"Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." John 8:58....."The Lord's ability to crowd vast ranges into small phrases is amazing. He compasses the whole range of human need and answers every heart cry in a simple sentence of two words; 'I am' " T. Austin-Sparks
If we're asked to list our needs, likely we could come up with a fairly long one. But if we're asked to put down what is our heart cry, I'm much less sure we could. We may be aware of what many of our felt needs are, but largely unaware of what our deepest need is. Yet aware or not, we spend vast amounts of time and energy seeking the satisfaction of those needs, yet so often, never finding it. Like the old song, we not only look for love in all the wrong places, we look for life in those places as well. After the resurrection of Christ and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles daily ministered in the Temple to a people who were desperately looking for the coming of their Messiah. A Messiah, Christ, Who had already come.....yet they didn't know it. In the midst of all their lesser needs, and there would have been many, that was their heartcry. To that heartcry the apostles said, in Acts 5:42, "The Messiah you are looking for is Jesus." What is truly your heartcry today? Who, what, is the Messiah, Deliverer, Healer, Answer, that you are really seeking in the depths of your heart and life? Do you know, have you really experienced, that the Answer in all of it is Jesus Christ? In that vast range of need that Sparks speaks of, that Christ speaks in response to it all, "I am." Nothing more, for He need speak nothing more. He simply tells us that He, the I am, the same two words that the Father used to reveal Himself to Moses at the burning bush, is......the Answer to the deepest need of our souls, hearts, and lives. He is, and there is no other.
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life, the water of life." In His proclamation, there was always an invitation to come to Him, to all of Him with all of themselves, and discover that His word was true, that He was true. Those who sought life in religion, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and those who followed them, couldn't accept this, so they never experienced His truth. They just kept on looking, and looking every place but to Him. How like them are we? We may have learned all the promises concerning Him, even agreed with them intellectually, but it's not how we know Him. Like those Jews in the Temple, we're still looking for our "Messiah," living lives that may agree in our heads that He's come, but our hearts continue to cry out, staying as empty, thirsty, hungry, as those who have never heard that truth.
Like the father who sought from Christ His healing for his dying child, we may say, "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief." There can be so many pockets of unbelief in our lives. This does not scare or put off Christ. All He asks is that we bring them to Him. We believe that He is the I am to all our need, but fear to enter into the depths of His Life in order to know it for sure. Yet if we will come, as we are with all we are, He will receive us, and we will receive Him. All of us, for all of Him. It's a day by day journey of faith and life. Two words; I am. He speaks them to us. Do we hear them? Do we receive them? Do we receive Him?
Blessings,
Pastor O
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the resurrection and the life. I am the bread of life, the water of life." In His proclamation, there was always an invitation to come to Him, to all of Him with all of themselves, and discover that His word was true, that He was true. Those who sought life in religion, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and those who followed them, couldn't accept this, so they never experienced His truth. They just kept on looking, and looking every place but to Him. How like them are we? We may have learned all the promises concerning Him, even agreed with them intellectually, but it's not how we know Him. Like those Jews in the Temple, we're still looking for our "Messiah," living lives that may agree in our heads that He's come, but our hearts continue to cry out, staying as empty, thirsty, hungry, as those who have never heard that truth.
Like the father who sought from Christ His healing for his dying child, we may say, "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief." There can be so many pockets of unbelief in our lives. This does not scare or put off Christ. All He asks is that we bring them to Him. We believe that He is the I am to all our need, but fear to enter into the depths of His Life in order to know it for sure. Yet if we will come, as we are with all we are, He will receive us, and we will receive Him. All of us, for all of Him. It's a day by day journey of faith and life. Two words; I am. He speaks them to us. Do we hear them? Do we receive them? Do we receive Him?
Blessings,
Pastor O
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