2 minute read
The Great I AM
from June 2020
by Arlene Ledbetter
As I listened to the Sunday morning sermon at Cedar Hill Church, my eyes felt heavy. Earlier, I’d stood to sing the old hymns, bowed my head in prayer, and placed my weekly quarter in the offering plate. Now, though, my eyes closed and my mind wandered.
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“Stay awake,” Mama whispered.
Just then, the preacher said something like, “So God told Moses to go tell the Pharaoh ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
I sat up straight. “I AM? Oh, man, I missed it again.”
Through the years, I’d heard my preacher and guest speakers talk about The Great I AM passage in the third chapter of Exodus. I always tuned in too late. The Great I AM what? I am strong? I am holy? I am old? I am angry? I am the great and powerful Oz?
Years flew by. I was a young adult sitting in Central Emmanuel Church. As I had all my life, I sang and prayed and gave and listened. The preacher was doing a series of messages on The Seven I Am Passages in John’s Gospel. • I Am the Bread of Life • I Am the Light of the World • I Am the Door of the Sheep • I Am the Good Shepherd • I Am the Resurrection and the Life • I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life • I Am the Vine, and You are the Branches (6:35, 8:12, 10:7, 10:11, 11:25, 14:6, 15:1)
Somewhere in the midst of that series, the preacher directed us back to Moses and The Great I AM. He asked us, “Have you ever wondered, ‘The Great I AM what?’”
Goosebumps popped up on my arms. Hot tears stung my eyes. I leaned forward, determined to finally have closure on the meaning of a passage that had long eluded me.
“The Great I Am,” the preacher continued, “is bread when you are hungry and light when you grope in the darkness. If you are lost, He is the door into God’s sheepfold. If you’re uneasy about the next step, the Good Shepherd wants to guide you in paths of righteousness. Have you believed a lie? Are you facing death? Are you
wandering aimlessly? Jesus is life, truth, and the way. Do you want to make a difference in this world? His Spirit can flow through you. Please listen carefully, my friends. The Great I Am is anything and everything you will ever need.”
Closure. I’d wanted closure for so long. Instead, the eyes of my heart were opened and I began a lifelong journey of discovering all Jesus is and all I am through Him.
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am’” (John 8:58).
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