Jesus, the Great I AM

 

Consider these words of Christ as we think about Jehovah, I AM:  

Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.  (John 8:58) 

I am the bread of life. (John 6:35)

I am the light of the world.  (John 8:12)


I am the door of the sheep.  (John 10:7)

I am the good shepherd.  (John 10:11)

I am the resurrection and the life.  (John 11:25)

I am the way, the truth, and the life.  (John 14:6)

I am the true vine.  (John 15:1)


In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (John 1:l)


In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,  having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:2-4)  

He is!  The Alpha and the Omega, Beginning and End, is He.  

This Christ, who redeemed us by His blood, is the great I AM, Jehovah God Himself.  And what a God:  Bread . . . Light . . . Door . . . Shepherd . . . Resurrection, Life, Way, Truth, Life, Vine.  

He is Life itself, All in All, All we need.  

Oh, cling to Him this day.  He is all we have . . . and He is enough.   

Jesus, Our Jehovah God

Why does Jehovah God reveal His name to Moses at the burning bush?  He always reveals Himself because He wants us to know Him.  Awesome thought: the God of the universe wants His people to know who He is.  

What is He about to do?  

Rescue.  Save.  Pass over blood-sprinkled houses.  Bring out.   Destroy enemies.   Redeem.  

This is a holy God who must pour out His wrath on sin.  And He does that in Egypt.  But not against all sinners, only against the sinners who have enslaved His people.  The other sinners He brings out. 

Isn't that always God's plan?  To redeem some sinners while giving righteous judgment against others?  

And how does He redeem?  With blood.  The blood of the Lamb.  

His Lamb, our Savior, Christ.  

And then He calls us to Himself, to accept that blood sacrifice on our behalf.

“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it.  Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.  For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe."  (Deuteronomy 10:12-17)

He set His love on us.  Isn't that a beautiful thought?  And then poured out His own blood to rescue us from slavery.  Such love.  

The Holy God secured our rescue because He loved us sinners.   Walk in all His ways this day . . . because now you can.   And reach out to another sinner to accept His blood-bought mercy.

Jehovah, the Infinite God

Yesterday we saw the greatness of God in His holiness and judgment of sin.  Nathan Stone in The Names of God declares that "it is this righteousness of Jehovah against which men sin."  We sin against the God who is completely and utterly perfect and flawless, infinite and right in all He does.  

When we go our own way, every day, we declare to Him that our way is better than His.  We take our lives into our own hands.  Is that really where we want our lives to be?  These hands are so full of self-serving and idol worship.

Woe is me, I am undone.  I am a woman of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.

And that only begins to scratch the surface.  

And it is as Jehovah that God pronounces judgment against the sin we so brazenly commit against Him.  It is as Jehovah that He pours our His wrath.  

 

But it is also as Jehovah that God says this to Moses:

I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’” (Exodus 6:2-8, ESV)

He is a God who loves, who planned all along to love.  

He planned our rescue from slavery. 

He planned to make us His people, 

and to dwell among us.  

He has heard our groaning.  Meditate on that. 

And think about the One over whom He poured His wrath. 

This is our Jehovah God. 

Oh our God, we worship You.

Jehovah God, the Holy One

Jehovah. Yahweh.  The Great I AM.  Holy LORD.

In the Old Testament, we see that name differentiated from "God" by the use of caps throughout.  Jehovah = LORD, God = Lord.  So watch this sometime when you are reading the Psalms; there are entire blocks of the Psalms that do not use the word Jehovah at all, but only God the Lord.  It's a fascinating study.  

Note Psalm 11 for a beautiful description of this Jehovah God:

 http://www.esvbible.org/Psalm%2B11

Note as well, the form of Lord used - all caps.  This is the Great I AM.  

Daniel 9:14 says this: Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. 


Jehovah God is righteous when He judges and holy in all His ways . . . and we have not obeyed His voice.  What does this mighty Jehovah God do about that?  

Please think on that question, and we'll talk more tomorrow.  

The Great I AM

Pastor Jim once said that Exodus 34:5-7 contains the most complete description of God in all of Scripture. 

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,

 slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,

 but who will by no means clear the guilty,

 visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children

 to the third and the fourth generations. 

This is the God who identified Himself to Moses at the burning bush with the name I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."  

I AM  . . . . self-existent God, content within the Trinity, from everlasting to everlasting He is God. 

This name, rendered Jehovah, is the one name of God not attached to His works, declaring simply who He is, and that He is, completely independent of His created works.  While the ancient peoples (and today's peoples for that matter) had many different Elohim, gods, this Jehovah  is the only true Elohim.  He is the one true and holy God.  

He is the God who is personal to His creation.  He spoke with Adam and Eve, and walked in Eden with them.  

This is God, our Elohim. 

Worship Him this day.  And be glad that He is your God. 

And One More Time - Adonai

Have you noticed that, while Jesus is the final expression of the name Adonai, the fullness of the Lordship of God, Lord in the flesh, He is also the ultimate expression of the word servant as well. 

Since He fulfilled all righteousness in the flesh, He became the final and necessary Servant.  No man has ever served like this One. See His love in John 13.  

Matthew 20:  The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.  Luke 22:  I am among you as one who serves.  Hebrews 10, quoting Psalm 40:  Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'  

Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.  (Philippians 2:6-7)  

This is the God to whom we bow and confess:  Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  This Christ is the One we follow.  This is the One who lived out the righteousness that we need and can't do, and then gave it to us.  He is the One who took the sins that we do accomplish, and bore them in His flesh on the tree.  What a Savior.  What a Lord.  

Call Him Adonai, Lord and Master, this day, and then, like Ananias in Acts 9 (read it and be encouraged and challenged) respond to His call with Here I am, Lord. 

Adonai . . . Again

 

Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and not do what I tell you?  These words of Christ to the crowds should strike us breathless like none other.  Why, indeed, do we call Him Lord, and refuse, neglect, can't be bothered to do what He says?  

Do we love our neighbor in the same way that we pamper, I mean love, ourselves?  

Do we truly love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength?  

Do we speak His name boldly and without reserve?  

Do we leave our idols outside of our hearts? 

His commands are not burdensome, His yoke is easy, He enables us every step of the way.  

So why do we call Him Lord, Lord, and not do what He says?  

When Isaiah's earthly lord, King Uzziah, died, he saw the eternal Lord of Hosts sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.  What was his response?  To cry out, Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! When God purified Isaiah's lips, the prophet's immediate response was Here am I!  Send me.  (Isaiah 6)  

God has purified our lips by His blood.  He has become our Lord, our Adonai.  One day every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.  

In the meantime, let those of us who know His name, Adonai, confess Him as Lord and then, by His grace, do what He says.  

Slavery

Slavery.  

The word speaks volumes to us as post-Civil War Americans.  Even more to those descendants of slaves.  And more still to those for whom personal slavery is still a hard, very cold reality.  Our hearts ought to cry out to God on behalf of the 21st century's enslaved populations. 

And yet, we are called to this.  We are called to slavery, not to the world, but to the Lord.  Mary called herself the bondservant of the Lord, as did Paul.  Romans speaks of slavery to righteousness as compared to slavery to sin and passion and temptation.  The difference between slavery and bondservanthood is choice.  We make ourselves bondservants of Christ by His grace.  We choose service to honor Him.  

 

And what does He call us to?  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.  (Luke 10:27)

And:  You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. (John 13)

Adonai

Who do you call lord?  Your husband?  Your boss?  Your parents?  

And what does that mean?  Steady obedience?  Honor and respect?  Doormatting?  

When Abraham first called God Lord in Genesis 15:2, he meant complete possession by his Owner, and complete submission to Him.  As a slave owner, Abraham knew better than we do today all that lordship involved:  "The slave had the right of the master's protection and help and direction.  Nor was the relationship devoid of affection.  In the absence of a son, a slave, Eliezer, is the heir to Abram's entire household." (The Names of God, Nathan Stone, p. 64)   

Think of Joseph as Potiphar's slave - much admired, much trusted.  Remember, also, Daniel, that slave of the king of Babylon, taken captive from his own country.  These are men who understood that slavery meant complete obedience to a master, along with complete care and protection from said master.  



Adon is the Hebrew word for master and lord.  Add the ai to it and you have a plural possessive master: the Trinitarian God possesses you.  He is a three-in-one God (hence the plural) and you belong to Him (hence the possessive).  Is that not a beautiful thought?  I belong to the Trinity.  By virtue of Christ's purchase of me at the cross, the great Three-in-One owns me.  

I have the right of the master's protection and help and direction.  I am an heir.  

Psalm 123 expresses it so well:  

To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!

Behold, as the eyes of servants

look to the hand of their master,

as the eyes of a maidservant

to the hand of her mistress,

so our eyes look to the Lord our God,

till he has mercy upon us.

He wants us so badly, He purchased us with His own blood.  Amazing love.  

Tomorrow we'll explore what that means for us. 

El Shaddai 2

If you don't believe me about the abundance of God's blessings, take a trip through the book of Isaiah.  Though God has to judge the Israelites for their continued rebellion, yet once they have been chastised, He almost gushes with His care.  

Begin in Isaiah 40 and just keep reading.  It's most satisfying.  Especially if you are struggling with the idea that God can even be bothered with you and your daily struggles.  You keep trying and crying and crying out, and no answers seem to be forthcoming.  No help is at hand.  No one sees, and those who do are powerless.  

Walk through Isaiah slowly and be warmed and comforted.  In fact, it begins with "Comfort, O comfort my people" in chapter 40.  

And in chapter 43, we read this from the mouth of the Lord:  Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.   

And 44:22: I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.   

This is surely a God of comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction.  Don't miss this comfort, this El Shaddai.  

Cry out to this One, and know your redemption and the comfort of His abundant arms.  Hide in the shadow of His wings.  Delight in His presence. 

El Shaddai

If you were to create a god for yourself, what would he be like?  If you're anything like me, you'd make one that was almost completely kind and merciful to you and almost completely righteous and holy for everyone else.  We want a moral god who judges the sin of others, but a kind god who overlooks our own sin.  Am I right? 

But here's the thing:  He is beyond our wildest dreams in His kindness and His righteous holiness.  Just look at the name El Shaddai, literally God Almighty.  Yet this name means more than mere power, it means "power to save". 


The root word shad is the Hebrew word for "breast".  Think what that implies, you nursing mothers.  Think of the richness, the deep satisfaction of a baby getting full nourishment from its mother's breast.  Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that He is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.  This, ladies, is lavish love. 


When God first identifies Himself as El Shaddai, He is speaking to Abram:  I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly (Genesis 17:1-2).  Though He calls Himself God Almighty, there is nothing here of the usual power and might we think of as God's.  Instead, we see a God who keeps His covenant with man, and blesses Him abundantly. 


In fact, the first 5 times we see this name, it is related to the fruitfulness that God sends, the multiplying He does among them. 


So we have a God that lavishes His love on us, who does not hold our sins against us, though we have sinned grievously against Him and His holiness.  Praise God, He's better than we could ever have hoped for. 


Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands  (Isaiah 49:15-16).


Engraved, indeed.  In the very palms of the Savior's hands.  Praise El Shaddai, the God who is mighty to save. 

He Sees

 

Yesterday, we talked about the great El Roi, the God who sees me.  In fact, this is what Hagar said to this Messenger of the Lord:  So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.” (Genesis 16:13, ESV) 

You are a God of seeing.  Read Psalm 139 (http://www.esvbible.org/Psalm+139/) and see that it is truly true.  God sees us, really sees us.  Remember the woman at the well?  How truly Jesus saw her.  He knew her story and sensed her pain and listened to her and answered her questions.   

I have seen him who looks after me.  What a comforting thought.  He looks after me.  He comforts, corrects, feeds, trains, cares for me.  He wants me to answer the hard questions of where I have come from, and where I am going.  He wants me to understand that He is all I need.  

Whom have I in heaven but you?

    And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

    My flesh and my heart may fail,

    but God is the strength1 of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:25-26, ESV)

   Hagar must have felt that after her encounter with the Seeing God.   He gave her all she needed, the strength to go back and submit to the one who had mistreated her.  

  

I want you to remember this:

God sees you.  You are never out of His sight.  He sees your pain, and your wayward heart, and your running.  And He loves you.  

Where have you come from?

Where are you going? 

God sees.  You are never invisible to Him. 

El Roi

 

Sometimes on a Sunday morning, I walk out into the narthex where all sorts of lovely conversations are taking place, and I feel utterly invisible.  No one needs a greeting, each person is already involved with someone, no one needs me for business of any kind, and I circle the crowd looking for someone to talk with.  

And then I head into the library where I get lost in the stacks, and feel perfectly content.

 

When was the last time you felt invisible?  

Genesis 16 tells the achingly tragic story of Hagar, simply a pawn in Sarah's attempt to accomplish God's will in her own way.  After being ordered by her mistress to sleep with Abram in order to bear the promised child, Sarah abuses her for being snooty about her pregnancy.  (Go figure.)  

As would any of us, she escapes into the wilderness.  

And is met by the Lord Christ Himself, in the form of a Messenger of the Lord.  

(Not exactly what you would expect under the circumstances.) 

Interestingly, He asks her 2 questions: 

Where have you come from, 

and where are you going? 

He wants her to speak the truth of her circumstances, and she does.  

Then He commands her to return to Sarah 

and promises her many descendants, 

whereupon she calls Him El Roi, 

the God who sees me. 

Beautiful, isn't it?  

Tell us about a time when you felt invisible.  

Cry out to God Most High

How often we cry, tears of embarrassment, regret, disappointment, shame, repentance. 

But how often do we cry out? 


David in Psalm 57 put it this way:  I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.


What is David sure of?  He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me.  God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!


Ever feel trampled on?  Cry out. 


Feel the storms of destruction in your life?  Cry out. 


Sense your prayers bouncing off the ceiling back into your face?  Cry out again and again. 


He is the God who fulfills His purpose for me.  He is my El-Elyon, God Most High, who rules over heaven and earth and my life.  All that He does is good and just and right. 


Psalm 138 comforts me:  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.  You stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.  The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me . . .


How can we be sure?  His right hand, Jesus Christ, has already done the delivering.  At the cross I was delivered from the domain of darkness, and transferred to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:13-14). 


Cry out to your El-Elyon, God Most High, who truly is fulfilling His purpose for you. 

El-Elyon

There have been moments in my life when I have felt so alone and so forsaken by God that I really didn't know where else to turn.  There is nowhere else.  He is the only Help we have. 

I needn't have fretted.  He never stepped down from His throne. 

Nebuchadnezzar found that out.  Just when he was really beginning to enjoy his own Babylonian throne and all his stuff and his peeps, God turned him into a beast of the field to eat grass for a few years, 7 to be exact. 

In the end, this great king bowed his face to the one true God:

I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever,

 for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

and  his kingdom endures from generation to generation;

all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,

and he does according to his will among the host of heaven

and among the inhabitants of the earth;

and none can stay his hand

or say to him, “What have you done?”  (Daniel 4)

Our God is El-Elyon, God Most High. 

He does all that He wishes in all the earth. 

And He is my God. this God Most High.

Hear the Psalmist's words in Psalm 21:

For you make him most blessed forever;1

you make him glad with the jjoy of your presence.

7 For the king trusts in the Lord,

and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be kmoved.

Because of His presence, I have joy.

Because of His steadfast love, I will not be moved. 

I will not.

Polishing Silver

I discovered today what my favorite household task is:  polishing silver.  Does anything feel more productive than taking a blackish piece of metal and making it shine?  A little silver polish, a little rag, a little elbow grease, and poof, you've got yourself a new bowl or platter or tea set.  Just like magic. 




Now this would be the time when I might wax eloquent about how Jesus shines us up by His amazing grace, or how we pay the silversmith to make us idols that we fall down and worship, or how the words of the Lord are like silver, as it teaches us in Psalm 12.  In fact, the word silver is found 286 times in the ESV Bible. 


But I really just wanted to tell you about how much fun it is to polish silver.  And to find out what your favorite chore is.  (Please share with us by commenting below.)  

Elohim

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 


This is our Elohim, our Creator God.  It is a Hebrew word used 2570 times in Scripture, 32 of those in Genesis 1. 






The word El means mighty, strong, prominent and it used 250 times to denote "God". 


We see this El in Deuteronomy 10:17:  For the Lord [Jehovah] your God [Elohim] is a God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God [El], who is not partial and takes no bribe.  In Numbers 23:22, we see El as the horns of a wild ox.  




That is a strong, capable God.  This is a creative, governing God. This is a God who is sovereign and omnipotent.  Do you find that comforting? 




When we add the ending to the word, we pluralize it.  This is, then, our Three-in-One God, creating the universe, hovering over the waters, sustaining and governing all He has made. 




But that's not all. 




Elohim also speaks of God as the Covenant-Keeper.  Jeremiah 31:33:  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:  I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.  And I will be their God [Elohim], and they shall be my people. 


Comfort, my people!  Comfort them!  says your God [Elohim].  (Isaiah 40:1) 


Read a wonderful definition of your Elohim in Paul's Mars Hill message here:  http://www.esvbible.org/Acts+17%3A24-28/  


Then worship and rest in this God who is all of the above for you. 

Names of God

Describe your firstborn, spouse, or best friend in terms of nouns only.  What do they do?  As in, my son is a mathematician, pianist, brother, Christian, tennis player, husband, . . . you get the picture.  Those are all names I could call him.  Hey, piano dude!  Each name reflects another facet of his personality and character. 


In the same way, God's many names reflect His attributes and His works.  He is not just our Father, but the Creator, Sustainer, Judge, Holy One of Israel.  Each one brings out another trait that we need to know and trust. 

Psalm 8 tells us how majestic His name is.  Psalm 138 tells us to give thanks to His name, for He has exalted above all things His name and His word.  Proverbs 18:10:  The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.

God's names matter; they show us who He is and what He does and what He is capable of.  They give us a sure footing.  They remind us who God is for us!  

For the next several weeks, the women's Sunday School class will be taking a look at the Hebrew names of God, as we seek to know Him better and trust Him more in our daily lives.

We'd love to have you join us!

Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!

How quickly we forget.  The Christmas lights come down.  The streets are littered with dried-up trees.  The gifts are used up, broken, put out of sight.  The skies are gray. 
We return to life-as-usual.  We forget the joy. 

Think back to Christmas Eve, that great service with candles lit, resounding hymns and harmonies, voices raised in exuberance, stalwart preaching.  Wasn't it marvelous?  Didn't it make your heart nearly burst with the joy of it all? 

Where is that joy now? 

If you need a little infusion of it, turn to Isaiah 35, and read with me.  http://www.esvbible.org/Isaiah+35/   This is our future, and we can taste a bit of it even today.  Creation is restored, hearts are turned back to the Creator, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away (v. 10).

Why?  They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God (v. 2). 

This is our joy, the glory and mercy and kindness of our God.  His majesty and beauty.  His ransom of us, His wayward children. 

Joy to the world, the Lord is come.  Now and always. 

Anxiety Addressed

Health care.  Joblessness.  Finances.  Wayward children.  Unsaved family.  Persecution and misunderstanding.  Ice on the driveway.  

There are plenty of worries to keep us awake at night and biting our nails during the day.  Does God see?  Does He care?  Do I have to handle this myself?  

The questions rattle our brains and hearts. 

God speaks to us in these days through Isaiah, his faithful prophet:  Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not!  Behold, your God . . . will come and save you."  (35:4)   

Beautiful, isn't it?  

So I say to you today, be strong and fear not!  I don't know how, or when, or through whom, but I do know that your God will come and save you.  That is His promise.  He has not left you orphaned.  You are His child if you call Him Lord and Master, and He will care for you more than a mother cares for her own child.  

Let your nails grow . . . and get some sleep.  He has you covered. 

Waiting to Be Gracious

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you,

and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice;

blessed are all those who wait for Him.   (Isaiah 30:18)

Spoken to Israelites who want nothing to do with God, these words remind them (and us) of His desire to do them good, to restore them to a relationship with Himself, to rescue them from slavery to themselves and their independence from Him. 

He waits to be gracious.  He desires to show mercy.  He is a just and holy God, who yet loves His people. 

Check out verse 19:  He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.  As soon as He hears it, He answers you. 

This is truly a God of mercy.  As soon!  

Are we so merciful to those who have offended us, and dragged our name through the dust, and forsaken our trust?  Oh this is a good God Who longs to show us mercy. 

Glory in His mercy this day.  And His patience, and forbearance, and kindness.  And let that kindness lead you to repentance.  (See Romans 2:4.)

Happy New Year 2014

As we begin a new year together, this unknown series of days and trials and joys, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-2). 

Christ is seated at the throne of God, Christ is the sovereign God, He governs.  Let us look to Him, and not to ourselves or government or idols or bosses to rescue us in these unknown days.  Christ alone rescues. 

Set aside your weights, those things that keep you bound and slow and immobile.  Set aside your addictions and bad habits and time-wasters. 

Set aside that sin that clings, that sticks to your heart like glue, that refuses to go away without one more temptation.  Set it aside. 

And run the race like a champ who sees the prize ahead.  Meditate daily on Scripture, obey what you've read, be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Timothy 4:5). 

Look to Jesus, without Whom none, none!, of the above is possible. 

You [O God] keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You (Isaiah 26:3).