Here is the scripture for today! Exodus 3 “ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. 3 So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” 5 “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
Last Sunday we heard Jesus quoting the bolded line above when He was talking to the Sadducees about resurrection, which they did not believe was real. He was basically showing them from their own playbook (they only believed the first five biblical books, which includes Exodus, were authoritative) that God, when talking to Moses, used the present tense “I am” not “I was” indicating that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were alive as He talked even though they had died hundreds of years before. It’s a powerful argument for “resurrection to eternal life!”
Something powerful struck me as I considered this. Our God is an “I am” God not an “I was” God! He is a present God not a past God! He has a past but is not stuck in the past! He is eternal (past, present and future all together)! I have a past but He is calling me to live today in the present – where He is.
Read that line again! “I have a past but He is calling me to live in the present – where He is.” He makes that possible because He rose from the dead! Death does not get the last word – life does! “Was” is not our destiny “Am” is!
(There is something powerful here that I feel I am at the edge of seeing as I write. It’s like I am walking up to the edge of the Grand Canyon – at the brink of seeing something amazing.)
I get to live today freed from my “was” (my past including yesterday) and fully engaged in my “am” (my present, today) knowing God is alive, risen from the dead, and fully present with me now, right now, I mean right now! He is my “I AM” God. I get to be His “I AM” follower today! His resurrection applies to me! Life wins! Easter gets the last word even though Good Friday had to happen! Today can be defined by “AM” not “was”!
delton
