I Am Here

Jesus was bold, that's for sure.

He is having this conversation with the Jews that gets a little heated. They want to know who He is but don't like His answers. Jesus is using language that He shouldn't have been. Really. Jesus really touches a sore spot when He starts talking about Abraham. The Jews get really defensive. "Who do you think you are?" they want to know.

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" John 8:58

Dangerous words. The stones were picked up and they were ready to throw them at Jesus, but He slipped away.

What was the big deal?

Jesus' claim. He used the unspeakable word. He used the Name that was reserved for God only. So sacred and special was this Name that the Jews didn't even spell it with all the letters, because it was so holy. No one used the Name. It is the Name that Moses heard in the desert.

Exodus 3 is the account of Moses and the burning bush. Out of this bush that was burning but somehow wasn't, a voice called to Moses. This voice told him to go back to Egypt and the lead the people out of slavery. But Moses, scared (I think I understand where he is coming from, by the way) asked, "Who do I say told me to go?" Really, honestly, Moses is asking, "Who are you?" And God answers:

"I Am Who I Am. Tell them, I Am sent me to you."

The Hebrew meaning for this? I am here, really present, to help. He is present.

The slaves of Egypt had been crying out to God and Moses was to go to them and say, "He is here to help. He is present."

Thousands of years later, waiting for a Messiah and calling out God, Jesus came and said, "I am here to help. I am present."

And a couple thousand years later, we, who call out to God in the midst of our everyday praises and struggles can hear that voice as well.

"He is here to help. He is present." Yhwh. Yahweh.

Nothing has changed. The same God who brought the slaves from death to life through the waters, is the same God whose outstretched arms took the nails for me and you, and is the same God who was promised to be with us through thick and thin. God is faithful to that promise.

You are not alone.

He is here to help. He is present.

Dropped Stones

Have you ever just felt dirty?

Have you ever had one of those days that you just wanted to take a shower...just to feel clean?

I wonder how many baths David needed to take to feel clean after he got Bathsheba pregnant and then murdered her husband. I wonder if there were nights when he woke up sweating with guilt. Do you think he was able to sweep it under his rug? I doubt it, he was considered "...a man after God's own heart." Nope, he couldn't just forget what he did.

We can't either. We try, yes, but it always still nags us because something just isn't right.

I keep thinking of Alex's parents. Alex is a 14 year old boy at the orphanage Marlee and I worked at. He had special needs that his parents, I know, could not afford. He was too much for them. And I cannot allow myself to believe that they didn't love him, they kept him until he was 2. They kept him for as long as they could and then they couldn't do it anymore. They threw him away.

It was wrong and I hate the fact that a child was tossed away. I hate that they could see no more options for Alex. Thank God that He could see more.

Found in the garbage by police, a judge gave him life at Dorie's Promise where he thrives. He smiles and laughs and has a permanant home. He is fed and loved and cared for. Alex is alive.

But his parents. My heart breaks for them. That mama lives with the guilt, every day, that she threw away her baby. I wonder if there are nights when she wakes up sweating with guilt. Oh, how I wish she could know that he is alive and thriving. How I wish she could know there is always another way.

David cried out, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgression." Psalm 51:1

And at that moment he was clean. He was forgiven. He was free.

And then David's goal, "Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you." Psalm 51:13

I think David would seek out these parents. I think these parents are burdened by their sin. I think they need freedom.

What makes me any different from them?

He who has not sinned can cast the first stone.

My stone drops.

What about yours?

Pray with me.