I am not but I know I AM

Who am I? What is my identity? The first time we find someone in the Bible asking that question is in the third chapter of Exodus. In this chapter, God reveals Himself to Moses out of the burning bush and tells him that he is chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt:

Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:10)

Moses immediate reply is,

Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11)

Who am I? This is actually more a rhetorical question than anything else. What Moses is really saying is, "I am not fit enough for this great task. Surely I am not the right person to do this. I don't have the necessary courage, strength or ability to do this. I am a nobody."

It is interesting to note God's answer to Moses. He does not tell him, "No, Moses, you are the man! You have great qualities. You received an excellent education in the house of Pharaoh. You are a trained military leader. You showed that you are in charge when you killed that Egyptian. Nobody can stand against you. You are amazing! You must believe in yourself!"

None of that. In fact, God never really directly answers Moses' question
"Who am I?". Instead, He says,

Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. (Exodus 3:12)

God's answer to Moses' question "Who am I?" is "I will be with you." God does not in any way contradict Moses' own assessment of himself as a nobody. But He gives him this amazing assurance: "I will be with you." This is all that matters. I doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter that you see yourself as incapable. It does not even matter that you are incapable. With God, all things are possible. You and God make a majority in any given situation. In fact, God alone makes a majority. He is in sovereign control over all things. He is with you. Just trust in His power, not your own.

God then for the first time reveals His personal name: "I AM" (Exodus 3:13-14). God is the self-existent One. He has no beginning and no end. He has no need of anything. He is the ultimate and greatest reality in the universe. And He is the One who says to Moses, "I am with you."

Based on this promise, Moses obeys God's command and goes to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites go. Initially, there is a setback, and things only seem to get worse, so that Moses asks God, "Why did you ever send me?" (Exodus 5:22, ESV). But God knew what He was doing and used Moses in a mighty way to fulfill His purposes and bring glory to His name.

I am not.

I am not able.

I am not sovereign.

I am not God.

I am a nobody.

But I know I AM.

Even though I am not, I know the One who calls Himself "I AM".

I know the self-existent, eternal, all-powerful God.

And I know that He is with me.

That is all that matters.

I am not but I know I AM.

How about you? Do you know who you are? Do you recognise that you have nothing good in you apart from God?

If you are a Christian, God has given you a similar command to go. Before ascending to heaven, Jesus Christ told His followers,

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)

This is an enormous task that still applies to all of Christ's followers today. We might ask ourselves the same question as Moses did: "Who am I that I should go?" And God gives us the same answer. Christ introduced this command by saying,

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. (Matthew 28:18)

And immediately following the Great Commission, He gave us this promise:

I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28:20b)

What a great promise! Yes, you can fulfill God's great purposes on earth and bring glory to His wonderful name! But you cannot do so in your own strength. You must recognise that you are nothing and trust fully in Jesus Christ and in His power working in you and through you. In this way, all the glory goes to Him.

I am not but I know I AM.

Do you know I AM?

("I am not but I know I AM" is the title of a book by Louie Giglio.)

New year, no fear, Jesus is near

It's 2010! Happy New Year!

My 2010 diary has the following words of Christ as the verse for the year:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)

This verse is extremely comforting to me. I do not know what 2010 will bring. Nor do I know what will happen after 2010. I don't even know what will happen in the next 5 minutes. But when looking at the world we are living in today, there is cause for concern. Especially when we realise that there are many things that are beyond our control.

But in John 14:1, Jesus tells us that we do not need to fear. And He mentions two things that should take away our fear:

1) Faith in God
2) Faith in Jesus Christ

If we place our faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ, there is no reason for us to fear anything or anyone.

David the Psalmist wrote:

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God have I put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4, NASB)

This is true. God is above everything. He is greater and stronger and wiser than anyone or anything. The almighty God is the Creator of all things and all people and is in control of every situation, every circumstance of everyone's life. If our faith and trust is in Him, we are under His care. We can live in complete peace even though there are wars all around us.

Later on in John 14, the Lord Jesus says:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

Only Jesus can give the peace that passes understanding. When He is near, there is no reason to fear.

These thoughts remind me of a beautiful song I learned during my studies in the USA. It was written by Ron Hamilton and is called "How can I fear?".

The second stanza of the song is as follows:

When I’m alone and I face the unknown,
And I fear what the future maybe,
I can depend on the strength of my Friend -
He walks along with me.

And the chorus then goes:

How can I fear? Jesus is near.
He ever watches over me.
Worries all cease; He gives me peace.
How can I fear with Jesus?

(See the video below to listen to the whole song.)

What Christmas means to the parents grieving over the killing of their 11-year old son

On 1 May 2009, 11-year old Sam Riddall was tragically killed in a hit-and-run incident. Today, four days before Christmas, the hit-and-run driver responsible for Sam's death was given a hospital detention order.

But what possibly can Christmas now mean to Sam's parents Martin and Rachel Riddall?

Martin Riddall gave the following statement outside of the court this afternoon:

In four days time we celebrate Christmas and it’s going to be our first Christmas without our Sam. It’s going to be very hard for us indeed, because we still miss him very much.

At Christmas we remember that God sent his son Jesus into the world to bring peace. It’s the same God that is giving us the strength and helping us to forgive Hannah for the terrible thing she’s done to us by killing our son.

It’s not easy, it’s not going to be easy. But with God’s help we know that it is possible.

For Martin and Rachel Riddall, Christmas means that "God sent his son Jesus into the world to bring peace."

When we think of Christmas, we remember the birth of Christ. At His birth, the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." (Luke 2:14)

Jesus came to bring peace because there was no peace between God and man. Man had rebelled against God and become His enemy. When Jesus came into this world to bring peace, He chose to take the punishment of God for our sins on Himself by shedding His perfect blood on the cross. Trusting in Christ's work for us on the cross is the only way that we can have peace with God again. That is why peace is the message of Christmas.

Consider the following verses from the Bible:

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." (Colossians 1:19-20)

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)

Once you have asked placed your faith in Christ and have asked God to forgive your sins, you will receive His peace. And you will also be able to forgive other people even for the very worst crimes.

"Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." (Colossians 3:13)

Because Christ has forgiven us, we can forgive others and live in peace with God and man. This is the meaning of Christmas for Martin and Rachel Riddall. God offers us peace through Jesus Christ. What does Christmas mean to you?

(Click here to see the news story along with a video of the Riddall family statement on the SkyNews website.)

The Innkeeper

In Luke 2:7, the Bible makes the following brief statement about the birthplace of Jesus Christ:

And she [Mary] brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

No room in the inn for the Messiah. But there was room somewhere with the animals in a stable or in a cave maybe.

Have you ever wondered if Jesus returned to visit the place of His birth? Maybe even to meet the innkeeper who did not have room in the inn that night but who provided an alternative shelter for Joseph and Mary and Jesus. Here is a beautiful poem by John Piper which imagines what such an encounter between Jesus and the innkeeper could have been like.




The original poem can be found here.

In the footsteps of John Wycliffe

Over my first term break, I was able to visit the town of Lutterworth in Leicestershire.

This was where John Wycliffe lived and where he became the first person to translate the Bible into English.

John Wycliffe was born in 1324 near the village with the name Wycliffe in Yorkshire. At the age of 16, he enrolled at Oxford University and studied philosophy and Christianity. He was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 37 and ministered in Lutterworth. But he questioned some of the Church's doctrines and criticised the corruption of the clergy. He wanted to make the Bible understandable to all those who did not know Latin or the original biblical languages, so he translated the Bible into English for the first time, some 200 years before the time of the Reformation. John Wycliffe thus later became known as the "Morning Star of the Reformation." Wycliffe and his followers, known as the "Lollards", preached the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins by faith in Christ's substitutionary death on the cross throughout England. Wycliffe said: "The gospel alone is sufficient to rule the lives of Christians everywhere...any additional rules made to govern men's conduct added nothing to the perfection already found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

In Lutterworth, you can still see the church where Wycliffe preached, the Parish Church of St. Mary:

This is what it looks like from the inside:

And this is the pulpit Wycliffe is said to have preached from:

The church also has a Wycliffe memorial, which shows Wycliffe preaching:

The inscription below reads as follows:

SACRED TO TE MEMORY OF

JOHN WICLIF

EARLIEST CHAMPION OF ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMATION IN ENGLAND;

HE WAS BORN IN YORKSHIRE IN THE YEAR 1324;

IN THE YEAR 1375 HE WAS PRESENTED TO THE RECTORY OF LUTTERWORTH:

WHERE HE DIED ON THE 31ST DECEMBER 1384;

AT OXFORD HE ACQUIRED NOT ONLY THE RENOWN OF A CONSUMMATE SCHOOLMAN;

BUT THE FAR MORE GLORIOUS TITLE OF THE EVANGELIC DOCTOR

HIS WHOLE LIFE WAS ONE IMPETUOUS STRUGGLE AGAINST THE CORRUPTIONS

AND ENCROACHMENTS OF THE PAPAL COURT;

AND THE IMPOSTURES OF ITS DEVOTED AUXILIARIES; THE MENDICANT FRATERNITIES,

HIS LABOURS IN THE CAUSE OF SCRIPTURAL TRUTH WERE CROWNED BY ONE IMMORTAL ACHIEVEMENT,

HIS TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO THE ENGLISH TONGUE.

THIS MIGHTY WORK DREW ON HIM, INDEED, THE BITTER HATRED
OF ALL WHO WERE MAKING MERCHANIDISE OF THE POPULAR CREDULITY AND IGNORANCE:

BUT HE FOUND AN ABUNDANT REWARD IN THE BLESSING OF HIS COUNTRYMEN, OF EVERY RANK AND AGE,

TO WHOM HE UNFOLDED THE WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE.

HIS MORTAL REMAINS WERE INTERRED NEAR THIS SPOT: BUT THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO REST IN PEACE.

AFTER THE LAPSE OF MANY YEARS, HIS BONES WERE DRAGGED FROM THE GRAVE, AND CONSIGNED TO THE FLAMES:

AND HIS ASHES WERE CAST INTO THE WATERS OF THE ADJOIINING STREAM.

Although John Wycliffe heavily criticised the Catholic Church and sought to show the people that the truth is to be found in Scripture and not in any church tradition, he was never excommunicated nor did he ever leave the Church. In 1428, 44 years after Wycliffe's death, Pope Martin V had his remains dug out of the grave, burnt and thrown into the river Swift, hoping to erase the memory of Wycliffe from history. But instead, a chonicler by the name of Fuller observed: "They burnt his bones to ashes and cast them into the Swift, a neighbouring brook running hard by. Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over."

Today, there is a Wycliffe Memorial in Lutterworth, which was erected in June 1987 and displays the following Bible verses:

"Search the scriptures." (Jn. 5:39)
"The entrance of thy words giveth light." (Ps. 119:130)
"Be followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." (Heb. 6:12)
"Be thou faithful unto death." (Rev. 2:10)

Today, there are over 100 English translations of the Bible. The town of Lutterworth is also home to the British headquarters of the Gideons International, and thus a centre for Bible distribution around the world.

Can I trust God?

Since starting my studies at Bible school, I have been virtually inundated with lessons from the Bible. While I have been gaining a lot of factual knowledge, much more importantly, I have been blessed by being able to apply what I have been learning to my own life.

In my class on the Pentateuch, I was particularly gripped by one question that kept cropping up: “Can I trust God?” It has been amazing for me to see how often this is the question that is asked in the first five books of the Old Testament.

It starts with the very first human beings, Adam and Eve, to whom God had given just one commandment: “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:16b-17). Everything else was allowed for them. But, as we learned in class, once Eve was temped by Satan, she doubted the sovereignty and majesty of God, the holiness of God, the goodness of God, the motive of God and the integrity of the word of God. Eve’s problem was that she now doubted the only One who could help her! Both she and Adam chose to believe Satan’s lie that God was trying to keep something good back from them and therefore ate of the forbidden fruit. Immediately afterwards, they realised what a terrible mistake it was not to trust God. It changed their – and our – lives on earth forever bringing sin and pain and a threefold death (physical, spiritual and eternal). If only they had trusted God!

Later, we see Abraham, who in many ways was a great example of faith, asking himself the same question: “Can I trust God?” He demonstrated great faith by following God’s call to the Promised Land, but once a famine hit the country, he decided to take matters into his own hands and flee to Egypt, showing that he did not believe God would take care of him. Once in Egypt, he felt compelled by fear to lie about the identity of his wife, again without entrusting the matter to God. And he repeated this same sin later in his life. But God was taking care of him all the time. As he grew old and his wife Sarah bore him no children, both he and Sarah again did not trust God, but instead devised their own plans to have children through their handmaid Hagar. But God had earlier promised him that his children would be as many as the stars in heaven. And God kept His promise. Sarah gave birth to their son Isaac when she was 91 years old and Abraham was 100 years old. Nothing is impossible with God!

And then when we move on to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, and read we story of how God brought the Israelites out of Egypt back to the Promised Land, we see how God miraculously intervened on behalf of His people to show Himself as mighty and glorious, but again and again, the people of Israel forgot what God had done for them and murmured and complained. How could they not have trusted God in simple matters when they had seen His mighty hand work wonders among them over and over again?

But then it comes down to us, you and me. Have we ever asked ourselves, “Can I trust God?” If we are Christians, maybe we would not say it out loud, but we show it by our thoughts and actions. How many times has it been true in our lives that we thought that God could or would not take care of us? How many times have we tried to take matters into our own hands without trusting God? And how often have we seen our own plans ultimately fail only to realise that it would have been better to trust God? Surely, if you know Christ as your Saviour, you will have experienced God’s love and power and goodness in your life. From my own life I can say that God has been good to me beyond measure, despite the fact that I have often failed Him. I cannot understand why God would want to shower His goodness on me, all I can say is that He is an amazing, wonderful and faithful God! And yet, there are times when I struggle to trust Him, when I ask myself this very question, “Can I trust God?” But every time I ask myself that question I must come back to the answer, “Yes, totally and absolutely!” Who else can I trust if not God? I can see God’s faithfulness to His children all through His Word and all through my own life as well as in the lives of others. May we learn to trust Him more and more for the praise of His glory.

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. (Psalm 42:5)

07/08/09 10:11:12 - A snapshot in time

Yesterday, at 10.11 a.m. and 12 seconds, the date and time was 07/08/09 10:11:12. Sky News asked viewers to take a snapshot in time at this precise moment.

Here is my snapshot of what I was doing then:



I was just sitting at work, translating a text from German to English for the Statistics Department of the Deutsche Bundesbank.