Pure? But I feel so dirty. (Part 2)

Since God calls us pure, and we can’t oppose it (see our conversation yesterday: Part 1) then a deeper question swells. How does He call us pure, and how do we feel it?

As we stay connected to Rahab, I mentioned yesterday that she and her family were kept outside the camp for a prescribed time because they were “unclean” according to God’s laws. On this side of the Cross, we go from unclean to clean with salvation. And we are never allowed to call ourselves unclean again. All our impurities were laid on Jesus. Isaiah explained this as he described Jesus, the suffering Servant to come.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isa. 53:6)

While we were astray, going our own way, Jesus took on, wore, and became our impure sin. And, according to the truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21, when Jesus became sin for us, we became the righteousness of God. There is no unclean, impure, stained thing in the righteousness of God. So while Rahab had to wait outside the camp for a time under the old rules, that is not for you and me. We have been declared clean, and if God says it, then who are we to think we can oppose it?

You might ask, “How can God just call something pure? He just says it and that’s it? It seems too easy. I don’t know if I can just accept that. ‘God, do you know how bad my sin is?’” That was my cry, my concern, and the slippery sides of the pit I was trying to climb out of in my own strength. He reveals to us in Isaiah 53 that for Jesus, our purification was not easy. It was costly. It cost His torturous death on the cross. It took God’s strength to conquer death and raise Jesus out of the grave. (Isa. 40:10; 51:5; 53:1, 4-6; 59:16) God, being the truest of true, has no hesitation or trouble declaring truth. In fact that’s the only language He speaks. Because through Christ it is so very true, He can “easily” say, “You are pure.”

When we find out it’s as simple as the Gospel, sometimes we have trouble with that. Oh, in our heads we know it's right, but in our souls we silently struggle. Some of us think there has to be some sort of long journey of hard lessons and spiritual hard labor that earns us the heavenly title of pure.

Haven't we have labored under our own efforts long enough? Can we see where that got us? How many times have we stood looking in the mirror after a memory of sexual sin rushes through our minds and feeling the weight of our own uncleanness, trying hard to shake that feeling, or perhaps fully indulging it? Have you found yourself pierced, crushed, applying personal punishment, struggling with gaping wounds, the weight of sin heaped on you?

And yet, Jesus took all of that for us.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Do you believe that Jesus endured the hardest labor, the greatest humiliation, the worst bodily torture, the most vast separation and abandonment by the Father, and rose again? Do you believe then that we could do anything better or farther to be made and called pure?

What He explains in 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 brings together called pure and believing you’re pure so you can live pure. Read it with me.

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

According to these verses, what or who did He choose?

Do you notice He doesn’t state what comes after the word “not”? I love that! He chose the things that were not pure and not clean. He chooses Rahabs like you and me to show off that He knows best what to call things, and how to make the “things that are not” the things they actually are in His eyes. And He can, because we are in Christ.

It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, Who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

All of those things are pure. All of those things are you.

Is there blame or shame talk happening in your head which calls you impure or unclean? If you have trusted Christ as your Savior, then you have new strong words to refute that.

God says I am not allowed to call anything unclean or impure that has been made clean. In Christ, I have been made righteous, holy, and has been redeemed. That means clean and pure forever. There is no opposing God on this. I am pure.

Whenever accusations of “unclean” or “impure” come into your head or heart, you stand firm in Christ on this truth. When you put Truth over feelings again and again, you will silence the old feelings and begin to live—and feel—as you really are.

Pure.

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny

Pure? But I feel so dirty. (Part 1)

Can I really be “pure” when I feel so dirty?

This was one of the biggest questions that lingered in my own soul for years on my healing journey. Before I was walking with Christ, the idea of being pure was something I had wrecked or something I rolled my eyes at—that was for “good girls.” After He rescued me, this question echoed inside me. While I could say I was rescued, I didn't feel like pure was a word that could be applied to me. 

Since we've been tracking with Rahab’s story, it’s fair to tell you that this truth grabbed hold of me in Joshua 6:22-25. While she and her family were lead out of the rubble of Jericho, and were ushered into lives of wholeness there’s this strange pause. She and her family were placed “outside the camp.” They were Canaanites and they had lived lives that God had warned His people against. According to the laws God had given, they were “unclean.” While this may seem exclusive to us or even seem harsh or unfair after her great show of faith in God, I believe there is something here for us. It’s gloriously connected to a wild story that spans Acts 10-11. 

Peter was struggling with his old life. He wanted to embrace his new story and live in the freedom Christ had purchased for him, but he was conflicted. He had a hard time living consistently, radically free. His issue: Jewish laws about food.  His deeper issue: calling something pure. His even deeper issue: believing it’s pure and living freely in that truth. 

God showed up and through a series of vivid images said, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10:15)
According to this verse, who makes and declares things clean?
Are clean things allowed to be called impure?

As Peter retold this incredible, freeing experience to a group of friends that had been “outside the camp”—non-Jews who had become followers of Christ--he added a heart layer to what God had shown him. “But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28) The deepest issue: calling people pure.

Peter closed the old story to embrace the new life God had for him by saying this, “If they've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, [and He has made and called them pure], and for certain this is true, who was I to think I could oppose God?” (Acts 11:17, my paraphrase) 

When we don’t know that God has called us pure, we can feel torn or stuck like Peter. We want to embrace living beyond our pasts and leaving behind those old feelings of sin or shame—the dirty feeling—but we aren't sure what that means or if we even can.

When our deepest issue is believing God has called us pure, we can run into more shame or even sin.
The shame script that plays in our heads and hearts can be that we feel like we have to live outside the camp forever, watching others go into freedom, into faith community, and they get to be and feel pure. “But not so fast Rahab. Not you.” Somehow, in the midst of our desire to be free of our pasts, Satan has injected a lie that says, “You can be rescued, but you can’t be restored. And more than that you can’t be free. You won’t feel pure because you aren't pure. So, this far in living beyond your past and no farther.” And then he invites us to blame anyone but him for this lie coursing through our souls. We blame ourselves with every memory, dream, temptation, and old story that pops into your head. We may quietly, lamely begin to blame God for not making us feel more pure or totally free, and we may question His power or His love for us.

Sometimes this can lead us to temptation. We are tempted to be jealous of others that look so free and pure. We are tempted to despise, dismiss, or even reject them for seeming on the outside the way we long to be on the inside. And it leads to bitterness in our hearts. 

If I can press into this a bit further, some of us may even blame the Church. We might say at times that we don’t want to be judged, so we won’t go there. Don’t get me wrong, I know the brokenness of people in the Church means that we can hurt one another. I've watched a well-meaning woman practically hand another woman a proverbial scarlet letter and let her know it suited her well (a story for another day). But I've been the woman that rejected the Church because I didn't want to be judged. In reality, I didn't want to be exposed for not feeling as pure as they seemed. I wasn't satisfied living outside the camp and feeling unclean. I wanted to be pure. I had no idea God said I was. 

I wonder if you didn't even know God has called you pure. 
I wonder if it’s news to you that you might be going against God’s way for you by not believing that what He has called pure, you can’t call dirty. 
The ache of our hearts and the lie of the enemy has been exposed. 

Now you know. Now you want to believe which means live it. So, how has God called you pure? Is it just that easy? 
Come find out tomorrow. 

But in the meantime, get ready to leave the fringe of the camp. There’s more to His story in you than just the rescue. That was just the start!

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny

Waiting on the Precipice

We stand on the precipice of a new year. That usually brings feelings of hope for what could be, and reflection on what has been. And something in the middle called waiting. Hope for what could be and wonder that is hasn't happened yet. I wonder, at the end of the year, what you are waiting for.

When it comes to living beyond your past do you, like Rahab, stand waiting, watching, for the final straw that will usher you into the unfettered life you've hoped for?  When the words” leave behind” and “live beyond” will be more than hope, they’ll be reality?

Rahab watched, and then she heard it. How much had she heard about Him! She was hearing the sound of His faithfulness. He was coming to rescue her. First it was the rumbling of the army marching, then the trumpets. For six days, she heard the sounds of deliverance.

But still she waited.

On the precipice of a new day, the sound of the army and trumpets filled the air. This time, something more rang out.

"Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.” (Josh. 6:16-17)

The Hebrew word for “let live” or in my NIV1984 “shall be spared” is chayah and it means to live, to revive, give (promise) life, nourish up, preserve (alive), recover, repair, restore (to life), revive, God save (alive, life, lives), surely, be whole.

Be whole.

Stop and breathe it in.

Yes surely, to be whole.

He is faithful to every individual to make them whole when they believe. Not just get you out of sin yet still be broken; rather to deliver you and make you whole. God showed up for Rahab and the command was: destroy this place that is wicked and that holds her in, and let her surely be whole. God promised her Life and it was time to live in it.

Are you ready for your walls to come down? Are you ready to be revived and restored to life? Are you starving to be nourished up? Do you surely want to be whole?

Then the time has come. Right now, those walls can come down! Jericho’s walls were no match for the I AM. They were brought down in an instant and never rebuilt. Everything inside was devoted (or given over) to God, never to be taken back.

Wholeness for us, as for Rahab, means that walls that have held in place the lies and sin residing in our spirits, souls, and bodies are going to come down. The walls of life patterns, views of the world and sex, how we approach relationships, how we view men and ourselves, how we see our bodies, even how we have, until now, understood and related to God—all those walls are going to come down.  We do not have to be held captive or live any longer inside those walls. Christ said He came to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. (Isa. 61:1) Christ’s life and death were the shout, and His resurrection brought the walls down! Now we get to leave behind the rubble of our old spirit-soul-body ways and walk in wholeness and new life with Jesus. What are we waiting for?

With the thrill of His freedom in full view, understand that wholeness also means everything inside the walls is going to have to be given over completely to God. None of that will be allowed to be held on to, or come with us when we leave. It can’t be a part of living beyond, because we won’t really be living beyond. We’ll just move a bit and claim a “fresh start,” only to discover that we brought trouble and destruction with us. (Josh. 6:18)

Take time to consider what you are waiting for. Do you believe that God can bring down the walls that you have built up in your spirit, soul (the seat of thoughts and emotions), and body that stand against Him and hold you and your sin inside them? Whether you feel captive or in some ways comfortable, talk to Him about what’s inside your walls that you’ll have to give to Him. He knows already, but He wants to engage your heart and show you what real freedom means.

If you stand on the precipice of living beyond your past, today is your day. Today, the walls come down. Today, you get to leave your past behind. Today, you get to be whole.

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny 

Divine Interruption

Christmas is coming. What we celebrate around this time, in all the glitter and gifts, food and fun, is The Story. Christmas is our way of remembering exactly how Jesus took center stage. How He interrupted humanity’s story to take it in a new direction.

He does that, you know. Shows up, and creates a point on which everything in our stories hinge. Like the manger, it often doesn’t glitter, but looking back, we realize that it was that Divine interruption that set our rescue in motion. It was that moment when ordinary and old gave way to extraordinarily new.

Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. --Joshua 2:1

Rahab had no idea the spies were going to show up that day. Rahab woke up, got out of bed and put her two feet on the floor that morning just as every morning; just as you and I do.

Picture, as best you can, God on His throne in heaven.  He knew before time began, that this woman Rahab, in all of her inglorious, unrighteous mess, would be a part of His Story. While it was an ordinary day in Jericho, something extraordinary was happening in heaven. God was guiding those spies right to Rahab. There are no “it just happened to be” or coincidences with God. For the spies, “God knew there was one that would be true to them, though they did not.” ^{(Matthew Henry)} Use that same lens to look at Rahab and realize that God knew there was one that would be true to Him, though she did not yet know Him. She had heard about Him. But God knew of her faith and faithfulness, even before she did!

Can you recall a day when you woke up and put both feet on the floor, not knowing God would interrupt your day, your story, and your life, and Divine interruption would mean you were never again the same?

I recall a day where at my lowest, in the depths of rebellion and sexual sin, I had a very candid conversation with God. Whenever I was confronted with my sin, my soul just bled pain and then bubbled with more rebellion. That day I asked God to leave me alone and not convict me anymore. Looking back now, that was the day where I most felt His presence. It was the turning point in my story. It wasn’t a great day of my faithfulness; it was a great day of His! That day God refused to leave me alone and He let me know He was relentlessly pursuing me in my unfaithfulness. He knew the end of my story and He knew that He would rescue me, and I would be rescued. He saw me in my ordinary day of sexual sin, and He knew of my faith and faithfulness, even before I did.

Do you see that God planned your rescue? He planned to let you hear stories of redemption. He planned to stir faith in you that He is the I AM, for you and not just for “others.” He planned to interrupt an ordinary day filled with ordinary life and the patterns of sin that had become so ordinary to you. He planned to stop you in your tracks and extend a hand for you grab on to. He saw you and He knew of your faith and faithfulness before you did. How did He know? Because the rescue was all on Him. Because He sits in a place of seeing the bigger story at work.

Read Ephesians 2:3-10. Use your Bible first, then see verses 7-10 in a fresh way in The Message.

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.

Whose idea and work is your salvation? (God’s)

Who gives grace to you? (God)

Who gives the gift of faith? (God)

Who “does both the making and saving?” (God)

Who prepares for you a new and active life beyond your past, a bigger story where He is at the center? (God)

God does it all! This is the Good News!  

Interrupted in the ordinary. Intersected at the precise time. Irrevocably altering the direction. God showing up to change everything. That is God’s story played out again and again. That’s not just a Christmas story, or someone else’s story, it’s the Bigger Story at work in your life. And He already knows how it ends.

Your faith.

Your faithfulness.

A life beyond your past.

Just another seed of my faith,

Ginny

Knowing I AM

I AM. 
LORD.
Your Bible most likely has this name written in all caps. It is God’s name that was to convey that He was a personal God with a personal name. He would be rescuing a people that were personally His with a personal purpose for Himself and them based on a personal promise He made with Abraham a long time before.

I AM. This same One has extended His hand to rescue us. He's the One we get to know.  

I AM was the One Rahab was grabbing onto for rescue as well. Why did she trust His hand? How did Rahab even know about Him? What did she know about Him? 

Numbers 14:13-14 tells us that stories were pouring out of Egypt about how God had rescued the Israelites. These stories had reached Jericho, where Rahab lived, and were powerful enough to make the city melt with fear. 

Not just rumor, but true story had it that "You, O LORD, are with these people and that You, O LORD, have been seen face to face, that Your cloud stays over them, and that You go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night." 

Sometimes it's hard to think that words like cloud, pillar, and O LORD from Numbers fit into our own desire to live beyond our pasts. But consider the deeper truths Rahab believed as she reached out to grab onto I AM--the God…

Who is God. Whatever her experience with gods and worship in Jericho, and whatever her heart had wanted or wondered about gods, she was now certain of this one thing. I AM, this final, real name for the real true God told her He alone was God and He did these mighty deeds which she had heard about. She declared by faith that He was over everything, everywhere. (Josh. 2:11)

Who had a people He fought for.  The stories revealed that Israel was free. They were no longer slaves that belonged to masters; they belonged to a God Who fought for them to give them this new life. Rahab "belonged" for a moment to whoever purchased her body. I wonder if the reality of Israel’s freedom and a God Who fought for them gave her faith that she would no longer have to belong to someone for a moment, or for a price, because she could be free and truly belong to Him. I AM would fight for her, rescue her, and bring her into this new life.

Who could be known. He also was a God Who seemed to invite an intimate, personal knowing of Who He was. Moses had seen Him face to face. God had openly described Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:5-7a. 

Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. 

Stop here and really consider the truths He shared about Who He is and how He relates to us int he verse above. God was in a relationship with His people—intimately knowing, and being known—and she could experience that too!

Who never abandoned or left His people alone. Regardless of what they did, He was committed to being with them. He stayed over them and went before them in every step. As a woman who had men come and go in her life, who had been perpetually exposed, and daily consumed and abandoned, her experience with Him could be radically different.

Can you relate to Rahab?

  Do you long to really know God? 

Not just what others have said or dreamed up or made Him out to be?

    

Do you hunger for Him to be real and powerful 

and more than a human conjuring of what a god might be?

     

 Do you desire to be free, living a new life where you truly belong?

        

Do you wish someone would be present and stay?

          

Do you hold out hope that you could fully know Him 

and be known for all you really are: spirit, soul, and body?

           

 Do you ache to be covered and never abandoned or alone again?

Rahab, by hearing, knew LORD, I AM, was a God that did those things. Surely if God could deliver and save them from Egypt, I AM could do it for her.

He could.

She believed.

If you have never heard it, hear it now. I am telling you, God is your personal, rescuing, redeeming God with a purpose for you that fits into His greater story where His glory gets center stage. He is the answer to every one of your longings, desires, secret hopes, and aching hungers. He is that God, and you are that person. 

Will you believe? 

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny

A Name to Grab onto

(So, I've been editing and editing and editing and editing. You know I love words, and I have had to cut words by the thousands. It seems I can't edit and blog at the same time. So, the manuscript editing is done, and now we can pick up our journey together. Like good friends getting together for coffee, here we are again! To see our last conversation and remember where we left off, go to http://aseedofmyfaith.blogspot.com/2014/07/god-is-in-my-present-past-and-future.html)

I want to take a second and remind you why in the world we are looking at Rahab. She is a woman whose story comes full circle, from living in the mess of her culture to leaving it all behind and living in wholeness with God. The threads of her story tell us that what God did for her, He can do for us.

If we are going to live beyond our pasts, we need a way out. We may be in a place where we feel like we just need a leg up, a path revealed, or a hand to grab on to.

When our daughter was really little, it seemed her dolls were always falling off a cliff. They would be screaming this staring-death-in-the-face scream as their legs dangled over the edge of her bed, I mean, the cliff. Then someone steadily standing on the precipice would call out, “Gimme yor hand!” And the fair, screeching maiden would be rescued.

Many of us, like my daughter’s dolls, have been to the cliff’s edge. We have gone as far as we think we could go with this relationship, this need or desire, this approach to life, this sin, or “our pasts.” We want out; we seek healing, change, and freedom. In that place where we realize we need rescue, we need a hand that backs up the depth and weight of all truth, but a hand that’s easy to grab on to when trouble comes.

I AM THAT I AM is the depth and weight of God’s name. I AM is a shortened way of saying I AM THAT I AM. It’s the name God gave Israel to grab on to (Ex. 3:14) and the one Rahab grabbed on to in order to be rescued from the coming attack on her city. By His very name and nature, He extends His hand for us to reach out and grab onto Him too.

Who are we grabbing on to? I AM, LORD, tells each of us:

The LORD is committed to deliver us in ways that will show us Who He is. 

The LORD is committed to deliver us...
Like Rahab, the Israelites, and the rest of the world, God sees us as worth delivering. This shakes my soul, because I know how many times I felt like God wouldn't want to rescue me. I deserved to be where I was, and believed He felt that same way about me. I also know women who feel shame because once upon a time they said yes to rescue, and then went back into their old ways. They believe they had one shot at getting out and they blew it.  I believe many of us also think that time has run out for us. It's too late for rescue, so we resign to staying here, toughing it out, for the rest of our lives, maybe hoping time will help us feel better. (Has it?)

But He sees us as worth delivering. I know this, because He sent His Son when we were at our worst. We were His enemies and yet He still loved us and sent His Son to rescue us and bring us back to Himself. If we weren't worth delivering, He would not have made a way for rescue.

I AM says that He will rescue us out of sin, and shame, and the struggle with our pasts. Why? Because He doesn't leave anyone broken who desires to be whole. In the bigger picture, He desires that no one perish but that all come to repentance. (1 Pet. 3:9) He desires--wants--to rescue and bring us to a place of life with Him.

...in ways that will show us Who He is. 
But it gets better. He sees us as worth delivering and we will know Him by His delivering. Many of us may wonder if God rescues us if we'll really get to know Him. Will we be rescued because God rescues, but not get to have a close personal relationship with Him? Will the reason He had to rescue us be the very reason He will always hold us at arms length?

Think about rescue, about reaching out a hand and grabbing on. If you are drawn out of deep waters, your rescuer doesn't hold you away from his body. The strength of pulling you out of a terrible situation is found in arms that draw you up and towards the rescuer. You are wrapped in their arms, held close as you realize that you are finally safe. 

God grabs your hand and draws you into His loving, safe arms. He holds you there. You are pulled in close, but it doesn't stop there. You aren't dusted off, set upright, and left alone. Deliverance is the way we get to know Him personally, step by step, as He leads us out and beyond this place. It's being close to Him on a life journey of knowing Him. It starts with deliverance.

We will know Who He is by looking at what He has done.
This name, I AM, reminded Moses and the people that God had been known personally by their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He had done amazing things for them.

For us, that is true as well. If we want to know God, we need to look at Jesus and what He has done. Christ expresses this truth in John 14:9-11. According to these verses we can see God if we look at Jesus. We see God at work through Jesus, and by listening to the words of Jesus.

I cannot think of a single story where someone called out in faith to be healed--taken from broken to whole, from living in this sinful or terrible place to getting to live in a new life--where Jesus denied that cry. I can think of so many where He reached out first! He loved to reach out His hands and touch and make new, forgive sins and offer new life. That's our God. He doesn't change. He still loves to bring wholeness and a life in Him beyond the old story.

We also look at what He did on the cross. Here He stretched out His hands for our rescue. Because He delivered us by the finished work on the cross...

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (Jn. 19:28-30)

...we get to spend today and eternity knowing Him.

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. (Jn. 17:3)

A hand that willfully, wants to, reach out and rescue. A hand that stretched out on the cross, and a hand that will hold us today and lead us into eternity. But hands are connected to someone. That hand is His hand. The One you can know, Who has known you all along, and wants you to know Him more. For all eternity.

It's that hand extended, reaching out to you, to rescue you, once and for all, out of your old story, out of your past.

We have the same choice Rahab did. Will we grab on?

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny

God is in my present, past, and future

I've spent the last few posts sharing threads of God's story with Rahab and us. When I immersed myself in God's story with Rahab I found that I had so much in common with a prostitute from Jericho. She had a "now" she was living in, and as she heard stories about what God had done for others her heart opened towards a future that could be totally changed and connected to the God Who saves. 

That sounds really good, but I was rattled by her faith. She knew so little, yet she believed. In light of her faith on display, I had to ask: if we hear stories about what God has done for others, and we choose to believe what He did for others He can do for us--deep down, what are we really believing? What are we going on? Those stories can have religious language and even happy endings, but there is something more to them. There's a reality. Power. Something over, under, around, with, in, behind, ahead--making all this story, this living beyond, happen.

So the question becomes, Who are we really believing?

We see her faith rested on God, with a specific name she called upon. That name drew me in, beckoned me to go deeper. He plunged me into fresh waters with a single word: LORD.

In the Bible, your name meant your character. This name for God was a game-changer. God spoke it for the first time to Moses in Exodus 3:14. 

God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

Your Bible most likely has this name written in all caps. It is God’s name that was to convey to Moses and the people that He was a personal God with a personal name. He would be rescuing a people that were personally His with a personal purpose for Himself and them based on a personal promise He made with Abraham a long time before. The name He reveals to Moses is “'Ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh” or I AM THAT I AM.

I love what it conveys, but those words grouped together seem nebulous. What does that mean? Scholars have a lot to say about it. Understanding His name may help us to see both the depth of this name and the weight of what Rahab believed when she called on this name. And the kind of God He would be for her. That goes for us too.   

While I am certainly not a scholar, I find the original languages of the Bible incredibly interesting. They have much more depth and breadth than modern English. What you see in our English translations is good, but there can often be more than what meets the eye. 

What we find about I AM THAT I AM is that the verb means is, was, and is coming all at the same time. God is God in the present, past, and future simultaneously.

This truth comes to life in Revelation 1:4, 8.

...Grace and peace to you from Him Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, and from the seven spirits before His throne..."I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty."

I am convinced that the order of these words is more than just original verb tense. 

Who is
I believe that God puts His name in this order, with Who is first, because He wants us to know that He is a God Who is near and here. Right now. He is at the center of our reality. He is the source of all our reality. We can ignore, slight, or rebel against that, but it doesn't change the fact that every moment we are in, He is relevant and here. 

So we can’t put God only at creation and “Bible times” and then at Judgment and heaven. And we can’t push God until “later.” My heart cries out at how many of us, including myself, have tried to push God to “later,” not understanding it was Him in that moment refusing to be pushed and pursuing us in spite of our denial and rebellion!

Have you ever tried to ignore Him or push Him off? Have you tried to tell God you will deal with Him later? 

The encouragement is that we don’t only have to look back at time where we knew Him or didn't know Him, or look to a distant time when maybe we will get to know and experience Him. He is now, and we can have a real relationship with Him here.

Who was
I learned to love that He was in the past. Initially it was hard to imagine God being in times, places, situations, and relationships in the past because at the time I didn't want Him there, nor did I expect that He wanted to be there. And since there were parts of the past when I had carefully avoided Him by choice how could He be near me at those times? 

I have come to understand that the past was at one time the present, and God has never left me. He is near and He is here, so He was near and He was there. With this realization, I don't have to hide as though I can now cover what He shouldn't have seen. He saw my nakedness in all its forms (spirit, soul, and body) and tells me that there is no shame, because my past is covered by a Name He gave me faith to call upon as well--Jesus. We’ll explore those riches in steps further down our path.

Who is to come

He is also the One Who is to come. He is in the future. What about your future? Not just heaven, but tomorrow. God is already there. How does that make you feel? I wonder if that brings hope, fear, comfort, conviction, or an invitation to be totally changed and forever connected to a God Who saves.

Maybe you are like Rahab, and like me. Your ears and heart are hearing His name in its fullness. Thoughts and feelings may be emerging as you consider that He has always been in the present, past, and future. Don't be afraid to sort through those with Him. He is, was, and is to come. He is here with you, at the center of your reality. He has never left you and He desires to have you close so you can know Him more. In knowing Him personally He has more planned for you than staying where you are. There's more to His story with you.

LORD.  
What a name. What a God. What a game-changer.
That's Who we're believing.

And that's just a start.

Just another seed of my faith,
Ginny