with no one else”. He is the only One with the characteristic of “ever being”, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, as revealed in Genesis chapters 1 &2, “Let Us make man in Our image”. Not three God’s, but One God revealed in three Persons. So, I contend that the great “I AM” is revealed and consigned to only One.

In the New Testament, Jesus refers to Himself and “I AM”. In the Gospel of John, these statements start in chapter 4:14, 26, 32, 38; chapter 5:34, 36, 43, 45; chapter 6:35, 40, 41, 48, 51, 63, 70; Of course the most famous and most quoted is John 14:6, “Then Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me’”. That is a pretty bold and narrow statement. But, when you take the essence of all religions and compare them to Christianity, it looks like this; religion says, do the best you can and it will all work out in the end. While Christianity says, your worthiness is like filthy, dirty rags (those of a woman during her menstrual cycle), and you need someone who is pure and righteous that will take the dirt and filth and destroy it and make you pure and righteous. How would you like it if the person in front of you in the line of trillions of people was the last one “good enough” to make it in on his own “good works”? Or, would it be easier to rationally think through the facts and come to the conclusion that you needed some “outside help” to get to heaven?

That thought brings me to the alter-ego statement, “I think, therefore I am”. If we are created in the image of God, then we have the capacity to think and reason, just as He does; and we are and do. The problem comes with the “fall of man” and the sin nature we all have; some may want to deny that sin problem, but we all have the propensity to want our own way, do our own thing and command our own destiny. And those things are simply the proof of sin. We think with a distorted view and cannot see the truth of our situation. Thus the statement becomes, “I think, therefore I AM”!!! I am the ever becoming one. Yet, we all die, another proof of sin. The egotistical person or persons will come up with, “Well, dying is just part of the evolutionary design so the next generation can move us farther along the path”. Yet these people deny design, because that supposes a “Designer”, a God, and that means responsibility to that God and they really get things distorted and in a lot of cases contradictory. Don’t get me started on “global warming” or the newer phrase, “global climate change”; climate changes, and it happens all around the world, the globe, which is the basic definition of climate. The Bible says somewhere, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools”. The Book of Proverbs contrasts the wise man and the fool. By reading it “you” may become a wise man.

I think, therefore I am, type of person must then think, now let’s think, I created me and everything else. But then the question becomes, “If you created it why can’t you control it”? It may seem that the One and only true God is not in control as we see wars and calamities all around the world, but He is. It is because He made us with the freedom to choose, and with only one choice, we condemn ourselves. That choice is, “to do it my way”. God is in control, but He is not controlling. If you look closely at all recorded history, you will find patterns. Patterns revolve around certain people groups. And even within those people groups, there are two types of people, those who obey and those who don’t. Obey who or what? The answer is those who obey God’s laws and standards, and those who don’t. But does that then lead us back to my obeying mean good works? No, because you can’t obey perfectly, again, because of our own ego, and that because of sin. That’s why God is the Creator and sustainer of all that is. That also shows us that we need someone to intercede for us, before the presence of that One, True and Holy God, revealed in three persons. And if you have not understood that up to this point, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, one God revealed in three persons. It is only within the power of the Holy Spirit living within us that we could ever hope of being “good enough” to even stand in the presence of God.

Ego is a dangerous thing to live with. It needs to be put into subjection under the One who allowed it to be. In Christianity, is the only way and truth and life, Jesus, who allows for the proper side of ego and lets it, function in a good and constructive manner. I know whereof I speak. You see, I once was blind to the truth, but now I see. To the age of almost thirty, I was in full control of my own life, but it was out of control. So, was I really in control? Or was I just “playing the game” as so many others were? Yes, I was just playing the game. Then I heard about the life I had been trying to live, that God offered. But the problem was I had to give up control. Was I willing to do that? Was I willing to give up, “I am” for “HE IS”? That’s your choice.

Thanks for listening,
Ron