“I AM”

“God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.

This is what you are to say to the Israelites:

 ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:14 (NIV)

Moses had some concerns about the task God lay before him. Moses first felt that he was not worthy of doing the job. If someone had asked him he would have said he wasn’t the person to do this gargantuan work. God told Moses that He would be with him as he performed his part in the work to rescue the Israelite people.

Moses used second excuse to try to get shed of this. “If they ask me the name of who sent me, what shall I tell them?” (Exodus 3:13)

God responds with the words of our focus verse. “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ “

What does God say here? His answer tells us a lot about our heavenly Father. He uses simple, direct words—I AM. These show me the strength of God. He uses a thunderous voice to say this. He tells Moses, and later us, that He is in the present—not just the past or the future. He has already told Moses He would go with him when he does this job. God will be with His people in the future as well as the present.

A literal translation of the name God called Himself is God is who He is; the absolute I the self-existent One.¹

God makes this statement in such a way as to make His position firm in the minds of those who follow Him.

Sometimes, we get so involved in life and all it brings to us that we forget God’s message here. We forget He told Moses who He was-I AM.

We need to remember Who He is and that his name brings us comfort in our darkest times.

God is Who He says He is—He is I AM. We are blessed to know Him and to know His name and all the meanings of His wonderful name.

1. The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary © 1957, 1961, 1966, 1985, 1988. Moody Bible Institute. Chicago, p. 600

Please Pray for Us

This is a different post for me. I have been waking up each day feeling very tired. I have a roaring in my head that really never goes away. Hubby has his own set of health woes, one of which seems to have returned in the past day or so.

I believe in prayer.  I know God answers the prayers of His children, especially those who live for Him. I have some things I want to do later on this year and, yet, I know it's all up to the Lord.  If  I seem bold by asking for prayer, it's the only way I know to get through this.

Thank you for your kindness.

God’s Beauty

On of  the many restful areas in our state park.

Read Psalm 24 1-10

On one of our son’s last days being with us, we took a ride. We visited the state park just outside.

Our son took his fancy camera with him. I carry my digital one in my purse. We saw the brilliant green of summer. This park is purported to be the smallest park in our state park system. I had forgotten how beautiful this place is.

I snapped a few pictures of picnic areas He snapped pictures of what he wanted. Several of these areas have shelter houses. One area has a large shelter and a playground near to a swimming pool.

My favorite spot in the entire park is a section of the road that turns to the left and enters a shaded area. The lanes divide and a wooden fence sits in the small median. The trees on either side of this rustic boulevard interweave their branches overhead to give you the feeling of being in a cathedral.

We started towards the campground and I saw some close friends who had been camping;Hubby pulled besides them and we said, “Hi.” We then went down to the river where we launched our canoe many years ago. There was a patch of flowers we both tried to get a shot of them.

If you look closely you will see the yellow wildflowers.

Our excursion through the state park reminded me of God’s beauty that He places in our lives that we never really appreciate. I intend to be more mindful of what He has given us. 

PUSH / A Book Review

       

Persevere Until Success Happens (through prayer) 

By Dr. Cindy Trimm

Doctor Trimm compares intercessory prayer with the process of giving birth. She takes us, her readers through the process of prayer and explains the phases in terms of the birthing process.

The first half of the book seemed deeper to me—it made me think. I relaxed more as I delved further into it. What I thought would be a lecture on prayer turned out to be a conversation, instead.

At the end of each chapter, she includes quotations from the Bible and from famous people-among them, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and Mahatma Gandhi.

At the end of her book, Dr. Trimm challenges us to “implement a success creed” for a period of 30 days. She then shares her personal creed as an example of what we might incorporate into ours. Her creed caused me to reflect on my life-the strengths as well as the shortcomings.

I would recommend this book to anyone who sincerely would want to go deeper in his or her faith. It could be a good book for a small group study. The one drawback I notice is that the price of the book might preclude some people from purchasing it.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Destiny Image, through the Book Club Network (URL). All they asked me to do was read it and give an unbiased review.

God’s Peacefulness

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.

I do not give to you as the world gives.

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:27 (NIV)

As we advance in age, people seem to want less drama in their lives. We yearn for the serenity of the times we saw before we had the upheaval of the Vietnam Era.

Sometimes we ache to get away from the rut or from the grindstone we have in our lives. People take get-away trips just to relax and unwind.  Sometimes we need a wake-up call from God.

After having a time with my family at the state park recently, I realized how much I miss the serenity of God’s world. A short while later we enjoyed the peace of our backyard. Suddenly, I was stricken with the importance of the work going on across the alley. Our next door neighbor came over and said workers told him the owners were going try to sell that house. That’s a God thing.

I always tell myself I want to spend more time outside enjoying our yard and God’s peacefulness. I want to keep this as a promise to God. Last Friday night, my hubby, our son, and I sat outside by a campfire until almost 11:00 o’clock. It was relaxing for me and I believe it was for them, as well.

God has given us this time together, allowing us to experience His peace and has proved himself to be true to His Word. Of course, he always does.

Isn’t That Just Like God?

Our side yard with the burned out house in the background. A study in contrasts.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2 (NIV)

We live in an economically depressed area. Two divisions of a major automaker moved out of our area prior to the 2008 recession. I find the landscape depressing as we go through town. We have a lot of empty building, empty homes and lots that once had houses on them. This has gone on for over a decade. I have prayed for these empty buildings, the empty lands left by these moves, and the empty houses, once viable home and business sites. The city, in the stead of the owners, has no choice but to demolish the ones that have become eyesores.

Two of the car dealerships here are owned by the same people and have been located in the north end of town--our end of town. The owners bought land where one of the plants of the auto industry that employed my husband, and two neighbor men on our street (at one time this division employed 15,000 workers.) The two dealerships presently have a sale due to the move across town.

With all these abandoned houses becoming eyesores, the city has plans for demolishing the ones that have fallen into disrepair. Recently, the house across the street was razed due to that fire back in mid-March.

This past week, as Hubby and I sat out in the yard, enjoying the peacefulness, He noticed a man mowing tall weeds in the yard across the alley. The other morning I noticed two men still working on getting the brush hauled away. I saw a third man come from inside the house; this man gave me the impression he was at least the overseer of the other two.

There is another house down the street to the east of us that has been empty for two years. The front yard was ‘wall to wall’ weeds. The neighbor who received the lot the burned out house sat on went down and mowed the front yard in order to have some compost for the lot which she plans on making into a community garden.

I found myself caught by the thought that God chose to show me that He is at work in all these things—in my neighborhood. I take this as a sign that my concerns about these things are under His Control and I have no need to worry.

Praise the LORD.

Lessons Learned

 

Our son an I at the state park just outside our town.

                                                                            

While I was unplugged, I learned several things about life and about God. For the next  few posts, I will share these thoughts with you.

I had a doctor’s appointment where I found out that my recurring physical problem was caused by yet another auto-immune disease. I think  have had this condition off and on all my life. Because of this disorder I am on a restrictive diet plus I take a probiotic.

The first Sunday of each month is Communion Sunday at our church. That day this month struggled to get up and get going. I had my shower and washed my hair. I went to get dressed and found myself praying to God—“God, I can’t do this by myself.”

I shared information about this diagnosis with some friends. My Sunday school teacher shared my news with the class that this disorder could be controlled as a praise note.

During the Worship service, when Pastor John gave the bread element to the communion servers and said, “If any of you need gluten free bread, raise your hand and we will get it to you. I wrote out a pew card to him telling him, “thank you.” and that “I had never felt so loved in my life.”

I raised my hand. My friend, who sat on my right in the pew, follows the same diet. She raised her hand, also. One of the communion servers brought a plate with chunks of gluten free bread on it and passed it to us. Nothing else was said about the special bread.

I called that friend that afternoon, she told me they had gluten-free bread at the previous Communion service; this action makes me feel very well loved.    

We are committed to find things that I can eat. Our son has asked some important questions when we talked on the phone.

I talked to a lady from church who was in the hospital earlier. I shared my news from my doctor. She told me of someone she knows that had a severe case of Celiac disease. The lady shared with my friend that she lost 57 pounds so far.

The next day, I cleaned out some papers and magazines from my ‘stash place.’ I ran across a special issue of one a magazine. I looked through it and found a special article. I called another church friend and told her about the story. She asked me to save it for her. Then she told me how touched she was about my testimony in church. We talked about how touched I was about the gluten-free communion bread.

I learned that others will not belittle me because of this diet or this disease. I have received positive feedback from many different sources. While our son was home, he went with me to a Pulled Pork Dinner at church. The meal was a pork sandwich (buns are not on my diet.) baked beans and coleslaw. I might have ruffled someone’s feathers when she had already made up a sandwich, but I’m sure she got beyond that. The dessert table was laden with pieces of pies and cakes along with cookies. There was a chess pie-(combination of custard and sugar cream.)* A piece of this one crust pie made it to my table. I decided I would eat the filling and leave the crust. This may come in handy over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

The next day, I had two scrambled eggs with a purple pepper chopped into it. I have not always liked eggs but this was good.

My favorite spot in the enitre park.

• I had to ask what this pie was. I didn’t know.